the vast enlargement of the subjects of human knowledge in recent times, is a very lucid division so far as it goes, and as "a small globe of the intellectual world" was very serviceable in its day. The divisions are so clear, and proceed upon distinctions so familiar, that though the subdivision is carried to the eighth degree, there is not the least perplexity to any mind of ordinary education.

We cannot concede to him the praise of scientific precision; indeed he often affirms fundamental resemblance where the resemblance is only slender and superficial. Distinctness in the use of words was no part of his scheme of philosophical reformation; the confusion of ambiguous terms in science could not begin to be felt until science was more advanced.

Still, in one of the subjects that his practical life brought him to consider, we find him aware of the danger of loosely applying the same term to things not precisely alike. With reference to the religious disputes of the time, he objected to the term priest for a clergyman; minister, he said, or presbyter, would be better, and the term priest should be reserved for the sacrificing priests under the old law.

Apart from rigid exactness, Bacon has in an eminent degree what is called incisiveness of style; his words and figures go straight to the point. His remarks on Studies are a good example of making a statement clear by giving counter-statements. This art of style appears in all his writings. True, he often uses the "but" of contrast where there is no real opposition, and merely to indicate a fresh start: nevertheless he does make frequent and effective use of contrast for purposes of exact expression. Thus

"There followed this year, being the second of the King's reign, a strange accident of state, whereof the relations which we have are so naked, as they leave it scarce credible; not for the nature of it (for it hath fallen out oft), but for the manner and circumstance of it, especially in the beginnings." Here we have, in a less finished form, the scrupulosity of qualification that is so marked a feature in the style of De Quincey. The following sentence, which is more finished, contains a vividly incisive use of contrast :

"Neither was the King's nature and customs greatly fit to disperse such mists, but contrariwise he had a fashion rather to create doubts than assur

ance.

The passages italicised in the two following contain ingenious distinctions clearly expressed :

"For the opinion of plenty is amongst the causes of want, and the great quantity of books maketh a show rather of superfluity than lack; which surcharge nevertheless is not to be remedied by making no more books, but by making more good books, which, as the serpent of Moses, might devour the serpents of the enchanters."

Towards removing all hindrances to the pursuit of knowledge, he says:

"The endeavours of a private man may be but as an image in a crossway, that may point at the way, but cannot go it."

Strength. The quality of strength in his style is intellectual rather than emotional. In his narrative there is very little expression of feeling; the strength comes chiefly from conciseness, secured by comprehensive statement, pregnant metaphor, and occasional strokes of epigrammatic condensation. The following is a fair specimen of his way of relating events; in disentangling a variety of motives or exhibiting negotiations, he allows himself greater amplitude :

"At York there came fresh and more certain advertisement that the Lord Lovell was at hand with a great power of men, and that the Staffords were in arms in Worcestershire, and had made their approaches to the city of Worcester to assail it. The King, as a prince of great and profound judg ment, was not much moved with it, for that he thought it was but a rag or remnant of Bosworth Field, and had nothing in it of the main party of the house of York. But he was more doubtful of the raising of forces to resist the rebels than of the resistance itself, for that he was in a core of people whose affections he suspected. But the action enduring no delay, he did speedily levy and send against the Lord Lovell to the number of three thousand men, ill armed, but well assured (being taken some few out of his own train, and the rest out of the tenants and followers of such as were safe to be trusted), under the conduct of the Duke of Bedford. And as his manner was to send his pardons rather before the sword than after, he gave commission to the Duke to proclaim pardon to all that would come in, which the Duke, upon his approach to the Lord Lovell's camp, did perform. And it fell out as the King expected; the heralds were the great ordnance."

The effect of the vigorous expression is enhanced by the penetrating ingenuity and freshness of the thought. We spoke of this in our survey of his character. The pleasure of reading him is almost purely dependent upon the exercise of the intellect. How little gratification he affords to ordinary human feeling will be made apparent by a single example. Contrast the following with Hooker's manner of approaching a similar theme; Bacon's subtlety is at work to discover arguments where Hooker is lost in adoration:

66

First, therefore, let us seek the dignity of knowledge in the archetype or first platform, which is in the attributes and acts of God, as far as they are revealed to man, and may be observed with sobriety; wherein we may not seek it by the name of learning; for all learning is knowledge acquired, and all knowledge in God is original; and therefore we must look for it by another name, that of wisdom or sapience, as the Scriptures call it.

"It is so, then, that in the work of the creation we see a double emanation of virtue from God; the one referring more properly to power, the other to wisdom; the one expressed in making the subsistence of the matter, and the other in disposing the beauty of the form. This being supposed, it is to be observed that for anything which appeareth in the history of the creation,

the confused mass and matter of heaven and earth was made in a moment; and the order and disposition of that chaos or mass was the work of six days; such a note of difference it pleased God to put upon the works of power and the works of wisdom; wherewith concurreth that in the former it is not set down that God said, Let there be heaven and earth, as it is set down of the works following, but actually that God made heaven and earth: the one carrying the style of a manufacture, and the other of a law, decree, or counsel.

"To proceed to that which is next in order from God to spirits; we find as far as credit is to be given to the celestial hierarchy of that supposed Dionysius, the senator of Athens, the first place or degree is given to the angels of love, which are termed seraphim; the second to the angds of light, which are termed cherubim; and the third, and so following places, to thrones, principalities, and the rest, which are all angels of power and ministry, so as the angels of knowledge and illumination are placed before the angels of office and domination."

Though not naturally inclined to address the feelings so much as the reason, Bacon knew, and upon occasion practised, the arts of elevation. The chief English specimen of his more ambitious rhetoric is a discourse in praise of the Queen, written when he was about thirty. It is a very good example of artificial strength. In the following sample, the strength is gained chiefly by figures of speech proper, by declamatory departure from the ordinary forms of speech:

"To speak of her fortune, that which I did reserve for a garland of her honour; and that is that she liveth a virgin, and hath no children; so it is that which maketh all her other virtues and acts more sacred, more august, more divine. Let them leave children that leave no other memory in their times. Brutorum æternitas, soboles. Revolve in histories the memories of happy men, and you shall not find any of rare felicity, but either he died childless, or his line spent soon after his death, or else was unfortunate in his children. Should a man have them to be slain by his vassals, as the posthumus of Alexander the Great was? or to call them his imposthumes, as Augustus Cæsar called his? Peruse the catalogue-Cornelius Sylla, Julius Caesar, Flavius Vespasianus, Severus, Constantinus the Great, and many

more.

It is interesting to compare this forced declamation with the ingenious antithetic conceits on the same theme in his Essay on Parents and Children ::

"The perpetuity by generation is common to beasts; but memory, merit, and noble works are proper to men. And surely a man shall see the noblest works and foundations have proceeded from childless men, which have sought to express the images of their minds where those of their bodies have failed. So the care of posterity is most in them that have no posterity."

KINDS OF COMPOSITION.

Narrative.-Bacon's History of Henry VII.' was written upon a principle enounced in his 'Advancement of Learning.' After saying that history is of three kinds according as "it representeth

a time, or a person, or an action," and that "the first we call chronicles, the second lives, and the third narrations or relations," he goes on

"Of these, although the first be the most complete and absolute kind of history, and hath most estimation and glory, yet the second excelleth it in profit and use, and the third in verity and sincerity. For the history of times representeth the magnitude of actions, and the public faces and deportments of persons, and passeth over in silence the smaller passages and motions of men and matters. But such being the workmanship of God, as He doth hang the greatest weight upon the smallest wires, maxima e minimis suspendens, it comes therefore to pass that such histories do rather set forth the pomp of business than the true and inward resorts thereof. But lives, if they be well written, propounding to themselves a person to represent, in whom actions both greater and smaller, public and private, have a commixture, must of necessity contain a more true, native, and lively representation."

This ideal of history bears some resemblance to Carlyle's antiDryasdust views. Bacon, a more acute and dispassionate observer than the historian of Friedrich, and practically acquainted with the ends and expedients of kings, has left us what is probably the very best history of its kind. He wrote it in a few months, taking his facts from the Chroniclers, and having access to few, if any, original documents; and consequently its peculiar merit is not accuracy: still, even if it is taken on that ground, his sagacity and knowledge of state affairs proved so true a guide, that his views of the main actions have not been set aside by more patient investigators. Considered on its own claims as an explanation of events by reference to the feelings and purposes of the chief actor, it is perhaps a better model than any history that has been published since. "He gives," says Bishop Nicholson, "as sprightly a view of the secrets of Henry's Council as if he had been President of it."

In one respect Bacon's History is in strong contrast to Macaulay's. In relating the schemes and actions of such a king as Henry, Macaulay would have overlaid the narrative with strong expressions of approval or disapproval. Bacon writes calmly, narrating facts and motives without any comment of a moral nature. Sometimes, indeed, he criticises, but it is from the point of view of a politician, not of a moralist; a piece of cruelty or perfidy is either censured only as being injudicious, or not commented upon at all. On this ground he is visited with a sonorous declamation by Sir James Mackintosh as if his not improving the occasion were a sign that he approved of what had been done. Bacon wrote upon a principle that is beginning to be pretty widely accepted as regards personal histories claiming to be impartial-namely, that "it is the true office of history to represent the events themselves together with the counsels, and to leave the

observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man's judgment." He does not seek to seal up historical facts from the useful office of "pointing a moral;" he only held that the moralising should not interfere with the narrative.

Exposition. We have said that the modern expositor has not much to learn from earlier writers. An exception in one respect may be claimed for Bacon. Though all his scientific matter has been superseded, and his style is now antiquated, the Advancement of Learning' might still be read as a general tonic for incisive expression and perspicuous method. At the same time, it would be a mistake for the student to go to Bacon before he had in some degree mastered the style of modern exposition. To read the productions of Bacon's vigorous and subtle intellect has a bracing influence, but we must first be confirmed against the affectation of trying to imitate.

The 'Sylva Sylvarum' has little value as regards expository style, being merely a record of experiments and observations, with speculations thereupon. The following on "the goodness and choice of waters" is an example of the style; it also illustrates the scientific worthlessness of many of his statements:

"It is a thing of very good use to discover the goodness of waters. The taste, to those that drink water only, is somewhat: but other experiments are more sure. First, try waters by weight; wherein you may find some difference, though not much; and the lighter you may account the bet

ter.

66

Sixthly, you may make a judgment of waters according to the place whence they spring or come. The rain-water is by the physicians esteemed the finest and the best; but yet it is said to putrefy soonest, which is likely because of the fineness of the spirit; and in conservatories of rain-water (such as they have in Venice, &c.) they are found not so choice waters; the worse perhaps because they are covered aloft, and kept from the sun. Snowwater is held unwholesome; insomuch as the people that dwell at the foot of the snow-mountains or otherwise upon the ascent (especially the women), by drinking of snow-water, have great bags under their throats. Wellwater, except it be upon chalk, or a very plentiful spring, maketh meat red, which is an ill sign. Springs on the top of high hills are the best; for both they seem to have a lightness and appetite of mounting; and besides, they are most pure and unmingled; and again are more percolated through a great space of earth. For waters in valleys join in effect underground with all waters of the same level; whereas springs on the tops of hills pass through a great deal of pure earth with less mixture of other waters."

Persuasion. His power as an orator is attested by two eminent authorities. Sir Walter Raleigh says that he surpassed other men in speaking as much as he did in writing; and Ben Jonson, in his 'Discoveries,' affirms that" His hearers could not cough or look aside from him without loss. He commanded when he spoke, and had his judges angry or pleased at his devotion. No man had their affections more in his power." Making every allowance for