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wisdom, expressed with great energy, though not always elegance, of style. The author published them also in Latin, with the title of Sermones Fideles.' I know not whether any part of his works discovers greater force of mind, or a more original way of thinking, than his Essays. He says of them himself, and very justly, 'Although they handle those things wherein men's lives and their persons are most conversant, yet I have endeavoured to make them not vulgar, but of a nature whereof a man shall find much in experience, and little in books; so as they are neither repetitions nor fancies.' And in another place he expresses himself on the same subject thus: 'I do now publish my Essays, which of all my works have been most current, because, as it seems, they come home to men's business and bosoms.' He appears to have had a high opinion of these Essays: 'I do conceive,' he says, 'that the Latin volume of them (meaning the edition published in Latin), 'as it is the universal language, may last as long as books last.' 'I dedicate them to you' (says he to the Duke of Buckingham), 'being of the best fruits, that, by the good increase which God gives to my pen and labors, I could yield.' A work so much a favorite of the great Lord Verulam, is surely entitled to the attention of every lover of learning."

Thus far we have quoted from Professor Beattie. We now turn to the masterly production of HENRY HALLAM (his 'Literature of Europe'), and present his views of the work just referred to:

"We can hardly refer Lord Bacon's Essays to the school of Montaigne, though their title may lead us to suspect that they were, in some measure, suggested by that most popular writer. The first edition, containing ten essays only, and those much shorter than as we now possess them, appeared in 1597. They were reprinted, with very little variation, in 1606. But the enlarged work was published in 1612, and dedicated to Prince Henry. He calls them, in his dedication, 'certain brief notes, set down rather significantly than curiously, which I have called 'Essays.' The word is

late, but the thing is ancient; for Seneca's Epistles to Lucilius, if you mark them well, are but Essays, that is, dispersed meditations, though conveyed in the form of epistles.' The resemblance, at all events, to Montaigne is not greater than might be expected in two men equally original in genius, and entirely opposite in their characters and circumstances. One, by an instinctive felicity, catches some of the characteristics of human nature; the other, by profound reflection, scrutinizes and dissects it. One is too negligent for the inquiring reader, the other too formal and sententious for one who seeks to be amused. We delight in one, we admire the other; but this admiration has also its own delight. In one we find more of the sweet temper and tranquil contemplation of Plutarch; in the other, more of the practical wisdom and somewhat ambitious prospects of Seneca. It is characteristic of Bacon's philosophical writings that they have in them a spirit of movement, a perpetual reference to what man is to do in order to an end, rather than to his mere speculation upon what is. In his Essays this is naturally still more prominent. They are, as quaintly described in the title page of the first edition, 'Places (loci) of persuasion and dissuasion '-counsels for those who would be great as well as wise. They are such as sprang from a mind ardent in two kinds of ambition, and hesitating whether to found a new philosophy or to direct the vessel of the state. We perceive, however, that the immediate reward attending greatness, as is almost always the case, gave it a preponderance in his mind, and hence his Essays are more often political than moral; they deal with mankind, not in their general faculties or habits, but in their mutual strife, their endeavors to rule others or to avoid their rule. He is more cautious and more comprehensive, though not more acute, than Machiavel, who often becomes too dogmatic through the habit of referring every thing to a particular aspect of political societies. Nothing in the 'Prince' or the 'Discourses on Livy' is superior to the Essays on Seditions, on Empire, on Innovations, or generally those which bear on the dexterous management of a people by their rulers.

Both these writers have what, to our more liberal age, appears a counselling of governors for their own rather than their subjects' advantage; but as this is generally represented to be the best means, though not, as it truly is, the real end, their advice tends, on the whole, to advance the substantial benefits of government."

Mr. Hallam proceeds to say :-"The transcendent strength of Bacon's mind is visible in the whole tenor of these Essays, unequal as they must be from the very nature of such compositions. They are deeper and more discriminating than any earlier, or almost any later, work in the English language, full of recondite observation, long matured and carefully sifted. It is true that we might wish for more vivacity and ease. Bacon, who had much wit, had little gayety. His Essays are, consequently, stiff and grave where the subject might have been touched with a lively hand. Thus it is in those on Gardens and on Building. The sentences have sometimes too apothegmatic a form, and want coherence. The historical instances, though far less frequent than with Montaigne, have a little the look of pedantry in our eyes. But it is from this condensation, from this gravity, that the work derives its peculiar impressiveness. Few books are more quoted, and, what is not always the case with such books, we may add, that few are more generally read. In this respect they lead the van of our prose literature, for no gentleman is ashamed of owning that he has not read the Elizabethan writers; but it would be somewhat derogatory to a man of the slightest claim to polite letters were he unacquainted with the Essays of Bacon.”

For the sake of preparing the student to enter upon the critical reading of these Essays, with still greater advantage, a few observations by MACAULEY, one of the most brilliant of English Essayists and Historians, will now be added:

"One of the most remarkable circumstances in the history of Bacon's mind, is the order in which its powers expanded themselves. With him the fruit came first, and remained

till the last the blossoms did not appear till late. In general the development of the fancy is to the development of the judgment, what the growth of a girl is to the growth of a boy. The fancy attains at an earlier period to the perfection of its beauty, its power and its fruitfulness; and, as it is first to ripen, it is also first to fade. It has generally lost something of its bloom and freshness before the sterner faculties have reached maturity, and is commonly withered and barren while those faculties still retain all their energy. It rarely happens that the fancy and the judgment grow together. It happens still more rarely that the judgment grows faster than the fancy. This seems, however, to have been the case with Bacon. His boyhood and youth appear to have been singularly sedate. His gigantic scheme of philosophical reform is said by some writers to have been planned before he was fifteen; and was undoubtedly planned while he was still young. He observed as vigilantly, meditated as deeply, and judged as temperately, when he gave his first work to the world, as at the close of his long career. But in eloquence, in sweetness, and variety of expression, and in richness of illustration, his late writings are far superior to those of his youth. In this respect the history of his mind bears some resemblance to the history of the mind of Burke. In his youth, Burke wrote on the emotions produced by mountains and cascades; by the masterpieces of painting and sculpture; by the faces and necks of beautiful women, in the style of a parliamentary report. In his old age he discussed treaties and tariffs in the most fervid and brilliant language of romance. It is strange that the Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful,' and the 'Letter to a Noble Lord,' should be the productions of one man. But it is far more strange that the Essay should have been a production of his youth, and the Letter of his old age."

"We will give very short specimens of Bacon's two styles. In 1597 he wrote thus:-'Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use-that is a wisdom without

them, and won by observation. Read not to contradict, nor to believe, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. And, therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, have a present wit; and if he read little, have much cunning to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make men wise, poets witty, the mathematics subtle, natural philosophy deep, morals grave, logic and rhetoric able to contend.' It will hardly be disputed that this is a passage to be 'chewed and digested.' We do not believe that Thucydides himself has any where compressed so much thought into so small a space."

"In the additions which Bacon afterwards made to the 'Essays,' there is nothing superior in truth or weight to what we have quoted; but his style was constantly becoming richer and softer. The following passage, first published in 1625, will show the extent of the change:-'Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, adversity is the blessing of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction and the clearer evidences of God's favor. Yet, even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distates; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. We see in needleworks and embroideries it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground. Judge therefore of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye. Certainly virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.'"

To understand the precise literary character of Bacon's Essays, it will be of service here to quote a paragraph from ARCHBISHOP WHATELY's edition of them, premising that he

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