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    LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART, &a.

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    No . 451 , November 13 , 1858 . ] THE LEADER . 1219

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    historian ; written not to reproduce a true image of Henry VII ., but to flatter the humour of James JL by drawing such a picture of his ancestor as shoulo indirectly reflect honour on himself . " A long quotation from Sir James Mackintosh ' s " History ol England , " in Lardner ' s Cabinet Cj / clopesdia : urging this accusation , is given by the editor , and he proceeds , as we think , Avith . substantial completeness , to refute it . He admits thai Bacon wrote the book to please the King , bui only in the sense avowed by him in the dedication as being of interest to him specially as ffie record oJ the reign of a near ancestor , through descent frorr whom lie gained his second throne , and who

    resembled him in his strong desire to remove the likelihood of war from his country and his subjects . But that the portraiture of Henry was meant also to stand for Ins great grandson , and that ' the praise bestowed upon the one was also accordingly to be made applicable to the other ( and this is the substance of the allegation made by Sir James Mackintosh and others ) , is disproved by the two facts that Bacon had recommended the era and its ruler for historic delineation fifteen years before his disgrace , and before the possibility of a motive for the conciliation of a sovereign not yet estranged ; and that the estimate advanced by Bacon , of King Henry , is not

    so uniformly favourable as to have been likely to mollify Kin" - James , even if its application to him were ' intended . The portraiture of Henry , by Bacon , was much more moderate than the views given of his character and policy by previous chroniclers , such as Stowe and Speed , insofar as his estimate was new , it introduced into the popular opinion of the Tudor king nothing but detraction . A very valuable further confirmation of this view , is incorporated with the editor ' s preface . He gives , from an incomplete manuscript , now first printed , an estimate of Henry ' s character written by Bacon in 1605 , of exactly the same complexion and tenor as that given by him to the world in 1 G 22 . The opening sentence of this

    fragment is curious , as containing the well-known dictum given by him elsewhere in similar words , "The books which arc written do in their kinds represent the faculties of the mind of man : Poesy , his imagination ; Philosophy , his reason ; and History , his memory . " Of the value of the history , and the importance of the epoch it chronicles , it is useless to speak . It presents a king , removed from the highest wisdom or virtue , but of * rare sagacity and clearheadedness , the first monarch in England , ruling by himself alone , his own prime minister and representative in every department ; of a state just beginning to burst into the glory and fame to which his illustrious son and granddaughter royally and loyally conducted it .

    Following the sequence of the component parts of the volume , and passing over , as of minor importance , the fragments on Henry VIII . ' and the History of Great Britain , we come "to the short sketch of the life and reign of Qucon Elizabeth , written in Latin , and entitled , In Felice m Memoriani Elizabeths . The execution is somewhat unequal , tho Latin far from classical , far from tho excellence of such modern Latinity as Buchanan ' s , or even some of Bacon ' s philosophical works . And tlie perusal of the whole justifies the statement of his contemporary , John Chamberlain , " Mcthinks he doth fani / nescero towards the end . " But on many grounds , especially in regard to those passages in which ho sneaks of tho trial and fate of Elizabeth ' s mother ,

    BACON'S HISTORIES AND ESSAYS . The Works of Francis Bacon . Collected arid Edited by Messrs . ypedding , Ellis , and Heath . Vol . VI . Literary and Professional "Works . Vol . I . . ¦ . Longman and Co . Tins great work approaches completion . Five volumes , the last of which was noticed by us a few weeks ago , contain his philosophical writings . Two more , the first of which lies before us , will contain his literary and professional productions . And the whole undertaking will be made complete by three or four further volumes , devoted to his Occasional works ; " letters , speeches , memorials , tracts , addressed to the passing business of the time , &c . " We have already freely and heartily expressed our conviction of the painstaking and appreciative

    way in which the editors are discharging their duties . After perusing this volume , we can only reiterate , and indeed express , our enhanced conviction of the obligation which is gradually accumulating in their favour from the students of England and the world . The History of the Reign of King Henry VII ., and the cognate historical tractates ; the ripe and suggestive Essays or Counsels Civil and Moral , by which Bacon is best known to general readers , and which may be regarded as containing the outward and exoteric expression of his philosophical views ; and the De Sapient ici Velerum , in which the doctrine of the

    Myth , elaborated in our day by German plnlblogers and historians , is clearly indicated and foreshadowed , are in this volume laid before us with the same rigid accuracy of text , the same amplitude of prefatory explanation and requisite comment , the same fulness of illustration from sources obvious and recOnditej as challenged our commendation and approval when we had to record our opinion of the manner in which the several parts of the Instaiiratio Magnet were laid before us . Mr . Carlyle , who could not write books but for the preparatory labours of Dryasdust , against whom he is constantly sneering , knows well how to elaborate into ethical teaching and literary workmanship the slabs which he finds ready hewn for him in the

    Such a dignity do we ardently believe Baeoii and his method have shed over all investigation . Who that has followed , ever so humbly , in Bacon ' s footsteps , who that labours and inquires , whether choosing for his field the affairs of human life , the movements of the spheres , the great dynamic forces of universal matter , or the quick and exciting combinations of chemical elements , does not know by his own experience the full truth of what we have written ? It is in this spirit that Mr . Speddirig has discharged his office . He says : — In order to detect inaccuracies I have endeavoured ( besides consulting the most recent histories ) to determine , wherever I could do so from authentic sources , the exact dates of the transactions related ; and where I have found them inconsistent with the narrative , or

    is tenee , or perhaps merely confirming convictions already fortified to repletion with evidence . To another it is often the one element , long waited for , sometimes confidently expected , which shall constitute the very keystone of an arch thrown over a gulf of doubt and darkness . It may be , that of the incomplete arc , the two segments have been long finished and cemented . Their fabricator may have despaired of their junction and solidity . Already , after long delay aud hopefulness , he may sadly have commenced to take down the temporary scaffolding of hypothesis and conjecture , by which for long he has provisionally and expectantly maintained them , amid the gibes and taunts of the timid and the pedantic—when Dryasdust unexpectedly passes .

    With the community and interchange of idea which the method of the Noourii Organum makes essential , lie takes out his discovery and shows it to the custodian of the almost finished fabric . With a faint ray of hope , he receives and investigates it , tries it , tests it , places it in the void , and , to his own joy and the surprise of his interlocutor , proves that it dovetails with undeniable exactitude into the cavity , and finishes a structure over which man can ever after travel to and from either shore , looking , as lie traverses , with pride and joy into ; the depths of the abyss , once dangerous and impassable , but now mirroring in its peaceful bosom the glories of surrounding nature and the calm expanse of the firmament of aspiration .

    quarries of careful investigation . And the very admiration you must accord , nolens volens 3 to such a describcr of portraits delineated by the patient brush of humbler artists , and arranger . of facts deposited for him by industry in memoirs and archives , involves , in exact proportion to its intensity , a rendering of no small share of it to the ladder on which ho builds his flights , and then tries to kick angrily from under him . Our editors , it is not un charit ' ablo to suppose , Mr . Carlvle would include in the Dryasdust family . But we are thankful for small mercies , and without one word of depreciation of prophets and heroes , or' of veracities , immensities , and infinities , Mr . Carlyle will not shake or sneer from us the conviction of the immense

    oblihave otherwise detected or seen reason to suspect any arror , I have noticed the fact , not confining myself to cases in which the erroi * seems to be of consequence , but correcting positive misstatements of every kind ; for it i 3 impossible to say of any fact that it is of no consequence , unless you could know how it could be combiued with other facts , and what inferences it may . be made to support . About a third part of the volume is taken up with the History of the Reign of King Henri / VII . To this work a special interest attaches . It was the first work composed by Bacon after his fall , and was tlu 3 fruit of his first few months of leisure . It

    is historically interesting : as the opening portion of an uncompleted work , the advisability of the undertaking of which Bacon recommended many years beforo lie himself commenced it—a History of England from the Union of the Roses to the Union of the Crowns . Ho wrote it in little more than one long vacation . Ample and interesting in the main , it is in some respects inaccurate , composed , as it was , with little aid from previous labours , away from documentary material , in the literary scolusion of Gorlmmbury . The work has been the subject of much disparagement , and in no quartors more than in those where tho largest indebtedness to what it affords existed The toxfc of this edition is the result of a careful collation of tho manuscript in

    gations under which , not only scholarship , but thought and progress lie to eommentators of all sorts—Scaligers , Bentleys , Valpys , Basil Montagues , and the three editors ol" this work . We cannot think it any fanciful application , or wresting of the intent and tendency of the Baconian mothod and philosophy , to alleg r o that since its promulgation and general acceptation as the inevitable canon of inquiry , an entirel y new dignity and value has been attached to the labours of those who , without teaching or generalisation . , discover single faots—build forward , with Dutch industry , ono rood or foot more of tho terrujirma of

    substanthe British Museum with tho first ; English . edition and tho Latin translation prepared under Bacon ' a own cyo . Nothing is pluood in the text from tho last soui'co , but largo quotations from it are given in foot-notes , when there is sullioicufc discrepancy ^' expression inul statement to make an illustrative gloss advisable . JjVoin other historical souroeft corrections mid emendations are adduced , aud important omissions supplied . Tho text ., ourofullv revised , vomuina in Us own _ BUnplioily ; and all dotailsnocessary to amplitude of view and correctness of judgment arc , in addition , ullbrded . Bacon ' s dol > motors liavo ur < riMl over and over again a charge , if substantiated , damnatory to tho historical valuo of tho work . They have uvowod that "it was written with olhur objects than those of a faithful

    tial knowledge into tho ocean of tho unfathomed unknown . The acquisition may not be of instant application and use But it may be ono oonsocutivo stop , indispensable in its place , to tho future result , all i uttla . nl ua being fulfilled , which shall give to tho mind a new general truth , a new startingpoint for a similar furl / hor journey . Or tho fact may be the ouo item wanted to round , ' oil' and ¦ . complete somo Qstato of theory or generalisation . It ' s disoovoror may have boon Jed to it by more industry , or ho may l ' mvo hit upon it by aooident . Ho knows not ; , probably , the uses to whioh ot hers may apply it . To him ' it is a move fact , teaching nothing but its own

    oxthe tract is valuable and important . With a scltregard very justifiable , ho starts by maintaining that to tho execution of such a work , monkish and olosot studios tiro a less appropriate qualification than public oxporienco of all airs and government . And , indeed , what he knew of tho Slate hiinsoli , aud what ho must have k-anuid iVoin his / aliior , highly fitted him for his task . Tho gr iul . of llio work , and tho inlunt of iis tiilo , hia ^ vn words sufncicmtly explain : — " Hni-uin in p »'"» monioriu ost inuliobroimpcrium ; rurior iu vn . ioliciiaa ; ramstma cum i'ulioiful . o diiiMiniinis . , Uln varo quadragosimum quart urn rotfni sin hnuiim coin ploy 11 . ; noquc tuition fclicilnli « u « o mW }^ lint . Do hrflu iolioitiito pm . ctt du-cro iiwtam ; noquo in laudes oxcurroro . Nuin luudom hornuio *

    Literature, Science, Art, &A.

    LITERATURE , SCIENCE , ART , .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 13, 1858, page 1219, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2268/page/11/