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Burleigh was Bacon's uncle. He died in 1598, but this incident of his private life was not made public until twentysix years after Shakspere's death.

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To" show things inward," or (as in the sonnet) to show the loved one's form within the body, or in the heart of the loving, is the highest art of the painter. Both authors call this effect a perspective (perspicere, to see through).

240

UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE

"Shakespeare so devoted himself to the study of every trade, profession, pursuit and accomplish

"I have taken all knowledge to be my province." — Letter to Lord Burleigh (1592).

ment that he became master of them all, which his plays clearly show him to have been." — Furness's Variorum Shakespeare.

241

ASTROLOGY

From Shake-speare

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in
our stars,
But in ourselves."

From Bacon

"As for astrology, it is so full of superstition that scarce anything can be discovered in it." - De

Julius Cæsar, i. 2 (1623). Augmentis (1622).

"Chiefly the mould of a man's fortune is in himself." - Essay of Fortune (1607-12).

It was Bacon's opinion that the influence of the stars is exerted, not on individual men, but directly on masses of men, though he made an exception in favor of certain persons who, he said, " are more susceptible, and of softer wax, as it were, than the rest of their species."

It is clear that Cassius would not have been included by him in his excepted class.

242

EXPRESSION OF SORROW

"Give sorrow words; the grief

that does not speak, Whispers the o'erfraught heart, and bids it break."

Macbeth, iv. 3 (1623). "You do freely bar the door of your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to your friend.". Hamlet, iii. 2 (1604).

"No receipt openeth the heart but a true friend, to whom you may impart griefs."

"No man, that imparteth his griefs to his friend, but he grieveth the less."

"Those that want friends to open themselves unto are cannibals of their own hearts."-Essay of Friendship (1607-12, 1612, 1625).

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We agree with Mr. Wigston that the drama of 'Richard II.' was written to show the effect of flattery upon a mind predisposed to receive it.

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244

TELEPATHY

Imogen. I did not take my leave of him, but had Most pretty things to say; ere I could tell him

"Some trial should be made whether pact or agreement do any. thing; as if two friends should agree that on such a day in every

How I would think on him, at certain hours,

Such thoughts and such.

Or have charged him At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight,

To encounter me with orisons, for then

I am in heaven with him."

Cymbeline, i. 4 (1623).

week, they, being in far different places, should pray one for another, or should put on a ring or tablet, one for another's sake.". Natural History (1622-25).

Imogen made this "pact or agreement" with her husband on the eve of his departure for Italy, precisely in the manner and for the purpose suggested by Bacon. The resemblance extends even to the ring which she gives him for a keepsake: "Imogen. This diamond was my mother's; take it, heart." i. 1. And the departing husband gives her a bracelet, an exchange of mementos, as Bacon says, " for one another's sake."

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We bend to that the working of

the heart.

As I for praise alone now seek to

spill

The poor deer's blood, that my heart means no ill."

Love's Labor's Lost, iv. 1 (1598).

Here is a parallelism that for depth, subtlety, and strength cannot be exceeded. The two passages are rays of light into one and the same mind, penetrating to and revealing, under different forms of imagery, the most sublime rule of human conduct. Not only did Bacon express this sentiment several times in his writings, but, as we shall endeavor to show, he also expressed it in his life.

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The two authors were at one in ascribing not only envy to the assassins of Cæsar, but to Cæsar himself a fatal susceptibility to flattery.

Mr. Wigston points out another subtle parallelism in this twin analysis of the causes of Cæsar's downfall. The flat

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