1. He always uses it, so far as we know, in this sense. See the passages above quoted from him as parallels.

2. He characterizes the composition to which he referred, whatever it was, as "despised." No term could have been selected more appropriately expressing public sentiment at that time on the subject of theatrical performances. Playactors were denounced by law as vagabonds; they did not dare to appear on the public streets of London without protection-papers signed by some nobleman who called them his servants; otherwise they were liable to be arrested and to have their ears bored with hot irons, not less (according to the specific provisions of a statute) than one inch in circumference. The theatres themselves were the resorts of the most degraded people of the city. No woman of good character could visit them without wearing a mask.

3. By means of these mysterious compositions he had, as he says, "procured the good of all men." Bacon, almost alone among his contemporaries, viewed the drama as an educational institution of high value. He recommended that it be taught, both in theory and in practice, in public schools. He even drafted the plan of a building for the purpose, including dressing-rooms for the actors.

4. Bacon was the acknowledged author of no compositions that were despised. This is proof that his authorship of those described in the prayer was unacknowledged and secret.

Bacon made a special study of physiognomy, not only to show how "lineaments of the body disclose the character of the mind," but also how the mind itself is affected by the condition of the body. His object was, of course, to gain a knowledge of physical remedies applicable to mental disease. Shake-speare had made the same investigation.

The "nearest way" for Macbeth was through murder; the nearest way to attain a fortune (says Bacon) is by " dispensations from the laws of charity and integrity." "He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent" ('Essay of Riches').

It will be seen that Bacon and the author of the Plays made the same singular blunder in their earlier writings in the use of the word Sabbaoth (host) for Sabbath (the Hebrew day of rest). Both of them, however, subsequently and (it would appear) simultaneously corrected it; the one in the second edition of the Advancement,' published in 1623, and the other in the folio editions of Richard III.' and the Merchant of Venice," published also in 1623. The same blunder is found in Bacon's 'Confession of Faith,' written before 1603.

407

DISCOURSE OF REASON

"O God! a beast that wants dis

course of reason Would have mourn'd longer!" Hamlet, i. 2 (1603).

"Martin Luther, conducted, no doubt, by an higher Providence, but in discourse of reason."- Advancement of Learning (1603–5).

The word discourse is derived from the Latin discurrere, to run to and fro, that is, in mentality, from one fact or consideration to another, in order that we may compare and judge. It is a strict Latinism, found in the writings of Caxton in the fifteenth, of Eden in the sixteenth, and of Florio in the seventeenth centuries.

"May it not be that in the few instances where Shakespeare uses the phrase in reference to the operations of the mind (I speak with great hesitation 1) that its Latin origin was uppermost in his mind?"-FURNESS' Variorum Edition of Shakespeare, vi. 268.

408

THE FALL OF MAN

From Shake-speare "Ignorance is the curse of God." 2 Henry VI., iv. 7 (1623).

From Bacon

"The true end of knowledge is the restitution of man to the sovereignty and power (for whensoever he shall be able to call the creatures by their true names he shall again command them) which he had in his first state of creation."- Valerius Terminus.

Ignorance caused man's fall, says Shake-speare.

Knowledge will restore man to his first estate, says Bacon. The Valerius Terminus preceded the Advancement of Learning,' the exact date unknown.

1 The fear of the commentators lest they ascribe too much learning to the author of the Plays is pitiable. The fate of Acteon is continually before their eyes.