St. Augustine says: "Certain very small animals may not have been created on the fifth and sixth days, but may have originated from putrefying matter." St. Isadore of Seville, who wrote in the seventh century of our era, is more explicit ; he declares that "bees are generated from decomposed veal, beetles from horse-flesh, grasshoppers from mules, scorpions from crabs." Bacon pursued the subject still farther, anticipating the time when the generation of animals out of putrefying substances would be controlled by man, thus: "We make a number of kinds of serpents, worms, flies, fishes, of putrefaction; whereof some are advanced (in effect) to be perfect creatures, like beasts or birds. Neither do we this by chance, but we know beforehand of what matter and commixture what kind of those creatures will arise." - New Atlantis. This most extraordinary opinion, expressed by Bacon in 1608, that happy men are always unfortunate in their children (if they have any), was held also by the author of the Tempest,' a play composed in about 1613. It is the good parent, says Shake-speare, that begets children false to him. In the De Augmentis Bacon reiterates the statement, by way of an exaggerated antithesis, thus: "They that are fortunate in other things are commonly unfortunate in their children; lest men should come too near the condition of gods." Mr. The above exquisite passage from the 'Winter's Tale' has been the subject of much ignorant criticism. Dr. Johnson accused the author of mistaking Juno for Pallas, on the ground that the latter was the "goddess of blue eyes." Ellacombe, in his elaborate treatise on Plant Lore in Shakespeare,' says that "in all the passages in which Shake-speare names the violet he alludes to the purple violet." This is a misapprehension. Bacon enables us to set the matter aright; for he tells us that it is the white variety which is the sweetest, and this, being slightly tinged or veined with purple, as eyelids are, is the one, therefore, that justifies the comparison in the text. Mr. Ellacombe adds that the dramatist was evidently "very fond" of this flower: he was so, indeed; for in a letter to Lord Treasurer Cranfield, Bacon expressed the pleasure he should soon take in visiting his Lordship and "gathering violets" in his garden. Bacon made use of this simile three times in the course of his life in a letter to King James; in one of his Apothegms, where he credited it to an associate in Gray's Inn; and, lastly, in the revised version of his 'Essay of Seditions.' Dr. R. M. Theobald, to whom we are indebted for this parallelism, remarks that the "annotators of 'Coriolanus' have not yet found out what Shakespeare meant by the common muck of the world." We group together several parallelisms under the head of Love. STRONG CHARACTERS NOT GIVEN TO LOVE "Believe not that the dribbling dart of love Can pierce a complete bosom.". 29 "Great spirits and great business do keep out this weak passion.". Ibid. LOVE FATAL TO WORLDLY SUCCESS "It has Made me neglect my studies, lose my time, War with good counsel, set the Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 1 30 "Whosoever esteemeth too much of amorous affection quitteth both riches and wisdom." - Ibid. "All who, like Paris, prefer beauty, quit, like Paris, wisdom and power."-De Augmentis (1622). LOVE CREEPS BEFORE IT GOES "Love Will creep in service where it cannot go." Ibid., iv. 2 (1623). "Love must creep in service where it cannot go."- Letter to King James. The letter was written in 1610, but not published till long after Bacon's death. The proverb appeared in one of the Shake-speare plays, in print for the first time in 1623. LOVE AND WISDOM INCOMPATIBLE "To be wise and love Exceeds man's might; that dwells with gods above." Troilus and Cressida, iii. 2 (1609). "It is not granted man to love and be wise." - Advancement of Learning (1603-5). It was Publilius Syrus, a Roman mimographer of the time of Julius Cæsar, who said that "it is scarcely possible for a god to love and be wise." Bacon and the author of the Plays both quote the saying approvingly, but both also change its application (as above) from gods to men. |