ORTHOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS.

For orthographic analysis, which treats of the representatives or signs of sounds, the student must understand and give the classifications of letters, the power or sound of each letter or combination of letters, and the equivalent letters (i. e., those used to express the same sound). He should also apply the principles of syllabication.

These particulars are discussed with tolerable fulness in works on etymology, grammars, spelling-books, and the preliminary treatises in the large dictionaries. The teacher should see to it that the student forms the habit of original investigation by industriously consulting books of reference. The mode of orthographic analysis may be illustrated by the following.

EXAMPLE.

"Song made in lieu of many ornaments."

S is a surd sibilant consonant, representing a phonetic element (No. 31, p. 60). Its normal force is a hissing sound, as in siss. It has sometimes the sound of 2, as in reason; of sh, as in sure; of zh, as in pleasure; and is sometimes silent, as in island. Its form, somewhat modified, is found in the Anglo-Saxon, Greek, and Latin. (But see Liddell & Scott's Greek-English Lexicon, revised edition.) It has, for an equivalent, c, before e, i, and y. is a vowel, representing a phonetic element (No. 7, p. 59). Its normal force is the sound of o in go. It has also the sound of o in not, of ŭ in won, oo in two. Its form is found in the Anglo-Saxon, Greek, and Latin. It has for its equivalents, in the sound here represented, au, aw, awe, al, o, oa, ou; as in Paul, law, awe, talk, or, broad, fought. N is a nasal liquid consonant, representing, when alone, a phonetic element (No. 38, p. 61). It is silent when preceded in the same syllable by m or 7. Its form is found in the Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and, as a capital letter, in the Greek. It has no equivalent. Here it is taken to form in combination with g a single sound. G is a palatal mute consonant, representing, when alone, and as its normal force, a sonant phonetic element (No. 28, p. 60). It often has, also, before e, i, or y, the sound of j, as in gem, and is silent before m or n in the same syllable. Its exact form is from the Latin, and is not found in the Anglo-Saxon nor the Greek. (See G and C in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.) The combination, ng, is a compound sign, representing a single nasal-guttural consonant element (No. 36, p. 61). As such it has no equivalent.

Let the student go through the whole line in like manner.

Occasional exercises of this kind should be assigned by the teacher. See Blair's Latin Pronunciation; Max Müller's Science of Language, Second Series; Marsh's Lectures on the English Language; the Latin Grammars of Madvig, Zumpt, Allen and Greenough; Fowler's large English Grammar, etc. Write an essay on the original sounds and shapes of the vowels; one on those of the mute consonants; one on the other letters.

FRANCIS BACON.

1561-1626.

-"Those two incomparable men, the Prince of Poets and the Prince of Philosophers, who made the Elizabethan age a more glorious and important era in the history of the human mind than the age of Pericles, of Augustus, or of Leo."-LORD MACAULAY.

To Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, residing at York House in the Strand, Francis, the youngest of several sons, was born the twentysecond of January, 1561. The mother of Francis was Anne, a very learned and accomplished lady, daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, tutor to Edward I. Sir Nicholas was a man of great business ability, and was noted for his fine personal appearance. Queen Elizabeth was wont to say of him, "My Lord Keeper's soul is well lodged." In childhood Francis exhibited remarkable precocity. On one occasion, when the queen inquired his age, he surprised her by replying, "I am two years younger than your Majesty's happy reign." Delighted with his wit and gravity, she used to call the boy "My young lord keeper."

At thirteen he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he remained three years. Like Milton, he conceived a strong distaste for the curriculum, and especially for the Aristotelian philosophy. We find him at sixteen in Paris, under the care of the English ambassador, Sir Amias Paulet, where he appears to have lived remarkably free from the vices for which that brilliant capital was then notorious. A passion for rich dress and equipage, and a love of art, beauty, and magnificence, seem to have been deeply imbibed at this time. From Paris he went to Poictiers, where he studied hard; investigating, among other subjects, that of Echoes, which had enlisted his attention in childhood, and Cipher-writing. He was already collecting materials for a literary work entitled, Of the State of Europe.

His father suddenly dying in February, 1579, young Bacon returned home. "I found it necessary," he says, "to think to live, instead of living to think." After in vain soliciting aid from his uncle, Lord Burleigh, who seems to have cherished a mean jealousy of Bacon's superior abilities, which were likely to make him a formidable rival to Burleigh's son, Francis became, in 1580, a student of law in Gray's Inn. In 1586 he became a "Bencher;" in 1588, "Lent Reader;" in 1589, "Counsel Learned Extraordinary to the Queen." In 1591 he endeavored to procure from his powerful uncle some lucrative appointment which should give him means and leisure for philosophical and scientific research. In his letter applying for such a position, he remarks, "Thirty-one years is a great deal of sand in the hour-glass. The Cecils rather stingily procured him the reversion of the Registership of the Star Chamber, worth, whenever it should fall into possession, some £1,600 a year. Unluckily, the prior occupant stubbornly refused to die, and Bacon had to wait twenty years for the commencement of the receipt of the income.

In February, 1592, he took his seat as member of Parliament for Middlesex, making his first speech on the twenty-fifth of that month. On the seventh of March he made another speech of great power, in favor of popular rights and economical reform. The queen was angered by his bold stand against the encroachments of royalty, and caused her displeasure to be communicated to him through several channels. After this,

Bacon was more cautious. As an orator he received the commendation of old Ben Jonson, who says, "There happened in my time one noble speaker, who was full of gravity in his speaking. His language, where he could spare or pass by a jest, was nobly censorious. No man ever spake more neatly, more pressly, more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less idleness in what he uttered. No member of his speech but consisted of its own graces. His hearers could not cough or look aside from him without loss. He commanded when he spoke, and had his judges angry and pleased at his devotion. No man had their affections more in his power. The fear of every man that heard him was lest he should make an end.”

Two great parties at court sought power and royal favor; one was headed by Bacon's uncle and cousin, the Cecils; the other, by the Earl of Essex, step-son of the Earl of Leicester. Bacon allied himself to Essex. The office of Solicitor-General becoming vacant in the spring of 1594, Bacon applied for it. He greatly needed the income, for he was always living beyond his means; in fact, this improvidence was the fountain of most of his subsequent difficulties and sorrows, and a knowledge of his pecuniary embarrassments is the key to the mysteries of his otherwise inexplicable misconduct. Essex exerted himself to the utmost for his friend, but in vain: the office was given to another.

Essex now made Bacon a present of an estate at Twickenham, worth £1,800. To the wayward queen, who had so unreasonably thwarted his wishes, Bacon obsequiously dedicated a treatise, written in 1596, but not published till after his death, on the elements and use of the common law. His object was to establish in this, as in every science, general principles that should diminish labor and be the foundation of discoveries.

In 1597 his first publication appeared. It was a small duodecimo volume, containing Essays, ten in number, Religious Meditations, and a Table of the Colors of Good and Evil. In 1598 appeared another edition; a third, with additions, in 1612; and a fourth in 1625. They were immediately translated into French, Italian, and Latin, and for two hundred and seventy years they have enjoyed an extraordinary degree of popularity.

In 1598 he made a strong effort to capture the affections of Lady Hatton, a widow of long purse and sharp tongue; but, fortunately, she was reserved to torment his great rival at the bar, Attorney-General Edward Coke. In the same year he wrote another law treatise, a luminous and profound work on the Statute of Uses.

In 1599 he exerted his best endeavors to dissuade Essex from the unfortunate expedition which ultimately proved the ruin of that warm-hearted but reckless and headstrong nobleman.

In 1600 it became his official duty to prosecute Essex for disobedience. A severe struggle ensued in Bacon's breast, but he decided to act against his former benefactor. The trial took place in June. Essex was convicted, suspended from office, and imprisoned during the pleasure of the queen. The fallen favorite soon engaged in his preposterous attempt to capture London and seize the queen. The plot utterly failing, Bacon again prosecuted him, this time for high treason. The trial began February 19, 1601. On the 25th of the same month, the prisoner was beheaded in the Tower. By the queen's command, Bacon wrote an "Account of the Treasonable Practices of Robert, Earl of Essex."

On the coronation of King James, May 23, 1603, some three hundred gentlemen were knighted, among whom was Bacon. It is said that his object in seeking this honor was to gratify the lady whom he married in 1606, Miss Alice, daughter of Alderman Barnham, a Cheapside merchant. In March, 1604, he took his seat as a member of Parliament for Ipswich. He spoke often, sat upon twenty-nine committees, and in six months was appointed "King's Counsel Learned in the Law," with two pensions, of forty and sixty pounds respectively.