the Second Part of Henry VI. there are no forms of morning and evening salutation such as are noted in folio 111, and which appear in every play later than the date of that folio, namely, 1594. It does not appear impossible that further study of such points may throw additional light upon the dates and order of the plays. In cases where the same note appears two or three times in the Promus, it is usually found to be introduced into plays of distinct periods. For instance, the note on sweets turning to sours, in folio 94571 is repeated in folios 1016, 910. And so in the earlier plays we find it in Romeo and Juliet, in Sonnet 94, and in Lucrece; and, in the later plays, in Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 2, and Troilus and Cressida, iii. 1.

Before entering into detail it will be well also to point out to the reader that, although the whole of the Promus of Forms and Elegancies is now published in the order in which the papers are arranged amongst the Harleian Collection of MSS., yet it is by no means probable, nor is it intended to convey the impression, that all these notes were written by Bacon with the specific object of introducing them into any of his works.

Nevertheless, when the same notes are found repeated as several of these notes are--not only in the Promus itself, but in other places, it is impossible to refuse to believe that they were connected very strongly with ideas in Bacon's mind, and that he intended to introduce and enforce the subjects of them. If, therefore, he wrote a series of plays at the same time that he was engaged upon other and graver works, there is nothing astonishing in discovering, amongst many notes which seem to refer only to the plays, a few notes which reappear literally or clearly in the Advancement of Learning, or in the essays, speeches, or letters of Bacon. Mr. Spedding's observations are sufficient assurance that but a small proportion of the notes can be traced in any of Bacon's acknowledged writings,'

A glance at the index will probably satisfy the reader that these

although those writings are, for the most part, plentifully 'stuffed' (to use Bacon's own expression) with quotations from the Bible and from classical authors.

For instance, in Book VII. of the De Augmentis or Advancement of Learning there are sixty-four such quotations, but of these only three are in the Promus; in Book VIII. there are 158, of which eight are in the Promus; and in Book IX. there are sixteen, none of which are noted.

When the Promus notes are traced, both in the prose works of Bacon and in the plays, it will be observed that in several cases the likeness between the note and the passage from the prose is less striking than the likeness between the note and some passage from the plays.

The folios which in the Harleian Collection have been arranged first in the series consist mainly of Latin quotations from the Vulgate and from the classics. These are amongst the least interesting papers in the Promus, and contain but few entries which, taken alone, could be thought to afford evidence that their writer was the author of the plays. All that could be urged on that point would be, that at all events the entries which seem to have relation to the plays and sonnets are far more numerous than those which can be connected with passages in the prose works of Bacon.

Nevertheless, even in these unpromising folios, heterogeneous and disconnected as their contents may at first sight appear to be, there is something which persuades one that it is an unsatisfactory manner of accounting for the notes to say that Bacon must have jotted them down during a course of reading merely in order to strengthen or assist his memory. For although in some cases the

notes were not intended to assist in the composition of Bacon's graver works.

It will be seen that the folios, or separate sheets, upon which the notes are written, have been numbered as they occur in the Harleian Collection, and that the first of the folios belonging to the Promus is No. 83.

quotations are entered in due sequence, yet in the majority of instances no order whatever is observed, later lines, verses, chapters, or books being quoted before earlier passages, and extracts from various authors mixed up or taken by turns. This surely does not look as if the primary object of these notes was to recall to memory the day's reading. It seems to point to some other aim, and a closer examination of the notes reveals a thread of connecting thought or sentiment running through many of these apparently isolated sentences. In folios 88 and 886 there are a number of texts from the Vulgate, some of which are placed to a certain degree in consecutive order, and others in no order at all. It will be seen that the whole of these have some relation to wisdom. There are texts on the pursuit of wisdom, on the connection between wisdom and truth, on the differences seen in the scorner and the patient inquirer after truth, the wisdom of silence, the flippancy of fools; on the light of truth— that it comes from God; that God's glory is to conceal and man's to discover; that the words of the wise are precious, or as goads; that, after all, a man knows nothing of himself, and so forth.

In other places there are miscellaneous notes from various authors, which, when considered together, are found to contain food for reflection on an immense variety of abstract subjects-hope, justice, counsel, grief, joy, folly, strength, virtue, courage, anger, rage, friendship, love, hatred, dissimulation, speech, brevity, silence, life, death, &c.

Such subjects may well be supposed to have occupied the thoughts of one who was preparing to write essays on all that comes most home to the hearts and bosoms of men,' and often, in reading the essays, there is an echo in the memory of these notes. But although such passages in the essays are not one in ten-perhaps not one in thirty, compared with the passages in the plays where similar sentiments and similar allusions, and sometimes

even the same peculiar words, reappear; yet it would be hazardous to assert that these entries were made in preparation for the poetical works, or, indeed, with a definite view to any of Bacon's writings. It appears more probable that notes of this class were originally made by him in order to improve himself, to discipline his own mind, and to assist his cogitations on many deep subjects connected with the mind and heart of man. It is easy to see what a help it would be to his memory and to his 'invention' to look back in later days to these notes, which would recall the studies of the past, whilst at every glance they suggested new trains of thought and more varied images and turns of expression.'

For those readers who do not possess complete copies of Bacon's Works, a few passages are extracted in order to show that Bacon recommended writing and the taking of notes as a means to cultivating the 'invention' or imagination. It will be seen that Bacon considered (and he speaks from his experience) that we cannot form conceptions of things of which we have no knowledge; and that the imagination must be fed and nourished by the acquirement of facts, and cultivated by painstaking and labour. The italics are Bacon's own.

The invention of speech or argument is not properly an invention, for to invent is to discover that we know not, and not to recover or resummon that which we already know; and the use of this invention is no other but out of the knowledge whereof our mind is already possessed to draw forth, or call before us, that which may be pertinent to the purpose which we take into our consideration. So as, to speak truly, it is no invention, but a remembrance or suggestion, with an application. . . To procure this ready use of knowledge there are two courses: preparation and suggestion. The former of these seemeth scarcely a part of knowledge, consisting rather of diligence than of any artificial erudition. . . . The other part of invention, which I term suggestion, doth assign and direct us to turn to certain marks and places, which may excite our mind to return and produce such knowledge as it hath formerly collected, to the end we may make use thereof.' (See Advancement of Learning, ii., Spedding, Works, iii. 389-391.) 'I hold . . . that scholars come too soon and too unripe to logic and rhetoric . . . for these be the rules and directions how to set forth and dispose matter; and therefore for minds unfraught and empty with matter, and which have not gathered that which Cicero calleth 'sylva' and 'supellex,' stuff and variety, to begin with those arts (as if one should learn to weigh, or to measure, or to paint the wind), doth work but this effect- that the wisdom of those arts is almost made contemptible. (Ib. p. 326.)

Poetry is as a dream of learning.'
The help to memory is writing.

(Adrt. iii.; Spedding, iv. p. 336.) I am aware, indeed, that the

These remarks apply to certain of the folios only-for instance, to folio 83, with which the Promus commences. There are other sheets and collections of notes which require and admit of a much more positive application.

Such are the folios which contain Latin, English, French, Italian, and Spanish proverbs (as f. 85 to 103b, and 129 to 131b). Those, too, which consist entirely of small turns of expression, f. 89, and the sheet headed Analogia Cæsaris, f. 126; also f. 87, the contents of which, Mr. Spedding says, ' may all be classed under the head of "Repartees." F. 110, headed 'Play' and f. 113, which Mr. Spedding describes as a sheet of forms of morning and evening salutation,' but which is really more curious on account of a connection which appears between the entries it contains and certain passages in Romeo and Juliet.

To turn, now, from this general survey of the Promus to a more detailed examination of the notes.

There are 1,680 entries in the Promus, and since, as has been said, these entries are for the most part so mixed as to present, at first sight, nothing but confusion, it will be easier to treat of them as sorted into eight groups or classes :

1. Proverbs or proverbial sayings from the Bible or from the classics; or national proverbs-English, French, Spanish, and Italian.

2. Aphorisms.

3. Metaphors, similes, and figures. (Some of these may equally well be ranged with the proverbs.)

4. Turns of expressions. (Including sentences noted apparently only on account of some peculiar expression. transferring of the things we read and learn into commonplace books is thought by some to be detrimental to learning, as retarding the course of the reader, and inviting the mind to take a holiday. Nevertheless, as it is but a counterfeit thing in knowledge to be forward and pregnant, except a man be also deep and full, I hold diligence and labour in the entry of commonplaces to be a matter of great use and support in studying; as that which supplies matter to invention, and contracts the sight of the judgment to a point.' (De Aug. v. 5.)