and youth seem to have been singularly sedate. His gigantic scheme of philosophical reform, is said by some writers, to have been planned before he was fifteen, and was undoubtedly planned while he was still young. He observed as vigilantly, meditated as deeply, and judged as temperately, when he gave his first work to the world, as at the close of his long career.

But in eloquence, in sweetness and variety of expression, and in richness of illustration, his later writings are far superior to those of his youth. We will give very short specimens of Bacon's two styles. In 1597, he wrote thus :-"Crafty men condemn studies; simple men admire them; and wise men use them for they teach not their own use, that is a wisdom without them, and won by observation. Read not to contradict, nor to believe, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing a correct man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need of a great memory; if he confer little, have present wit; and if he read little, have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make wise men; poets, witty; mathematicians, subtle;

natural philosophy, deep; morals, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend."

The following passage, first published in 1625, will show the extent of the change:

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Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction, and the clearer evidence of God's favour. Yet even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you will hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath laboured more in describing the afflictions of Job, than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears. and distates, and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. We see in needleworks and embroideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work on a sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground. Judge therefore of the pleasures of the heart by the pleasure of the eye. Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice, and adversity doth best discover virtue."

The phenomenon which Mr. Macaulay remarks upon is so peculiar, that it is clear that he can hardly believe it himself. This seems, says he, to

have been the case with Bacon. That the fruit should come first and remain till the last, and the blossom not appear till late, is so contrary to nature, that we may well pause and inquire whether this was really the case, or did but seem to be so.

Upon the orange-tree we may observe the bud, the blossom, and the fruit in every stage of ripeness, all exhibited in one plant at the same time, although each individually has, in its production, observed the exact order prescribed by nature. But when the plant is in this state, what hinders that the gardener should not gather fruit and flower at the same time, and appropriate each to its several use? And how diverse and remote may their several uses be !

The stentorian orator in the City Forum, who, restoring his voice with the luscious fruit, continues his harangue to the applauding multitude,little reflects, that the delicate blossom which grew by its side, and was gathered at the same time, decorates the fair brow of the fainting bride in the far-off village church. Nature is always true to herself: her order was not reversed in the case of Bacon. The bud, the blossom, the flower, and the fruit, each came in its proper and accustomed order, and grew and flourished long together. But what if, like a prudent husbandman, he sent each

to its appropriate market-the flowers of his fancy, to the wits and the players; the fruits of his judgment, to the sages and statesmen of his day? This peculiarity, remarked upon by Mr. Macaulay, tends greatly to confirm the probability of the theory we are advocating. The theatre seems to have been a necessity of Bacon's spiritual existence, as affording a safety-valve by which he was able to let off the superfluous wit, which would otherwise, doubtless, have exploded in a manner totally destructive to the reputation, which at that early period of his life he was endeavouring to build up.

We attribute, then, the gravity of Bacon's early style, to the nature of his position and the character of the age. The times of Elizabeth and James are often mentioned together, as though they were identical, yet few proximate periods are more dissimilar. The gloomy fanaticism of the Commonwealth was scarcely more opposed to the gay licentiousness of the Restoration, than the wisdom and discretion of the days of Elizabeth to the pedantry and folly of those of James.

In the former, learned men studied only how best to employ their learning; in the latter, men equally learned, studied only how best to display it. Events were so stirring in the days of Eliza

beth, that to those engaged in the business of the state, feigned catastrophes might well seem impertinent, and poetry be for the time disregarded. The commoner sort of people doubtless had a keen appreciation of it, and wise rulers have ever paid some attention to popular feeling; hence the toleration of professed actors and a public playhouse.

But the writing of plays, as the acting of them, was considered by the better sort "a toy," which might be practised as a pastime and recreation, but which conferred neither honour nor distinction upon the maker or performer.

In that age, as Coleridge truly observes, the law, the church, and the state, engrossed all honour and respectability; a degree of disgrace-levior quædam infamiæ macula—was attached to the publication of poetry, and even to have sported with the muse as a private relaxation, was supposed to be, a venial fault indeed, but something beneath the gravity o a wise man. The professed writers for the stage in the days of Elizabeth, were all men of talent, most of them members of the universities, and some clergymen; but, with hardly an exception, they were men of licentious lives, depraved habits, and ruined characters-pests of society, shunned by all the respectable portion of the community.