lying upon me. I come here, I find, amid and my spirit mount to pure and eternal high expectations, and how am I ever to communion with them in heaven. I feel come up to them? I get this College with that the labor meanwhile will be congenial a high reputation, and what if its lustre to me; my whole past life as a student, should diminish? My name is this day as a minister, and as a professor, should added to the roll which begins with Dick-prepare me for it. My tastes have ever enson and Aaron Burr, embraces Jonathan led me towards intercourse with young men. Edwards, Davies, Finley, Witherspoon, I have the same estimate of youth that the Smith, Green, Carnahan, who have left Spartans had, when Antipater demanded of their impress not only on this College, but them fifty youths as hostages; they anon their country and times, and comes to swered, they would rather give twice the one, who for long years felt so deep an in- number of grown men. I rejoice that my terest in the welfare of the students, who lot calls me to labor among young men. I was able to teach nearly every department wish to enter into their feelings, to sympain the institution over which he presided, thize with them in their difficulties — with and whom we will all delight to honor as their doubts in these days of criticism, to he passes his remaining days in peace help them in their fights, and rejoice with among us. Of a king in Israel it is said, them in their triumphs. And so I devote that they buried him in the city, "but they my life, any gifts which God has given me, brought him not into the sepulchres of the my experience as a minister of religion in a kings of Israel." I confess I should like, great era in the history of Scotland, my exwhen my work is finished, to be buried perience as a professor in a young and livamong these kings in the realms of thought, ing College, under God to you and your that my dust may mingle with their dust, service.

THE Patriarch of Constantinople appears to be an able and intelligent man. On receiving the summons from the Pope to the so-called Ecumenical Council of next December, he stated to the Pope's messenger that he knew its substance from having read it in the newspapers, and that, being what it was, he must decline to receive it. If the Pope, he said, had really wished to restore union, his course should have been not to summon his equals, the various Eastern Patriarchs, but to apply to them to know on what terms an agreement to summon such a Council could be arrived at, and then summon such an assembly in concert. As it was, the Pope's mere modus operandi assumed the whole point in dispute. Moreover, he thought for himself that the only mode of recovering unity would be for all parties to go back ten centuries to the creed and practice of the Church before the time of the rupture, and strike off anything added, or add anything lost, by every one of the branches since that date. As for the Council of Florence, which had overruled the Eastern views, it was an "assembly collected on political grounds, on grounds of pure worldly interest, which ended in a decision imposed for a time on some few of our Church by dint of starvation, and every kind of violence and threat by him who was then Pope. Such an assembly is not even worthy of the sacred name of council.'" In a word, the Patriarch of Constantinople appeared to understand the situation in every sense, political, ecclesiastical, theological,

and the emissaries of the Pope carried back the
unopened letter.
Spectator, 2 Jan.

THE Pope appears to deplore the movement for the education of girls heartily. He evidently holds that if the girls of Europe are to be educated, the women of Europe will cease to be Roman Catholics; and if the women of Europe cease to be Roman Catholics, it is all over with the Pope. The particular occasion of his anxiety is the foundation of a college for women at Montpelier, which has been supported and patronized by a "highly pious princess," but which the Pope thinks will "inflate" women's minds with "the pride of a vain and impotent science," instead of fitting them to be good mothers and useful members of society. It is curious to see even the Pope compelled to encounter the modern spirit on its own ground and not on his own. If he said what he evidently in his heart desires, it would be that schools and colleges for men and women alike should be abolished, as tending to inflate the mind with "the pride of a vain and impotent science," but he is compelled to take the weaker ground of denouncing education for women only. For the ignorance of men it is no longer possible to contend. The ignorance of women is still the stronghold of the Papacy; but would it not be better policy to resist it by secret organization, than thus openly to blurt Spectator, 26 Dec.

out the facts?

appearance then of exaggeration, or had other than public ends. In each questionable case Mr. Spedding finds that there is good reason to be given for the part which Bacon took. If we accept Mr. Spedding's account, few great men have been wronged like Lord Bacon. The wisdom and largeness of mind which we admire in his reasonings on man and nature are equally conspicuous in his public career and his dealings with matters of law and State.

great powers; he wanted employment and place, and he wanted money, which was necessary for his high tastes and purposes, and of which he was a bad manager; and he had great friends. But for some reason or other there were difficulties about his rising. He set his mind to work to discover the rules and means by which a man in his condition might rise; and he came to some definite conclusions on the subject, of which indications are found in his remains. The conclusions of a man like Mr. Sped- His theory of the practices of a successful ding, on a subject which he has made the man shows nothing consciously immoral or work of his life, obviously demand the base; but it seems to imply a very modest utmost respect. And as far as he has gone estimate of what is high-principled, honourhe has not met, except in one instance, able, and manly. Gathering it from the with anything on which a friend of Bacon papers we come across here, we should say may not have something to say. He has that it turned a man's thoughts to the holdnot yet come, except in the case of Lord ers of power as persons who were sure to Essex, on any of what seem the difficult be right and good, and that its rules parts of Bacon's career. Bacon's desire were, obsequiousness tempered by judicious for the King's service, which was the path shows of remonstrance, and unlimited in which men in public life then sought readiness to be of use. A man, he seems power, is easily to be understood, even if to have thought, could not do wrong in somewhat excessive. What he did in the doing what was wanted by a Queen like King's service, as Councillor and Solicitor, Elizabeth, or a King like James. He has may perhaps, after all, have been little put this into words; his conduct, as far as more than the work, undoubtedly able and we can trace it, is consistent with such a sagacious, of a zealous official, magnifying scheme of life; and to much that is perthe business of his own department; and haps open to debate it seems to supply the even what seem to us his unconstitutional key, and to solve doubts unfavourable to doctrines had their roots among the confused elements of the English law. His There are two places in these volumes general views, when he states them, as on where Bacon discloses his views — once the Union or on Church controversies, are publicly, in relating his advice to his most public-spirited and statesmanlike, even if intimate friend; another time, in most the bias is evident to carry on the work private reference to himself. The wellof government by an aggressive and domi-known apology for his behaviour as renant prerogative, helped out by a dexter- gards the Earl of Essex finds its place ous manoeuvring amid the follies and cross-chronologically in one of these volumes. purposes of men. In all this there is much In this able and interesting, though to our of which it is hard to say whether we most sense melancholy, defence of himself, he dislike its spirit and tendency, or admire repeats the two points of counsel which he its curious subtlety and understanding of had ever pressed upon Essex :the times. But all this belongs to the day; perhaps, in reality, to our day as much as to Bacon's. What Bacon really was must be sought, for the present, not here, but in the glimpses which he gives of his temper, his motives, his standard of feeling and principle, in what we have remaining of his more personal writings and dealings. And they are comparatively not very numerous. But when we come to these indications, and compare them with the inferences from them, we must say that the impression which we get of Bacon, when we read them by themselves, is one thing; that which we get from Mr. Sped-ity. ding's annotations on them is another.

Bacon's case was a peculiar one. He knew, and it was plain to all, that he had

him.

The one was, I ever set this down, that the only course to be held with the Queen was by obsequiousness and observance; and I remember I would gage confidently, that if he would take that course constantly, and with choice of good particulars to express it, the Queen would be brought in time to Assuerus' question, to ask, What should be done to the man that the King delighteth to honour?-meaning, that her goodness was without limit where there was a true concurrence; which I knew in her nature to be true. My Lord, on the other hand, had a settled opinion that the Queen could be brought to nothing but by a kind of necessity and author

Another point was that I always vehemently dissuaded him from seeking greatness by a military dependence or by a popular dependence, as that which would breed in the

Bacon was quite accurate. With an appli cation of the unum necessarium which seems to have pleased him, and which he again applied to the service of James in his own case (iv. 391), he had written to Essex in a letter, printed in Mr. Spedding's second volume (ii. 40) :

Queen jealousy, in himself presumption, and in | bodily health, the progress of his philosothe State perturbation. I did divert phical inquiries, his prospects, his business, him by all means possible from courses of the the state of political questions, the rules of wars and popularity. — iii. p. 144, 5. action for himself in public and personal matters. The contents are very miscellaneous, and often not very intelligible, but among them are some of the fruits of his reflections, hastily set down, on the manner in which he ought to carry himself to people round him. They all bear directly and very practically on the question of his advancement. There was an AttorneyGeneral whom he thought unfit for his place, but whose place he certainly wanted; and he notes down one by one, and more than once, all his defects and miscarriages. And among various hints to himself about the acquaintance he is to cultivate, and the line which he is to follow in order to gain the King's good opinion harmless enough, if the one thought of promotion were not so exclusively dominant everywherecome the following. We take the liberty of interpreting the abbreviations, and using our own orthography : —

I said to your Lordship last time, Martha, Martha, attendis ad plurima; unum sufficit; win the Queen. I will not speak of fervour of affection, but of other correspondence and agreeableness; which, whensoever it shall be conjoined with the other of affection, I durst wager my life (let them make what prosopopeias they will of Her Majesty's nature) that in you she will come to the question, Quid fiet homini,

quem rex vult honorare?

And Bacon recommends him to give up all thoughts of war and a stirring life, and to take the office of Lord Privy Seal :

It fits a favourite to carry Her Majesty's image in seal, who beareth it best expressed in heart. But my chief reason is that which I first alleged, to divert Her Majesty from this impression of martial greatness.

The advice may have been wise, but it is hardly surprising that a high-spirited man should have rejected it. We have no more admiration for Essex than Mr. Spedding has, but we confess that we do not like him the worse that- Englishmen being what they were in the sixteenth century-he should have preferred, however rashly, "martial greatness and popularity" to following the "one thing needful" by the tricks and manœuvres of "obsequiousness and observance at Court, as his friend counselled him.

66

Custuma aptæ ad individuum.

To furnish my Lord of S. [Suffolk, probably] with ornaments for public speeches.

To make him think how he should be reverenced by a Lord Chancellor, if I were: Princelike.

To prepare him for matters to be handled in Council or before the King aforehand, and to show him and yield him the fruits of my care.

Regularly to know the King's pleasure before every Term, and again before every Vacation; the one for service to be executed, the other for service to be prepared; tam otii ratio quam negotii; Queen Elizabeth's watch-candle. [cf. Letter to James, iv. 280,"because it pleased she suffered me to waste almost to nothing."] her to say that I did continually burn; and yet

To take notes in tables when I attend the Council, and sometimes to move out of a memorial showed and seen.

To have particular occasions, fit and grateful and continual, to maintain private speech with every the great persons, and sometimes drawing more than one of them together, ex imitatione Attorn. This specially in public places, and without care or affectation.

The rule which Bacon laid down for his friend he prescribed for himself. No doubt the word obsequiousness" did not in those days carry the same ill sound which it does now, and it is a fair question what Bacon meant by it. Mr. Spedding has printed some papers which throw light on his notion of the thing. They are remains At Council table chiefly to make good my Lord of his most private note-books, very curi- Salisbury's motions and speeches, and for the ous as illustrating his manner of making rest, sometimes one and sometimes another; and of arranging memoranda, and of tran-chiefly his that is most earnest and in affection. scribing from book to book his jottings and and labour of breath and voice. To suppress at once my speaking with panting first thoughts, till they had found their final Not to fall at once upon the main too sudden, form and place. The actual fragment but to induce and intermingle speech of good which we have is the record of an elaborate fashion. review, which he set himself to make day by day for a week in the summer of 1608, of his affairs, his debts, his studies, his

To use at once, upon entrance given of speech, though abrupt, to compose and draw in myself. To free myself at once from payment of for

mality and compliment, though with some show would be found fault with if in fact he did of carelessness, pride, and rudeness. - iv. 93.

64

it:

Such would be the same transaction seen from

It may be that the first impression produced by reading these notes, though the within; a transaction which Bacon would have natural one, is not the just one. This im- excused as a "submission to the occasion," and pression may be wrong, and Mr. Spedding which (whether excused or not) is one of a very argues very elaborately and earnestly that numerous family, still flourishing in all departin this case it is. Bacon's memoranda ments of civilized society. I do not myself, however, recommend it for imitation; and if it be about the Attorney-General seem to sug-true that no man can be known to do such a gest a preparation for the ungenerous dis- thing in these days without forfeiting his reputaparagement of a man who was in his way. tion for veracity-I am very glad to hear it. But who is so fit, Mr. Spedding asks, to iv. 34. criticize an artist as an artist, or a lawyer as a lawyer? And why should not Bacon Well, though the laxities of society furnish note and mark down things against the a tempting retort when great men are seAttorney-General, if he thought he could verely judged, still we cannot help thinkfill his place better? Then, as to the ing that the forms of social courtesy are other notes, Mr. Spedding bids us pause one thing, and selfish and deliberate insinand consider two points. What is it, he cerity is another; and that when one of the asks, that a man makes notes of in his wisest and most knowing of men is found pocket-book? Not what he is sure to do setting down in his note-book a memoranwithout reminding, but what he is likely to dum to toady such or such a great man, forget and overlook. The things of the fact of a good many other people which a man needs to remind himself are toadying, or doing what possibly may be those which he is himself apt to forget." toadying, does not alter the case in his To infer from these notes a natural apti- favour. And there is a difference, as it tude and inclination in the writer to do the seems to us, between toadying and coolly things which they remind him to do, making a note in one's pocket-book to would, in my opinion, be wrong. Men toady. We cannot quite accept Mr. Spedmake notes of things to be done, which, ding's theory of note-making. If a man's without a reminder, they would be in dan- notes show what he is afraid of forgetting, ger of forgetting to think of." Therefore, they show also what his mind is full of, and the true inference is that these notes show what he is anxious to remember. But, that the behaviour proposed in them was however this may be, these notes show, if against the grain. The right rule of inter- they mean anything at all, that Bacon had pretation is by contraries. If Bacon had on reflection imposed on himself the duty been a time-server or flatterer, he would of pleasing the great without much countnot have needed to remind himself to make ing the cost, with the same distinctness of himself useful to Suffolk, or to be always purpose with which he imposed on himself on the same side with Salisbury; the mem- rules of elocution and style, injunctions to oranda prove that he was forcing himself, himself" to suppress at once my speaking and that he felt himself in danger of neg- with panting and labour of breath," and lecting proper means of advancement."not to fall upon the main too sudAnd if we hesitate about the nature of the den."

means, Mr. Spedding asks who has a right And he appears to have acted accord

to cast the first stone at Bacon:

ingly. What remains to show Bacon's actual relations to the chief of the great It must not be forgotten that we see here not only thoughts and intentions half-formed and men mentioned in these notes, Lord Salisimperfectly explained, but we see the seamy side bury, though it is not much, entirely falls of them, which in other cases is kept out of view. in with what the notes would lead us to Bacon liked to call things by their true names; expect. He enjoins on himself "to corand if he ever thought fit to deceive his neigh-respond with Salisbury in a habit of natbour, did not think fit to deceive himself by disguising the real nature of the act under a euphemism. iv. 31.

And when Bacon writes a note about "making Lord Suffolk think how he would be reverenced by a Lord Chancellor, if I were," this, says Mr. Spedding, is only the seamy side of conduct for which no one

ural, but nowise perilous, boldness, and in vivacity, invention, care to cast and enterprise; but with due caution; for this manner I judge both in his nature freeth the stands, and in his ends pleaseth him best and promiseth most use of me." Salisbury was not forward to advance him, but he assisted him in money difficulties; and when Bacon, in despair, almost resolved to give