BOOKS.
DR. ABBOT1"S EDITION OF "BACON'S ESSAYS.".*
Tars edition of Bacon's Essays forms one of Messrs. Longman's "Series of English Classics," and is, in all outward respects, an attractive and dainty little book. The handy size of the volumes, the charming sage-green binding, the paper, type, and arrange- ment, the insertion of the old title-page of the edition of 1625, the use of strong, black characters, for numerals, and the first words of sentences, in the notes and alphabetical index, show what loving care has been spent in turning out the book, and make the using it a physical treat,—a real pleasure to eye and hand. And let us add at once, that Dr. Abbott's work is worthy of the setting. It is of larger scope than ordinary editing, as he had found, while
reading them with an advanced class of pupils, how necessary a knowledge of Bacon's life, and thoughts, and character is to any- thing like a true understanding or appreciation of these essays. He has accordingly given us, in his introduction, five separate studies of Bacon, painting for us, first, what he was himself, and then as philosopher, theologian, politician, and moralist. This method has its weak and dangerous side. It is scarcely possible to escape repetition when you have to paint the same man from five different stand-points, and not easy to avoid broaching theories about him which will not fit one another, and so bring- ing out as general result an impossible bundle of qualities and powers which one cannot clothe in flesh and blood, or make into anything that will stand upright, or, except by courtesy, can be called a man. That Dr. Abbott has not escaped this danger, and has put forth a theory which is hopelessly irreconcilable with the facts of Bacon's life, and with his thoughts and words, so far as they are known to us, is the opinion of the scholar who has devotedtwenty- five years to the study of that life and works. So Mr. Spedding has examined Dr. Abbott's theory in two articles in the Con- temporary, which raise once again the main points at issue in this deeply interesting Baconian controversy with singular clearness. It is difficult in our space to do justice to either side, and we can do little more than indicate the lines of the battle.
Bacon, then, Dr. Abbott holds, had from earliest youth a true and pure enthusiasm for science, and no other enthusiasm or passion whatever. He looked upon the search for and contempla- tion of Truth as his appointed work in life, and whenever, and in so far as he devoted himself to this work, was great and truth- ful to the end. He turned from it to law and politics—the pursuit of power and place, to be used for the advancement of knowledge— and carried his scientific method into politics and the Courts. The key of his plilosophy was that Nature is to be mastered by obeying her, after patient study. He would use this same key in active life, and endeavour to rule the world by obeying the world—the world as he found it—by studying what men are, not what they ought to be, and recognising and using all human weaknesses and vices for his own ends. Thus he became in early life, and continued tillthe end (outside his study), a supple, push- ing, unscrupulous man, incapable of strong love or friendship, who would let nothing stand in the way of his own advancement in the world, and allowed himself freely the use of those "arts and shifts" which he called "fiddling," but which are commonly known as sycophancy and lying. This is the picture Dr. Abbott draws, but be points out and admits that he is pressed by the difficulty of reconciling such facts as Bacon's undoubted uprightness and truthfulness as a student, and his attitude and conduct after his disgrace, with this view of "Bacon as he was." For undoubtedly Bacon believed in his own innocence of heart, and on the whole, Dr. Abbott thinks he may be acquitted of dis- honesty, for though he "took money from suitors whose cases were before him, yet he did it without feeling that he was laying himself open to a charge of what in law would be called bribery, and without any consciousness that he had secrets to conceal of which the disclosure would be fatal to his reputation." (lxii.) But if the man was such as we have heard he was, how can this apparent uprightness, this consciousness of innocence, this bear- ing before the world of a disgraced and fallen man, which drew from the Prince of Wales the words, "This man scorns to go out like a snuff," be accounted for? Dr. Abbott's answer is that he was a man singularly inaccurate and indifferent to details, and at the same time, vividly conscious of his own high powers and aims, that such a man cannot be judged as ordinary men are ; for his con- sciousness "of that grandiose kind of goodness to which, in his magnificent style, he gives the name of Philanthropic, would have
• Bacon's Essays. With Introduction, Notes, and Index, by Edwin A. Abbott, D.D. London : Longtnans.
made the priest of the kingdom of Man laugh to scorn the bare supposition that it was possible for him to be guilty of corruption." Now, however much we may have learnt in other directions from Dr. Abbott, it must be allowed that this is anything but satisfactory, and that the theory is a lame one. Mr. Spedding's, on the contrary, goes perfectly on all-fours, and is set out with sin- gular clearness in these articles. He holds that Bacon's moral code was, in fact, higher, more clearly recognised, and more con- stantly in his thoughts than that of the men of his time,—that just because this was so, because he knew better, he has been judged more hardly than others for acts which were common in his day, "the blots showing more in his life than his neighbours, because the general surface is fairer."
In this light Mr. Spedding examines all the cases cited by Dr. Abbott. His conclusion as to Bacon's conduct to Essex is that "in his prosperity he advised him against his humour till he lost his confidence, and in his adversity pleaded his cause with the Queen till he shared her displeasure ;" as to the prosecution of Oliver St. John in the Star Chamber, be holds that he did his simple duty as Attorney-General, Coke and the Council, and not he, being responsible for both prosecution and sentence, and St. John's own confession showing that he himself did not regard it as unjust ; as to the torture of Peacham, he thinks that it was ordered by the High Commission, of which Bacon was not a member, that he was only present as one of eight officials (as a sheriff is present at an execu- tion) ; as regards his battle with Coke upon the question whether a judge was bound to advise the Crown in spending case, he main- tains that he was merely acting as the King's'servant, and doing a plain duty. Both he and Coke were fighting for what they believed to be the Constitution, and Coke gave way. And lastly, as to the conviction for taking presents in pending suits—a real blot, which Mr. Spedding admits cannot be removed—he holds that it was the custom in his office to do so, favoured by James, as a cheap way of paying part of his Judges' salaries ; that Bacon accepted the custom as he found it, instead of sweeping it away, or even inquiring precisely how the law stood as to it. Thus he com- mitted acts without thinking about them which, when challenged, he could not justify, and yet could feel innocent in his heart of bribery, "though be could not conceal from himself that in one or two cases the proofs might, perhaps, stand pregnant to the contrary."
Nothing, in short, can be clearer or more satisfactory than Mr. Spedding's theory, if his view of the facts is once granted, and surely every Englishmen would be glad to accept it, if he could. But can we accept his reading of the facts? It seems to us that in the test- case, that of Bacon's conduct to Essex, it is impossible to do so. Upon the known facts and documents, Bacon seems to us, in spite of his denial, to have persuaded the Earl to take the un- lucky Irish command ; to have used the notorious correspondence (written by himself) between Essex and his brother Anthony rather to help himself with the Queen than to justify his friend ; to have gone out of his way, and beyond his duty as Queen's Counsel, both in the proceedings at York House and in the final trial. Any further light on the matter will be welcome, especially if it should help us to change our opinion. From Mr. Abbott's published statements, we know that he is about to reply at length to Mr. Spedding. We shall look with interest, not it mixed with anxiety, for his book, —with interest, because he has already proved himself an earnest and worthy student of Bacon's life and works ; with anxiety, lest by this discussion he should be trans- formed into a partisan, whose object it is to make a case against one of the greatest, and surely one of the most to be pitied, of British worthies.
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