ment. He was in the habit of preserving in his commonplace books the fruits of his reading and original reflection, and of reducing his ideas to terse and compact phrase. The "Essays" of 1597 are but little clusters of disconnected sentences with no other organic bond than is supplied by the common topic.

The complete absence of literary artifice gave the sharpest possible emphasis to the substance of these essays and to their unequivocal intent. Their subject matter was practical, the tone dogmatic, magisterial. Their undisguised purpose was to instruct and guide, to impart to the younger heads the valuable experience of those who had already rubbed shoulders with the world. Bacon was doing in the essays what he and other men in his position had been doing by private communication. Statesmen who had under their tutelage young men destined for political trust were accustomed to put down in writing for their benefit not only the useful mysteries of state, ragioni di stato was the technical phrase adopted from the Italians, but even general advice on the conduct of life. The "Counsels Civil and Moral" of the experienced historian Guicciardini, composed for his family and circulated widely after his death, though in abbreviated and mutilated form, have a close sympathy with the essays of Bacon. In the correspondence of Englishmen like Burghley and Essex, and Bacon himself, there exist letters to young noblemen which in substance are not to be distinguished from the essays. These letters were sometimes published for their general utility, with or without the writer's sanction, the motive which stimulated such publication being doubtless responsible also for the first appearance of Bacon's little volume; and Bacon's volume in its turn placed the seal of literary authority on this species of writing.

When, therefore, students of the essay like Mr. Hugh Walker disparage Bacon by comparison with Montaigne, they assume a rivalry between the two writers of which the former was not conscious. The lower plane of literary interest on which he for the most part moves, and the comparative dryness and bareness of the style, are but witnesses to his frankly utilitarian outlook. When he speaks of the matter of his essays as coming home to the business and bosoms of men he has in mind its bearing on practical affairs. Whereas Montaigne's analysis of human nature, even in its pretended indifference, looks to a philosophic adjustment of the individual with the larger scheme of things for his greater happiness, Bacon exposes the springs and pulleys in order that his disciple may learn to manipulate men for his private advantage, or that of the state.

Aphorism and precept are the chief ingredients of his essays, from the initial paper in the first edition to the concluding one in the last. Many of the titles infallibly arouse didactic anticipations, such as Expense, Ambition, Riches, Negotiating. In an essay of Anger, however, we would ordinarily be inclined to look for a description of the manner in which that familiar passion operates, together with some stories to heighten the impression. But after a couple of introductory sentences Bacon thus characteristically outlines the scope of his paper: "We will first speak how the natural inclination and habit to be angry may be attempred and calmed. Secondly, how the particular motions of anger may be repressed, or at least restrained from doing mischief. Thirdly, how to raise anger or appease anger in another." How to raise anger in

another! One could not wish for a clearer confession of the scientific attitude toward behavior. Advantage or disadvantage, in a narrow and immediate sense, is

the measure of his interest in a subject Not only
are Simulation and Dissimulation, Marriage and Single
Life viewed externally in their pros and contras, but
Beauty, Love, and Friendship are coldly analyzed and
sealed with censure or approval according to the "fruits"
which they yield. And yet the discourse Of Friendship
in its final form was written as a tribute of affection
at the special request of his warm admirer, Sir Toby
Matthew. Some readers perceive a poetic sentiment
in the essay Of Gardens, but it would not be difficult
for such persons to extract an aroma from a spring
catalogue of seeds. No doubt Bacon took a deep
pleasure in trees and flowers, as he did also in grand
buildings and in elaborate pageantry. His papers on
all these subjects reveal his generous tastes, but they
are made up of barren specifications and written with
a deliberate suppression of the emotions. In no more
than half a dozen essays does he raise himself to a
disinterested observation of human qualities or give
scope to his contemplative powers.
Rare indeed are

In

the occasions on which he indulges his satiric humor,
as in Of Boldness and Of Seeming Wise, and even in
these he cannot wholly escape the urgency of the moral
application. Equally rare is the solemn feeling and
the stately eloquence of the essay Of Truth and the
tender poetic gravity in the reflections of Death.
these the essays reach their highest point of imagina-
tive utterance. Though among the last written, they
stand at the beginning of the final edition, impressive
portals which may well blind the reader by their beauty
to the contents of the chamber on which they open. Not
that the rest is lacking in dignity, for the sagacity and
luminousness of his mind gives distinction to all that
Bacon says, but it is composed for more worldly uses
and speaks a less exalted language.

Apart from the exceptions noticed, the essays in their latest form do not differ in spirit from the earliest. Very commonly the additions are in the nature of further aphorisms, or of percepts which drive the lesson more literally home. In 1612 the paper Of Seeming Wise refrained from direct moralizing; in 1625 it was rounded out with this useful sentence: "Seeming Wise-men may make shift to get Opinion: But let no man choose them for employment. For certainly, you were better take for business a man somewhat absurd, than over formal." The expansion is practically always for a more and more specific application of the counsels. Even the essay Of Truth does not fail in the last paragraph to pass from "theological and philosophical truth, to the truth of civil business." The use of illustrations from history and literature in the later essays is nearly always explained, as a result of Montaigne's influence. But this is one of the least characteristic features in the practice of either Bacon or Montaigne, the device which is perhaps the most widespread among the writers of the time.

The larger changes which Bacon made in his successive revisions serve to accentuate the fundamental difference between his method and Montaigne's. Whereas the latter tended to progressive and studied relaxation of formal technique, the other developed a constantly more mechanical structure in proportion to the extent of his revision. While the first essays are made up wholly of unconnected sentences, the later ones are often outlined with precise and transparent regularity, with a summary introduction, an enumerated division of the main points, and transitions definitely announced. What this leads to is in effect a methodical treatise which, unless brevity is a reason, can be called an essay only by courtesy. In the Dedication of 1612

he apologizes for looseness of form on the ground that his continued service does not allow him leisure to write "just treatises", and in the eighth book of the De Augmentis he illustrates one of his desiderata or "deficients" by an "example of a summary treatise touching the extension of empire," which is nothing else than a translation of the essay Of the Greatness of Kingdoms. Such summary treatises also are the papers Of Empire, Of Seditions and Troubles, Of Religion, Of Usury, to mention only the most methodical. These represent the extreme development of Bacon's own manner and are evidence that Montaigne was not the literary model whom he kept before his eyes.

V.

Bacon's compositions show how naturally the moralist's material, in passing through the brain of an original observer and being applied to the every-day interests of men, takes on a familiar tone even in its didacticism. Still more instructive from this point of view, because less conscious of its drift, is Ben Jonson's "Timber". To a reader who should take it up in entire innocence of its history, this book would appear as an unmistakable collection of essays ranging from the concentrated aphorism to the scope of an extended critical treatise. He would find in it striking observations on men, on manners, and on literature, philosophic reflection, social satire, literary analysis seasoned with familiar illustration from contemporary figures, informed with more personal feeling and suffused with more generous sentiment than the essays of Bacon. He would be struck not only by the purity and elevation of the moral tone, maintained with a conviction which springs from char