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has in it made large additions, under the title of "Annotations,” to what Bacon has said on several subjects, and that he is here defending himself against the imputation of presumption in making such additions. He adds:

"It is necessary to call attention to the circumstance that the word ESSAY has been considerably changed in its application since the days of Bacon. By an Essay was originally meant-according to the obvious and natural sense of the word-a -a slight sketch, to be filled up by the reader: brief hints, designed to be followed out: loose thoughts on some subjects, thrown out without much regularity, but sufficient to suggest further inquiries and reflections. Any more elaborate, regular, and finished composition, such as in our days often bears the title of an Essay, our ancestors called a treatise, tractate, dissertation, or discourse. But the more unpretending title of 'Essay' has in great measure superseded those others which were formerly in use, and more strictly appropriate. I have adverted to this circumstance because it ought to be remembered that an Essay, in the original and strict sense of the term -an Essay such as Bacon's, and also Montaigne's-was designed to be suggestive of further remarks and reflections, and, in short, to set the reader a-thinking on the subject. It consisted of observations loosely thrown out, as in conversation; and inviting, as in conversation, the observations of others on the subject. With an Essay, in the modern sense of the word, it is not so. If the reader of what was designed to be a regular and complete treatise on some subject (and which would have been so entitled by our forefathers) makes additional remarks on that subject, he may be understood to imply that there is a deficiency and imperfection—a something wanting-in the work before him; whereas, to suggest such further remarks-to give outlines that the reader shall fill up for himself—is the very object of an Essay, properly so called-such as those of Bacon. A commentary to explain or correct, few writings need less; but they admit of and call for expansion and development. They are gold ingots, not needing to be gilt or polished, but

requiring to be hammered out in order to display their full value."

"He is throughout, and especially in his Essays, one of the most suggestive authors that ever wrote. And it is remarkable that, compressed and pithy as the Essays are, and consisting chiefly of brief hints, he has elsewhere condensed into a still smaller compass the matter of most of them. In his 'Rhetoric' he has drawn up what he calls 'Antitheta,' or common places, 'locos,' i. e. pros and cons— opposite sentiments and reasons, on various points, most of them the same that are discussed in the Essays. It is a compendious and clear method of bringing before the mind the most important points in any question, to place in parallel columns, whatever can be plausibly urged, fairly or unfairly, on opposite sides; and then you are in the condition of a judge who has to decide some cause after having heard all the pleadings."

These 'Critical Estimates will be rendered more complete by subjoining one more-from the pen of the philosophical and scholarly Dugald Stewart, of the University of Edinburgh :

"In Bacon's Essays the superiority of his genius appears to the greatest advantage; the novelty and depth of his reflections often receiving a strong relief from the triteness of the subject. The volume may be read from beginning to end in a few hours, and yet after the twentieth perusal one seldom fails to remark in it something overlooked before. This, indeed, is a characteristic of all Bacon's writings, and is only to be accounted for by the inexhaustible aliment they furnish to our own thoughts, and the sympathetic activity they impart to our torpid faculties."

Without endorsing the disparaging judgment pronounced therein upon the Essays of Mr. Macauley, the Editor will bring to a close these Estimates of Bacon's Essays, by copying a paragraph from the able Lectures of the late Professor HENRY REED, designed to show that the improvement of

taste and judgment will be secured by a familiarity with the writers of different periods of English Literature :—

"Let us take a practical example; and I turn for the purpose to the department of English Essay-writing, in which the mind of our race has found utterance in several centuries. During the last few years there has been a large multitude of readers for Macauley's Essays-brilliant, showy, attractive reading. But what assurance can any one of that multitude, who is unacquainted with other productions in the same class of books, have, in his admiration of these Essays? How can he be assured that they are going to endure in our literature, and that their attractions are rightful attractions? I myself believe that they will prove perishable, because the pungency of a period, and the dazzling effects of declamation are, to Mr. Macauley, dearer at least than faith and charity. The admirer of his Essay's may think otherwise; but whether he be right or wrong, he is not entitled to form a judgment unless he has disciplined his power of judging by the reading of other works of a kindred nature-kindred, I mean, in form, not in spirit. Let him, therefore, turn to the other Essay-writing of our own times, (and it has been a large outlet for the contemporary mind,) the Essays of Southey, of Scott, of Washington Irving, the inimitable Elia' of Charles Lamb, or that thoughtful and thought-producing miscellany, the 'Guesses at Truth.' Then going back into other periods, and making choice of some of Dr. Johnson's Essays in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and of Addison's or Steele's in the 'Spectator' and the 'Tatler,' in the early part of it, he will find his judgment enlarged by seeing how those generations dealt with this branch of letters. Traveling back a century earlier, let him take the single volume of Lord Bacon's Essays, in which thoughts and suggestions of thought move in such solid phalanx that every line is a study. This is a simple rule for reading, and it may readily be practised; and then bringing his acquaintance with the English essays of the last two hundred years, and the power of judgment which he has been at the same time unconsciously gaining, back to the

Macauley Essays, and he will perceive that they are not what they used to be to him. A sense of enjoyment will indeed have passed away; but it will be because the reader has discovered elsewhere a deeper wisdom, a more tranquil beauty of thought and feeling and of expression, a fuller beat of the human heart. The flashing of the will-o'-the-wisp shall no longer mislead him, who turns his looks to the steady cottage candle-light quietly shining out into the darkness, or to the still safer guidance of the slow-moving stars." Eng. Lit., Lect. II, pp. 59, 60.

NOTE. The student may profitably be called upon to pass an examination upon the following topics embraced in the 'Critical Estimates of Bacon's Essays:'

1. The origin of the use of the term Essay, applied to a form of literary composition. What analogous term was in use among Greek scholars? The synonyme of Essay, in its original application?

2. Dr. Beattie's sketch of the first series of popular Essays in England. The names of these in order, and their authors. Dr. Johnson's celebrated eulogium upon the writings of Addison.

What work may have suggested
Points of resemblance and differ-

3. What was the first example of the popular Essay in England? Dr. Beattie's judgment upon the Essays of Lord Verulam. What were the 'Sermones Fideles?" What does Bacon say of his own Essays, and what comparison does he institute between them and his other works? 4. The various editions of the Essays? to Bacon the preparation of his Essays? ence between Bacon and Montaigne? The grand characteristic of Bacon's philosophical writings, and still more of his Essays. Description of the Essays in the Title page of the first Edition? The two forms of Bacon's ambition? Bacon compared with Machiavel? Hallam's critical judgment upon Bacon's Essays, as compared with other English productions? Faults attributed to them. What is necessary to a claim to polite letters?

5. One of the most remarkable circumstances in the history of Bacon's mind? The attributes of it in boyhood? Whose mind in its development resembles that of Bacon? In what productions is this shown?

6. Change of meaning in the word ' Essay' since the time of Bacon. The precise design of Bacon's and Montaigne's Essays? How does that design differ from the design of the modern Essay? Whately's critical judgment upon Bacon's Essays? What are the Antitheta' of Bacon?

7. Dugald Stewart's views of the Essays?

8. The advantage of an extensive range of reading? Prof. Reed's estimate of Macauley's Essays? What other Essays does he regard as superior in merit, and in the probable duration of their popularity? What comparison is employed, to illustrate his opinion of their respective merits?

ESSAYS.

ESSAY I.

TRUTH.

ANALYSIS. Pilate's question. Free thinkers and free livers. Indifference to truth. Love of falsehood. How this is to be accounted for. Question discussed by one of the Grecian schools. Truth compared to daylight. Pleasure derived from a mixture of the false with the true. Poetry denounced by one of the fathers. The kind of lie that is injurious. What is said of the inquiries after truth, the knowledge of it, and the belief of it. The first and the last works of God at the Creation. Beautiful sentiment of one of the Grecian poets. Heaven upon earth. Truth in our dealings compared to gold and silver. The shame of being false and perfidious. The pretty saying of Montaigne. The highest expression of the wickedness of falsehood and perfidy.

WHAT is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would [1] not stay for an answer. Certainly there be that [2] delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief-affecting free will in thinking, as well as in acting; and though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing wits which are of the same veins, though there be not so

[1.] What, &c: Compare with John 18, 38: "Pilate saith unto him, what is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again among the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all." Does Bacon put a right construction upon

the incident here referred to?

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