The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded Part 11

They know that the days are coming when the light will enter their prison house, and flash in its dimmest recess; when the light they sought in vain, will be there to search out the secrets they are forbid. They know that the day is coming, when the disciple himself, all tutored in the art of their tradition, bringing with him the key of its delivery, shall be there to unlock those locked-up meanings, to spell out those anagrams, to read those hieroglyphics, to unwind with patient loving research to its minutest point, that text, that with such tools as the most watchful tyranny would give them, they will yet contrive to leave there. They know that their buried words are seeds, and though they lie long in the earth, they will yet spring up with their 'richer and bolder meanings,' and publish on every breeze, their boldest mystery.

For let not men of narrower natures fancy that such action is not proper to the larger one, and cannot be historical. For there are different _kinds_ of men, our _science_ of men tells us, and that is an unscientific judgment which omits 'the _particular addition_, that bounteous nature hath closed in each,'--her 'addition to the bill that writes them all alike.' For there is a kind of men 'whose minds are proportioned to that which may be dispatched at once, or within a short return of time, and there is another kind, whose minds are proportioned to that which begins afar off, and is to be won with length of pursuit,'--so the Coryphaeus of those choir that the latter kind compose, informs us, 'so that there may be fitly said to be a _longanimity_, which is commonly also ascribed to G.o.d as a magnanimity.'

And our English philosophers had to light what this one calls a new 'Lamp of Tradition,' before they could make sure of transmitting their new science, through such mediums as those that their time gave them; and a very gorgeous many-branched lamp it is, that the great English philosopher brings out from that 'secret school of living Learning and living Art' to which he secretly belongs, for the admiration of the professionally learned of his time, and a very l.u.s.trous one too, as it will yet prove to be, when once it enters the scholar's apprehension that it was ever meant be lighted, when once the little movement that turns on the dazzling jet is ordered.

For we have all been so taken up with the Baconian _Logic_ hitherto and its wonderful effects in the relief of the human estate, that the Baconian RHETORIC has all this time escaped our notice; and n.o.body appears to have suspected that there was anything in _that_ worth looking at; any more than they suspect that there is anything in some of those other divisions which the philosopher himself lays so much stress on his proposal for the Advancement of Learning,--in his proposal for the advancement of it into _all_ the fields of human activity. But we read this proposition still, as James the First was expected to read it, and all these departments which are brought into that general view in such a dry and formal and studiously scholastic manner, appear to be put there merely to fill up a s.p.a.ce; and because the general plan of this so erudite performance happened to include them.

For inasmuch as the real scope and main bearing of this proposition, though it is in fact _there_, is of course _not_ there, in any such form as to attract the particular attention of the monarch to whose eye the work is commended; and inasmuch as the new art of a scientific Rhetoric is already put to its most masterly use in reserving that main design, for such as may find themselves able to receive it, of course, the need of any such invention is not apparent on the surface of the work, and the real significance of this new doctrine of Art and its radical relation to the new science, is also reserved for that cla.s.s of readers who are able to adopt the rules of interpretation which the work itself lays down. Because the real applications of the New Logic could not yet be openly discussed, no one sees as yet, that there was, and had to be, a Rhetoric to match it.

For this author, who was not any less shrewd than the one whose methods we have just been observing a little, had also early discovered in the great personages of his time, a disposition to moderate his voice whenever he went to speak to them on matters of importance, in his natural key, for his voice too, was naturally loud, and high as he gives us to understand, though he '_could_ speak small like a woman'; he too had learned to take the tone _from the ear of him to whom he spake_, and he too had learned, that it was not enough merely to speak so as to make himself heard by those whom he wished to affect. He also had learned to speak according to the affair he had in hand, according to the purpose which he wished to accomplish. He also is of the opinion that different kinds of _audiences_ and different _times_, require different modes of speech, and though he found it necessary to compose his works in the style and language of his own time, he was confident that it was a language which would not remain in use for many ages; and he has therefore provided himself with another, more to his mind which he has taken pains to fold carefully within the other, and one which lie thinks will bear the wear and tear of those revolutions that he perceives to be imminent.

But in consequence of our persistent oversight of this Art of Tradition, on which he relies so much, (which is as fine an invention of his, as any other of his inventions which we find ourselves so much the better for), that appeal to 'the times that are farther off,' has not yet taken effect, and the audience for whom he chiefly laboured is still 'deferred.'

This so n.o.ble and benign art which he calls, with his own natural modesty and simplicity, the Art of _Tradition_, this art which grows so truly n.o.ble and worthy, so distinctively human, in his clear, scientific treatment of it,--in his scientific clearance of it from the wildnesses and spontaneities of accident, or the superfluities and trickery of an art without science,--that stops short of the ultimate, the human principle,--this so n.o.ble art of speech or tradition is, indeed, an art which this great teacher and leader of men will think it no scorn to labour: it is one on which, even such a teacher can find time to stop; it is one which even such a teacher can stop to build from the foundation upwards, he will not care how splendidly; it is one on which he will spend without stint, and think it gain to spend, the wealth of his invention.

But, at the same time, it is with him a _subordinate_ art. It has no worth or substance in itself; it borrows all its worth from that which masters and rigorously subdues it to its end. Here, too, we find ourselves coming down on all its old ceremonial and observance, from that new height which we found our foreign philosopher in such quiet possession of,--taking his way at a puff through poor Cicero's periods,--those periods which the old orator had taken so much pains with, and laughing at his pains:--but this English philosopher is more daring still, for it is he who disposes, at a word, without any comment, just in pa.s.sing merely,--from his practical stand-point,--of 'the flutes and trumpets of the Greeks,' like the other making nothing at all in his theory of criticism of _mere_ elegance, though it is the Gascon, it is true, who undertakes the more lively and extreme practical demonstrations of this theoretical contempt of it,--setting it at nought, and flying in the face of it,--writing in as loquacious and homely a style as he possibly can, just for the purpose for setting it at nought, though not without giving us a glimpse occasionally, of a faculty that would enable him to mince the matter as fine as another if he should see occasion--as, perhaps, he may. For he talks very emphatically about his _poetry_ here and there, and seems to intimate that he has a gift that way; and that he has, moreover, some works of value in that department of letters, which he is anxious to 'save up' for posterity, if he can. But here, it is the scholar, and not the loquacious old gentleman at all, who is giving us in his choicest, selectest, courtliest phrase, in his most stately and condensed style, _his_ views of this subject; but that which is noticeable is, that _the art_ in its fresh, new upspringing from the secret of life and nature, from the soul of _things_, the art and that which it springs from, is in these two so different forms _identical_.

Here, too, the point of its criticism and review is the same. 'Away with that eloquence that so enchants us with _its harmony_ that we should more study it than _things_'; but here the old Roman masters the philosopher, for a moment, and he puts in a scholarly parenthesis, 'unless you will affirm that of Cicero to be of so supreme perfection as to form _a body of itself_.'

But Hamlet, in his discourse with that wise reasoner, and unfortunate pract.i.tioner, who thought that brevity was the soul of wit, and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, puts it more briefly still.

_Polonius_. What do you read, my lord?

_Hamlet_. Words, words, words!

'More matter, and less art,' another says in that same treatise on art and speculation. Now inasmuch as this art and science derives all its distinction and l.u.s.tre from that new light on the human estate of which it was to be the vehicle, somebody must find the trick of it, so as to be able to bring out _that doctrine_ by its help, before we can be prepared to understand the real worth of this invention. It would be premature to undertake to set it forth fully, till that is accomplished. There must be a more elaborate exhibition of that science, before the art of its transmission can be fully treated; we cannot estimate it, till we see how it strikes to the root of the new doctrine, how it begins with its beginning, and reaches to its end: we cannot estimate it till we see its relation, its essential relation, to that new doctrine of the human nature, and that new doctrine of state, which spring from the doctrine of nature in general, which is _the_ doctrine, which is the beginning and the end of the new science.

We find here on the surface, as we find everywhere in this comprehensive treatise, much apparent parade of division and subdivision, and the author appears to lay much stress upon this, and seems disposed to pride himself upon his dexterity in chopping up the subject as finely as possible, and keeping the parts quite clear of one another; and sometimes, in his distributions, putting those points the farthest apart which are the most nearly related, though not so far, that they cannot 'look towards each other,' though it may be, as the other says, '_obliquely_.' He evidently depends very much on his arrangement, and seems, indeed, to be chiefly concerned about that, when he comes to the more critical parts of his subject. But it is to _the continuities_ which underlie these separations, to which he directs the attention of those to whom he speaks in earnest, and not in particular cases only. '_Generally_,' he says, '_let this be a rule_, that all part.i.tions of knowledge be accepted rather for LINES and VEINS, than for _sections_ and _separations_, and that _the continuance and entireness of knowledge_ be preserved. For the _contrary hereof_,' he says, 'is that which has made PARTICULAR SCIENCES BARREN, SHALLOW, and ERRONEOUS, while they have not been nourished and maintained from the _common_ fountain.' For this is the ONE SCIENCE, the deep, the true, the fruitful one, the fruitful because the ONE.

These lines, then, which he cautions us against regarding as divisions, which are brought in with such parade of scholasticism, with such a profound appearance of artifice, will always be found by those who have leisure to go below the surface, to be but the indications of those natural articulations and branches into which the subject divides and breaks itself, and the conducting lines to that trunk and heart of sciences, that common fountain from which all this new vitality, this sudden up-springing and new blossoming of learning proceeds, that fountain in which its flowers, as well as its fruits, and its thick leaves are nourished.

Here in this Art of Tradition, which comprehends the whole subject of the human speech from the new ground of the common nature in man--that _double_ nature which tends to isolation on the one hand, and which makes him a part and a member of society on the other; we find it treated, first, as a means by which men come simply to a common understanding with each other, by which that _common ground_, that ground of _community_, and _communication_, and _ident.i.ty_, which a common _understanding_ in this kind makes, can be best reached; and next we find it treated as a means by which _more than the understanding_ shall be reached, by which _the sentiment_, the _common sentiment_, which also belongs to the larger nature, shall be strengthened and developed,--by which the counteracting and partial sentiments shall be put in their place, and the _will_ compelled; whereby that common human form, which in its perfection is the object of the human love and reverence shall be scientifically developed; by which the particular form with its diseases shall be artistically disciplined and treated. This Art of Tradition concerns, first, the understanding; and secondly, the affections and the will. As man is const.i.tuted, it is not enough to convince his understanding.

First, then, it is 'the organ' and 'method' of tradition; and next, it is what he calls the _ill.u.s.tration_ of it. First, the object is, to bring truth to the understanding in as clear and un.o.bstructed a manner as the previous condition--as the diseases and pre-occupations of the mind addressed will admit of, and next to bring all the other helps and arts by which the sentiments are touched and the will mastered.

First, he will speak true, or as true as they will let him; but it is not enough to speak true. He must be able to speak sharply too, perhaps--or humorously, or touchingly, or melodiously, or overwhelmingly, with words that burn. It is not enough, perhaps, to reach the ear of his auditor: 'peradventure' he too 'will also pierce it.' It is not enough to draw diagrams in chalk on a black board in this kind of mathematics, where the will and the affections are the pupils, and standing ready to defy axioms, prepared at any moment to demonstrate practically, that the part is greater than the whole, and face down the universe with it, 'murdering impossibility to make what cannot be, slight work.' It is not enough to have a tradition that is _clear_, or as clear a one as will pa.s.s muster with the government and with the preconceptions of the people themselves. He must have a pictured one--a pictorial, an illuminated one--a beautiful one,--he must have what he calls an ILl.u.s.tRATED TRADITION.

'Why not,' he says. He runs his eye over the human instrumentalities, and this art which we call _art--par excellence_, which he sees setting up for itself, or ministering to ignorance and error, and feeding the diseased affections with 'the sweet that is their poison,'

he seizes on at once, in behalf of his science, and declares that it is her lawful property, 'her slave, born in her house,' and fit for nothing in the world but to minister to her; and what is more, he suits the action to the word--he brings the truant home, and reforms her, and sets her about her proper business. That is what he proposes to have done in his theory of art, and it is what he tells us he has done himself; and he has: there is no mistake about it. That is what he means when he talks about his ill.u.s.trated tradition of science--his ill.u.s.trated tradition of the science of HUMAN NATURE and its _differences_, _original_ and _acquired_, and the _diseases_ to which it is liable, and the artificial growths which appertain to it. It is very curious, that no one has seen this tradition--this ill.u.s.trated tradition, or anything else, indeed, that was at all worthy of this new interpreter of mysteries, who goes about to this day as the inventor of a method which he was not able himself to put to any practical use; an inventor who was obliged to leave his machine for men of a more quick and subtle genius, or to men of a more practical turn of mind to manage, men who had a closer acquaintance with nature.

That which is first to be noted in looking carefully at this draught of a new Art of Tradition which the plan of the Advancement of Learning includes,--that which the careful reader cannot fail to note, is the fact, that throughout all this most complete and radical exhibition of the subject (for brief and casual as that exhibition seems on the surface, the science and art from its root to its outermost branches, is there)--throughout all this exhibition, under all the superficial divisions and subdivisions of the subject, it is still the method of PROGRESSION which is set forth here: under all these divisions, there is still one point made; it is still the Art of a Tradition which is designed to reserve the _secrets_ of science, and the n.o.bler arts of it, for the minds and ages that are able to receive them. This new art of tradition, with its new organs and methods, and its living and beautiful ill.u.s.tration, when once we look through the network of it to the unity within, this new rhetoric of science, is in fact the instrument which the philosopher would subst.i.tute, if he could, for those more cruel weapons which the men of his time were ready to take in hand; and it is the instrument with which he would forestall those yet more fearful political convulsions that already seemed to his eye to threaten from afar the social structures of Christendom; it is the beautiful and bloodless instrumentality whereby the mind of the world is to be wrenched insensibly from its old place without 'breaking all.'

For neither does this author, any more than that other, who has been quoted here on this point, think it wise for the philosopher to rush madly out of his study with his EUREKA, and bawl to the first pa.s.ser by in scientific terms the last result of his science, 'lording it over his ignorance' with what can be to him only a _magisterial_ announcement. For what else but that can it be, for instance, to tell the poor peasant, on his way to market, with his b.u.t.ter and eggs in his basket, planting his feet on the firm earth without any qualms or misgivings, and measuring his day by the sun's great toil and rejoicing race in heaven, what but this same magisterial teaching is it, to stop him, and tell him to his bewildered face that the sun never rises or sets, and that the earth is but a revolving ball?

Instead of giving him a truth you have given him a falsehood. You have brought him a truth out of a sphere with which he is not conversant, which he cannot ascend to--whose truths he cannot translate into his own, without jarring all. Either you have told him what must be to him a lie, or you have upset all his little world of beliefs with your magisterial doctrine, and confounded and troubled him to no purpose.

But the Method of Progression, as set forth by Lord Bacon, requires that the new scientific truth shall be, not nakedly and flatly, but artistically exhibited; because, as he tells us, 'the great labour is with the people, and this people who knoweth not the law are cursed.'

He will not have it exhibited in bare propositions, but translated into the people's dialect. He would not begin if he could--if there were no political or social restriction to forbid it--by overthrowing on all points the popular belief, or wherever it differs from the scientific conclusion. It is a very different kind of philosophy that proceeds in that manner. This is one which comprehends and respects all actualities. The popular belief, even to its least absurdity 'is something more than nothing in nature'; and the popular belief with all its admixture of error, is better than the half-truths of a misunderstood, untranslated science; better than these would be in its place. That truth of nature which it contains for those who are able to receive it, and live by it, you would destroy for them, if you should attempt to make them read it _prematurely_, in your language.

Any kind of organism which by means of those adjustments and compensations, with which nature is always ready to help out anything really hers,--any organism that is capable of serving as the means of an historical social continuance, is already some gain on chaos and social dissolution; and is, perhaps, better than a series of philosophical experiments. The difficulty is not to overthrow the popular errors, but to get something better in their place, he tells us; and that there are men who have succeeded in the first attempt, and very signally failed in the second. Beautiful and vigorous unions grew up under the cla.s.sic mythologies, that dissolved and went down for ever, in the sunshine of the cla.s.sic philosophies. For there were more things in heaven and earth than were included in those last, or dreamt of in them.

In your expurgation, of the popular errors, you must be sure that the truth they contain, is in some form as strongly, as _effectively_ composed in your text, or the popular error is truer and better than the truth with which you would replace it. This is a master who will have no other kind of teaching in his school. His scholars must go so far in their learning as to be able to come back to this popular belief, and account for it and understand it; they must be as wise as the peasant again, and be able to start with him, from his starting point, before they can get any diploma in this School of _Advancement_, or leave to practise in it. But when the old is already ruinous and decaying, and oppressing and keeping back the new,--when the vitality is gone out of it, and it has become deadly instead, when the new is struggling for new forms, the man of science though never so conservative from inclination and principle, will not be wanting to himself and to the state in this emergency. He 'loves the _fundamental part of state_ more' than in _such_ a crisis he will 'doubt the change of it,' and will not 'fear to jump a body with a dangerous physic, that's sure of death without it.'

First of all then, the condition of this lamp of tradition, that is to burn on for ages, is, that it shall be able to adapt itself to the successive stages of the advancement it lights. It is the inevitable condition of this school which begins with the present, which begins with the people, which descends to the lowest stage of the contemporary popular belief, and takes in the many-headed monster himself, without any tr.i.m.m.i.n.g at all, for its audience,--it is the first condition of such a school, conducted by a man of science, that it shall have its proper grades of courts and platforms, its selecter and selectest audiences. There must be landing places in the ascent, points of rendezvous agreed on, where 'the delicate collateral sounds'

are heard, which only those who ascend can hear. There is no jar,--there is no forced advancement in this school; there is no upward step for any, who have not first been taught to see it, who have not, indeed, already taken it. For it is an artist's school, and not a pedant's, or a vague speculator's, who knows not how to converge his speculation, even upon his mode of tradition.

The founders of this school trust much in their general plan of instruction and relief, to the gradual advancement of a common intelligence, by means of a scientific, but _concealed_ historical teaching. They will teach their lower cla.s.ses, their 'beginners,' as great nature teaches--insensibly;--as great nature teaches--in the concrete, 'in easy instances.' For the secret of her method is that which they have studied; that is the learning which they have mastered; the spirit of it, which is the poet's gift, the quickest, subtlest, most searching, most a.n.a.lytic, most synthetic spirit of it, is that with which great nature has endowed them. They will speak, as they tell us, as the masters always have spoken from of old to them who are without; they will 'open their mouths in parables,' they will 'utter their dark sayings on the harp.' They know that men are already prepared by nature's own instruction, to feel in a fact,--to receive in historical representations--truths which would startle them in the abstract, truths which they are not yet prepared to disengage from the historical combinations in which they receive them; though with every repet.i.tion, and especially with the pointed, selected, prolonged repet.i.tion of the teacher, where the 'ILl.u.s.tRIOUS INSTANCE' is selected and cleared of its extraneous incident, and made to enter the mind alone, and pierce it with its principle,--with every such repet.i.tion, the step to that generalization and axiom becomes insensibly shorter and more easy. They know that men are already wiser than their teachers, in some--in many things; that they have all of them a great stock of incommunicative wisdom which all their teachers have not been able to make them give up, which they never will give up, till the strong man, who is stronger, enters with his larger learning out of the same book, with his mightier weapons out of the same armory, and spoils their goods, or makes them old and worthless, by the side of the new, resplendent, magic wealth he brings with him.

The new philosophy of nature has truths to teach which nature herself has already been teaching all men, with more or less effect, miscellaneously, and at odd hours, ever since they were born; and this philosopher gives a large place in his history, to that vulgar, practical human wisdom, which all the books till his time had been of too high a strain to glance at. But 'art is a second nature, and imitateth that dextrously and compendiously, which nature performs by ambages and length of time.' The scientific interpreter of nature will select, and unite, and teach continuously, and pointedly, in grand, ideal, representative fact, in 'prerogative instances,' that which nature has but faintly and unconsciously impressed with her method; for he has a scientific organum, and what is more,--a great deal more, a thousand times more,--he has the scientific genius that invented it.

His soul is a Novum Organum--his mind is a table of rejections that sifts the historic ma.s.ses, and brings out the instances that are to his purpose, the bright, bold instances that flame forth the doubtful truth, that tell their own story and need no interpreter, the high ideal instances that talk in verse because it is their native tongue and they can no other. He has found,--or rather nature lent it to him, the universal historic solvent, and the dull, formless, miscellaneous facts of the common human experience, spring up in magic orders, in beautiful, transparent, scientific continuities, as they arrange themselves by the laws of his thinking.

For the truth is, and it must be said here, and not here only, but everywhere, wherever there is a chance to say it,--that Novum Organum was not made to examine the legs of spiders with, or the toes of 'the grandfather-long-legs,' or any of their kindred; though of course it is susceptible of such an application, when it falls into the hands of persons whose genius inclines them in those directions; and it is a use, that the inventor would not have disdained to put it to himself, if he had had time, and if his attention had not been so much distracted by the habits and history of that 'n.o.bler kind of vermin,'

which he found feeding on the human weal in his time, and eating out the heart of it. This man was not a fool, but a man. He was a naturalist indeed, of the newest and highest style, but that did not hinder his being a man at the same time. He and his company were the first that set the example of going, deliberately, and on principle, out of the human nature for knowledge; but it was that they might re-return with better axioms for the culture, and n.o.bility, and sway of _that form_, which, 'though it be but a part in the continent of nature,' is as this one openly declares, '_the end_ and _term_ of NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, _in the intention_ of MAN.' His science included the humblest and least agreeable of nature's performances; his Novum Organum was able to take up the smallest conceivable atom of existence, whether animate or not, and make a study of it. He has no disrespect for caterpillars or any kind of worm or insect; but he is not a caterpillar himself, or an insect of any kind, or a Saurian, or an Icthyosaurian, but a man; and it was for the sake of building up from a new basis a practical doctrine of human life, that he invented that instrument, and put so much fine work upon it.

With his 'PREROGATIVE INSTANCES,' he will build height after height, the solid, but imperceptible stair-way to his summit of knowledges, so that men shall tread its utmost floors without knowing what heights they are--even as they tread great nature's own solidities, without inquiring her secret.

The shrewd unlearned man of practice shall take that great book of nature, that ill.u.s.trated digest of it, on his knees, to while away his idle hours with, in rich pastime, and smile to see there, all written out, that which he faintly knew, and never knew that he knew before; he will find there in sharp points, in acc.u.mulations, and percussions, that which his own experience has at length wearily, dimly, worked and worn into him. It is his own experience, exalted indeed, and glorified, but it is that which beckons him on to that which is yet beyond it; he shall read on, and smile, and laugh, and weep, and wonder at the power; but never dream that it is science, the new science--the science of nature--the product of the new organum of it applied to _human_ nature, and _human_ life. The abstract statement of that which the concrete exhibition veils, is indeed always there, though it lie never so close, in never so snug a corner; but it is there so artistically environed, that the reader who is not ready for it, who has not learned to disengage the principle from the instance, who has had no hint of an _ill.u.s.trated tradition_ in it, will never see it; or if he sees it, he will think it is there by accident, or inspiration, and pa.s.s on.

Here, in this open treatise upon the art of delivering and teaching of knowledge, the author lays down, in the most impressive terms, the necessity of a style which shall serve as a _veil_ of tradition, imperceptible or impenetrable to the uninitiated, and admitting 'only such as have by the help of a master, attained to the interpretation of dark sayings, or are able by their own genius to enter within the veil'; and after having distributed under many heads, the secret of this method of scientific communication, he a.s.serts distinctly that there is no other mode of dealing with the popular belief and preconception, but the one just described--that same method which the teachers of the people have always instinctively adopted, whenever that which was new and contrary to the received doctrines, was to be communicated. 'For a man of judgment,' he says, 'must, of course, perceive, that there should be a difference in the teaching and delivery of knowledge, according to the _presuppositions, which he finds infused and impressed upon the mind of the learner_. For _that which is new and foreign from opinions received_, is to be delivered in ANOTHER FORM, from that which is _agreeable and familiar_. And, therefore, Aristotle, when he says to Democritus, "if we shall indeed _dispute_ and _not_ follow after _similitudes_," as if he would tax Democritus with being too full of _comparisons_, where he thought to reprove, really commended him.' There is no use in disputing in such a case, he thinks. 'For those whose doctrines are already _seated_ in popular opinion, have only to dispute or prove; but those whose doctrines are beyond the popular opinions, have a _double labour_; the one to make themselves conceived, and the other to prove and demonstrate; so that it is of _necessity with them to have recourse to similitudes_ AND TRANSLATIONS _to express themselves_. And, therefore, in the _infancy of learning_, and in rude times, when those conceptions which are now trivial, were then new, _the world was full of parables and similitudes_, for else would men either have pa.s.sed over _without mark, or else_ REJECTED FOR PARADOXES, that which was offered _before they had understood or judged_. So in divine learning, we see how frequent parables and tropes are, for it _is a rule in the doctrine of delivery, that every science_ which is _not consonant with presuppositions and prejudices_, must pray in aid of _similes_ and _allusions_.'

The true master of the art of teaching will vary his method too, he tells us according to the _subject_ which he handles,--and the reader should note particularly the ill.u.s.tration of this position, the instance of this general necessity, which the author selects for the sake of pointing his meaning here, for it is here--precisely here--that we begin to touch the heart of that new method which the new science itself prescribed,--'the true teacher will vary his method according to the subject which he handles,' for there is a great difference in the delivery of _mathematics_, which are the most abstracted of sciences, and POLICY, which is the _most immersed_, and the opinion that 'uniformity of method, in multiformity of matter, is necessary,' has proved very hurtful to learning, for it tends to reduce learning to certain _empty_ and _barren_--note it,--_barren_-- 'generalities;'--(so important is the method as _that_; that it makes the difference between the fruitful and the barren, between the old and the new) 'being but the very _husks_ and _sh.e.l.ls_ of sciences, all the _kernel_ being forced out and expressed with the torture and press of the method; and, _therefore_, as I did allow well of _particular topics_ for invention'--_therefore_--his science requires him to go into particulars, and as the necessary consequence of that, it requires freedom--_'therefore'_--as I did allow well of particular _topics of invention, 'so_ do I allow likewise of _particular methods of tradition_.' Elsewhere,--in his Novum Organum--he quotes the scientific outlines and divisions of this very book, he quotes the very draught and outline of the new human science, which is the princ.i.p.al thing in it, and tells us plainly that he is perfectly aware that those new divisions, those essential differences, those true and radical forms in nature, which he has introduced here, in his doctrine of _human_ nature, will have no practical effect at all, as they are exhibited _here_; because they _are_ exhibited in this method which he is here criticising, that is, in empty and barren abstractions,-- because it was impossible for him to produce here anything but the _husks_ and _sh.e.l.ls_ of that princ.i.p.al science, all the kernel being forced out and expulsed with the torture and press of the method.

But, at the same time, he gives us to understand, that these same sh.e.l.ls and husks may be found in another place, with the kernels and _nuts_ in them, and that he has not taken so much pains to let us see in so many places, what new forms of delivery the new philosophy will require, merely for the sake of letting us see, at the same time, that when it came to _practice_, he himself stood by the old ones, and contented himself with barren abstractions, and generalities, the husks and sh.e.l.ls of sciences, instead of aiming at particulars, and availing himself of these '_particular methods of tradition_.'

He takes also this occasion to recommend a method which was found extremely serviceable at that time; namely, the method of teaching by aphorism, 'without any _show_ of an art or method; not merely because it tries the author, since aphorisms being made out of the _pith_ and _heart_ of sciences, _no man can write them who is not sound and grounded_,' who has not a system with its trunk and root, though he makes no show of it, but buries it and shows you here and there the points on the surface that are apt to look as if they had some underlying connection--not only because it tries the author, _but because they point to action_; for particulars being dispersed, do best agree with dispersed directions; and, moreover, aphorisms representing a BROKEN KNOWLEDGE, invite men _to inquire farther_, whereas methods, _carrying the show of a total_, do secure men as _if they were at farthest_, and it is the _advancement_ of learning that he is proposing.

He suggests again, distinctly here, the rule he so often claims he has himself put in practice, elsewhere, that the use of CONFUTATION in the delivery of science, ought to be very sparing; and to serve to remove strong _preoccupations_ and _prejudgments_, and not to minister and excite disputations and doubts. For he says in another place, 'As Alexander Borgia was wont to say of the expedition of the French for Naples, that they came with _chalk_ in their hands, _to mark up their lodgings_, and not with _weapons to fight_, so _I_ like better that entry of truth which cometh peaceably, with chalk to mark up those minds, which are capable to lodge and harbour it, than that which cometh with pugnacity and contention.'

He alludes here too, in pa.s.sing, to some other distinctions of method, which are already received, that of a.n.a.lYSIS and _synthesis_, or CONSt.i.tUTION, that of _concealment_, or CRYPTIC, which he says 'he allows well of, though he has himself stood upon those which are least handled and observed.' He brings out his doctrine of the necessity of a method which shall include _particulars_ for _practical_ purposes also, under another head: here it is the limit of _rules_,--the propositions or precepts of _arts_ that he speaks of, and the _degree_ of particularity which these precepts ought to descend to. 'For every knowledge,' he says, 'may be fitly said to have a lat.i.tude and longitude, accounting the lat.i.tude towards _other sciences_' (for there are rules and propositions of such lat.i.tude as to include all arts, all sciences)--'and the longitude towards action, that is, from the greatest generality, to the most particular precept: and as to the degree of particularity to which a knowledge should descend,' though something must, of course, be left in all departments to the discretion of the pract.i.tioner, he thinks it is a question which will bear looking into in a general way; and that it might be possible to have rules in all departments, which would limit very much the necessity of individual experiment, and not leave us so much at the mercy of individual discretion in the most serious matters.

Philosophy, as he finds it, does not appear to be very helpful to practice, on account of its keeping to those general propositions, so much, as well as on some other accounts, and has fallen into bad repute, it seems, among men who find it necessary to make, without science, as they best can, rules of some sort;--rules that are capable of dealing with that quality in particulars which is apt to be called _obstinacy_ in this aspect of it. 'For we see remote and superficial generalities do but offer knowledge to scorn of practical men, and are no more aiding to practice, than an Ortelius's _universal map_ is to direct the way between London and York.' And what is this itself but a universal map, this map of the advancement of learning?

All this doctrine of the tradition of sciences, he produces under the head of the _method_ of their tradition, but in speaking of the _organ_ of it, he treats it _exclusively_ as the medium of tradition for _those sciences which require_ CONCEALMENT, or admit only of a suggestive exhibition. And as he makes, too, the claim that he has himself given practical proof, in pa.s.sing, of his proficiency in this art, and appeals to the skilful for the truth of this statement, the pa.s.sage, at least, in which this a.s.sertion is made, will be likely to repay the inquiry which it invites.

He begins by drawing our attention to the fact, that words are not the only representatives of things, and he says 'this is not an inconsiderable thing, _for while we are treating of the coin of intellectual_ matters, _it is_ pertinent to observe, that as money may be made of other materials besides gold and silver, so other marks of things may be invented besides words and letters.' And by way of ill.u.s.trating the advantages of such a means of tradition, under certain disadvantages of position, he adduces as much in point, the case of Periander, who being consulted how to preserve a tyranny _newly usurped_, bid the messenger _attend_ and _report what he saw him do_, and went into his garden and _topped all the highest flowers_; signifying that it consisted in the cutting off and keeping low of the n.o.bility and grandees. And thus other apparently trivial, purely purposeless and sportive actions, might have a traditionary character of no small consequence, if the messenger were only given to understand beforehand, that the acts thus performed were axiomatical, pointing to rules of practice, that the forms were representative forms, whose '_real_' exhibition of the particular natures in question, was much more vivid and effective, much more memorable as well as _safe_, than any abstract statement of that philosophic truth, which is the truth of direction, could be.

As to the '_accidents_ of words, which are measure, sound, and elevation of accent, and the sweetness and harshness of them,' even here the new science suggests a new rule, which is not without a remarkable relation to _that 'particular method of tradition_,' which the author tells us in another place, some parts of his new science required. 'This subject,' he says, 'involves some curious observations in rhetoric, but chiefly POESY, as we consider it in respect of the verse, and _not of the argument_; wherein, though men in learned tongues do tie themselves to _the ancient measures_, yet in modern languages it seemeth to me as free to make _new measures of verses as of dances_.' The spirit of the new philosophy had a chance to speak out there for once, without intending, of course, to transcend that particular limit just laid down, namely, the measure of _verses_, and with that literal limitation, to the form of the verse, the remark is sufficiently suggestive; for he brings out from it at the next step, in the way of formula, the new principle, the new Shaksperian principle of rhetoric: _In these things_ the sense is better judge than the art. And of the servile expressing antiquity in an unlike and an unfit subject, it is well said:--'_Quod tempore antiquum videtur, id incongruitate est maxime novum_.''

But when he comes to speak specifically of _writing_ as a means of tradition, he confines his remarks to that particular kind of writing, which is agreed on betwixt particular persons, and called by the name of _cipher_, giving excellent reasons for this proceeding, impertinent as it may seem, to those who think that his only object is to make out a list and 'muster-roll of the arts and sciences';--stopping to tell us plainly that he knows what he is about, and that he has not brought in '_these private and retired arts_,' with so much stress, and under so many heads, in connection with 'the princ.i.p.al and supreme sciences,' and _the mode of their tradition_, without having some occasion for it.

'Ciphers are commonly in letters, or alphabets, but _may be_ in words,' he says, proceeding to enumerate the different kinds, and furnishing on the spot, some pretty specimens of what may be done in the way of that kind which he calls 'doubles,' a kind which he is particularly fond of; one hears again the echo of those delicate, collateral sounds, which our friend, over the mountains, warned us of, declining to say any more about them in that place. In the later edition, he takes occasion to say, in this connection, 'that as writing in the received manner no way obstructs the _manner of p.r.o.nunciation_, but leaves that _free_, an innovation in it is of no purpose.' And if a cipher be the proper name for a private method of writing, agreed on betwixt particular persons, it is certainly the name for the method which he proposes to adopt in _his_ tradition of the princ.i.p.al sciences; as he takes occasion to inform those whom it may concern, in an early portion of the work, and when he is occupied in the critical task of putting down some of the primary terms. 'I doubt not,' he says, by way of explanation, 'but it will easily appear to men of judgment, that in _this_ and _other particulars_, wheresoever _my conception and notion may differ from the ancient, I am studious to keep the ancient terms_.' Surely there is no want of frankness here, so far as the men of judgment are concerned at least.

And after condemning those innovators who have taken a different course, he says again, 'But to me on the other side that do desire as much as lieth in _my pen_, to ground a sociable intercourse between antiquity and _proficience_, it seemeth best to keep way with antiquity _usque ad aras_; and therefore to _retain the ancient_ TERMS, though I sometimes alter the _uses and definitions_, according to the moderate proceeding in civil government, where, although there be some alteration, yet that holdeth which Tacitus _wisely_ noteth 'eadem magistratuum vocabula.' Surely that is plain enough, especially if one has time to take into account the force and historic reach of that last ill.u.s.tration, 'eadem magistratuum vocabula.'

In the later and enlarged edition of his work, he lays much stress upon the point that the cipher 'should be free from suspicion,' for he says, 'if a letter should come into the hands of such as have a power over the writer or receiver, though the cipher itself be trusty and impossible to decipher, it is still subject to _examination_ and _question_, and (as he says himself), 'to _avoid all suspicion_,' he introduces there a cipher in _letters_, which he invented in his youth in Paris, 'having the highest perfection of a cipher, that of signifying _omnia per omnia_;' and for the same reason perhaps, that of 'avoiding all suspicion,' he quite omits there that very remarkable pa.s.sage in the earlier work, in which he treats it as a medium of _tradition_, and takes pains to intimate his reasons for producing it in that connection, _with the princ.i.p.al and supreme sciences_. If it was, indeed, any object with him to avoid suspicion, and recent disclosures had then, perhaps, tended to sharpen somewhat the contemporary criticism; he _did well_, unquestionably, to omit that pa.s.sage. But at the time when _that_ was written, he appears to be chiefly inclined to notice the remarkable facilities, which this style offers to an inventive genius. For he says, 'in regard of the rawness and unskilfulness of _the hands through which they pa.s.s_, the greatest matters, are sometimes carried in the _weakest ciphers_.' And that there may be no difficulty or mistake as to the reading of that pa.s.sage, he immediately adds, 'In the enumeration of these private and retired arts, it may be thought I _seek to make a great muster-roll of sciences_, naming them for _show_ and _ostentation_, and _to little other purpose_. But'--note it--'But, let those which are _skilful in them judge, whether I bring them in only for appearance_, or whether, in that which I speak of them, though in few words, there be not _some seed of proficience_. And this must be remembered, that as there be many of great account in their countries and provinces, which, when they come up to the _seat of the estate_, are but of mean rank, and scarcely regarded; so these arts, ("these private and retired arts,") being here placed _with the princ.i.p.al and supreme sciences, seem_ petty things, YET TO SUCH AS HAVE CHOSEN THEM TO SPEND THEIR LABOURS AND STUDIES IN THEM, THEY SEEM GREAT MATTERS. ("Let those which are skilful in them, judge (after that) whether I bring them in only for appearance" or to _little_ other purpose).'

That apology would seem sufficient, but we must know what these labours and studies are, before we can perceive the _depth_ of it. And if we have the patience to follow him but a step or two further, we shall find ourselves in the way of some very direct and accurate information, as to that. For we are coming now, in the order of the work we quote from, to that very part, which contains the point of all these labours and studies, the _end_ of them,--that part to which the science of nature in general, and the secret of this art of tradition, was a necessary _introduction_. [For this Art of Tradition makes the link between the new Logic and the application of it to _Human_ Nature and Human Life.]

Thus far, this art has been treated as a means of simply _transferring_ knowledge, in such forms as the conditions of the Advancement of Learning prescribe,--forms adapted to the different stages of mental advancement, commencing with the lowest range of the common opinion in his time,--starting with the contemporary opinions of the majority, and reserving 'the secrets of knowledge,' for such as are able to receive them. Thus far, it is the Method, and the Organ of the tradition of which he has spoken. But it is when he comes to speak of what he calls the _Ill.u.s.tration_ of it, that the convergency of his design begins to be laid open to us, for this work is not what it may seem on the surface, as he takes pains to intimate to us--a 'mere muster-roll of sciences.'

It is when he comes to tell us that he will have his 'truth in beauty dyed,' that he does not propose to have the new learning left in the form of argument and logic, or in the form of bare scientific fact, that he does not mean to appeal with it to the _reason_ only; that he will have it in a form in which it will be able to attract and allure men, and make them in love with it, a form in which it will be able to force its way into the will and the affections, and make a lodgement in the hearts of men, long ere it is able to reach the judgment;--it is not till he begins to bring out here, his new doctrine of the true end of rhetoric, and the use to which it ought to be put in subordination to science, that we begin to perceive the significance of the arrangement which brings this theory of an Ill.u.s.trated Art of Tradition into immediate connection with the new science of human nature and human life which the Author is about to const.i.tute,--so as to serve as an introduction to it--the arrangement which interposes this art of Tradition, between the New Logic and its application to Human Nature and Human Life--to POLICY and MORALITY.

He will not consent to have this so _powerful_ engine of popular influence, which the aesthetic art seems, to his eye, to offer, left out, in his scheme of scientific instrumentalities: he will not pa.s.s it by scornfully, as some other philosophers have done, treating it merely as a voluptuary art. He will have of it, something which shall differ, not in degree only, but in kind, from the art of the confectioner.

He begins by stating frankly his reasons for making so much of it in this grave treatise, which is what it professes to be, a treatise on Learning and its Advancement. 'For although,' he says, 'in true value, it is inferior to _wisdom_, as it is said by G.o.d to Moses, when he disabled himself for want of this faculty, "Aaron shall be thy _speaker_, and thou shalt be to him as G.o.d;" _yet with people_ it is the more _mighty_, and it is just that which is mighty with the people--which he tells us in another place--is wanting. "For this people who knoweth not _the law_ are cursed."' But here he continues, 'for so Solomon saith, "Sapiens corde appellabitur prudens, sed dulcis eloquio majora reperiet;" signifying that profoundness of wisdom will help a man to a name or admiration,'--(it is something more than that which he is proposing as _his_ end)--'but that it is eloquence--which prevails in _active life_;' so that the very movement which brought philosophy down to earth, and put her upon reforming the practical life of men, was the movement which led her to a.s.sume, not instinctively, only, but by theory, and on principle, this new and beautiful apparel, this deep disguise of pleasure. She comes into the court with her case, and claims that this Art, which has been treated hitherto as if it had some independent rights and laws of its own, is properly a subordinate of hers; a chattel gone astray, and setting up for itself as an art voluptuary.

Works on rhetorics are not wanting, the author reports. Antiquity has laboured much in this field. Notwithstanding, he says, there is something to be done here too, and the Elizabethan aesthetics must be begun also in the _prima philosophia_. 'Notwithstanding,' he continues, 'to stir the earth a little about the _roots_ of this science, as we have done of the rest; the duty and office of Rhetoric is to apply _reason to imagination for the better moving of_ THE WILL; for we see reason is disturbed in the administration of the will by three means; by sophism, which pertains to logic; by imagination or impression, which pertains to rhetoric; and by pa.s.sion or affection, which pertains to morality.' So in this negotiation within ourselves, men are _undermined_ by inconsequences, _solicited and importuned_ by impressions and observations, and _transported_ by _pa.s.sions_. Neither is the nature of man so unfortunately built, as that these _powers and arts_ should have force to _disturb_ reason and not to _establish_ and _advance_ it. For the end of logic is to teach a form of logic to secure reason, not to entrap it. The end of morality is to procure the affections to obey reason, and not to invade it. The _end_ of rhetoric is to _fill the imagination_ to second reason, and not to _oppress_ it. For these abuses of arts come in but _ex obliquo_ for caution.