tion in small things as in great, points out how the servants refused with amused contempt the offer of gifts of money from the strange travellers on whom they were directed to wait; the servants deemed it (such was their disinterested and virtuous faith in logic) dishonour to be twice paid for their labours by their employers and by their employers' guests. The imcollege of aginary The customs of the people of this unknown island are charmingly described, and ultimately the travellers are introduced to the chief and predominating feature of the island, a great college of science, founded by an ancient ruler, and called Salomon's house'the noblest foundation that ever was upon the earth, and the lantern of this kingdom.' science. The work of the college. The rest of the work describes the constitution of this great foundation for the finding out the true nature of all things.' The end of this college of science is to reach the knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things, and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire to the effecting of all things possible.' That is the motto of the great temple. There is much that is fantastic in the sequel, but it illustrates Bacon's dearest aspirations, and his anticipations of what science might, if effort were fittingly organised, ultimately accomplish. There are caves sunk six hundred fathoms deep, in which 'refrigerations and conservations of bodies' are effected, and new metals artificially contrived. There are turrets half a mile high-in one case erected on a mountain three miles highfor purposes of meteorological observation. There is a chamber of health, where the atmosphere is modulated artificially with a view to adapting it to cure various diseases. In the gardens, new flowers and fruits are brought into being by dint of grafting and inoculation. Vivisection is practised on beasts and birds, so that opportunities may be at hand to test the effects of poison and new operations in surgery, and to widen the knowledge of physiology; while breeding experiments produce new and useful species of animals. Optics in all its branches is studied practically in the laboratories, called perspective-houses. Finally, there is an establishment where tricks that deceive the senses, like feats of juggling, or spiritualistic manifestations, or ghostly apparitions, are practised to the highest perfection, and then explained to serious students who go out into the world, and by their instruction prevent the simple-minded from being deceived by quacks and impostors. The Fellows of the college. The leading men of the island, the aristocracy, consist of a great hierarchy of fellows, or endowed students, of the House of Science. Each rank exercises different functions. Some, called 'the merchants of light, travel to collect information. Others at home compile knowledge from books. Others codify the experiments of their colleagues. Some of the students devote themselves to applying the discoveries of theoretical science to mechanical inventions. Others extract, through the general work of the college, philosophic generalisations. Religion sheds its light on the foundation; and the father, or chief ruler, of the house is represented as abounding in pious fervour. All the students are, indeed, described as philanthropists seeking inspiration from God. Respect for great discoverers of new truths or of new applications of science was one of the principles of Bacon's great scheme of a Temple of Science. For every invention of value a statue to the inventor was at once erected in the House, and a liberal and honourable reward was given him. The scheme of this great imaginary institution is Bacon's final message to mankind. His college of science was 8 design, he said, fit for a mighty prince to execute. He felt Bacon's that if such a design had been executed in his day, he himself would have had the opportunty which he lacked of separating himself from sordid and sophisticated society, from evil temptations which he had not the moral courage to resist, of realising his youthful ambition. aspiration. History would then have known him exclusively as a benefactor of the human race, a priest of science, who consecrated every moment of his life to searching into the secrets of nature for the benefit of his fellow-men. But when Prospects of realising ideal. Bacon's Bacon's idea has not yet been realised. Whether a temple of science on the scale that Bacon imagined it will ever come into existence remains to be seen. I read and hear-and I have often heard of them since I have been in the United States of the high intellectual and scientific aspirations that are alive in this country, when I hear of the readiness with which men of material wealth are prepared to devote large parts of their fortunes to furthering high intellectual and scientific aspirations, the hope cannot be wanting that Bacon's great ideal Temple of Science may achieve existence in reality within the confines of the Republic of the United States. Bacon was well alive to the means whereby a nation's intellectual prestige could best be sustained. In this illuminating tractate of his, The New Atlantis, he argued in effect that it was incumbent on a nation to apply a substantial part of its material resources to the equipment of scientific work and exploration-a substantial part of its resources which should grow greater and greater with the progress of time and of population, with the increasing complexity of knowledge. Such application of material resources, in Bacon's view, was the surest guarantee of national glory and prosperity. This is perhaps at the moment the most serious lesson that Bacon's writings teach us. VII SHAKESPEARE'S CAREER . Princes sit like stars about his throne, None that beheld him, but like lesser lights Pericles, II., iii., 39–42. The [BIBLIOGRAPHY.-The main facts are recorded in the present The docu material. I The obscurity with which Shakespeare's biography has been long credited is greatly exaggerated. The mere biographical information accessible is far more defimentary nite and more abundant than that concerning any other dramatist of the day. In the case of no contemporary dramatist are the precise biographical dates and details-dates of baptism and burial, circumstances of marriage, circumstances of children, the private pecuniary transactions of his career, the means of determining the years in which his various literary works were planned and produced equally numerous or based on equally firm documentary foundation. Shakespeare's father, John Shakespeare, was a dealer in |