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APPENDIX TO CHAPTER I
DID MR. JAMES SPEDDING REALLY KNOW
"
EVERYTHING " ABOUT BACON ?
MR. JAMES SPEDDING was the editor of the latest and most
complete edition of Bacon's Works, and has earned for him
self the eternal gratitude of the world as well as mine. Almost
everything connected with, or relating to, the name of Bacon
he has carefully collected his ; painstaking calls for our
admiration ;
to him we owe the first detailed compilation
of Bacon's letters.
But shall we, as a great part of the English literary
world
does, esteem Mr. James Spedding an oracle on " everything '
concerning Bacon ?
To edit the works of an author and to pronounce a final
verdict upon him, are two very different things. In my
opinion, the mind of any one undertaking to edit the writings
of such a man as Francis Bacon must be far too much
at the same
absorbed in the task, to allow of his entering,
time, into the subject-matter, and fathoming the depths of
the writings themselves. He has to compare the various
editions hitherto published, he has to rummage among
archives and collections, he has to copy manuscripts, the
a matter of difficulty, he
deciphering of which is frequently
has to superintend the reading of the proof-sheets. How
can he, whose attention is necessarily thus divided in detail
work, retain a clear idea and view of the writings as a
whole ?
But as I traverse the above raised question as to whether