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APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IX
FROM THE WORKSHOP OF THE PHILOSOPHER-
POET
SCARCELY anywhere can we trace the mental work of
Francis Bacon, when employed in putting an important
thought into rhymed form, so clearly as in the recasting of
Lucrece's words on the pleasurable sight afforded by watch
ing from the shore unfortunate sailors tossed to and fro on
the waves. For in no fewer than six different versions may
we follow up that thought in Bacon's writings through
several decades. From the very beginning, we see the words
" ship," and " tempest," and " errors " used in connection
with the same. In one place he speaks of the " Hill of the
Muses," in another of the " Hill of Truth " we
; may notice
how the ideas conveyed in the sentence tend more and
more towards the theatre, even leading to the interpo
lation of the word " play " (spectaculum), and how rhyme
and verse-rhythm are introduced in the Latin and French
versions, but most forcibly in the English translation.
In Francis Bacon's " Device," written for the Earl of
Essex (1595), we read :
" But the gardens of the Muses keep the privilege of the golden
age ; they ever flourish and are in league with time. The monu
ments of wit survive the monuments of :
power the verses of a
poet endure without a syllable lost, while states and empires pass
many periods. Let him not think he shall descend, for he is now
upon a hill as a ship is mounted upon the ridge of a wave but
;
that hill of the Muses is above tempests, always clear and calm ;
a
hill of the goodliest discovery that man can have, being a prospect