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1 6 FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES
and has frequently been termed " unpoetic." The
moment we examine matters closely, however, we
shall find this to be a most excellent conception, won
derfully explained and elucidated by the author. Nor
is Francis Bacon by any means the only one among
his contemporaries to hold this opinion. Sir Philip
Sidney, who even to-day is estimated one of the best
English poets, in his book "An "
Apologie for Poetrie
speaks of poetry as the oldest of all sciences, as the
mother of all sciences. And in " The Arte of English
Poesie "
printed anonymously and ascribed to George
Puttenham the poets are called "the first Philo
sophers, the first Astronomers and Historiographers
and Oratours and Musitians of the world." Puttenham's
book was published in 1589, Sidney's in 1595.
And now let us return to Bacon, to the younger con
temporary of both.
The best division of human learning, says Bacon,
is that derived from the three faculties
soul, which is the seat of learning
:
memory,
tion, and reason.
History (comprising both natural history
of the rational
imagina
and civil
history) has reference to the memory ; poesy (here
nothing else than feigned history) to the imagination ;
philosophy to the reason.
Poesy, to wit, may be taken, according to Bacon, in
two senses : in respect of words, and in respect of
matter.
In the former sense, poesy refers to the external form
(whether it be verse or prose) and is a kind of speech ;
for verse is
only a character of style and has nothing
to do with matter. Thus, for instance, true history
may be written in verse, and feigned history in prose.