Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1860-11-14
LORD RACOM.

MHrrlages' Settces Of Funerals and announcements
% ' esf'"ons' SO cents each. noy11S59
I.--.-----.---,
LORD BACON.
The new Edition of his works-voI. l2th-PubIislled
, 3S Brown Taggard, Boston. Charles AIarshnll,
Wheeling, Agent.
GFrom tho New York worIdJ
Among the beautiful books which AR.
HongEton has printed, Messrs. Brown &
| Thggard's edition of Bacon's works stands
prominent. The publishers, we cannot
I.but think, have done wisely-.in bringing
out this noble collection Of writings in
such an admirable and substantial form.-
Bacon's thoughts and words are not only
just as great, but just as fresh uow us
they were whom they were first uttered. =
/! The apophtcgms in his essays have been
themselves expanded into essuys-nay,
into books; his historical writings have
| proved the gems and the models of volu-
minous histories; his philosophy is the
Foundation of science-thc incentive and
| the guide to speculation. Yet, though the
whole world is thus imbncd with Bacon
ism, and repeats him daily over and over
again, with dilution, with variation, with
addition, with Ornamentntion, we turn
with unsated appetite, nay with constants
ly increasing zcst, to the perusal ofthe wri-
tings which so long ago began the work
ing of this wonder. Old they are, if We
must call two centuries and half old;
antlqu0ted they can never he. Like the
everlasting hills, they renew their fresh.
| ness year by year, and arc themselves the
constant sources of renewed life and Wig
or. 1t is ever thus with what is great and
original. In art or in literature, q school
may become amtiquatcd, and he calmost con-
itemptiblc; but the work of the founder ofthe
school are always grea:, always new. 1t
is only initiation that fades and fails with
advancing time. Bacon's essays, for in
stance, though written for an age when
manners, customs, the very structure of
society, differed widely, nay radically,
from those of the present day, are yet Just
rs applicable, come home just as strongly
to mems business and bos0ms now as they
did when they first were written. They
aEs feGsGn St tRnl is fhHP
writer was gifted with the power of ap-
pretending elementary truth He was
never diverted by the odventitious and the
accidental, but struck at once at the vital
point of every subject that he considered.
This power is the unfailing accompani-
ment of the highest intellectual endow-
ment; in fact, it is that endowment. To
possess it in it's highest manifestation: is
to possess genius of the higher order; and
this genius Bacon had in degree sur
passed by very few of the men who have
left their marks upon the ages.
1t is the glory of this EIizabethan age
that it produced the two greatest intellects
of modern tincs-Shnkespear and Ba-
con; and it is a singular fact that from
the voluminous writings of both these
men, living and writing ut the same time
and in the same city, each one doing what
fno man had ever done before him, each
capable approaching to the full tue per-
| formance of the other: not theSslightcst
hint can be gathered that either was
1 known to the other in person or through
! his works. OF Shakespeare we know lit
| tie; but all of that little has cmbnlmcd
him lovingly in the worlds memory. OF
Bacon we know everything; and more
than we wish that we knew. Bacon has
the worlds admiration: hnt he has not,
and can never have its love or its respect.
Iti is not that he took bribes for that ac-
cusNtion, though lie was condemned upon
it, has been pretty thoroughly refutcd-
The bribes were in fact fees, or, in the Ian
guage of the times, ''gratifications,n which
tunctionarics like Bacon had the right, by
custom, to expect, and indeed on which
they depended; for their offices were with
out regular salaries. Bacons enemies
seized upon a just tand growing prejudice
against this custom, and broke him down
by exaggerNting and ,nisreprescnting his
dealings of this kind. But although this
charge has been set aside, there has been
mo impression made upon the general
estimate of his moral character Pope's
epigrammatic line is still true, and if he
was not
'sTIlo greatest, vvisest. meohest of manknd,'
he certainly was prominent in that class
he was ungrateful to Essex, his. noble
benetactOr-mcunly so; he wus toady, n
snob, almost n sneak; and in power he
was cruel and relentless. In his behavior
he was one of the shabbiest fellows who
have discredited our race; and there were
men around him who could not under
stand his great work any better than his
pedantic royal patron could, whose shoe
tie he was nnwortnysto unloose. Yet so
majestic were his intellectual proportions,
SO grAnd~and benign is the one of his
double fees that he turns upon postcritY,
Iso splendid in his achievements in phiIos-
Eophy and letters, SO greaSand enduring the
benefits which he, in pure and disinterest4
ed love of truth; ) con serredupon mankind,
that we are almost ashamed to have spo-
ken thus plainly of the obliquity of his
moral character.
Itis good sign of the times, that there
is demand for q worthy edition of Ba-
cons works, and that there are scholars
able TO prepare, and publishers ready to
undertake it. The present editiouiis in
comparably the best that has ever been
issued. In completeness, in accuracy, in
richness or editorial Illustrations, it leaves
nothing to be desired. OF Bacon's Latin
works it gives both tue original and 4
translation, aud the Arrangement is in the
perfection of convenience, us the form il
the perfection of beauty, for n STANDARD
classic, which is not only to be looked a
but to be read. Lovers of the best litera'
turcs in this country are Tuuderian o6liga
Etion to the publishers of this work, whicl
1--we believe they will not fail to discharge