New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-05-09

especially In the parts Of the Mediterranean which, q
tas in tho Tuscan and those We have mentione, ac3
Y ana Ss9Sat much violence BIT where s
Tow T9 which may DO added that in the Medterraneal
What LITTLE en6 there - begins from the ocean but "a
rather pursues its course from the east than IL I
| reduence from tho ocean
Our author compress this passage With the fol.
| lowing lines from Othello:"
Iago. Patience, sayi your mind, perhaps. may
Whose icy CURRENT it and compalsve conrss sA %"
Ne'er knows retiring ebb. but keeps doe on
To the Propontck and the Hell,spont:
ai neor look back, ne.r sb6 To- humble SSs
Swallow them up Act ILL.,. sc. g.
'The singular identity Of the idea." observes
Judge Holiness "and the popularity Of tho
notion itself. implying scientific observer of nat.
ure. and also the exact words or nearly
identical expressions, show too palpably the ear
marks Of the author in both cases." IL will puzzle
any ordinary mind to discover the identity Of
words in these extracts; and for the identity Of
idea, Judge Holmes has overlooked the somewhat
significant fact that the notion of the Sleditersr
mean tides entertained by the author of Othe,lo"n
the exact opposite of that set forth by Bacon The
tract is at pains to show that the parts of the
which stretch out toward the east, such az
tho Pontlc, tho Propontic and so on.
differ from those which trend west
ward by having hardly any or very weak flows"
This is the whole purport of the passage Othclo.
on the contrary. compares the violent pace OF his
thoughts to the icy current andcompulsive course
of this very Ponticlk SEA, which Bacon says has
hardly any very weak course. Clearly Bacon
cannot have written 80 .hello."
Bacon writes. in his De Augmentis" that, like
q musician accommodating his skill to different
ears, a man should DO Orpkeas in siirs inter DEL
phinas Ayioa." There we have a quotation from
Virgil which anybody might use, and which Judge
Holmes himself shows that several seventeenth
century poets did use and yet this passage from
Twelfth Night is adduced as evidence that the
philosopher who quoted Virgil must also have writ
ten the play:
Where like Arion. on the dolphin's back.
I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves,
SO long as could see
In his Natural History" Bacon writes:
But find in Pluarch and Others that when Augustine
Caesar visited the sepuchre OF Alexander the Great IN
Alexandra, he found the body 10 keep It's dimension
but with ALL, that Notwithstanding all tho emDalmns
(Which doubt the best the body SO tender, 40
Cesar, touching but the nose OF 1t, dcfaced 1t.
And Judge Holmes graveIy adds that the same
passage "appcars in the Hamlet thus"
With Mo- %o sas moot s G sS i' to h
thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alex.
earth we make 10 an and why OF that loan wbereto
converted might they not stop beer barrel Z
Imperial Caesar, dead, and turn'd to clay.
o. that that earth. which kept the world in awe.
Should patch wall expel the Winters faw'
If these two passages are the same or are even
distantly related, there is an end of common sense.
There are other instances Of "parallelisms"
equally forced and mistaken, which we pass
for want Of room: there are some which
it is only just to say are more plausible than those
we have quoted; but there are none which give
any real support TO the Baconian fancy, or which
the legion of Shakespearean scholars will think
of Whoever
with the Baconians must be prepared To argue his
case in defiance of all the ordinary rulesof evidence
Mr. OConnor's tract is reply to the criticism Of
Richard Grant White on Mrs. Potts =. Promus."
That criticism originally appeared IN The Atlaaiio
Monthly and Mr.. OConnors answer was written
soon afterward. After considerable delay" he
says, "consequent upon the determination of GER
tain periodicals. never to allow anything on the
BacOnlan side of the question to appear IN print.
my contribution was accepted by leading maya
zine and held for publication" On Mr.; Whites
that The atlantic article Ito Mr.. OConnors indig-
nant surprise ~ has been repubshed in posthu-
authors selfesraInt. and he proceeds to slaughter.
1T was hardly necessary to suppose virtual con-
Reasons enough for tho delay in getting ID
accepted are apparent in the article itself Strong
in language and weak IN argument, it attacks Mn
White with extraordinary and sustained rancor
for his supercious insoence," but it fails to
flute him; and in its two pages of specimen paral-
of the ineptitude of the testimony upon which the
Baconians are wont to rely. Mr. OConnor has
which the simllitude to something IN the
play is stronger than In any Of tho
is verbal Identity But these texts are almost
without exception proverbs. or other common say
ings, the of which proves nothing to the point:
whoever wrote his plays, delighted
IN and instances, quotations, notices. DOpu-
lar maxims; and If few out of the multitude Of
them which stud his texts are also IN Bacons memo
6n M wi
Bacon as well as Shakespeare appreciated the effect
Of such things In literary work
whites exposure of Mrs POTTS cxtravagant con- on.
cets, Mr.. OConnor is no more successful than
lnnolced Mrs Po s' enticsop OF the Well ti
known words from Virgil PrOca, o procu, este
,r9tdn, Away away. ye unlntiate win falstalts
yop Of ring of gold Oh swynes snOut" with
Romeo's smile,
Her beauty hangs upon tho cheek OF night
Like rich jewel In an Ethiops earl
# the adagc Nourritue passe nature Breeding iss
econd nature) with the lines from " Pericles"
Those mothers who. to nouse up their babes
Thought nought TOO curious are ready now
To eat those little darliDgs whom they loved
eemed to most of us as near an approach to bur-
esque even Shakespcarean commentary had
yer come Comlcal as 1t was however. Mr
TIL droler; and in his comment upon the last Ut
he three texts his profound insensIbillty to the
idicnlous becomes irresistible. NomyihUe, he ex-
,lans is best translated habit" (which is an
nor, and then the application OF the adage TO the
quotation from Perlcles" Is easy.-thc readiness
II mothers to devour their children is an Iustra-
ion OF the truth that "Ihe habtudes
# feeding. are. stronger than ma
ernal love VI Well may Mr. OCOrnor
emark that some of the Pott-Bacon illustrations
ire "shadowy recondite and indirect. and become
apparent mainly by operations OF reasoning, cir
uitous and subtle. like Bacon's own"
One part of the attack upon Mr.. White may DO
more particularly noticed because the author lays
o much upon IT, Mrs. Pott has theory
a O n
With the time of day, such Good morrow"
Good even,' etc.. were introduced into England
" Bacon long list of them is found IN the
'Promus" they are frequent In the PLAYS,
nut there is no trace of their gen.
raj use previously. 1T Is certain
he SAYS that the hatit of using forms Of morn
In AT In mi NH info