THE WORLD OF BOOKS.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18674, 24 April 1926, Page 13

THE WORLD OF BOOKS.

half hours in a library. (SPBCIALLT WRITTEN FOB "THE T^ESS.") By A. IL Gbixlixg. CXLII.-OX BACON AND SPEDDIXG. Francis Bacon died 011 April 9th, 1626; it was an Easter morning when be-passed anav. He was buried at St. Albans in .the Church of St. Michael, "the only Christian Church within the walls of old Yerulam." "For niv name and memory," he said in his will, "I leave it to men's charitable speeches, and to foreign nations and the next ages."' In his book on Bacon in the "English Men of Letters" series, Mr R. W. Church says: —"So he died, the brightest, richest, largest mind but one, in the age which had seen Shakespeare and his fellows ; so bright and rich, and larjse tliat there have been found those who identify him with the writer of 'Hamlet' and 'Shakespeare.' Ti.at is idle. ' Bacon could 110 more have, written the plays than Shakespeare could have prophesied the triumphs of natural philosophy." James Spedding devoted the best part of a life-time "and all the resources of a fine intellect and an- earnest conviction''' in an nttempt to make his readers revere and admire Bacon. R. W. Church declares that all Spedding's labour has been in vain. "With all his greatness, his splendid genius, his magnificent ideas, his enthusiasm' for truth, hid'passion to he the benefactor of nis kind, with all the charm that t tnade. him loved by good and worthy friends, amiable, courteous, patient, delightful, as a companion, ready to take any trouble —there was in Bacon's self a deep and fatal flaw. He was a pleaser of men."

Spedding's devotion to his selfchoseu task ns biographer of Bacon is one of the curiosities of literature. He was one of the "Cambridge Apostles and Alfred Tennyson said of him: He was the. Pope amongst us young men; the wisest man I know." In 1835 he was appointed by, James Stephen to the Colonial Office, the appointment being made at the request .of Sir Henry Taylor, but it war, only a temporary position carrying a salary of £l5O a year. It is said that a quotation made bv Tavlbr in a note to van Artevelde" on a speech made by' Sped-, ding at a Cambridge Debating-Society, led to an acquaintance which developed into life-long friendship. In ' Guests and Memories,'' Miss Una Taylor devotes an entire chapter to Speddmg, who in 1841 resigned his post in the Colonial Office where as a precis writer he had shown a genius for business, and applied himself to the task he had at heart; "the re-editing of th©' works and the vindication of the fame of. Francis. Bacon." Six- years later Spedding the Under-Secre-tarysTilp of -the Cololiies. but he again declined. To use Sir Henry _Taylor s words: "He" devoted his singular abin* ties and his infinite industry in, research during a long life to. a great cause, and Francis Bacon will be known to posterity gradually perhaps, but surely as* the man .that ne truly was, illustrious beyond • aU others, except Shakespeare, in his intellect, and with whatever infirnVtes. still not -less noble in his moral mind."

Miss Taylor points out that two motives' may impel , a; man- to defend' the honour of great- men of the' past from ' misstatement, misinterpretation, and disparagement. "Some form of herb worship," she argues, "personal in its enthusiastic espousal, of the cause of the dead, nAy move-a living champion to undertake their defence. More rarely their vindication is undertaken from a resentfulrealisation that opprobrium, cast on' great memories enshrined in humanity's storehouse, robs and despoils humanity of its chief treasures'; that in the saint unsainted, in the.'hero denuded of those high qualities that appertain to heroism, each man living, insofar as he is in truth the 'heir of the "ages,' is bereft, in some part,, of his heritage of the, .past.". In Spedding's case,' MissTay,-' lor hazards the theory that he, was actuated by both motives—in' the Erst ' instance 1 Spedding was ' moved to righteous indignation by' Macaulay's ■ essay on. Bacon, which he elaborately .examined in a two-volumed -work entitled "Evenings with a Reviewer," which, written in 1845 'and, privately printed, was not published until after Spedding's deaLh, and w.as never sjsen by Macaulay. letters are extant, the first written in 1845, during Macaulav's lifetime; the second in 1860, alter Macaulay's death; and the third in 1876, after. Trevelyan's Life of MaCauloy had appeared, which cast considerable light upon the spirit ond temper in which Spedding conducted his. defence of Bacon. Spedding imagined the question likely to be put if his original criticism had been published, . '.'Spedding's Edition of Bacon. Who .is Spedding? Oh. ho is the man who hates Macaulay. H 3' has been spending his life in preparing an-attack upon him. I, suppose it will all come out here. In contrpst to sueb a judgment, Spedding endeavours to define his actual attitude: I sin ougased in studying the lite and writings ot Bacon; with tliat view J have felt it my duty to investigate closely all that Macaulay has written about him: I dtn prepared, if necessary, to prove that none of his charges are well founded, but I am taking a course which I hope will make that needless by presenting what I conceive to be the truth in such a light ' that it will carry its evidence on its (ace; and for that reason, though I have taken the trouble to write out my answer to Macaulay at foil length (that I might be sure of my grounds), and'even to print it . (that I might call on other judgments to correct or confirm • my own), yet I have always shown a great- apxiety to confine It within the circle, not only of my own personal friends, but of those among them from whom I hope to receive fhat kind of help;'and I have actually kept it from the sight and knowledge of the greater number even of those with'whom I am mbst intimate and who would most like to see it, and who may most reasonably be hurt at' not being included in the list, merely beoause I feel it to be unworthy of the subject and of me to mix either it or mvself with any personal controversy that can be avoided. This is really the truth." Spedding's second letter- was written to Sir Henry Taylor in reply to the latter's request to be allowed to show tire privately printed volumes to a friend at Bournemouth. Spedding remarked that matters were different in many respectß since the criticism was first penned.' "The death of Macaulay i 3 one of the most considerable but as my principal objection to the circulation of the work without publication, was, that it seenjed, unfair to make such at attack upon a man without

giving him an opoprtunity of replying, his death does Zt altogether remove the objection. The book is not the less an attack upon his reputation, though I might now W willing to giva him leave to reply, he is gone and cannot do it," Spedding naively adds that at the time he thought that tne correction of opinion about Bacon w a subject of great importance to us though not to him; but ' I have come to think that it i 13 oTlr | importance to anyone. The thir last letter is the most characteristic of the three:— I have read Macaulay's Life ters. and am much troubled in think howl have behaved amends I can make. The E J e ° ith . a Reviewer" cannot be effectually drawn ... and vet I don t likei to think of myself as speaking of such a man « wag, in the tone 'in which I spoke dialogues. It has occurred to roe that x might turn them into a set of no les . P his Essay—omitting unimportant ooj« tions, and giving the substance of tne pnrtant ones in a style more accordant with the feeling I now have for the man. » that I ever thought ill of him -" I always believed that he was fighting on behalf of virtue, even when he was mucn mistaken and fought most unfair*?; B X had no idea of the tenderness, which wo now find was the predominant element in his mental constitution. And I cannot yet understand how he contrived to snow so little in his writings. He was a favourite writer with me for many years; I used to accept all his judgments, and believe in all his statements, and sympathise wittt an bis emotion's; but I do not remember tnat my affections were over appealed to. could applaud and admire—but his nature did not seem to have any affinity for what was affecting in the characters he expounded. He did not soem to find it out in them. And yet he was overflowing with it all the time himself in relation to real people, and'also to the creatures of other people's imagination. But, however it came about, the feeling must have been there and the man must be treated accordingly.

The man to whom Spedding's labours on behalf of Bacon in the interests of historical truth most appealed to was Thomas C'arlyle. In • "William Ailingham's Diary" there is a note representing Carlyle as saying:—"Spedding's Bacon: a most, admirablo work, has brought .'together every fact with the utmost diligence, honesty, and good judgment, and produced a book of great value, which is almost unreadable from its flatness and prolixity. He shows Bacon as a thoroughly respectable character, and an opulent mind. Paeon had a power of swift deliberation —if that be not a contradiction- In terms. But he was ton unfruitful man in matters of science." Carlyle at the time at work on his "Frederick" wrote to Spedding:— ' •

I have been ; in the "Bacon" up and down—a fine placid daylight attending me everywhere, disclosing curious scenes in their more or less ruinous condition—and trust to read It all with complete deliberation one day, when I am out of my o.wn Serbonian bog, on .dry land again, for n little time more. Ton are much to be envied with the goal now in view to such, a pilgrimage as few oc" none ,in our day have made. A more honestly done bit. of work I do not anywhere'know—and, in these times, T may further call it. unique,.in that respect, and almost miraculous in contrast with the beautiful creatures we everywhere see in the Devil's dust line, which is a much more compendious one. <3ourage! 'I hope -wft shall live to "get out," both of us, not many months now; and will not. that be a "reward" like none other?

There were times when Spedding in melancholy mood talked of the decline and fall of; his interest in Bacon, he declared that his labour had lasted too long, the delusion, of the value, of his work Had worn itself out, and he could no longer persuade himself , that it signified greatly whether he made good tbe> truth about Bacon .or not. - Yet even and anon his interest revived and be persevered with his work to the end. His friends complained that he had no "jump" in him. and on one occasion, when returning' from' witnessing the Oxford-Cambridge boat race, and asked anxiously as'to the, result, he replied that "both creiy s had' rowed fast enoupli." Invited on another occasion to witness the same • event Spedding replied "The truth is, that I do rot much mind about it either way. The use of the match is in the trring to win. ' The narty that has'tried his best KnS dpn.e'all that is worth winning: and when: it Is oter it is no matter which has the prize." In addition to beine a biographer Spedding had a poet's gift, though he rarely pave evidence, of its possession. Tennyson naid homage to Spedding' in the familiar lines: Ton might b*v« •tfon" th« Twf'n name , ,Tf sycVlM wor.th jthe' vinning. now, : An J p«\n»d * laurel for your brow Of sounder leaf than T. can claim. But you have made the wiser choicer- •< A'life that move; to fcracioua ends, ThfougV troops of unreeording friends . A deedful Ufa, a..silent voice .. . < .