CCCclviii LIFE OF BACON. 



study ;() and, if necessary, he sought retirement, (b) 



Shrunk up my veins ; and still my spaniel slept. 



And still I held converse with Zabarell, 



Aquinas, Scotus, and the musty saw 



Of antick Donate : still my spaniel slept. 



Still on went I ; first, an sit anima ; 



Then, an it were mortal. O hold, hold at that 



They re at brain buffets, fell by the ears amain 



Pell-mell together : still my spaniel slept. 



Then, whether twere corporeal, local, fixt, 



Ex traduce, but whether I had free will 



Or no, hot philosophers 



Stood banding factions, all so strongly propt : 



I stagger d, knew not which was firmer part, 



But thought, quoted, read, observ d and pryed, 



Stuff t noting books ; and still my spaniel slept. 



At length he waked, and yawned; and by yon sky, 



For aught I know he knew as much as I.&quot; 

 Marston s &quot; What you Will,&quot; Charles Lamb s Selections, p. 84. 

 See Wordsworth s Expostulation and Reply. 



(a) Johnson, in his life of Savage, says, &quot; Out of this story he formed 

 the tragedy of Sir Thomas Overbury, which, if the circumstances in which 

 he wrote it be considered, will afford at once an uncommon proof of 

 strength of genius and evenness of mind ; of a serenity not to be ruffled, 

 and an imagination not to be suppressed. During a considerable part of 

 the time in which he was employed upon this performance, he was without 

 lodging and often without meat ; nor had he any other conveniences for 

 study than the fields or the streets allowed him : there he used to walk and 

 form his speeches, and afterwards step into a shop, beg for a few moments 

 the use of the pen and ink, and write down what he had composed, upon 

 paper which he had picked up by accident. 



Voltaire, when shut up in the Bastille, and for aught he knew for life, 

 deprived of the means either of writing or reading, arranged and in part 

 executed the project of his Henriade. Vide de Voltaire, par M. . . . a 

 Geneve, 1786, chap. iv. Godwin s Political Justice, p. 322. 



Brutus when a soldier under Pornpey, in the civil wars, employed all 

 his leisure in study ; and the very day before the battle of Pharsalia, though 

 it was in the middle of summer, and the camp under many privations, 

 spent all his time till the evening in writing an epitome of Polybius. 



Plutarch in Brut. 



(fe) Places of learning should be retired, tending to quietness and pri- 

 vateness of life, and discharge of cares and troubles : much like the stations 

 which Virgil prescribeth for the hiving of bees. 



