244 



KNOW^LEDGE ♦ 



[September 1, 1888. 



It was, however, by no means so childlike a thought that 

 the sun rules the year, or, rather, rules that half of the year 

 during which he is above the great dividing circle which 

 separates his grave in winter from his throne of glory in the 

 middle summer. The idea of direct physical causation, 

 which in our time connects the sun and the life-giving 

 warmth of summer, belongs to the scientific thought of times 

 so recent that in reality their beginning is as of yesterday. 

 Me.-i would have regarded it as a wild and fanciful notion, 

 if not in some degree blasphemous, to suggest that the sun 

 nourishes the fields in the same way precisely that a fire on 

 the hearth nourLshes those around it — by its warmth. Even 

 had that idea been accejited, the actual growth of herbs and 

 flowers would still have appeared to respond mysteriously to 

 solar influences. For men understood as little about plant 

 life in those days as about the laws and nature of heat. 

 Seeing then, as they thought, that the sun exerts mystical 

 influences over the growth and development of the herbs of 

 the field and the trees of the forest, men felt well assured 

 that he exerts psychical influences on the microcosm of 

 man. Herbs yield fruit after their kind, and bring forth 

 their hidden wealth in response to solar rays : men and 

 nations, then, must owe their wealth and prosperity to the 

 mysterious influences of the sun. 



As for the moon, passing over the very early teaching 

 which regarded her .as ruler of the night — an idea which, 

 as it certainly does not correspond with the fects, led Milton 

 to cause the moon's orb to be painfully diverted from its 

 original and mathematically impossible track — we can fee 

 that her sway over the tides would be regarded by all men 

 as indicating a mysterious form of power. When we con- 

 sider that the tides were not explained at all till the time of 

 Newton, were even by him wrongly explained at the outset 

 of his inquiries, and (owing perhaps to his mistake then) 

 are still wrongly explained in at least ninety-nine text-books 

 of astronomy and geography out of a hundred,* we cannot 

 wonder if a strange mystery was recognised in the tidal 

 sway of the ocean, when, as yet, the law of universal gravita- 

 tion had not even been imagined. The moon seems also in 

 some way to influence persons of weak mind. It is no idle 

 fancy that lunatics and idiots are influenced by the moon, 

 though it is indirectly, not directly, that she afiects them. 

 They are disturbed by the light of the full moon during the 

 night ; and, being thus disturbed, their mania or idiocy 

 becomes for a while more marked and manifest. 



With regard to the planets — the other planets as they 

 were considered, for the sun and moon were jjlanets in those 

 old times — men could only reason by analogy. Since two of 

 the planets do thus manifestlj' influence things terrestrial, 

 so also in all probability do the others. All that was neces- 

 sary was to ascertain in what way each planet acted. And 

 this, they supposed, might be done by careful watching. 



if he shone at night, bedad, there would be something to thank him 

 for!" But that Irishman, assuming (which seems unlikely) that 

 he ever existed, must be regarded as a reversion to a very remote 

 ancestral type. 



* Nothing can be much more amusing to the mathematician than 

 the grave repetition of that supposed explanation of the tides, 

 which begins and practically ends with the statement that under 

 the moon's attractive influence the waters on the side of the earih 

 towards the moon would be raised, and also the waters on the side 

 remote from the moon. This is true, doubtless, preciselj' as it is 

 true that if a top — not spinning — be set aslant on its peg, it will 

 topple over unless supported ; but precisely as this statement would 

 be thought a very unsatisfactory explanation of the reeling of a 

 spinning-top when its axis is aslant, so is the common account of 

 what would happen with the seas were the earth not spinning a 

 most insufBcient explanation of the entirely different behaviour of 

 the actual seas. It is not commonly known that instead of kiyh 

 water under the moon and opposite, there would be lorv water— but 

 for frictional resistance . 



Unfortunately, they started with views respecting the 

 influence of each planet leading them to expect certain 

 results, which accordingly they soon persuaded themselves 

 (so prone are men to recognise significance in casual coinci- 

 dences) that they had found. Mercury was a planet hard to 

 detect, swift in his movements, and often hiding himself in 

 the sun's rays ; he therefore might well be supposed to 

 influence the fortunes of all men engaged in business 

 requiring craft and subtlety. Venus, lovely on " the daflbdil 

 sky that she loves," was naturally chosen as the planet of 

 love. jNIars, ruddy and fiery in aspect, and changing 

 strangely also in lustre, seemed an equally appropriate ruler 

 over war. .Jupiter, stately in motion, and splendid in 

 aspect, influenced the fortunes of those who have rule and 

 sway over men. And lastly, the sad and slow-moving 

 Saturn suggested evil fortune and gloom. 



It was not very wonderful, possessed as men were with 

 these notions, that the observations which they made on 

 the planets confirmed them in their fancies, foolish though 

 these now seem to be, as, indeed, they are in the light of 

 the facts now known. 



SHAKESPEARE SELF-DRAWN. 



By Bexvolio. 



FIKST PART OF "KING HENRY VI." 



?.S "Titus Androiaicus" presents Shakespeare's 

 first eflbrts in tragedy, while " Love's 

 Labour's Lost " is the first of his come- 

 dies, so the First Part of " Henry VI.," 

 whatever portion we attribute to Shake- 

 speare's pen, must be regarded as present- 

 ing his first eflbrts in English historical 

 drama, which, during the reigns of Elizabeth 

 and James I., had, as we know, a .special interest for 

 English playgoers. The very worthlessness of much that we 

 find in this play is instructive, for it shows how intense 

 that national feeling must have been which could enjoy the 

 exhibition of inferior plays such as this, nay, even be moved 

 (as Nash tells us) to tears at the representation of the ill- 

 fortunes of Talbot, Salisbury, and Exeter. Lt is certain 

 that the value of the old English historic subjects for 

 theatrical purposes had been recognised long before Shake- 

 speare came to London. There can be very little doubt 

 that the greater portion of at least the First Part of 

 " Henry VI." had been already used in its present wording 

 before Shakespeare took part in the representations. And 

 there are good reasons for believing that some time passed, 

 after that, before he was allowed any voice in determining 

 the actual form in which this particular play should be pre- 

 sented. When this happened it is probable that at first ho 

 was unwilling to believe that he was himself a much better 

 judge of what was fitting and eflfective than Greene (his 

 senior by but four years, but by a longer interval as a 

 dramatist), or even than Marlowe, whom Shakespeare (if we 

 can judge by the consideration that imitation is an expres- 

 sion of admiration) seems to have regarded as the most 

 powerful dramatist of his time. Shakespeare was very 

 slow, in all probability, to suggest excisions, changes, or 

 additions. Greene was almost certainly unwilling, Marlowe 

 probably ready, to recognise the true judgment of the 

 younger dramatist — younger, that is, as a dramatist, but of 

 the same age counting by years as Marlowe. Hence, 

 probably, the ill-feeling displayed by Greene in his " Groat's 

 Worth of Wit." 



I do not propose here to discuss the question of the share 



