26 



POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 



[Februaet, 1888. 



from numerous readers have shown that it has 

 been a source of comfort and consolation to 

 man}', and has awakened a responsive chord 

 in the hearts of all. 



Dr. Nichols was an extensive reader in all 

 departments of literature. His private librarj' 

 was one of the finest in the State, and con- 

 tained man}' rare and valuable works. In 

 1876 he founded a public librarj' in his native 

 town of Merrimac, and remained one of its 

 trustees during his life. His tastes were nota- 

 bly' artistic, and it was one of his greatest 

 pleasures to enjoy with his friends the treas- 

 ures of science, art, and literature with which 

 he embellished his home. 



During his entire life Dr. Nichols was 

 much interested in that class of phenomena 

 now known as " psychic." Few men have had 

 better or more extensive opportunities for in- 

 vestigation ; and although he was convinced 

 that there is a scientific basis for these phe- 

 nomena, his attitude was that of a patient 

 investigator, preferring to wait for "more 

 light," equall}' avoiding the absurdities of the 

 professional " Spiritualists" on the one hand, 

 and the dogmatic denials of irrefutable facts 

 by those of a more materialistic belief. His 

 views as expressed in his own words are : — 



A ray of light is already observed darting over 

 the distant hilltops ; and it gives promise of more 

 diffusive beams, which will penetrate the darkness 

 that hides the future world from view. 



Now that he has passed into the state of 

 existence concerning which he has reasoned 

 so clearlj' and wisely in this world, we can 

 have no doubt that all things have been made 

 plain to him, and that the great problem 

 of whence, what, where? has been solved in 

 the only way in which it may ever be solved 

 to those who would learn the secret of life. 



In his private and personal relations Dr. 

 Nichols was universally respected and beloved. 

 His nature was sympathetic, and his benevo- 

 lence widespread and unobtrusive. He had 

 always a kind word for every one, and there 

 were none who gained his friendship but were 

 the wiser and better for it. None can know 

 better than the writer those qualities which so 

 endeared him to his familj', and made their 

 home the happiest of all places on earth to 

 them. He was a kind and indulgent father, 

 whose sympathy and aid were never withheld, 

 and whose loss will be felt more and more as 

 time passes on. Death came to him at last 

 as he would have wished, and his own words 

 in this connection were almost literally ful- 

 filled in his own case^ — 



There is no evidence to show that nature in- 

 tended death to be cruel or painful to the mind, or 

 physically painful to the body. The natural man 

 should know no more concerning his own death 

 than his own birth. He comes into the world 

 without the consciousness of suffering; and if the 

 perfect law can be fulfilled, he will die oblivious to 

 all pains, mental and physical. At his birth he 

 sleeps into existence, aud awakens into knowledge: 

 at his death he dozes into sleep, and awakens to a 

 new life. 



And so, when the summons came for him to 



join the " innumerable caravan," he left this 

 earthlj- life — 



" Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch 

 About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." 



A. P. N. 

 — • — 



To this filial tribute, one who had known Dr. 

 Nichols intimately for a quarter of a century, 

 during a large part of which time we were 

 associated in the editorial management of this 

 journal, can only add a hearty indorsement of 

 all that is said in his honor and praise, es- 

 pecially in regard to his personal relations 

 with all who had the privilege of his friend- 

 ship. To all such, like " that royal merchant, 

 good Antonio," he was ever 



" The kindest man, 

 The best-conditioned and unwearied spirit 

 In doing courtesies." 



W. J. R. 



THE BACON-SHAKESPEARE LUNACY. 



A DISCUSSION of the theory that Francis 

 Bacon was the author of the plays and poems 

 which for more than three centuries have been 

 ascribed to William Shakespeare, may seem to 

 be out of place in a scientific journal ; but the 

 subject has its scientific bearings. We are 

 told that Bacon wrought certain of his scientific 

 opinions into the plays, and we may properly 

 inquire whether there is good evidence of this. 

 The various forms of insanity are also legiti- 

 mate subjects for discussion in a journal par- 

 tially devoted to medicine ; and this Baconian 

 theoiy may fairly be regarded as one of the 

 strangest instances of literary lunacy in these 

 " cranky " times of ours. 



The subject has also its relations with indus- 

 trial art. The Donnelly- "cryptogram," as it is 

 called, has receutl}' revived the popular inter- 

 est in the delusion ; and one of the many ways 

 of showing up the absurdity of the alleged 

 discovery of a cipher narrative interwoven in 

 the text of the first collected edition of 

 Shakespeare's plays, the Folio of 1623, is by 

 proving that the insertion of the secret story 

 was typographicallj' impossible at that time. 

 This has been done by Mr. W. H. Wyman of 

 Cincinnati, a gentleman familiar with the 

 histoiy and details of the printer's art. 



The Baconian theory is literally a baseless 

 one, the fundamental assumption on which it 

 rests being absoluteh' false ; namely, that 

 Shakespeare could not have written the works 

 ascribed to him, and that Bacon could have 

 written them. On the contrary, every careful 

 student or critic is inevitably forced to the 

 conclusion that the works must have been 

 written cither bj- Shakespeare or by some man 

 whose education and experiences were like his, 

 so far as we have become acquainted with 

 them ; while it is absolutely impossible that 

 they could have been produced by a man 

 whose training and fortunes were what we 

 know Bacon's to have been. The facts con- 

 cerning Shakespeare's personal histoiy that 

 have come down to us are few indeed, but they 

 furnish a key to much that would otherwise be 

 perplexing in his writings ; and, on the other 



hand, the writings throw light upon the life, 

 and assist us in filling out the meagre outlines 

 of the biographer. In these latter years the 

 chronology of the plays has been pretty well 

 made out, and all the more important questions 

 concerning their authorship — what plays are 

 wholly Shakespeare's, what are his only in 

 part, how the mixed authorship is to be ex- 

 plained, etc. — have been satisfactorily settled. 

 Now, the better we understand the order and 

 the history of the plays, the clearer it is that 

 thej' are the work of a playwright who began 

 his career, and who went on step by step in 

 that career, as we know Shakespeare did. It 

 is evident that the author was not an amateur 

 writing plays in the intervals of his more seri- 

 ous occupations, but a man who had his fortune 

 to make, and who, after securing some humble 

 position in the theatre, worked his way up as 

 actor and dramatist until he had gained repu- 

 tation and wealth by his labor. Our limits 

 here in the News will not permit us to trace 

 him through all the stages of his career as 

 actor and author. Suffice it to sa}- that, from 

 first to last, we recognize him as the practical 

 man of the theatre, no scholar, but familiar 

 with the requirements of his profession, and 

 endowed with genius that made him to a great 

 degree independent of learning and literary 

 culture. 



The Baconian heretics assume that the 

 author of the plays was a learned man. Cer- 

 tain good scholars and critics somehow got 

 this notion into their heads in former times ; 

 but the misconception could only have been 

 possible (except to a Baconian) before the 

 plays had been minutely examined, their anach- 

 ronisms and other literary defects careful!}' 

 scrutinized, and their relations to the sources 

 whence their materials were drawn critically 

 investigated. This kind of study shows that, 

 marvellous as was the genius of the author of 

 the plays, and the insight into human nature 

 with all its capabilities and possibilities which 

 that genius gave him, he was not only no 

 scholar, but the lack of scholastic training was 

 in certain minor respects a serious disadvan- 

 tage to him. If he had had the learning of 

 Bacon superadded to his own natural gifts, he 

 would have done his work diflferently and in 

 some respects better. 



Shakespeare's use of his historical materials 

 is a striking illustration of his lack of learning. 

 In the Roman plays, for example, he draws his 

 material almost exclusively from Plutarch's 

 Lives. Bacon was, of course, perfectly famil- 

 iar with Plutarch in the original Greek, and 

 would have gone to the original if he had 

 written the plays, rather than to a translation 

 of a translation (Sir Thomas North's English 

 rendering of Bishop Amyot's French version) ; 

 or, if it were conceivable that he should resoit 

 to this as a matter of convenience, he would 

 at least have corrected the palpable misprints 

 and corruptions which had crept into North's 

 book. Shakespeare was not familiar enough 

 with the minutiae of Roman history to put 

 " Z>ectmus Brutus " in place of North's " Z>ect«» 

 Brutus," or Cidpumia as the name of Caesar's 



