392 A Century of Science 



I have little doubt that Bacon had this passage 

 in mind when he wrote the " Essay of Gardens," 

 which was first published in 1625, two years later 

 than the complete folio of Shakespeare. This 

 effectually disposes of the attempt to cite these 

 correspondences in evidence that Bacon wrote the 

 plays. 



Another instance is from " Richard III. : " 



" By a divine instinct men's minds mistrust 

 Ensuing' danger ; as, by proof, we see 

 The waters swell before a boisterous storm." 



Bacon, in the " Essay of Sedition," writes, " As 

 there are . . . secret swellings of seas before a 

 tempest, so there are in states." But this essay 

 was not published till 1625, so again we find him 

 copying Shakespeare. Many such " parallelisms," 

 cited to prove that Bacon wrote Shakespeare's 

 works, do really prove that he read them with 

 great care and remembered them well, or else took 

 notes from them. 



An interesting illustration of the helpless igno- 

 rance shown by Baconizers is furnished by a re- 

 mark of Sir Toby Belch in " Twelfth Night." In 

 his instructions to that dear old simpleton, Sir 

 Andrew Aguecheek, about the challenge, Sir Toby 

 observes, " If thou thou'st him some thrice, it shall 

 not be amiss." In Elizabethan English, to ad- 



