394 A Century of Science 



of the Baconian folly. There is in the British 

 Museum a manuscript, in Bacon's handwriting, en- 

 titled " Promus of Formularies and Elegancies." 

 " Promus " means " storehouse " or " treasury." 

 A date at the top of the first page shows that it 

 was begun in December, 1594 ; there is nothing, 

 I believe, to show over how many years it ex- 

 tended. It is a scrap-book in which Bacon jotted 

 down such sentences, words, and phrases as struck 

 his fancy, such as might be utilized in his writings. 

 These neatly turned phrases, these "formularies 

 and elegancies," are gathered from all quarters, 

 from the Bible, from Virgil and Horace, from Ovid 

 and Seneca, from Erasmus, from collections of 

 proverbs in various languages, etc. As there is 

 apparently nothing original in this scrap-bag, Mr. 

 Spedding did not think it worth while to include 

 it in his edition of Bacon's works, but in the four- 

 teenth volume he gives a sufficient description of 

 it, with illustrative extracts. In 1883 Mrs. Henry 

 Pott published the whole of this " Promus " manu- 

 script, and swelled it by comments and disserta- 

 tions into a volume of 600 octavo pages. She had 

 found in it several hundred expressions which re- 

 minded her of passages in Shakespeare, and so it 

 confirmed her in the opinion which she already 

 entertained that Bacon was the author of Shake- 



