Could Milton who speaks of

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-the celestial siren's harmony

That sit upon the nine unfolded spheres,
And sing to these that hold the vital shears
And turn the adamantine spindle round

On which the fate of gods and men is wound."

write in his poetic infancy such a line as
"The greater navies look like walking woods."?
Could Coleridge who tells of

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-that innumerable company

Who in broad circle lovelier than the rainbow
Girdle this round earth in a dizzy motion,

With noise too vast and constant to be heard ;—
Fitliest unheard!"

produce such lines as these in connection with
the XCth psalm

Or as a watch by night, that course doth keep,
And goes, and comes, unawares to them that sleep.

Wordsworth, who says:

"The Heavens, whose aspect makes our minds as still As they themselves appear to be,

Innumerable voices fill

With everlasting harmony;

The towering headlands, crowned with mist,

Their feet among the billows, know

That Ocean is a mighty harmonist;

Thy pinions, universal Air,

Ever waving to and fro,

Are delegates of harmony, and bear

Strains that support the seasons in their round:" could he have produced in his declining years such lines as these in reference to the grass which in the morning flourisheth, and in the evening withereth ?—

"At morning, fair it musters on the ground;

At ev'n, it is cut down, and laid along,
And though it spared were, and favour found,
The weather would perform the mower's wrong:
Thus hast thou hang'd our life on brittle pins,
To let us know it will not bear our sins."

Emphatically, I ask:—could Bacon, judging from all his absolutely known poetry, which is only this paraphrastic version of seven of the Psalms of David, by any possibility, have written such a striking parallel to this text in Christ's sermon on the Mount, "Judge not that ye be not judged; for with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again; " as we find in the following passage from "Measure for Measure?" words that might arrest an un

kind speech on the very lips, sending it back

as deep as to the lungs: "

"How would you be,

If HE which is the top of judgment, should
But judge you as you are? oh, think on that
And Mercy then will breath within your lips,
Like man new made."

We do not find in Bacon's writings any parallel passages to this one on Mercy,-which Shakspere calls in another place "an attribute to God

Bacon has given us Essays on Simulation, Envy, Vainglory, Cunning, Revenge, and Anger, but not on Mercy and Charity.* True, he has given us an Essay on Love, in which he has strongly urged the dethronement of the God of Love, but he has not said a word in it about that Love which is the fulfilling of the Law: he has left no Essays on "Faith,

* In his "De Dignitate et Augmentis Scientarum' Bacon devotes a few lines to "Charity, the noblest Grace" and says :—" If a man's mind be truly inflamed with charity, it doth work him suddenly into greater perfection than all the doctrine of morality can do."

And Virtue, Patience, Temperance, and Love,
By name to come call'd Charity—the soul
Of fall the rest."

Open your "Merchant of Venice" at the first scene of the fourth act, and see how Portia shines forth, “all her divine self," see how her elevated sense of pure Religion makes her appeal to Shylock's mercy. What a matchless piece of eloquence it is, and what a practical sermon to those who are enjoined to “do justice and love mercy;" it is a lesson which ought to last through all time. Here it is unabridged— not a line can be spared-not a line need be added. The sermons of your ablest Divines pale before its "effectual fire:"

The quality of Mercy is not strain'd;

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes :
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest : it-becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown :
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But Mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,

It is an attribute to GOD Himself;

And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When Mercy seasons Justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though Justice be thy plea, consider this,—
That in the course of Justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for Mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of Mercy.*

Is there any thing in Bacon's prose or poetry like the above? No!

As Nathaniel Holmes is so fond of parallels, I may put to him this question:-Did Shakspere borrow his idea of Mercy being "an attribute to God" from his contemporary Cervantes? who, like Shakspere, entered on an immortal eternity on the same day, April 23, 1616.

The following is one of those wise injunctions which Don Quixote delivers to Sancho Panza, when he was appointed Governor of the Island of Barataria.

"For the delinquent that is under thy juris

"*He delighteth in Mercy." Micah VII. 8 "To the Lord our God belong Mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him." Daniel IX. 9