For it appears, by manifest proceeding,
That indirectly and directly too

Thou hast contrived against the very life
Of the defendant; and thou hast incurred

The danger formerly by me rehearsed.

Down, therefore, and beg mercy of the duke.

Gratiano. Beg that thou mayst have leave to hang thyself. And yet, thy wealth being forfeit to the state,

Thou hast not left the value of a cord;

Therefore thou must be hanged at the state's charge.

320

325

Duke. That thou shalt see the difference of our spirits,

330

I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it.
For half thy wealth, it is Antonio's ;
The other half comes to the general state,
Which humbleness may drive unto a fine.

Portia. Ay, for the state, not for Antonio.

335

Shylock. Nay, take my life and all; pardon not that:
You take my house when you do take the prop
That doth sustain my house; you take my life
When you do take the means whereby I live.

Portia. What mercy can you render him, Antonio?
Gratiano. A halter gratis ;* nothing else, for God's sake.
Antonio. So please my lord the duke and all the court
To quit the fine for one half of his goods,

I am content, so he will let me have

The other half in use, to render it,

Upon his death, unto the gentleman

That lately stole his daughter:

Two things provided more, that, for this favor,
He presently become a Christian;

The other, that he do record a gift,

Here in the court, of all he dies possessed,

Unto his son Lorenzo and his daughter.

334. humbleness may drive: that is, | 344. so, provided.

humility may change or com- 351. of all he dies possessed: that is, of

mute.

336. pardon not that spare not that.

all that of which he dies pos

sessed.

340

345

350

Duke. He shall do this, or else I do recant*

The pardon that I late pronounced here.

Portia. Art thou contented, Jew? what dost thou say?
Shylock. I am content.

Portia.

Clerk, draw a deed of gift.

Shylock. I pray you, give me leave to go from hence; I am not well. Send the deed after me,

And I will sign it.

Duke.

Get thee gone, but do it.

Gratiano. In christening shalt thou have two godfathers.
Had I been judge, thou shouldst have had ten more,
To bring thee to the gallows, not the font.

[Exit Shylock.

Duke. Sir, I entreat you home with me to dinner.
Portia. I humbly do desire your grace of pardon :
I must away this night toward Padua,
And it is meet I presently set forth.

Duke. I am sorry that your leisure serves you not.
Antonio, gratify this gentleman,

For, in my mind, you are much bound to him.

[Exeunt Duke and his train.

Bassanio. Most worthy gentleman, I and my friend.
Have by your wisdom been this day acquitted

Of grievous penalties; in lieu whereof,
Three thousand ducats, due unto the Jew,
We freely cope✶ your courteous pains withal.
Antonio. And stand indebted, over and above,
In love and service to you evermore.

Portia. He is well paid that is well satisfied;
And I, delivering you, am satisfied,
And therein do account myself well paid:
My mind was never yet more mercenary.*
I pray you, know me when we meet again :
I wish you well, and so I take my leave.

355

360

365

370

375

380

It is by the Essays that Bacon is best known to the multitude. The Novum Organum and the De Augmentis are much talked of, but little read. They have produced indeed a vast effect on the

opinion of mankind; but they have produced it through the operation of intermediate agents. They have moved the intellects which have moved the world. It is in the Essays alone that the mind of Bacon is brought into immediate contact with the minds of ordinary readers. There, he opens an exoteric school, and he talks to plain men, in language which everybody understands, about things in which everybody is interested. He has thus enabled those who must otherwise have taken his merits on trust to judge for themselves; and the great body of readers have, during several generations, acknowledged that the man who has treated with such consummate ability questions with which they are familiar may well be supposed to deserve all the praise bestowed on him by those who have sat in his inner school. MA

CAULAY.

II.

Bacon's sentences bend beneath the weight of his thought like a branch beneath the weight of its fruit. He seems to have written his Essays with Shakespeare's pen. He writes like one on whom presses the weight of affairs, and he approaches a subject always on its serious side. He does not play with it fantastically. He lives among great ideas as with great nobles, with whom he dare not to be too familiar. In the tone of his mind there is ever something imperial. When he writes on buildings, he speaks of a palace, with spacious entrances, and courts, and banqueting-halls; when he writes on gardens, he speaks of alleys and mounts, waste places and fountains-of a garden "which is indeed prince-like." To read over his table of contents is like reading over a roll of peers' names. We have taken them as they stand: "Of Great Place," "Of Boldness," "Of Goodness, and Goodness of Nature," "Of Nobility," "Of Seditions and Troubles," "Of Atheism," "Of Superstition," "Of Travel,” “Of Empire," "Of Counsel "-a book, plainly, to lie in the closets of statesmen and princes, and designed to nurture the noblest natALEXANDER SMITH.

ures.

III.

I am old-fashioned enough to admire Bacon, whose remarks are taken in and assented to by persons of ordinary capacity,

and seem nothing very profound. But when a man comes to reflect and observe, and his faculties enlarge, he then sees more in them than he did at first, and more still as he advances fartherhis admiration of Bacon's profundity increasing as he himself grows intellectually. Bacon's wisdom is like the seven-league boots, which would fit the giant or the dwarf, except only that the dwarf cannot take the same stride in them. ARCHBISHOP WHATELY.

BACON'S ESSAYS.

[INTRODUCTION.-The first edition of the Essays was published in 1597, at the very time when Shakespeare was doing his greatest work. They were only ten in number, but Bacon subsequently added to these, making in all fifty-eight essays in the edition published in 1625, the year before his death. In the dedication of this edition, Bacon says: "I do now publish my Essays, which, of all my other works, have been most current-for, as it seems, they come home to men's business and bosoms."

It should be noted that the word essay has considerably changed its application since the days of Bacon. The word then bore its original sense of a slight suggestive sketch (French essayer, to try, or attempt), whereas it is now commonly employed to denote an elaborate and finished composition.]

I-OF STUDIES.

1. Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness* and retiring;* for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and per

*

NOTES.-Line 1. delight, pleasure, pas- | 2. privateness, privacy; retiring, retiretime; ornament, the adornment

ment.

of conversation; ability, execu- 4. expert men: that is, men of mere
tive skill.
experience.

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-The following words in this Essay are used by Bacon in a sense different from their modern meaning: explain this difference"humor" (10); "crafty" (15); "simple" (15); "admire" (15); "curiously" (23); "witty" (34).

What are the modern forms of the words "privateness” (2) and “retiring" (2)?

The following words are obsolete—define them : “proyning” (12); “stond (37).

1. Studies serve, etc. What three adverbial phrases are adjuncts to 2-7. Their chief use... learned. Supply the ellipses in this sentence.

serve?"