Our critic next quotes: “'Whilst writing these interior works these keies and joining words did deter [it means retard] th’ advancement’ (pretty, to see keys and words writing).”
On page 26 of the Advancement of Learning Bacon says: “For I am not ignorant howe much that diverteth and interrupteth the prosecution, and advancement of knowledge”; and on page 27, “which hath not onely given impediment to the proficience of Learning.”
Preceding examples have shown want of unity in the subject, but I will give an additional illustration to follow “whilst writing these interior works” etc. It is this: “Hearing that you are at leisure to peruse Stories a desire took me to make an Experiment,” (Letter to the King).
A little farther on the critic states: “Especially careful is the real Bacon in the use of the present conditional, (if, lest, tho’) it be, &c.; but here we sometimes find may stuck in,—'Dread lest our secret history may be found out’; 'ere the pleasure may disappear,’” &c.
In a letter to Essex (1598) the critic will find: “If the main conditions may be good.”
And again: “Sometimes a future indicative, 'If it shall not be (for be not) found.’”
In a letter to the King we have: “If it shall be deprived”; in A. of L. (p. 5) “if any man shall thinke.”
Again: “Many of the Phantom’s tautologies are positively imbecile, e.g.: 'Frequently, aye many a time'; 'a narrative of a story'; 'the play previously named or mentioned'; 'very pleasing to such a degree'; 'a most cleare playne ensample’; 'fulmin’d lightning'; 'a coming people in the future'; and the like.”
In the History of Henry the Seventh is the peculiar combination, “then a young Youth” (p. 247); and in the Advancement of Learning (1605) these lines: “True bounds and limitations, whereby humane knowledge is confined and circumscribed: and yet without any such contraction or coarctation”; “being steeped and infused in the humors of the affections”; “not referred to the good of Men and Mankind” (p. 5); “let men endeavour an endlesse progresse or proficience in both ... and again that they doe not unwisely mingle or confound these learnings together” (p. 6); “the accuser of Socrates layd it as an Article of charge & accusation against him”; “and to suppresse truth by force of eloquence and speech”; “there hath beene a meeting, and concurrence” (p. 7); “the modern loosenes or negligence;” “it is a thing personall and individual”; “have an influence and operation” (p. 13); “to pierce and penetrate” (p. 15); “fit and proper for”; “can taxe or condemme” (1st p. 16); “have sought to vaile over and conceale” (p. 22); “Man’s owne individuall Nature” (B. 2, p. 56); “which cannot but cease and stoppe all progression. For no perfect discoverie can bee made uppon a flatte, or a levell” (p. 34); “which hath been likewise handled. But howe? rather in a satyre & Cinicaly, then seriously & wisely for men have rather sought by wit to deride and traduce” (B. 2, 1st p. 77); “being set downe and strongly planted doth judge and determine most of the Controversies” (B. 2, p. 72); “For Narrations and Relations” (B. 2, p. 14); also “But as for the Narrations ... they are either not true, or not Naturall; and therefore impertinent for the Storie of Nature” (B. 2, 2d p. 6).
Again “The real Bacon, as a pretty good classic, could not have spelt Illiad, spirrit, Brittain, Citty, instructted &c., with doubled consonants; or comon, sufer’d, &c., with a single one; and rarely, if ever, did he adopt that curious growth of the old genitive suffix (-es)—is into the detached possessive his (in imitation of which, her came to be similarly used); yet in the Phantom’s twaddle instances abound—'Essex his plea’; 'the author his poems’; 'the Queen her crown’; &c., &c.”