The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded by Bacon, Delia, 1811-1859

And, when science began first to turn her eye on history, and propose to herself the relief of the human estate, as her end, and the scientific arts as her means, this was the spectacle she found herself expected to endure; this was the state of things she found herself called upon to sanction and conserve. She could not immediately reform it--she must produce first her doctrine of '_true_ forms,' her scientific definitions and precepts based on them, and her doctrine of constructions. She could not openly condemn it; but she could criticise and reject it by means of that method which is 'sometimes necessary in the sciences,' and to which 'those who would let in new light upon the human mind must have recourse.' She could seize the grand hieroglyphic of the heroic past, and make it 'point with its finger' that which was unspeakable,--her scorn of it. She could borrow the freedom of the old Roman lips, to repronounce, in her own new dialect,--not their anticipation of her _veto_ only, but her eternal affirmation,--the word of her consulship, the rule of her nobility,--the nobility of being,--being in the human,--the nobility of manliness,--_the divinity of State_, the _true_ doctrine of it;--and, to speak _truly, 'Antiquitas seculi, juventus mundi._'

CHAPTER VIII.

METAPHYSICAL AID.

It is the cure of the Common-weal which this author has undertaken, for he found himself pre-elected to the care of the people and to the world's tribuneship. But he handles his subject in the natural, historical order, in the chronological order,--and not here only, but in that play of which this is a part,--of which this is the play within the Play,--in that grand, historical proceeding on the world's theatre, which it was given to the author of this play to institute.

He begins with the physical wants of men. The hunger, and cold, and weariness, and all the physical suffering and destitution of that human condition which is the condition of the many, has arrested his human eye, with its dumb, patient eloquence, and it is _that_ which makes the starting point of his revolution. He translates its mute language, he anticipates its word. He is setting in movement operations that are intended to make 'coals cheap'; he proposes to have corn at his own price. He has so much confidence in what his tongue can do in the way of flattery, that he expects to come back beloved of all the trades in Rome. He will 'cog their hearts from them,' and get elected _consul_ yet, with all their voices.