Page:Bacons Essays 1908 West.djvu/18

 equal. Ingenious metaphors abound in his writings. Some of his expressions have obtained currency as quotations among people of education. Even the man in the street can speak of children as 'hostages to fortune,' though he might be puzzled to fix the phrase on its right author. Whatever the subject of discourse, Bacon has an illustration at hand.

Not only does he give us an illustration, but the chances are that he will throw in a quotation as well. He quotes with the copiousness and magnificent inaccuracy of many a modern journalist. His quotations fall into two classes,— Quotations and Misquotations, and one cannot decide off-hand which class is the more numerous. Sometimes he was inaccurate because his memory played him false and he was too indifferent about trifles to verify his quotations. Sometimes he deliberately tampered with an author to bring the quotation into harmony with its new context. In his quotations, as in his philosophy generally, exactness of detail was sacrificed to width of range.