Page:Essays of Francis Bacon 1908 Scott.djvu/80

Rh done by a great writer only. To express a new and valuable thought in language that combines at once the qualities of simplicity, precision, dignity, and universality can be done by a very great writer only. That feat Bacon accomplished, best of Englishmen.

When one examines Bacon's literary style as the outcome of his reading and study, it presents the same anomaly as his moral character. He was a diligent reader of Cicero, and he had so little faith in the English language that he had his Essays translated into Latin, to preserve them in what he called "the universal language." But the Essays "come home to men's business and bosoms" precisely because in forming his English style Bacon is not Ciceronian and rhetorical. He quotes a pun of Caesar's and one of his apothegms, but nothing more; he does not mention Catullus; and yet in English, Bacon displays the same quality of style that distinguishes the Commentaries of Caesar and the lyric poetry of Catullus. It is the Attic style, which aims at idiomatic purity, not only in choice of words, but also in a simple and even severe correctness of construction, urbanitas, as the Latin says. Dr. Rawley tells us that Bacon was always seeking the "clear" word and could not but be "polite," that is, urbane. In hitting upon just the right word, Bacon exhibits everywhere a mastery of his art that is as subtle as it is inimitable. Notice the emotional tone of the word 'reverend' in "it is a reverend thing to see an ancient castle or building not in decay;" so 'strangely' in "it Rh