Page:Mr. Sidney Lee and the Baconians.djvu/7



[Mr. Sidney Lee's denunciations of the Baconians have been unmeasured, and as this method of controversy is clearly open to retort, we have no hesitation in publishing the following letter although not holding ourselves responsible either for its arguments or its deductions. — Ed. P.M.M.]

CCORDING to Mr. Sidney Lee, all who believe in the Baconian theory are "cranks." Some time ago he described them as "monomaniacs" whose " madhouse chatter threatens to develop into an epidemic disease." In fact, "the whole farrago of printed verbiage which fosters the Baconian bacillus is unworthy of serious attention from any but professed students of intellectual aberration." "The Baconian theory," according to Mr. Lee, "has no rational right to a hearing." And soon. Mr. Gladstone, as big a man as Mr. Lee, once wrote:—"I have always regarded the discussion as one perfectly serious, and to be respected." Argument, and not invective, is what the Baconians ask, but as no argument can be drawn from Mr. Lee the inquirer's only recourse is to consult his Life of William Shakespeare. According to the