THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD IN POLITICS.
'If any man think philosophy and universality to be idle studies, he
doth not consider that all professions are _from thence_ served and
supplied.'
_Advancement of Learning_.
'We leave room on every subject for the human or optative part; for it
is a part of science to make judicious inquiries and wishes.'
_Novum Organum_.
As to the _method_ of this new kind of philosophical inquiry, which is
brought to bear here so stedfastly upon the most delicate questions,
at a time when the Play-house was expressly forbidden by a Royal
Ordinance, on pain of dissolution, to touch them--in an age, too, when
Parliaments were lectured, and brow-beaten, and rudely sent home, for
contumaciously persisting in meddling with questions of _state_--in an
age in which prelates were shrilly interrupted in the pulpit, in the
midst of their finest and gravest Sunday discourse, and told, in the
presence of their congregations, to hold their tongues and mind their
own business, if they chanced to touch upon 'questions of church,' on
a day when the Head of the Church herself, in her own sacred person,
in her largest ruff, and 'rustling' in her last silk, happened to be
in her pew;--as to the _method_ of the philosophical investigations
which were conducted under such critical conditions, of course there
was no harm in displaying _that_ in the abstract, as a _method_
merely. As a method of _philosophical_ inquiry, there was no harm in
presenting it in a tolerably lucid and brilliant manner, accompanying
the exhibition with careful, and _apparently specific_, directions as
to the application of it to indifferent subjects. There was no harm,
indeed, in blazoning this method a little, and in soliciting the
attention of the public, and the attention of mankind in general, to
it in a somewhat extraordinary manner, not without some considerable
blowing of trumpets. As a method of _philosophical inquiry_, merely,
what earthly harm could it do? Surely there was no more innocent thing
in nature than 'your philosophy,' then, so far as any overt acts were
concerned; it certainly was the last thing in the world that a king or
a queen need trouble their heads about then. Who cared what methods
the philosophers were taking, or whether this was a new one or an old
one, so that the men of letters could understand it? The modern
Solomon was fain to confess that, for his part, he could not--that it
was beyond his depth; whereas the history of _Henry the Seventh_, by
the same author, appeared to him extremely clear and lively, and quite
within his range, and to _that_ he gave his own personal approbation.
The other work, however, as it was making so much noise in the world,
and promising to go down to posterity, would serve to adorn his reign,
and make it illustrious in future ages.
There was no harm in this philosopher's setting forth his _method_
then, and giving very minute and strict directions in regard to its
applications to 'certain subjects.' As to what the Author of it did
with it himself--that, of course, was another thing, and nobody's
business but his own just then, as it happened.
So totally was the world off its guard at the moment of this great and
greatest innovation in its practice--so totally unaccustomed were men
then to look for anything like _power_ in the quarter from which this
seemed to be proceeding--so impossible was it for this single book to
remove that previous impression--that the Author of the Novum Organum
could even venture to intersperse these directions, with regard to its
specific and particular applications, with pointed and not infrequent
allusions to the comprehensive nature--the essentially comprehensive
nature--of '_the Machine_' whose application to these _certain
instances_ he is at such pains to specify; he could, indeed, produce
it with a continuous side-long glance at this so portentous quality of
it.
Nay, he could go farther than that, and venture to assert openly, over
his own name, and leave on record for the benefit of posterity, _the
assertion_ that this new method of inquiry _does apply_, directly and
primarily, to those questions in which the human race are _primarily
concerned_; that it strikes at once to the heart of those questions,
and was invented to that end.
Such a certificate and warranty of the New Machine was put up by the
hands of the Inventor on the face of it, when he dedicated it to the
human use--when he appealed in its behalf from the criticism of the
times that were near, to those that were far off. Nay, he takes pains
to tell us; he tells us in that same moment, what one who studies the
NOVUM ORGANUM with the key of '_Times_' does not need to be told--can
see for himself--that in his _description of the method_ he has
already contrived to _make the application_, the _universal_ practical
_application_.
In his PREROGATIVE INSTANCES, the mind of man is brought out already
from its SPECIFIC narrowness, from its own abstract logical conceits
and arrogant prenotions, into that collision with fact--the broader
fact, the universal fact--and subjected to that discipline from it
which is the intention of this logic. It is a 'machine' which is meant
to serve to Man as a '_New' Mind_--the scientific mind, which is in
harmony with nature--a mind informed and enlarged with the universal
laws, the laws of KINDS, instead of the spontaneous uninstructed mind,
instead of the narrow specific mind of a barbaric race, filled with
its own preposterous prenotions and vain conceits, and at war with
universal nature; boldly pursuing its deadly feud with _that_, priding
itself on it, making a virtue of it. It is a machine in which those
human faculties which are the gifts of God to man, as the instruments
of his welfare, are for the first time scientifically conjoined. It is
a Machine in which _the senses_, those hitherto despised instruments
in _philosophy_, by means of a scientific rule and oversight, and with
the aid of scientific instruments, are made available for philosophic
purposes. It is a Machine in which that organization whereby the
universal nature _impresses_ itself on us--reports itself to
us--striking its incessant telegraphs on us, whether we read them or
not, is for the first time brought to the philosopher's aid; and it is
a Machine, also, by which _speculation_, that hitherto despised
instrument in _practice_, is for the first time, brought to the aid of
the man of practice. It is doubly 'New': it is a Machine in which
speculation becomes practical--it is a Machine in which practice
becomes scientific.
[_Fool_. Canst thou tell why a man's nose stands in the middle of his
face?
_Lear_. No.
_Fool_. Why, to keep his eyes on either side of it, that what he
cannot smell out, he may spy into.]
In 'THE PREROGATIVE INSTANCES,' the universal matter of _fact_ is
already taken up and disposed of in grand masses, under these
headships and chief cases, not in a miscellaneous, but scientific
manner. The Nature of Things is all there; for this is a Logic which
bows the mind of man to the law of the universal nature, and _informs_
and enlarges it with that. It is not a Logic merely in the old sense
of that term. The old Logic, and the cobwebs of metaphysics that grew
out of it, are the things which this Machine is going to puff away,
with the mere whiff and wind of its inroads into nature, and disperse
for ever. It is not a logic merely as logic has hitherto been limited,
but a philosophy. A logic in which the general 'notions of nature'
which are _causes_, powers, simple powers, elemental powers, true
differences, are substituted for those spontaneous, rude, uncorrected,
_specific_ notions,--_pre_-notions of men, which have in that form, as
they stand thus, no correlative in nature, and are therefore
impotent--not true _terms_ and _forms_, but air-words, air-lines,
merely. It is a logic which includes the Mind of NATURE, and her laws;
and not one which is limited to the mind of _Man_, and so fitted to
its _incapacity_ as to nurse him in his natural ignorance, to educate
him in his born foolery and conceit, to teach him to ignore by rule,
and set at nought the infinite mystery of nature.
The universal history, all of it that the mind of man is constituted
to grasp, is here in the general, under these PREROGATIVE INSTANCES,
in the luminous order of the Inventor of this science, blazing
throughout with his genius, and the mind that has abolished its
prenotions, and renounced its rude, instinctive, barbaric tendencies,
and has taken this scientific Organum instead; has armed itself with
the Nature of Things, and is prepared to grapple with all
specifications and particulars.
The author tells us plainly, that those seemingly pedantic
arrangements with which he is compelled to perplex his subject in this
great work of his, the work in which he openly introduces HIS
INNOVATION,--as that--will fall off by and by, when there is no longer
any need of them. They are but the natural guards with which great
Nature, working in the instinct of the philosophic genius, protects
her choicest growth,--the husk of that grain which must have times,
and a time to grow in,--the bark which the sap must stop to build, ere
its delicate works within are safe. They are like the sheaths with
which she hides through frost and wind and shower, until their hour
has come, her vernal patterns, her secret toils, her magic cunning,
her struggling aspirations, her glorious successes, her celestial
triumphs.
In the midst of this studious fog of scholasticism, this complicated
network of superficial divisions, the man of humour, who is always not
far off and ready to assist in the priestly ministrations as he sees
occasion, gently directs our attention to those more simple and
natural divisions of the subject, and those more immediately practical
terms, which it might be possible to use, under certain circumstances,
in speaking of the _same subjects_, into which, however, _these_ are
easily resolvable, as soon as the right point of observation is taken.
Through all this haze, he contrives to show us confidentially, the
outline of those grand natural divisions, which he has already clearly
produced--under their scholastic names, indeed,--in his book of the
Advancement of Learning; but which he cannot so openly continue, in a
work produced professedly, as a practical instrument fit for
application to immediate use, and where the true application is
constantly entering the vitals of subjects too delicate to be openly
glanced at then.
But he gives us to understand, however, that he _has_ made the
application of this method to practice, in a much more _specific,
detailed_ manner, in another place, that he _has_ brought it down from
those more general forms of the Novum Organum, into 'the nobler'
departments, 'the more chosen' departments of that universal field of
human practice, which the Novum Organum takes up in its great outline,
and boldly and clearly claims in the general, though when it comes to
specific applications and particulars, it does so stedfastly strike,
or appear to strike, into that one track of practice, which was the
only one left open to it then,--which it keeps still as rigidly as if
it had no other. He has brought it out, he tells us, from that trunk
of 'universality,' and carried it with his own hand into the minutest
points and fibres of particulars, those points and fibres, those
living articulations in which the grand natural divisions he indicates
here, naturally terminate; the divisions which the philosopher who
'makes the Art and Practic part of life, the _mistress_ to his
Theoric,' must of course follow. He tells us that he _has_ applied it
to PARTICULAR ARTS, to those departments of the human experience and
practice in which the need of a _rule_ is most felt, and where things
have been suffered to go on hitherto, in a specially miscellaneous
manner, and that his axioms of practice in these departments have been
so scientifically constructed from particulars, that he thinks they
will be apt to know their way to particulars again;--that their
specifications are at the same time so comprehensive and so minute,
that he considers them fit for immediate use, or at least so far forth
fitted, as to require but little skill on the part of the
practitioner, to insure them against failure in practice. The process
being, of course, in this application to the exigencies of practice,
necessarily disentangled from those technicalities and relics of the
old wordy scholasticism in which he was compelled to incase and seal
up his meanings, in his _professedly_ scientific works, and especially
in his professedly _practical_ scientific work.
But these so important applications of his philosophy to practice, of
which he issues so fair a prospectus, though he frequently _refers_ to
them, could not then be published. The time had not come, and
personally, he was obliged to leave, before it came. He was careful,
however, to make the best provision which could be made, under such
circumstances, for the carrying out of his intentions; for he left a
will. These works of _practice_ could not then be published; and if
they could have been, there was no public then ready for them. They
could not be _published_; but there was nothing to hinder their being
put under cover. There was no difficulty to a man of skill in packing
them up in a portable form, under lids and covers of one sort and
another, so unexceptionable, that all the world could carry them
about, for a century or two, and not perceive that there was any harm
in them. Very curiously wrought covers they might be too, with some
taste of the wonders of mine art pressing through, a little here and
there. They might be put under a very gorgeous and attractive cover in
one case, and under a very odd and fantastic one in another; but in
such a manner as to command, in both cases, the admiration and wonder
of men, so as to pique perpetually their curiosity and provoke
inquiry, until the time had come and the key was found.
'Some may raise this question,' he says, talking as he does sometimes
in the historical plural of his philosophic chair,--'_this question,
rather than objection_,'--[it was much to be preferred in that form
certainly]--'whether we talk of perfecting NATURAL PHILOSOPHY alone,
according to our method, or _the other sciences such as_--ETHICS,
LOGIC, POLITICS.' A pretty _question_ to raise just then, truly,
though this philosopher sees fit to take it so demurely. 'Whether we
talk of _perfecting politics_ with our method,' Elizabethan
politics,--and not politics only, but whether we talk of _perfecting
'ethics'_ with it also, and 'logic,--common logic,' which last is as
much in need of perfecting as anything, and the beginning of
perfecting of that is the reform in the others. 'We certainly
intend,'--the emphasis here is on the word '_certainly_,' though the
reader who has not the key of the times may not perceive it; 'We
certainly intend to comprehend them ALL.' For this is the author whose
words are most of them emphatic. We must read his sentences more than
once to get all the emphasis. We certainly INTEND to comprehend them
all. 'We are not vain promisers,' he says, emphasizing _that_ word in
another place, and putting this intention into the shape of a
_promise_.
And as _common logic which regulates matters_ by syllogism is applied,
not only to natural, but to every other science, so our inductive
method _likewise_, comprehends them _all_.--Again--[he thinks this
bears repeating, repeating in this connection, for now he is measuring
the claims of this new method, this _new logic_, with the claims of
that which he finds in possession, regulating matters by syllogism,
not producing a very logical result, however:] 'For we form a history,
and tables of invention, for ANGER, FEAR, SHAME, and the like,' [that
is--we _form_ a _history_ and tables of _invention_ for the passions
or affections,] 'and _also_ for EXAMPLES IN CIVIL LIFE, and the MENTAL
OPERATIONS ... as well as for HEAT, COLD, LIGHT, VEGETATION and THE
LIKE,' and he directs us to the Fourth Part of the Instauration, which
he reserves for his noblest and more chosen subjects for the
confirmation of this assertion.
'_But_ since our method of interpretation, after preparing and
arranging a history, does not content itself with examining _the
opinions and desires_ of THE MIND--[hear]--like common logic, but also
inspects THE NATURE of THINGS, we so regulate the mind that it may be
enabled to _apply itself_, in every respect, correctly to _that
nature_.' Our _examples_ in this part of the work, which is but a
small and preparatory part of it, are limited, as you will observe, to
_heat, cold, light, vegetation_, and _the like_; but this is the
explanation of the general intention, which will enable you to
disregard that circumstance in your reading of it.--Those examples
will serve their purpose with the minds that they detain. They are
preparatory, and greatly useful, if you read this new logic from the
height of this explanation, you will have a mind, formed by that
process, able to apply itself, in every respect, correctly to the
subjects omitted here by name, but so clearly claimed, not as the
proper subjects only, but as the _actual_ subjects of the new
investigation. But lest you should not understand this explanation, he
continues--'_On this account_ we deliver _necessary_ and _various_
precepts in _our doctrine of interpretation_, so that we may apply, in
some measure, to the method of discovering _the quality and condition
of the subject matter of investigation_.' And this is the apology for
omitting here, or _seeming_ to omit, _such sciences as_ Ethics,
Politics, and that science which is alluded to under the name of
_Common Logic_.
This is, indeed, a very instructive paragraph, though it is a
gratuitous one for the scholar who has found leisure to read this work
with the aid of that doctrine of _interpretation_ referred to,
especially if he is already familiar with its particular applications
to the noble subjects just specified.
Among the prerogative instances--'suggestive instances' are
included--'such as _suggest or_ point out _that_ which is
_advantageous to mankind_; for _bare power_ and _knowledge_ in
_themselves exalt_, rather than _enrich_, human nature. _We shall have
a better opportunity of discovering these, when we treat of the
application to practice._ BESIDES, in the WORK of INTERPRETATION, we
LEAVE ROOM ON EVERY SUBJECT for the _human or optative_ part; FOR IT
is A PART OF SCIENCE, to make JUDICIOUS INQUIRIES and WISHES.' 'The
_generally_ useful instances. They are such as relate to various
points, and _frequently occur_, sparing by that means _considerable
labour_ and _new trials_. The proper place for speaking of
_instruments_, and _contrivances_, will be that in which we speak of
_application to practice_, and the _method_ of EXPERIMENT. _All that
has hitherto been ascertained and made use of_, WILL BE APPLIED in the
PARTICULAR HISTORY of EACH ART.' [We certainly intend to _include_
them ALL, such as Ethics, Politics, and Common Logic.]
'We have now, therefore, exhibited the species, or _simple elements_
of the _motions_, _tendencies_, and _active powers_, which are most
universal in nature; and no small portion of NATURAL, _that is_,
UNIVERSAL SCIENCE, has been _sketched out_. We do _not_, however, deny
_that_ OTHER INSTANCES can, _perhaps, be added_' (he has confined
himself chiefly to the physical agencies under this head, with a
sidelong glance at others, now and then), 'and our _divisions changed_
to some _more natural order_ of _things_ [hear], and also reduced to a
_less number_ [hear], in which respect we do _not_ allude to any
_abstract_ classification, as if one were to say,'--and he quotes
here, in this apparently disparaging manner, his own grand, new-coined
classification, which he has drawn out with his new method from the
heart of nature, and applied to the human,--which he had to go into
the universal nature to find, that very classification which he has
exhibited _abstractly_ in his Advancement of Learning--_abstractly_,
and, therefore, without coming into any dangerous contact with any
one's preconceptions,--'as if one were to say, that bodies desire the
_preservation, exaltation_, propagation, or fruition of their natures;
or, that motion tends to the preservation and benefit, either of the
UNIVERSE, as in the case of the motions of _resistance_ and
_connection_--those two _universal_ motions and tendencies--or of
EXTENSIVE WHOLES, as in the case of those of the _greater
congregation_.' These are phrases which look innocent enough; there is
no offensive approximation to particulars here, apparently; what harm
can there be in the philosophy of 'extensive wholes,' and 'larger
congregations'? Nobody can call that meddling with 'church and state.'
Surely one may speak of the nature of things in general, under such
general terms as these, without being suspected of an intention to
innovate. 'Have you heard the argument?' says the king to Hamlet. 'Is
there no offence in it?' 'None in the world.' But the philosopher goes
on, and does come occasionally, even here, to words which begin to
sound at little suspicious in such connexions, or would, if one did
not know how _general_ the intention must be in this application of
them. They are _abstract_ terms, and, of course, nobody need see that
they are a different kind of abstraction from the old ones, that the
grappling-hook on all particulars has been abstracted in them. Suppose
one were to say, then, to resume, 'that motion tends to the
preservation and benefit, either of _the universe_, as in the case of
the motions of _resistance_ and _connection_, or of _extensive
wholes_, as in the case of the motions of _the greater congregation_--
[what are these motions, then?]--REVOLUTION and ABHORRENCE of CHANGE,
or of _particular forms_, as in the case of _the others_.' This looks
a little like growing towards a point. We are apt to consider these
motions in certain _specific_ forms, as they appear in those extensive
wholes and larger congregations, which it is not necessary to name
more particularly in this connection, though they are terms of a
'suggestive' character, to borrow the author's own expression, and
belong properly to subjects which this author has just included in
his system.
But this is none other than his own philosophy which he seems to be
criticising, and rating, and rejecting here so scornfully; but if we
go on a little further, we shall find what the criticism amounts to,
and that it is only the limitation of it to _the general
statement_--that it is _the abstract_ form of it, which he complains
of. He wishes to direct our attention to the fact, that he does not
consider it good for anything in that general form in which he has put
it in his Book of Learning. This is the deficiency which he is always
pointing out in that work, because this is the deficiency which it has
been his chief labour to supply. Till that defect, that grand defect
which his philosophy exhibits, as it stands in his books of abstract
science, is supplied--that defect to which, even in these works
themselves, he is always directing our attention--he cannot, without
self-contradiction, propound his philosophy to the world as a
practical one, good for human relief.
In order that it should accomplish the ends to which it is addressed,
it is not enough, he tells us in so many words, to exhibit it in the
abstract, in general terms, for these are but 'the husks and shells of
sciences.' It must be brought down and applied to those artistic
reformations which afflicted, oppressed human nature demands--to those
artistic constructions to which human nature spontaneously,
instinctively tends, and empirically struggles to achieve.
'For _although_,' he continues,'_such remarks_--those last
quoted--_be_ just, _unless they terminate in_ MATTER AND CONSTRUCTION,
_according to the_ TRUE DEFINITIONS, _they are_ SPECULATIVE, and of
LITTLE USE.' But in the Novum Organum, those more natural divisions
are reduced to a form in which it IS _possible to commence practice_
with them at once, in certain departments, where there is no objection
to _innovation_,--where the proposal for the relief of the human
estate is met without opposition,--where the new scientific
achievements in the conquest of nature are met with a universal,
unanimous human plaudit and gratulation.
'_In the meantime_,' he continues, after condemning those abstract
terms, and declaring, that unless they terminate in _matter and
construction, according_ to _true definitions_, they are
_speculative_, and of _little use_--'_In the meantime, our
classification will suffice_, and be of much use in the consideration
of the PREDOMINANCE of POWERS, and examining the WRESTLING INSTANCES,
which constitute our PRESENT SUBJECT.' [The subject that was _present_
then. The question.]
So that the Novum Organum presents itself to us, in these passages,
only as a preparation and arming of the mind for a closer dealing with
the nature of things, in particular instances, which are _not_ there
instanced,--for those more critical 'WRESTLING INSTANCES' which the
scientific re-constructions, according to true definitions, in the
higher departments of human want will constitute,--those _wrestling_
instances, which will naturally arise whenever the philosophy which
concerns itself experimentally with the question of the predominance
of powers--the philosophy which includes in its programme the
practical application of the principles of revolution and abhorrence
of change, in 'greater congregations' and 'extensive wholes,' as well
as the principles of _motion_ in 'particular forms'--shall come to be
applied to its nobler, to its noblest subjects. That is the philosophy
which dismisses its technicalities, which finds such words as these
when the question of the predominance of powers, and the question of
revolution and abhorrence of change in the greater congregations and
extensive wholes, comes to be practically handled. This is the way we
philosophise 'when we come to particulars.'
'In _a rebellion_,
When what's _not meet_, but what must be, was law,
Then were they chosen. In a better hour,
Let what _is meet_ be said it must be _meet_,
And _throw their power in the dust_.'
That is what we should call, in a _general_ way, 'the motion of
revolution' in our book of abstractions; this is the moment in which
it _predominates_ over 'the abhorrence of change,' if not in the
extensive whole--if not in _the whole_ of the greater congregation, in
that part of it for whom this one speaks; and this is the critical
moment which the man of science makes so much of,--brings out so
scientifically, so elaborately in this experiment. But this is a part
of science which he is mainly familiar with. Here is a place, for
instance, where the motion of particular forms is skilfully brought to
the aid of that larger motion. Here we have an experiment in which
these petty motives come in to aid the revolutionary movement in the
minds of the leaders of it, and with their feather's weight turn the
scale, when the abhorrence of change is too nicely balanced with its
antagonistic force for a predominance of powers without it.
'But for my single self,
I had as lief not be, as live to be
In awe of such a thing as _I_ myself.
I was born free as Caesar; so were you.
* * * * *
Why man, he doth bestride the narrow world
_Like a Colossus_; and we, petty men,
Walk under his huge legs, and peep about
To find ourselves _dishonorable graves_.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
_Brutus_ and _Caesar_. What should be in _that Caesar_?
Why should that name be sounded more than yours?
Conjure with them;
_Brutus_ will start a spirit as soon as _Caesar_.
_Now in the name_ of _all the gods at once_,
_Upon what meat doth this our_ CAESAR _feed,
That he is grown so great_? AGE, _thou_ art shamed:
Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods.
When went there by an AGE, since the great flood,
But it was famed with more than with ONE MAN?
When could they say, till now, that talked of _Rome_,
That _her wide walls_ encompassed _but One Man_?
_Now_ is it _Rome indeed_, and _room enough_,
When there is in it but _One Only Man_.
* * * * *
What you would work me to, I have some aim;
_How I have thought of this_, and of _these times_,
I shall recount hereafter.
Now could _I_, Casca,
_Name_ to thee a man most like this dreadful night;
That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars
As doth the lion in the Capitol,
A man no mightier than thyself, or me,
In PERSONAL ACTION; yet _prodigious_ grown,
And _fearful as these strange eruptions are_.'
''T is Caesar _that you mean_: Is it _not_, Cassius?'
'Let it be--WHO IT is: for Romans now
Have thewes and limbs like to their ancestors.
* * * * *
Poor man, I know he would not be a wolf,
But that he sees the Romans are but sheep.
_He_ were no _lion, were not Romans hinds.
Those that with haste will make a mighty fire,
Begin it_ with--WEAK STRAWS. What _trash_ is--Rome
What rubbish, and what offal, _when it serves
for the base matter to illuminate
So vile a thing as_--Caesar. But--
_I_ perhaps _speak this_
Before a willing bondman.
And here is another case where the question of the predominance of
powers arises. In this instance, it is the question of _British_
freedom that comes up; and the _tribute_--not the tax--that a
Caesar--the first Caesar himself, had exacted, is refused 'in a better
hour,' by a people kindling with ancestral recollections, throwing
themselves upon their ancient rights, and '_the natural bravery of
their isle_,' and ready to re-assert their ancient liberties.
The Ambassador of Augustus makes his master's complaint at the British
Court. The answer of the State runs thus, king, queen and prince
taking part in it, as the Poet's convenience seems to require.
'This tribute,' complains the Roman; 'by thee, lately, is left
untendered.'
_Queen_. And, to kill the marvel,
Shall be so ever.
_Prince Cloten_. _There be many Caesars_,
Ere such another Julius. Britain is
_A world by itself_; and we will nothing pay,
For wearing our own noses. [_General principles_.]
_Queen_. That opportunity
_Which then they had to take from us, to resume
We have again._ Remember, sir, my liege,
[It is the people who are represented here by Cymbeline.]
_The kings your ancestors_; together with
The natural bravery of your isle; which stands
As Neptune's park, ribbed and paled in
With rocks unscaleable, and roaring waters;
With sands, that will not bear your enemies' boats,
But suck them up to the top-mast.
* * * * *
_Cloten_. Come, there's no more tribute to be paid: _Our kingdom
is stronger_ than it was at that time; and, as _I said_, there is
no more _such_ Caesars: _other_ of them _may have crooked noses_;
but, to owe _such straight arms_, none.
_Cymbeline_. Son, let your mother end.
_Cloten. We have yet many among us can gripe as hard as Cassibelan_:
I do not say, I am one; but I have a hand.--Why tribute? Why
should we pay tribute? If Caesar can hide the sun from us with a
blanket, or put the moon in his pocket, we will pay him tribute
for light; else, Sir, no more tribute, pray you now.
_Cymbeline_. You must know,
Till the _injurious Romans_ did extort
This tribute from us, _we were free: Caesar's ambition_
.... against all colour, here
Did put the yoke upon us; which to _shake off_,
Becomes a warlike people, _whom we reckon_
_Ourselves to be_. We do say then to Caesar,
_Our_ ancestor was that Mulmutius, _which
Ordained_ OUR LAWS, whose use THE SWORD OF CAESAR
_Hath too much mangled_; whose REPAIR and FRANCHISE,
Shall, by the power we hold, be _our good deed_.
Mulmutius _made our laws_,
Who was the first of BRITAIN which did put
His brows within a golden crown, and called
_Himself_ a KING.
That is the tune when the Caesar comes this way, to a people who have
such an ancestor to refer to; no matter what costume he comes in. This
is Caesar in Britain; and though Prince Cloten appears to incline
naturally to prose, as the medium best adapted to the expression of
his views, the blank verse of Cymbeline is as good as that of Brutus
and Cassius, and seems to run in their vein very much.
It is in some such terms as these that we handle those universal
motions on whose balance the welfare of the world depends--'the
motions of _resistance_ and _connection_,' as the Elizabethan
philosopher, with a broader grasp than the Newtonian, calls them--when
we come to the diagrams which represent particulars. This is the kind
of language which this author adopts when he comes to the
modifications of those motions which are incident to extensive wholes
in the case of the greater congregations; that is, '_revolution_' and
'_abhorrence of change_,' and to those which belong to _particular
forms_ also. For it is the science of life; and when the universal
science touches the human life, it will have nothing less vivacious
than this. It will have the _particular of life_ here also. It will
not have abstract revolutionists, any more than it will have abstract
butterflies, or bivalves, or univalves. This is the kind of 'loud'
talk that one is apt to hear in this man's school; and the clash and
clang that this very play now under review is full of, is just the
noise that is sure to come out of his laboratory, whenever he gets
upon one of these experiments in 'extensive wholes,' which he is so
fond of trying. It is the noise that one always hears on his stage,
whenever the question of 'particular forms' and _predominance of
powers comes_ to be put experimentally, at least, _in this class_ of
'wrestling instances.'
For we have here a form of composition in which that more simple and
natural order above referred to is adopted--where those clear
scientific classifications, which this author himself plainly exhibits
in another scientific work, though he disguises them in the Novum
Organum, are again brought out, no longer in the abstract, but
grappling the matter; where, instead of the scientific technicalities
just quoted--instead of those abstract terms, such as 'extensive
wholes,' 'greater congregation,' 'fruition of their natures,' and the
like--we have terms not less scientific, the equivalents of these, but
more living--words ringing with the detail of life in its scientific
condensations--reddening with the glow, or whitening with the calm, of
its ideal intensities--pursuing it everywhere--everywhere, to the last
height of its poetic fervors and exaltations.
And it is because this so vivid popular science has its issue from
this 'source'--it is because it proceeds from this scientific centre,
on the scientific radii, through all the divergencies and
refrangibilities of the universal beam--it is because all this
inexhaustible multiplicity and variety of particulars is threaded with
the fibre of the universal science--it is because all these
thick-flowering imaginations, these 'mellow hangings,' are hung upon
the stems and branches that unite in the trunk of the _prima
philosophia_--it is because of this that men find it so prophetic, so
inclusive, so magical; _this_ is the reason they find _all_ in it. 'I
have either told, or designed to tell, _all_,' says the expositor of
these plays. 'What I cannot speak, I point out with my finger.' For
all the building of this genius is a building on that scientific
ground-plan he has left us; and that is a plan which includes all _the
human_ field. It is the plan of the _Great Instauration_.