"_Antiquitas Sæculi Juventus Mundi_" (Vol. ii., p. 218.).--A learned
friend, who although involved in the avocations of an active professional
career, delights "inter sylvas Academi quærere verum," has favoured me with
the following observation on these words:--"That the phrase _Antiquitas
sæculi juventus mundi_ is in Italics in Bacon's work does not, in my
opinion, prove it to be a quotation, any more than the words _ordine
retrogrado_ in the subsequent passage. Italics were used in Bacon's time,
and long afterwards, to to mark not only quotations, but emphatic words,
[Greek: gnômai], and epigrammatic sentences, of which you will every where
see instances. I have not the original edition of the work, but we have
here[5] the rare translation into English by Gilbert Wats, Oxford, 1640,
folio, through which the references to authors are given in the margin; but
there is no reference appended to this passage. I cannot of course decide
positively that the phrase is not a quotation, but I incline to the opinion
that it is not. It may be an adaptation of some proverbial expression; but
I prefer believing that it is Bacon's own mode of expressing that the
present times are more ancient (_i.e._ full of years) than the earliest,
and thus to show that the respect we entertain for authority is unfounded."
Coleridge was of the same opinion (Introd. to _Encycl. Metrop._, p. 19.).
Had the phrase been a quotation, would not Bacon have said, "Sanè ut vere
_dictum est_," rather than "Ut vere _dicamus_."