The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 18, April, 1859

Great as a student of physical nature, Bacon was a master in the knowledge of human nature. Pope only chose the epithet which all the world had applied, when he wrote of the

"Words that wise Bacon or grave Raleigh spake."

And nowhere is his wisdom more apparent than in the book of his "Essays." The sixth volume of the edition before us contains, beside the "Essays," the "History of King Henry VII.," with other fragmentary histories, and the "De Sapienda Veterum," with a translation, which, like the translations of the principal philosophical works in previous volumes, is executed with admirable spirit and appropriateness.

All these works give the same evidence of editorial ability and skill as those in the division of Philosophy. Mr. Spedding's Preface to the "Henry VII." is not only an interesting essay in itself, but an able and satisfactory vindication of Bacon's general historic accuracy. Bacon's view of the true office of history is very different from the theory which has lately prevailed to a considerable extent, and it would be well, perhaps, were its wisdom more considered. "It is the true office of history," he says, (Advancement of Learning, Book II.,) "to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels; and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man's judgment." And to this he adds, with much pith, in the "De Augmentis," II. 9,—"Licet enim Historia quaeque prudentior politicis praeceptis et monitis veluti impregnata sit, tamen scriptor ipse sibi obstetricari non debet." Bacon wrote history according to his own rule, and proved its value by the practical exemplification which he gave of it. There are few better pieces of historic narrative in English than this "History of Henry VII."

Special thanks are due to Mr. Spedding for having reprinted, in full, the first three editions of the "Essays,"—the three that were published by Bacon himself. The first appeared in 1597, and contained but ten essays; the second in 1612, when Bacon was in the height of prosperity, and contained thirty-eight; the third appeared in 1625, after his downfall, less than a year before his death, and contained fifty-eight essays. The three thus afford, as well by the successive additions of new essays as by the alterations which are made in the earlier, a most interesting exhibition of the direction of Bacon's thought at different periods of his life, and the changes in his style. The comparison is one of very great interest, but more space is required to develop it than we have for the present at command. One fact only may be noted in passing,—that the essay on Adversity, which contains that most memorable and noble sentence, "Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, Adversity is the blessing of the New," is one of those added in the last edition, after Bacon himself had experienced all the bitterness of adversity.

Mr. Spedding proposes, in the forthcoming volumes of the Occasional Works of Lord Bacon, to connect his speeches and letters with an explanatory narrative,—thus presenting, he says, "a biography the most copious, the most minute, and, by the very necessity of the case, the fairest that I can produce." He promises "new matter which is neither little nor unimportant; but," he adds, "more important than the new matter is the new aspect which (if I may judge of other minds by my own) will be imparted to the old matter by this manner of setting it forth." We await this part of Mr. Spedding's work with especial interest, for in it will unquestionably be afforded, for the first time, the means of forming a correct judgment of Bacon's character, and just conclusions concerning those public actions of his which have hitherto stood in perplexing contradiction to his avowed principles, to the nobility of his views, to his religious professions, to the reverential love with which he was regarded by those who knew him best. It is not to be hoped that his life can be redeemed from stain; but it may be hoped that a true presentation of the grounds and bearings of his actions may relieve him from the name of "meanest of mankind," and may show that his faults were rather those of his time than of his nature. We shall keep our readers informed of the progress of this invaluable edition, which should lead to the more faithful and general study of the works of him whom "all that were great and good loved and honored."

A New History of the Conquest of Mexico. In which Las Casas' Denunciations of the Popular Historians of that War are fully vindicated. By ROBERT ANDERSON WILSON, Counsellor at Law; Author of "Mexico and its Religion," etc. Philadelphia: James Challen & Son. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, & Co.

Before touching on the subject-matter of this book, we have something to say respecting the spirit in which it appears to have been written, the style of its execution, and the manner in which it has been introduced to the world. As it is avowedly an attempt to refute the positions taken up by Mr. Prescott in his "History of the Conquest of Mexico," and to destroy the established reputation of that work, we are naturally led into a comparison between the two writers, that extends beyond the theories and ideas which they have respectively adopted and maintained. We cannot but remember, (and such remembrances awaken now other feelings besides mere respect and admiration,) that, when Prescott was entering upon his literary career, he labored in silence and retirement; that, in the prosecution of his researches, in the gradual formation of his views, and in the preparation of his work, he spared no labor and made no account of time; that, devoting himself to his chosen pursuit with the ardor of a scholar and a searcher after truth, he felt a modest self-reliance, and a just confidence in the utility of his labors, without anticipating the reward of a wide-spread fame; that he was prompt to acknowledge every service, or offer of service, which had been made to him, and communicated to the public not only his information, but the sources from which it had been derived; that, where he rejected the conclusions of other writers, he treated those from whom he differed with the utmost courtesy and candor; and that, when his task was completed, he left it to the free judgment of the world, without soliciting approbation or courting any man's applause.

This is not the course which Mr. Robert Anderson Wilson has thought fit to take. An accidental visit to Mexico, for which he appears to consider himself entitled to no slight commendation, led him into some speculations on the origin and civilization of the Aztec race. Without waiting to inform himself of the ideas entertained on these subjects by other men, he hastened to put forth his own crude notions in a work entitled "Mexico and its Religion," and twice reprinted by its enterprising publishers, with titles varied to suit what was supposed to be the popular taste. Still entertaining an aversion to laborious study, (for which, indeed, his previous education, as well as precarious health, appears to have disqualified him,) he announced his purpose to write a History of the Conquest of Mexico "from the American stand-point," and issued what he himself called "a clap-trap advertisement," for the purpose of enlisting the sympathies of a class in whom hatred of Romanism preponderates over knowledge and judgment. He had made some progress in his "History," when he found that the ideas which he had supposed to be original in his own brain were old and trite. Being thus precluded from claiming for himself the merits of a discoverer, he has shown an eagerness, every way praiseworthy, to place the laurel on the brow to which he supposes it rightfully belongs. Accordingly, he presents to the world, as his master and pioneer, that renowned authority on the antiquities of New Spain, the Hon. Lewis Cass, who, it appears, had published an essay on the subject in the "North American Review." While his work was passing through the press, Mr. Wilson wrote what he styles a "Chapter Preliminary," but what we suppose would have been styled by persons who affect the native idiom when writing their own language, a "Preliminary Chapter." This "Chapter Preliminary" he printed and circulated, in advance of the publication of his book; and though it contains not a single fact in support of his theory, nor even any clear statement of the theory itself, he was rewarded, as he expected, with puffs preliminary from a portion of the press, prompt to recognize the merit of a gentleman who had something to sell, and consequently something to be advertised. The "advance notices,"—so he calls them,—thus obtained, are made part of his book, and may there be read alike by discerning and undiscerning readers. With equal ingenuity he has prefixed to it a title-page, the grammar of which is questionable and the punctuation vile, but in which he has contrived to represent his opinions as identical with those of Las Casas, the great historian of the Spanish Conquests in America, although, in truth, this identity of opinion is purely imaginary, being founded on his mere conjectures in regard to the contents of a work of Las Casas, which, as he bitterly complains, has been withheld from the world. Then, with his two supporters, Las Casas on the one side, and Lewis Casas—we beg his pardon, we mean Lewis Cass—on the other, Mr. Wilson comes before the public, making first a bow "preliminary" to "Colonel and Mrs. Powell," "my dear Uncle," and "my dear Aunt," in a Dedication that reminds us of a certain form of invitations which our readers may sometimes have received: "Miss Smith presents her compliments to Mr. Brown, and I hope you will do me the favor to take tea with me to-morrow evening."

But we have omitted to make mention of the letters "preliminary" which he has printed with the "advance notices." He indulges in frequent sneers at the "weight of authority" to which Mr. Prescott was accustomed to attach some importance in the discussion of a doubtful point. Nevertheless, in his extreme eagerness to obtain for his own opinions the sanction of an authoritative name, he publishes, as "Mr. Prescott's estimate of his researches," a letter which he had received from that gentleman, and, quite incapable of appreciating its quiet irony, evidently supposes that the historian of the Conquest of Mexico was prepared to retire from the field of his triumphs at the first blast of his assailant's trumpet. Next comes a letter from a gentleman whom Mr. Wilson calls "Rousseau St. Hilaire, author of 'The History of Spain,' &c., and Professor of the Faculty of Letters in the University of Paris." This, we suppose, is the same gentleman who is elsewhere mentioned in the book as Rousseau de St. Hilaire, and as Rosseau St. Hilaire. Now we might take issue with Mr. Wilson as to the existence of his correspondent. It would be easy to prove that no person bearing the name is connected with the University of Paris. Adopting the same line of argument by which our author endeavors to convert the old Spanish chronicler, Bernal Diaz, into a myth, we might contend that the Sorbonne—the college to which M. St. Hilaire is represented as belonging—has been almost as famous for its efforts to suppress truth and the free utterance of opinion as the Spanish Inquisition itself,—that it would not hesitate at any little invention or disguise for the furtherance of its objects,—and hence, that the professor in question is in all probability a "myth," a mere "Rousseau's Dream," or rather, a "Wilson's Dream of Rousseau." But we disdain to have recourse to such evasions. We admit that there is in the University of Paris a professor "agrégé à la faculté des lettres," who bears the name of Rosseeuw St. Hilaire; we admit Mr. Wilson's incapacity to decipher foreign names or words, even when they stand before him in the clearest print,—an incapacity of which his book affords numerous examples,—and that this incapacity, and not any mental hallucination, has been the cause of the blunder which we have corrected. But we must add that he does evidently labor under an hallucination when he calls this letter of M. St. Hilaire a "flattering notice." He has been misled by his inability to comprehend the employment of courteous language between persons who differ from each other in matters of opinion. With the accustomed suavity of a Frenchman and a gentleman, M. St. Hilaire declines entering into a discussion with Mr. Wilson, and leaves him to "settle this difference with his learned fellow-citizen," Mr. Prescott, mildly intimating at the same time that he will probably have "his hands full."

Something more remains to be said of the use which our author has made of the learned professor of the Sorbonne. One page of his book Mr. Wilson devotes to "Acknowledgments." These are few, but ponderous. "Acknowledgments are made" to the Hon. Lewis Cass, for having written—without any ulterior view, we imagine, to Mr. Wilson's advantage—the before-mentioned article in the "North American Review"; to the late Mr. Gallatin, for the publication—also, we suspect, without any foresight of the tremendous uses to which it was to be turned—of a paper on the Mexican dialects; to "Aaron Erickson, Esq., of Rochester, N.Y., for the advantages he has afforded us in the prosecution of our arduous investigations"; to "Major Robert Wilson, now at Fort Riley, Kanzas," for no particular reason expressed; and to "M. Rousseau de St. Hilaire, both for the flattering notice he has taken of our preliminary work" (why not, "work preliminary?") "on Mexico, and for the advantages derived from his writings." In regard to the "advantages" here mentioned, we are going to relieve Mr. Wilson's mind. His obligations to M. St. Hilaire are really far lighter than he supposes. It is true that he has picked most of the little information he possesses in regard to Spanish history out of the professor's work, and has strewed his pages with copious extracts from this recondite source. But, in making his acknowledgments, he might have gone still farther back. M. St. Hilaire is a laborious and enthusiastic scholar.

He has found time, in the midst of his professional duties, to write a really meritorious work on the history of Spain. But he had not the time, perhaps not the opportunity, for making a thorough examination of the original authorities. He was therefore obliged to take for his guide a modern author, who had made this history the peculiar field of his researches. The guide whom he selected, and he could have made no better choice, was William Hickling Prescott. So necessary was it for his purpose that the latter should precede him in a pathway so obscure, that he postponed the composition of a portion of his work until the publication of the first two volumes of the "History of Philip the Second," then in preparation, should supply him with the requisite light. His indebtedness to Mr. Prescott was frankly and fully acknowledged both in public and in private. In letters which now lie before us, he says, "I am working hard on 'Philip the Second,' and blessing at the same time the learned pioneer who has traced for me so easy a road through this confused and difficult period of history." "It is a piece of good-fortune which I cannot too highly appreciate, that your studies should have been directed to the most difficult portion of Spanish history, from which you have thus removed for me all the thorns. The conscientiousness and the thoroughness of your researches, the perfect trustworthiness of your conclusions, and the lofty calmness of your judgments, are the precious supports on which I lean; and I have now, for the reign of Philip the Second, a guide whom I shall be ever proud and happy to follow, as I have before followed him through the reigns of the Catholic Kings and the Conquests of Mexico and Peru." That these expressions are no exaggeration of the facts of the case might be easily established by a comparison of the "Histoire d'Espagne" with the writings of the American historian. The passages in the former work cited by Mr. Wilson would form a portion of the proof; and thus, in following M. St. Hilaire, he has in fact been indirectly and ignorantly availing himself of labors which he affects to speak of with contempt.

But directly and knowingly, as we shall hereafter show, he has availed himself of Mr. Prescott's labors to an extent which demanded the most ample "acknowledgment." No such acknowledgment is made. But we beg to ask Mr. Wilson whether there were not other reasons why he should have spoken of this eminent writer, if not with deference, at least with respect. He himself informs us that "the most kindly relations" existed between them. If we are not misinformed, Mr. Wilson opened the correspondence by modestly requesting the loan of Mr. Prescott's collection of works relating to Mexican history, for the purpose of enabling him to write a refutation of the latter's History of the Conquest. That the replies which he received were courteous and kindly, we need hardly say. He was informed, that, although the constant use made of the collection by its possessor for the correction of his own work must prevent a full compliance with this request, yet any particular books which he might designate should be sent to him, and, if he were disposed to make a visit to Boston, the fullest opportunities should be granted him for the prosecution of his researches. This invitation Mr. Wilson did not think fit to accept. Books which were got in readiness for transmission to him he failed to send for. He had, in the mean time, discovered that "the American stand-point" did not require any examination of "authorities." We regret that it should also have rendered superfluous an acquaintance with the customs of civilized society. The tone in which he speaks of his distinguished predecessor is sometimes amusing from the conceit which it displays, sometimes disgusting from its impudence and coarseness. He concedes Mr. Prescott's good faith in the use of his materials. It was only his ignorance and want of the proper qualifications that prevented him from using them aright. "His non-acquaintance with Indian character is much to be regretted." Mr. Wilson himself enjoys, as he tells us, the inestimable advantage of being the son of an adopted member of the Iroquois tribe. Nay, "his ancestors, for several generations, dwelt near the Indian agency at Cherry Valley, on Wilson's Patent, though in Cooperstown village was he born." We perceive the author's fondness for the inverted style in composition,—acquired, perhaps, in the course of his long study of Aboriginal oratory. Even without such proofs, and without his own assertion of the fact, it would not have been difficult, we think, to conjecture his familiarity with the forms of speech common among barbarous nations.

But it is not merely through "his non-acquaintance with Indian character" that Mr. Prescott was at fault. He was also, it appears, in a hopeless state of ignorance in regard to the political institutions of Spain. He knew nothing of the Spanish censorship, and its restrictions upon the freedom of the press. "He showed his faith," writes Mr. Wilson, "by the expenditure of a fortune at the commencement of his enterprise, in the purchase of books and MSS. relating to 'America of the Spaniards.'" This last phrase is marked as quoted, but we believe it to be the author's own. "These were the materials out of which he framed his two histories of the two aboriginal empires, Mexico and Peru. At the time these works were written he could not have had the remotest idea of the circumstances under which his Spanish authorities had been produced, or of the external pressure that gave them their peculiar form and character. He could hardly understand that peculiar organization of Spanish society through which one set of opinions might be uniformly expressed in public, while the intellectual classes in secret entertain entirely opposite ones. He acted throughout in the most perfect good faith; and if, on a subsequent scrutiny, his authorities have proved to be the fabulous creations of Spanish-Arabian fancy, he is not in fault." (p. 104.)—We, also, desire to deal in "perfect good faith" with our readers, who will naturally inquire what new light has been thrown on the "peculiar organization of Spanish society," and on the conditions which limit the expression of opinions in Spain, since Mr. Prescott made those subjects his especial study. We have looked carefully through Mr. Wilson's book in the hope of being enabled to answer this inquiry; but we have found nothing but partial and incorrect statements of facts with which the public is already familiar,—nothing that had escaped the notice of Prescott himself,—nothing that Mr. Ticknor, in his "History of Spanish Literature," had omitted to state, and that had not been fully discussed between these two distinguished men during an intercourse that had originated not only in the warmest personal friendship, but in the similarity of their studies and pursuits. On this, as on every other topic of which he treats, Mr. Wilson is reckless and arrogant in assertion; but on this, as on every other topic, he makes no show of proofs.

His compliment to Prescott's "good faith" seems, after all, to have been premature. In other parts of his book we find remarks that seem in conflict with this admission. He makes several severe strictures on Mr. Prescott's omission to give due credit to General Cass for his valuable contribution to Aztec history. "Mr. Prescott nowhere refers to the subject, as we think he ought to have done." (p. 30.) "The ink was hardly dry on the leaves of the North American Quarterly which contained the exposure of these fictions, when another contributor to the same periodical, Mr. Prescott, began his history, founded on authors already denounced as fabulous by so high an authority as the Hon. Lewis Cass!" Think of the unparalleled audacity of the author of the "History of Ferdinand and Isabella" in actually exercising his own judgment with regard to the credibility of the Spanish chroniclers, after so high an authority had pronounced against them! However, we are not yet prepared to abandon our own belief in Mr. Prescott's "good faith." We really believe that he was guilty of no intentional disrespect towards the Hon. Lewis Cass. It is possible that he may never have seen the article in question. Contributors to periodicals are sometimes sadly neglectful of the most brilliant performances of their confrères. We doubt whether the "Autocrat" has ever read with proper attention any of our own modest, but not, we hope, inelegant effusions.

Mr. Wilson is not without a suspicion that the world may be slow to surrender its confidence in the veracity and accuracy of a writer whose works have already stood the test of many a severe and critical examination. When this idea breaks upon his mind, he manages to lash himself into a state of considerable excitement. He foresees the difficulty of convincing "those who take an array of great names for the foundation of their belief, and those who judge a work only by the elegance with which its periods are strung together. And, besides these two,"—meaning, we presume, not two men, but two classes of men,—"we have to encounter also the opposition of savans—men who live and judge the outside world through the medium of books alone. These hold as of no account, all but Greece and Rome," [the proof-reader is requested not to disturb Mr. Wilson's punctuation,] "and receive no idea of antiquity that does not come through them. For any, then, too wise to learn or too thoughtless to inquire, this chapter is not designed…. Many there are," [how many, we wonder,] "who have dealt in Spanish romances, supposing them to be history; and these are slow to abandon their delusions. At enormous expense they have gathered volumes of authorities; will they readily admit them to be cheats and counterfeits? They grudge the time too they have spent in their perusal; and are loth, as well they may be, to lose it. But individual loss and injury is" [the proof-reader will please not to interfere with Mr. Wilson's grammar] "perhaps inevitable in the search after truth. Men cannot be held down to the theories of barbarism. These must give way to knowledge, or the intelligent, as in Roman Catholic countries, be driven to infidelity." [The printer may venture to italicize the closing prediction, as we wish to bring it under the particular notice of school-committees and superintendents of education, who will see the fearful responsibility they incur by placing copies of Prescott's Histories, bound in sheep, in their school-libraries.]