grossly to express the female organ or gate of birth. And so with other matters concerning women.

In bringing to an end the materials prescribed, dear brethren, to earn eternal life the Word of God is not enough, unless each studies to fill his mind therewith, in order to be able to escape the horrible peril of the unprofitable servant.1 Our Saviour orders him to be cast into the outer darkness with hands and feet bound. For a servant who knows the will of his Master and does not fulfil it, will be flogged with many blows. Through the holy apostles and other learned men the Lord God gave us the Sacred Scriptures, in which He teaches us His Will and the True Way by which we can come into the Kingdom of Heaven. Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels instructs us like a schoolmaster how to arrive at eternal life. Therefore let us in deed fulfil what we are shown we must do and emulate.

This is the end of the Art and True Method of Preaching, composed by St. Thomas Aquinas, and illustrated by the works of other Holy Doctors. If one diligently studies it, surely he will be great in the art.

It remains only to form a tree, together with a declaration of its meaning. Preaching is like a real tree. As a real tree develops from root to trunk, and the trunk grows into main branches, and the main branches multiply into other branches, so in preaching the theme develops into the protheme or prelocution as root into trunk. Then the prelocution or protheme grows into the principal divisions of the theme as the trunk into the main branches. And the principal branches should, beyond, multiply into secondary divisions, that is, subdivisions and subdistinctions, and finally expand as the example in the tree below shows. Its theme is divided into three parts; each part is divided into three members; each member can be amplified by several of the nine methods above described, as will stand out more clearly on the tree below.

Now note that the method of preaching is threefold.

In the first kind, the preacher takes up his theme, says the prayer, and proceeds to the consummation of his sermon. The first 1 Matt. xxv, 30.

method then is by explaining the Gospel. It is the ancient method, well exemplified by the homilies of Gregory and other holy doctors. After the exposition of the Gospel, the preacher should advance to the division and subdivision of his theme and the main substance of his sermon. Such, in effect, is the whole sermon. Then he should make invocation of the Holy Spirit, since without divine help he could not express such lofty thoughts. And he implores the Virgin Mary by the Salutantes together with the Ave Maria, or through some other invocation. This method is the lay, popular, or beautiful method. The decrees prescribe the elucidation of the Gospel to the humble on Sundays.

In the second method, the preacher pronounces the theme, says the prayer, and proceeds to the development of his sermon-to the division, or to the distinction, when there is no division of the theme. For example, take this theme on the dead, "O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee." The preacher would subjoin: "We should know the remembrance of death is bitter to lovers of the world for three reasons: first, on account of the world which they leave; secondly, on account of the future punishment they receive; thirdly, on account of the delights of the flesh which they lose." See how it advances to distinction when no division develops from the theme. This method is the light and simple method. No prelocution is made from the theme; the exposition of the Gospel is not introduced; nor is there a division of the words of the theme.

The third method is our plan. First the preacher should pronounce his theme in Latin in a low voice, then introduce one prayer in the vulgar tongue, to wit: "May Our Lord, Jesus Christ, give to men and living things Grace and mercy, to His church peace, and to us sinners after this life eternal life." Now he should resume his theme, using the vulgar tongue for expression. And after this he can draw or elicit one prelocution through similes, moralizations, proverbs, or natural truths, or sometimes even by adducing definite authorities. Another name for the prelocution is the protheme, because it is expressed before the division of the theme and the main substance of the sermon. Mark that in the prelocution or protheme there should be no prolixity, so that the theme with its chief material of the sermon can have place for expression. When the prelocution has been premised, resume the theme and its division. After this comes the invocation of the Holy Spirit, just as above. Next comes

the treatment of the members in order: first, the first main part of the theme with its divisions; next, the second main part of the theme with its divisions; and so with the third. And when all the members, main and subordinate, have been discussed, the preacher can make a practical recapitulation of his sermon, so that if they have neglected the beginning, the people may know on what the sermon and its conclusions are based. Thus, with other considerations, the material of the sermon can be better grasped.

This method is the more common one among modern preachers and is as useful to intelligent preachers as to hearers. As was above mentioned, an example of it appears in the tree below.

Unfortunately, the tree, or diagrammatic chart of contents, with which the Tractate ends, is missing from the Cornell University copy of the text.

F

FRANCIS BACON, THE POLITICAL ORATOR

ROBERT HANNAH

I

RANCIS BACON'S is a name familiar to students of history,

law, philosophy, literature, science, and politics. It is no exaggeration to state that few men ever lived possessed of such various titles to the respect and admiration of posterity. For Bacon was a distinguished lawyer, philosopher, scientist, statesman, and man of letters.

The essayist who ventures to write of Lord Bacon must ever remember that he is only a borrower. His work can be to a very small extent the product of original research. James Spedding finally established the text of Bacon's works, and gave us a monumental biography; his successors must be content for the most part to act as commentators on the results of his labors. But it is a wide field that the office of commentator opens to the Baconian student and investigator. There are many labyrinths in Spedding's vast storehouse which warrant and entice further investigation.

Before Spedding published his biography of Francis Bacon, and in the years which have intervened since, the man and his works have received the attention of critics and scholars the world over. Certain phases of his life have been made the subject of special studies; and the Essays, the Advancement of Learning, and many others of his separate works have been edited and reëdited with varying degrees of thoroughness. Much that is informing has been recorded on Bacon as a philosopher, a statesman, a scientist, a lawyer, an essayist.

In the whole body of judgments passed upon the life and achievements of a distinguished man, it frequently happens that some quality

'The Works of Francis Bacon, collected and edited by James Spedding, R. L. Ellis, and D. D. Heath, Boston, 1860-64. For Spedding's The Life and the Letters, I have used the London edition (included in The Works) assigned to the same editors, 1862-74.

in his work and character is consistently but unduly emphasized, while other equally interesting attributes are ignored almost completely. Francis Bacon is among the geniuses who have suffered this fate. Bacon's moral character is not one of the neglected aspects of the man. His morals have been written about, again and again. His weaknesses of character stirred the periodical writers of the nineteenth century, who magnified out of all proportion the moral side of Bacon's life and activities. In the hands of Macaulay1 and other essayists the controversy was carried on; Bacon became either a saint or a sinner, for these critics seemed to find no happy medium. As a consequence, many of Bacon's acts have been criticized on a moral rather than a political basis. It is true that morals and politics cannot be entirely separated in considering a figure like Francis Bacon, but the biographers and critics have rather tended to argue the moral issues involved in terms of the ethics of their own times, than to comprehend Bacon's public life in relation to the standards and customs of his day. The reason is suggested in an essay of M. André Chevrillon's 2 on Shakespeare: Of Shakespeare we know hardly anything, for his person has disappeared in his work; this almost complete eclipse of the individual counts for a good deal in the national worship of the poet. A hero is more easily defined when nothing remains of his human personality, and his life work also becomes more unaccountable. If this be true of Shakespeare, certainly the reverse is found in Lord Bacon's case. It would seem that too much has been passed on to us about Bacon: too many fables about his character; too much that has been colored by prejudice, or by a failure to understand the facts. In Bacon's case the man has not been lost in the works; the works have tended to be lost in the man.

Because Bacon's moral character has received undue consideration from his biographers and critics, other aspects of his career have not been tendered the particular care which they deserve. What, for example, is known about Bacon the political orator? This question has been neglected by many commentators, and those who have touched upon it at all have dismissed the problem in a word or two. Francis Bacon took an active part in the political life of the con

'Critical and Historical Essays, ed. Montague, London, 1903, II, 177-235* "Shakespeare and the English Soul," an essay, reprinted in Three Studies in English Literature, New York, 1923.