SUSAN MARR SPALDING.

SPALDING, SUSAN (MARR), an American poet; born at Bath, Maine. Her childhood was mainly passed in New York City, and she was married early to Mr. Spalding. Soon after this they removed to Philadelphia, where, since her husband's death, which occurred not long after their marriage, Mrs. Spalding has since lived. She has published "The Wings of Icarus, and Other Poems."

A MIRROR.

THOU art a mountain stately and serene,
Rising majestic o'er each earthly thing,
And I a lake that round thy feet do cling,
Kissing thy garment's hem, unknown, unseen.

I tremble when the tempests darkly screen

Thy face from mine. I smile when sunbeams fling
Their bright arms round thee. When the blue heavens lean
Upon thy breast, I thrill with bliss, O King!

Thou canst not stoop,

I may not climb to reach thy mighty heart:

Low at thy feet I am content to be.

But wouldst thou know how great indeed thou art,

Bend thy proud head, my mountain love, and see

How all thy glories shine again in me!

FATE.

Two shall be born the whole wide world apart,
And speak in different tongues, and have no thought

Each of the other's being, and no heed.

And these o'er unknown seas, to unknown lands,
Shall cross, escaping wreck, defying death;

And all unconsciously shape every act

And bend each wandering step to this one end,-
That one day out of darkness they shall meet
And read life's meaning in each other's eyes.

And two shall walk some narrow way of life,
So nearly side by side that should one turn
Ever so little space to left or right,

They needs must stand acknowledged face to face;
And yet with wistful eyes that never meet,
With groping hands that never clasp, and lips

Calling in vain to ears that never hear,

They seek each other all their weary days,
And die unsatisfied. And this is Fate.

THE SECOND PLACE.

UNTO my loved ones have I given all:

The tireless service of my willing hands, The strength of swift feet running to their call, Each pulse of this fond heart whose love commands

The busy brain unto their use; each grace,

Each gift, the flower and fruit of life. To me
They give, with gracious hearts and tenderly,
The second place.

Such joy as my glad service may dispense,

They spend to make some brighter life more blest;
The grief that comes despite my frail defence,
They seek to soothe upon a dearer breast.
Love veils his deepest glories from my face;
I dimly dream how fair the light may be
Beyond the shade where I hold, longingly,
The second place.

And yet 't is sweet to know that though I make
No soul's supremest bliss, no life shall lie

Ruined and desolated for my sake,

Nor any heart be broken when I die.

And sweet it is to see my little space

Grow wider hour by hour; and gratefully
I thank the tender fate that granteth me
The second place.

JAMES SPEDDING.

SPEDDING, JAMES, an English biographer; born at Mirehouse, near Bassenthwaite, Cumberland, June 26, 1808; died in St. George's Hospital, London, March 9, 1881. For a number of years he held positions in the service of the English Government, and in 1843 he visited the United States as Lord Ashburton's private secretary. In 1857-59 he put forth, in conjunction with R. L. Ellis and D. D. Heath, an edition of the "Works of Francis Bacon." As a supplement to this, Mr. Spedding published the "Letters and Life of Francis Bacon," in seven volumes (1861-74), and "Life and Times of Francis Bacon" (1878), in two volumes. Upon the preparation of these works was lavished the labor of nearly a score of years. Other works of his are, "Publishers and Authors" (1867); "Reviews and Discussions" (1879); "Evenings with a Reviewer" (1881); Studies in "English History" (with J. Gairdner) (1881).

LORD BACON.

WHEN Lord Macaulay, as the result of an elaborate historical and biographical inquiry, described Bacon as a man, who, being intrusted with the highest gifts of Heaven, habitually abused them for the poorest purposes of earth-hired them out for guineas, places, and titles in the service of injustice, covetousness, and oppression, adding that he (Lord Macaulay) had nevertheless no doubt that his name would be named with reverence to the latest ages and to the remotest ends of the civilized world, we must accept the responsibility of the opinion if we allow it to pass without a protest. If the later ages believe his description of the man to be correct, I hope for my own part that they will not name the name of that man with reverence; it would be a gross abuse either of the word or of the thing. But it is still possible that they will adopt a different interpretation of the character.

The other actions on which Lord Macaulay's interpretation is founded have been fully and I believe correctly related: and

(the evidence being now within anybody's reach) they must be left to produce their impression.

To me, so far from seeming to justify his theory of the character, they do not seem to be reconcilable with it; if Bacon had been such a man as he takes him for, he would have acted differently t almost every crisis which offered him a choice. Nor do I believe that they would have suggested such a theory to anybody, were it not for the discredit which the transactions revealed by his impeachment threw back upon all passages of his life. It must nevertheless be admitted that those transactions alone - if Lord Macaulay's interpretation of them be accepted in its full extent would deprive his name of all title to anything that could be called "reverence," his services in the field of philosophy and literature notwithstanding. And as all turns upon the question whether his offence implied the perversion of justice for the sake of reward, it is necessary to discuss the grounds of that interpretation more particularly.

-

The records of Parliament tell distinctly and almost decisively in Bacon's favor. They show that the circumstances of his conviction did encourage suitors to attempt to get his decrces set aside; that several such attempts were made, but that they all failed; thereby strongly confirming the popular tradition reported by Aubrey,-"His favorites took bribes; but his Lordship always gave judgment secundum æquum et bonum. His decrees in Chancery stand firm. There are fewer of his decrees reversed than any other Chancellor."

If on the other hand they were reversed by a commission appointed for the purpose, we must surely have had some news of it. Yet I cannot suppose that either Hale himself or his editor, who prefaces the tract with an elaborate investigation of the whole subject, had heard of any such proceeding. They could not but have mentioned it if they had.

Upon the whole, therefore, I think I may conclude either that the decrees mentioned by Lord Hale were considered as ipso facto set aside by the admission of corruption (which could hardly be, and even, if it were, could not be taken to prove more than is admitted in the confession); or that he used the words loosely, meaning only that they were easily allowed to be called in question (which might be true, and yet upon question they might all be found just); or, lastly, that he was speaking without book. And either way I may still ask, where is the evidence of

justice perverted? Till some evidence is produced to that effect I may still believe Bacon's own judgment upon his own case to be true. He expressed it on two occasions; privately, indeed, but clearly and unequivocally. The first was in his letter to Buckingham, written from the Tower on the thirty-first of May, 1621; in which, after entreating him to procure his discharge and not let him die in that disgraceful place, he proceeds:

"And when I am dead, he is gone that was always in one tenor, a true and perfect servant to his master, and one that was never author of any immoderate, no, nor unsafe, no (I will say it), nor unfortunate counsel; and one that no temptation could ever make other than a trust and honest and thrice-loving friend to your Lordship; and howsoever I acknowledge the sentence. just, and for reformation's sake fit, the justest Chancellor that hath been in the five changes since Sir Nicholas Bacon's time." This was written in the season of his deepest distress. The other occasion I cannot date. But I take the words to express his deliberate judgment imparted to the confidential friend of his latter days; - imparted privately, and (it would almost seem) under some injunction to keep it private; for Dr. Rawley, whose affectionate reverence preserved the record, took the precaution to write it in a cipher, and never published or alluded to it in print. It is found in a commonplace book, begun apparently soon after Bacon's death, and containing memoranda of various kinds, most of them, especially in the earlier part, relating to him and his works. The first few pages are filled almost entirely with apothegms; two or three of which were written in a simple cipher, the Greek character being used for the consonants, and the first five numerals for the vowels; the rest in Rawley's usual hand. Opposite to many of them is written "stet," with a number affixed; which means no doubt that they were to be included in the collection of Bacon's apothegms which were afterwards printed in the second edition of the "Resuscitatio." At the top of the first page stands this sentence, written in the cipher and not marked or numbered, a sentence which I suppose Rawley had been forbidden to publish, but could not allow to perish :

"I was the justest judge that was in England these fifty But it was the justest censure in Parliament that was these two hundred years."

years.

Now if instead of Lord Macaulay's view of the case the later ages should accept Bacon's own (and although he was a party