Strona 640 z 1391

The 'New Atlantis' is only a fragment, and far inferior in merit

to the 'Utopia.' The work is full of ingenuity, but wanting in

creative fancy, and by no means impresses the reader with a sense

of credibility. In some places Lord Bacon is characteristically

different from Sir Thomas More, as, for example, in the external

state which he attributes to the governor of Solomon's House,

whose dress he minutely describes, while to Sir Thomas More such

trappings appear simple ridiculous. Yet, after this programme of

dress, Bacon adds the beautiful trait, 'that he had a look as

though he pitied men.' Several things are borrowed by him from

the Timaeus; but he has injured the unity of style by adding

thoughts and passages which are taken from the Hebrew Scriptures.