nature  and  feeling  with  them,  in  a  manner  at  once  sur
prising  and  delightful.  His  example  strikingly  shows  that
not  only  are  the  originals  not  original,  as  some  define
originality,  but  that  varied  knowledge,  whether  derived
from  study  or  observation,  is  a  necessary  condition  of  all
original  conceptions  properly  so  called.  In  what  do  the
novelty  and  freshness  of  Bacon's  thoughts  consist  ?  Is  it
not  in  the  aptness  with  which  he  illustrates  one  group  of
ideas  by  another  group  brought  from  a  far  distant  region
in  the  realm  of  knowledge  ?

We  have,  therefore,  little  sympathy  with  those  literary
detectives  who  are  always  on  the  alert  to  detect  petty
parallelisms  and  coincidents  of  expression,  and  cry  out,
"  Stop  thief!"  whenever  they  spy  out  an  instance  of  as
similation  or  appropriation  of  thought  in  a  work  which  is
original  in  the  only  sense  in  which  originality  is  possible.
