The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded | Page 8

of
the reproduction and reintegration of the Inductive Philosophy in its
application to its 'principal' and 'noblest subjects,' its 'more chosen
subjects.'
The HISTORICAL KEY to the Elizabethan Art of Tradition, which
formed the first book of this work as it was originally prepared for the
press, is not included in the present publication. It was the part of the
work first written, and the results of more recent research require to be
incorporated in it, in order that it should represent adequately, in that
particular aspect of it, the historical discovery which it is the object of
this work to produce. Moreover, the demonstration which is contained
in this volume appeared to constitute properly a volume of itself.
Those who examine the subject from this ground, will find the external
collateral evidence, the ample historical confirmation which is at hand,
not necessary for the support of the propositions advanced here, though
it will, of course, be inquired for, when once this ground is made.
The embarrassing circumstances under which this great system of
scientific practice makes its appearance in history, have not yet been

taken into the account in our interpretation of it. We have already the
documents which contain the theory and rule of the modern civilisation,
which is the civilisation of science in our hands. We have in our hands
also, newly lit, newly trimmed, lustrous with the genius of our own
time, that very lamp with which we are instructed to make this inquiry,
that very light which we are told we must bring to bear upon the
obscurities of these documents, that very light in which we are told, we
must unroll them; for they come to us, as the interpreter takes pains to
tell us, with an 'infolded' science in them. That light of 'times,' that
knowledge of the conditions under which these works were published,
which is essential to the true interpretation of them, thanks to our
contemporary historians, is already in our hands. What we need now is
to explore the secrets of this philosophy with it,--necessarily secrets at
the time it was issued--what we need now is to open these books of a
new learning in it, and read them by it.
In that part of the work above referred to, from which some extracts are
subjoined for the purpose of introducing intelligibly the demonstration
contained in this volume, it was the position of the Elizabethan Men of
Letters that was exhibited, and the conditions which prescribed to the
founders of a new school in philosophy, which was none other than the
philosophy of practice, the form of their works and the concealment of
their connection with them--conditions which made the secret of an
Association of 'Naturalists' applying science in that age to the noblest
subjects of speculative inquiry, and to the highest departments of
practice, a life and death secret. The physical impossibility of
publishing at that time, anything openly relating to the questions in
which the weal of men is most concerned, and which are the primary
questions of the science of man's relief, the opposition which stood at
that time prepared to crush any enterprise proposing openly for its end,
the common interests of man as man, is the point which it was the
object of that part of the work to exhibit. It was presented, not in the
form of general statement merely, but in those memorable particulars
which the falsified, suppressed, garbled history of the great founder of
this school betrays to us; not as it is exhibited in contemporary
documents merely, but as it is carefully collected from these, and from
the traditions of 'the next ages.'

That the suppressed Elizabethan Reformers and Innovators were men
so far in advance of their time, that they were compelled to have
recourse to literature for the purpose of instituting a gradual
encroachment on popular opinions, a gradual encroachment on the
prejudices, the ignorance, the stupidity of the oppressed and suffering
masses of the human kind, and for the purpose of making over the
practical development of the higher parts of their science, to ages in
which the advancements they instituted had brought the common mind
within hearing of these higher truths; that these were men whose aims
were so opposed to the power that was still predominant then,--though
the 'wrestling' that would shake that predominance, was already on
foot,--that it became necessary for them to conceal their lives as well as
their works,--to veil the true worth and nobility of them, to suffer those
ends which they sought as means, means which they subordinated to
the noblest uses, to be regarded in their own age as their _ends_; that
they were compelled to play this great game in secret, in their own time,
referring themselves to posthumous effects for