The author did not (as her own consciousness assures her) either
construct or originally seek this new philosophy. In many respects, if
I have rightly understood her, it was at variance with her
pre-conceived opinions, whether ethical, religious, or political. She
had been for years a student of Shakspere, looking for nothing in his
plays beyond what the world has agreed to find in them, when she began
to see, under the surface, the gleam of this hidden treasure. It was
carefully hidden, indeed, yet not less carefully indicated, as with a
pointed finger, by such marks and references as could not ultimately
escape the notice of a subsequent age, which should be capable of
profiting by the rich inheritance. So, too, in regard to Lord Bacon.
The author of this volume had not sought to put any but the ordinary
and obvious interpretation upon his works, nor to take any other view
of his character than what accorded with the unanimous judgment upon
it of all the generations since his epoch. But, as she penetrated more
and more deeply into the plays, and became aware of those inner
readings, she found herself compelled to turn back to the 'Advancement
of Learning' for information as to their plan and purport; and Lord
Bacon's Treatise failed not to give her what she sought; thus adding
to the immortal dramas, in her idea, a far higher value than their
warmest admirers had heretofore claimed for them. They filled out the
scientific scheme which Bacon had planned, and which needed only these
profound and vivid illustrations of human life and character to make
it perfect. Finally, the author's researches led her to a point where
she found the plays claimed for Lord Bacon and his associates,--not in
a way that was meant to be intelligible in their own perilous
times,--but in characters that only became legible, and illuminated,
as it were, in the light of a subsequent period.

The reader will soon perceive that the new philosophy, as here