man on the planet at the
time who was competent--not a dozen, and not two. A long time ago the
dwellers in a far country used now and then to find a procession of
prodigious footprints stretching across the plain--footprints that were
three miles apart, each footprint a third of a mile long and a furlong
deep, and with forests and villages mashed to mush in it. Was there any
doubt as to who made that mighty trail? Were there a dozen claimants?
Where there two? No--the people knew who it was that had been along
there: there was only one Hercules.

There has been only one Shakespeare. There couldn't be two; certainly
there couldn't be two at the same time. It takes ages to bring forth a
Shakespeare, and some more ages to match him. This one was not matched
before his time; nor during his time; and hasn't been matched since. The
prospect of matching him in our time is not bright.

The Baconians claim that the Stratford Shakespeare was not qualified
to write the Works, and that Francis Bacon was. They claim that Bacon
possessed the stupendous equipment--both natural and acquired--for the
miracle; and that no other Englishman of his day possessed the like; or,
indeed, anything closely approaching it.

Macaulay, in his Essay, has much to say about the splendor and
horizonless magnitude of that equipment. Also, he has synopsized Bacon's
history--a thing which cannot be done for the Stratford Shakespeare,
for he hasn't any history to synopsize. Bacon's history is open to the
world, from his boyhood to his death in old age--a history consisting
of known facts, displayed in minute and multitudinous detail; FACTS, not
guesses and conjectures and might-have-beens.

Whereby it appears that he was born of a race of statesmen, and had a
Lord Chancellor for his father, and a mother who was "distinguished both
as a linguist and a theologian: she corresponded in Greek with Bishop
Jewell, and translated his APOLOGIA from the Latin so correctly that
neither he nor Archbishop Parker could suggest a single alteration." It
is the atmosphere we are reared in that determines how our inclinations
and aspirations shall tend. The atmosphere furnished by the parents to
the son in this present case was an atmosphere saturated with learning;
with thinkings and ponderings upon deep subjects; and with polite
culture. It had its natural effect. Shakespeare of Stratford was reared
in a house which had no use for books, since its owners, his parents,