The _Arcadia_ furnished Shakespeare's _King Lear_ with the auxiliary plot of Gloucester and his two sons and inspired Thomas Lodge to write his novel _Rosalynde_, which in turn suggested Shakespeare's _As You Like It_. To Sidney belongs the credit of having written the first meritorious essay on criticism in the English language, _The Apologie for Poetrie_. This defends the poetic art, and shows how necessary such exercise of the imagination is to take us away from the cold, hard facts of life. Richard Hooker's (1554?-1600) _Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity_ shows a third aim in Elizabethan prose,--to express carefully reasoned investigation and conclusion in English that is as thoroughly elaborated and qualified as the thought. Lyly's striking contrasts and Sidney's flowery prose do not appeal to Hooker, who uses Latin inversions and parenthetical qualifications, and adds clause after clause whenever he thinks it necessary to amplify the thought or to guard against misunderstanding. Hooker's prose is as carefully wrought as Lyly's and far more rhythmical. Both were experimenting with English prose in different fields, serving to teach succeeding writers what to imitate and to avoid. Unlike _Euphues_ and the _Arcadia_, _Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity_ is more valuable for its thought than for its form of expression. This work, which is still studied as an authority, is an exposition of divine law in its relations to both the world and the church. Hooker was personally a compound of sweetness and light, and his philosophy is marked by sweet reasonableness. He was a clergyman of the Church of England, but he shows a spirit of toleration toward other churches. He had much of the modern idea of growth in both government and religion, and he "accepts no system of government either in church or state as unalterable." FRANCIS BACON, 1561-1626 [Illustration: FRANCIS BACON. _From the painting by Van Somer, National Portrait Gallery._] Life.--A study of Bacon takes us beyond the limits of the reign of Elizabeth, but not beyond the continued influences of that reign. Francis Bacon, the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal under Elizabeth, was born in London and grew up under the influences of the court. In order to understand some of Bacon's actions in later life, we must remember the influences that helped to fashion him in his boyhood days. Those with whom he early associated and who unconsciously molded him were not very scrupulous about the way in which they secured the favor of the court or the means which they took to outstrip an adversary. They also encouraged in him a taste for expensive luxuries. These unfortunate influences were intensified when, at the age of sixteen, he went with the English ambassador to Paris, and remained there for two and a half years, studying statecraft and diplomacy.