The books of the emblem writers are still more remarkable. "Jacobi Bornitii Emblemata Ethico Politica," 1659, contains at least a dozen plates in which Bacon is represented. A suggestive emblem is No. 1 of Cornelii Giselberti Plempii Amsterodarnum Monogrammon, bearing date 1616, the year of Shakespeare's death. It is now reproduced (Fig. V.). It will be observed that the initial letters of each word in the sentence--_Obscænumque nimis crepuit Fortuna Batavis appellanda_--yield F. Bacon. There are in other designs figures which are evidently intended to represent Bacon. Emblem XXXVI. shows the inside of a printer's shop and two men at work in the foreground blacking and fixing the type. Behind is a workman setting type, and standing beside him, apparently directing, or at any rate observing him, is a man with the well-known Bacon hat on. The contention may be stated thus:--Francis Bacon possessed, to quote Macaulay, "the most exquisitely constructed intellect that has ever been bestowed on any of the children of men." Hallam described him as "the wisest, greatest of mankind," and affirmed that he might be compared to Aristotle, Thucydides, Tacitus, Philippe de Comines, Machiavelli, Davila, Hume, "all of these together," and confirming this view Addison said that "he possessed at once all those extraordinary talents which were divided amongst the greatest authors of antiquity." At twelve years of age in industry he surpassed the capacity, and, in his mind, the range of his contemporaries, and had acquired a thorough command of the classical and modern languages. "He, after he had survaied all the Records of Antiquity, after the volumes of men, betook himself to the volume of the world and conquered whatever books possest." Having, whilst still a youth, taken all knowledge to be his province, he had read, marked, and absorbed the contents of nearly every book that had been printed. How that boy read! Points of importance he underlined and noted in the margin. Every subject he mastered--mathematics, geometry, music, poetry, painting, astronomy, astrology, classical drama and poetry, philosophy, history, theology, architecture. Then--or perhaps before--came this marvellous conception, "Like God I will be seen by my works, although my image shall never be visible--_Mente videbor_. By the mind I shall be seen." So equipped, and with such a scheme, he commenced and successfully carried through that colossal enterprise in which he sought the good of all men, though in a despised weed. "This," he said, "whether it be curiosity or vainglory, or (if one takes it favourably) philanthropia, is so fixed in my mind as it cannot be removed."