There yet remain to be mentioned two English emblem writers. A "Choice of Emblems" by Geffrey Whitney was published in 1586 by Francis Raphelengius in the house of Christopher Plantin at Leyden. The dedication is to Robert Earle of Leicester. There are only from fifteen to twenty original designs out of 166 illustrations. The remainder are taken from other emblem writers, chiefly from Alciat, Sambucus, Paradin, and Hadrian Junius. On page 53 is the design headed "In dies meliora" found in the 1577 edition of Alciat, but the letterpress, which is in English, is quite different from the Latin verse attached to it in the Alciat. The "Minerva Britanna" of Henry Peacham was published in 1612. The emblem on the title-page[47] represents the great secret of Francis Bacon's life, and on page ·33 is an emblem in which the name Shakespeare is represented. The volume is full of devices which will amply repay a careful study. Apart from any connection which Bacon may have had with this remarkable class of books, they are of great interest to the student of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. They contain pictorial representations full of information as to the habits and customs of the people. With the exception of Whitney's "Choice of Emblems," a facsimile reprint of which was published in 1866, edited by the Rev. Henry Green, no reprint of any of these curious books has been issued. As the original editions of many of them are very rare, and of none of them plentiful, their study is a matter of difficulty, and few students find their way to this fascinating field of research. How close Bacon's connection was with the writers of these books, or with their publishers, it is difficult to say, but there is considerable evidence that in some way he was able to introduce into every one of the books here enumerated, and many others, some plates illustrative of his inductive philosophy. FOOTNOTES: [46] Bernard Quaritch, 1905. [47] See page 105. CHAPTER XX. SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS.