I i^'iw^^i^.:--; rwW^tei^^^^'' »^™^^*^^- ' ■ :^i[m^^m UC-NRLF $B E&7 MT2 ■;^j ^i M i- " ^ '"^^ f ' '^^....Af^.^^'A'^ 4^!^r^ '>■- .f:r^^-/ ./'' ^, ,,?^ ' '^' f JC' f V A"-'.-' ^/r ^j*^ ' mfm. ,"1 L|**vi^:A-" /-.A ,^^ i ,.^aa^''^-'-^ J^- '<\ tsf (t^p ,// J' ^ THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PKIF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID Digitized by tine Internet Archive in 2007 with funding'from l\/1icrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/essaysmoraleconoOObacorich JL©iaB BA€C))lf S ESSAYS "lie that consideretli the -Mmd shall not sotit, 'lAiidtie that lool«:eth. to the claiids sluHl not reap'.' DRAWN Hy RlCJlAfUJ WESTALL.ILA. EWGEAVED BT .T.HJ10B[NS0N : ^ tUBJ^ISmn BT-JOirN"-SHAK:ra;,'ErCCABILLY. OCT. 1.1822. MOMAL , E C OI^^ai^LlCiVL , AS© P ©ilTIC AL , JLORD JBA-C J(> Ozsar siiid (<• the f.>ii(it in iJie ti "uestu em portas et fortunarn e/us ;l 0KB ON I PUBLISIIEC BY JOHN SHARP.E, PICCADILiTT. i!S22„ t^\.^ \ i ^ ^C ^f^'ii^ yyf*^^^^^. ESSAYS, MORAL, ECONOMICAL, AND POLITICAL. FKANCIS BACON, BARON OF VERULAM, VISCOUNT ST. ALBAN, AND LORD KICH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND. LONDON: PRINTED FOR JOHN SHARPE, PICCADILLY; BY C. WHITTINGHAM, CHISWICK. MDCCCXXIl. 9Z^ Some Account of tje ^uiJoi\ 1 HE illustrious author of these Essays is so generally known as a man and a writer that any particular ac- count of him on the present occasion would be super- fluous. To dwell, indeed, on the incidents of my Lord Bacon's life would be an unpleasant and mortifying task : for ever must it be deplored by the lover of literature and his species, that the possessor of this extraordinary intellect should have beeii exposed to the dangers of a situation to which his firmness was unequal ; and, withdrawn from the retirement of his study, where he was the first of men, should have been thrown into the tumult of business, where he dis- covered himself to be among the last. The superio- rity, it is true, of his talents rendered him every where eminent ; and when we see him acting at court, in the senate, at the bar, or on the bench, Ave behold an engine of mighty force, sufficient, as it would appear, to move the world : but when we carry our research into his bosom, we find nothing there but the ebulli- tion and froth of some common or corrupt passions : and we are struck with the contrast between the little- ness within and the exhibition of energy without. But peace be to the failings of this wonderful man ! they who alone were affected by them, his contempo- raries and himself, have long since passed to their ac- count ; and existing no more as the statesman or the judge, he survives to us only in his works, as the father of experimental physics, and a great luminary of science. In his literary character he must alwa5^s be con- templated with astonishment; and we cannot suffici- ently wonder at the riches or the powers of his mind ; B ivi312149 6 SOME ACCOUNT OF at that penetration which no depth could elude ; that comprehension for which no object was too large ; that vigour which no labour could exhaust ; that memory which no pressure of acquisitions could subdue. By his two great works, " On the Advancement of Learn- ing,'^ and ''The New Organ of the Sciences,'Svritten amid the distraction of business and of cares, sufficient of themselves to have occupied the whole of any other mind, did this mighty genius first break the shackles of that scholastic philosophy, which long had crushed the human intellect ; and diverting the attention from words to things, from theory to experiment, demon- strate the road to that height of science on which the moderns are now seated, and which the ancients were unable to reach. But these grand displays of his genius and know- ledge are now chiefly regarded as they present to the curious an illustrious evidence of the powers of the human mind. Having awakened and directed the exertions of Europe, the usefulness of these writings has in a great degree been superseded by the labours of the subsequent adventurers in science ; who, pur- suing the track marked out for them by their great master, have found it opening into a region of clear and steady light. Of the other works of this great man, which were objects of admiration to his own times, the following Essays are, perhaps, the only ones which retain much of their pristine popularity. His law treatises have always been restricted by their subject within the line of a professional circle : of his state papers and speeches the power has expired mth the interest of those events to which they were attach- ed ; and his History of Henry the Seventh, blemished as it is with something more than those defects of style which, from the example and patronage of a pedant king, then began to infect the purity of our composition, is in these days consulted only by the few. But these Essays, written at a period of better taste, and on subjects of immediate importance to the con- duct of common life, " such as come home to men's THE AUTHOR. 7 business and bosoms/' are still read with pleasure, and continue to possess, in the present age, nearly as much estimation as they did in that which witnessed their first publication. From the circumstance of their having engaged his attention at different and re- mote intervals of his life, they appear to have shared a more than common portion of their great author's regard ; and they are evidently composed in his hap- piest manner, and with the full stretch of his powers. In them we are presented with all the wisdom which the deepest erudition could recover from the gulf of buried ages; and with all that also which the most sagacious and accurate observation could select from the spectacle of the passing scene : in them we behold irnagination and knowledge equally successful in their exertions ; this as the contributor of truths, and that of opening her affluent wardrobe for their dress ; one like the earth throwing out of her bosom the organized forms of matter, and the other like the sun arraying them in an endless variety of hues. Of the Essay, that most agreeable and perhaps most useful vehicle of instruction, my Lord Bacon must be considered, at least in our country, as the inventor; and to the success of his attempt may be ascribed that numerous race of writers, to whose short and enter- taining lessons the public mind may be regarded as principally indebted for its present cultivation and refinement. Thus strongly recommended by their intrinsic worth, these Essays possess also an additional and accidental value, from the circumstance of their constituting all which, in some sense, remains of their admirable author. His other works, it has been already re- marked, are, in fact, extinct to the many, and now generally known only as a mighty name: and the writer of these short compositions, the great Lord Bacon, may not improperly be considered as shrunk, like the ashes of an Alexander in a golden urn, within the limits of this little but sterling volume. b2 8 PREFATORY EPISTLES. TO MR. ANTHONY BACON, HIS DEAR BROTHFJ!?. Loving and beloved brother, I do now like some that have an orchard ill neighboured, that gather their fruit before it is ripe, to prevent stealing. These fragments of my conceit were going to print : to labour the stay of them had been troublesome, and subject to interpretation ; to let them pass had been to adventure the wrong they might receive by untrue copies, or by some garnishment which it might please any that should set them forth to bestow upon them ; therefore I held it best discretion to publish them myself, as they passed long ago from my pen, without any fur- ther disgrace than the weakness of the author ; and as I did ever hold, there might be as great a vanity in retiring and withdramng men\s conceit (except they be of some nature) from the world, as in obtruding them : so in these particulars I have played myself the inquisitor, and find nothing to my understanding in them contrary or infectious to the state of religion or manners, but rather, as I suppose, medicinable : only I dislike noAV to put them out, because they will be like the late new halfpence, which though the silver were good, yet the pieces were small ; but since they would not stay with their master, but would needs travel abroad, I have preferred them to you that are next myself; dedicating them, such as they are, to our love, in the depth whereof, I assure you, I some- times wish your infirmities translated upon myself, that her majesty might have the service of so active and able a mind ; and I might be with excuse con- fined to these contemplations and studies, for which I am fittest : so commend I you to the preservation of the Divine Majesty. Your entire loving brother, FRANCIS BACON. From my Chamber at Gray's Inn, this 30th of January, 1597. PREFATORY EPISTLES. TO MY LOVING BROTHER, SIR JOHN CONSTABLE, KT. My last Essays I dedicated to my dear brother, Mr. Anthony Bacon, who is with God. Looking among my papers this vacation, I found others of the same nature : which if I myself shall not suiFer to be lost, it seemeth the world will not, by the often printing of the former. Missing my brother, I found you next ; in respect of bond, both of near alliance, and of straight friendship and society, and particularly of communi- cation in studies ; wherein I must acknowledge my- self beholden to you : for as my business found rest in my contemplations, so my contemplations ever found rest in your loving conference and judgment : so wishing you all good, I remain Your loving brother and friend, 1612. ' FRANCIS BACON. RIGHT HONOURABLE MY VERY GOOD LORD THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM, l^is (Bxatz TortJ X^igl) '^Dmiral oi CHnglanU. EXCELLENT LORD, Solomon says, " a good name is as a precious oint- ment ;'^ and I assure myself such will your Grace's name be with posterity : for your fortune and merit both have been eminent ; and you have planted things that are like to last. I do now publish my Essays ; which of all my other works, have been most current ; for that, as it seems, they come home to men's business 10 PREFATORY EPISTLES. and bosoms. I have enlarged them both in number and weight ; so that they are indeed a new work : I thought it, therefore, agreeable to my affection and obligation to your Grace, to prefix your name before them, both in English and Latin : for I do conceive, that the Latin volume of them, being in the universal language, may last as long as books last. My In- stauration I dedicated to the King; my History of Heiiry the Seventh, which I have now translated into Latin, and my portions of Natural History, to the Prince ; and these I dedicate to your Grace, being of the best fruits, that, by the good increase which God gives to my pen and labours, I could yield. God lead your Grace by the hand. Your Grace^s most obliged and faithful servant, FRANCIS ST. ALBAN. ESSAYS'. I. OF TRUTH. What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting free will in thinking, as well as in acting : and though the sects of philo- sophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain / certain discoursing wits, which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them as was in those of the ancients. But it is not only the difficulty and labour which men take in finding out of truth; nor again, that, when it is found, it imposeth upon men's thoughts, that doth bring lies in favour ; but a natural, though corrupt love of the lie itself. One of the later schools of the Grecians examineth the matter, and is at a stand to think what should be in it, that men should love lies, whether neither they make for pleasure, as with poets; nor for advan- tage, as with the merchant ; but for the lie's sake. But I cannot tell: this same truth is a naked and open daylight, that doth not show the masques, and mummeries, and triumphs of the world half so stately and daintily as candle- lights. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that showeth best by day; but it will 12 LORD bacon's essays^ not rise to the price of a diamond or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights. A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's minds vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valu- ations, imaginations as one w^ould, and the like, but it vrould leave the minds of a number of men poor shrunken things, full of melancholy indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves ? One of the fathers, in great severity, called poesy, ** vinum daemonum," because it iilleth the imagination, and yet it is but with the sha- dow of a lie. But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in and settleth in it that doth the hurt, such as we spake of before. But howsoever these things are thus in men's depraved judgments and aft'ec- tions, yet truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth that the inquiry of truth, which is the love making or wooing of it; the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it; and the be- lief of truth, which is the enjoying of it ; is the sovereign good of human nature. The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense ; the last was the light of reason ; and his sabbath work, ever since, is the illumination of the Spirit. First he breathed light upon the face of the matter, or chaos ; then he breathed ligjht into the face of man ; and still he breatheth and inspireth light into the face of his chosen. The poet that beautified the sect, that was otherwise inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well, ** It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tossed upon the sea; OF TRUTH. 13 a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle, and the adventures thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth (a hill not to be commanded, and where the air is always clear and serene), and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below:" so always, that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling or pride. Cer- tainly it is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles of truth. The pass from theological and philosophical truth to the truth of civil business, it will be ac- knowledged, even by those who practise it not, that clear and round dealing is the honour of man's nature, and that mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embas- eth it : for these winding and crooked courses are the goings of the serpent; which goeth basely upon the belly, and not upon the feet. There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious : and therefore Montaigne saith prettily, when he in- quired the reason why the word of the lie should be such a disgrace, and such an odious charge, *' If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth is as much as to say that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men: for a lie faces God, and shrinks from man." Surely the wick- edness of falsehood and breach of faith cannot possibly be so, highly expressed as in that it 33 14 toRD bacon's essays. shall be the last peal to call the judgments of God upon the generations of men : it being fore- told that when *' Christ cometh," he shall not *' find faith upon earth." II. OF DEATH. Men fear death as children fear to go into the dark ; and as that natural fear in children is in- creased with tales, so is the other. Certainly, the contemplation of death, as the wages of sin and passage to another world, is holy and reli- gious ; but the fear of it, as a tribute due unto nature, is weak. Yet in religious meditations there is sometimes mixture of vanity and of superstition. You shall read in some of the friars' books of mortification, that a man should think with himself what the pain is, if he have but his finger's end pressed, or tortured, and thereby imagine what the pains of death are when the whole body is corrupted and dissolved; when many times death passeth with less pain than the torture of a limb ; for the most vital parts are not the quickest of sense: and by him that spake only as a philosopher and natural man, as was well said, '* Pompa mortis magis terret, quam mors ipsa." Groans, and convul- sions, and a discoloured face, and friends weep- ing, and blacks and obsequies, and the like, show death terrible. It is worthy the observ- ing, that there is no passion in the mind of man so weak, but it mates and masters the fear of death; and therefore death is no such terrible enemy when a man hath so many attendants OF DEATH. 15 about him that can win the combat of him. Re- venge triumphs over death; love slights it; honour aspireth to it; grief flieth to it; fear preoccupieth it; nay, we read, after Otho the emperor had slain himself, pity (which is the tenderest of affections) provoked many to die out of mere compassion to their sovereign, and as the truest sort of followers. Nay, Seneca adds, niceness and satiety : *' Cogita quamdiu eadem feceris; mori velle, non tantum fortis, aut miser, sed etiam fastidiosus potest." A man would die, though he were neither valiant nor miserable, only upon a weariness to do the same thing so oft over and over. It is no less worthy to observe, how little alteration in good spirits the approaches of death make ; for they appear to be the same men till the last instant. Augustus Caisar died in a compliment: '* Livia, conjugii nostri memor, vive et vale." Tiberius in dissimulation, as Tacitus saith of him, *' Jam Tiberium vires et corpus, non dissimulatio, de- serebant:" Vespasian in a jest, sitting upon the stool, *' Ut puto Deus fio :" Galba with a sen- tence, *' Feri, si ex re sit populi Romani," hold- ing forth his neck : Septimus Severus in dis- patch, *' Adeste, si quid mihi restat agendum," and the like. Certainly the Stoics bestowed too much cost upon deaths and by their great preparations made it appear more fearful. Bet- ter, saith he, *' qui finem vitae extremum inter munera ponat naturae." It is as natural to die as to be born ; and to a little infant, perhaps, one is as painful as the other. He that dies in an earnest pursuit is like one that is wounded in 16 LORD BACON^S ESSAYS. hot blood; who, for the time, scarce feels the hurt; and therefore a mind fixed and bent upon somewhat that is good doth avert the dolours of death ; but, above all, believe it, the sweetest canticle is, '* Nunc dimittis,'' when a man hath obtained worthy ends and expectations. Death hath this also, that it openeth the gate to good fame, and extinguisheth envy : *' Exstinctus amabitur idem." HI. OF UNITY IN RELIGION. Religion being the chief bond of human so- ciety, it is a happy thing when itself is well contained within the true bond of unit5^ The quarrels and divisions about religion were evils unknown to the heathen. The reason was, be- cause the religion of the heathen consisted rather in rites and ceremonies than in any constant be- lief : for you may imagine what kind of faith theirs was, when the chief doctors and fathers of their church were the poets. But the true God hath this attribute, that he is a jealous God ; and therefore his worship and religion will endure no mixture nor partner. We shall therefore speak a few words concerning the unity of the church ; what are the fruits thereof; what the bonds ; and what the means. The fruits of unity (next unto the well pleas- ing of God, which is all in all) are two ; the one towards those that are without the church, the other towards those that are within. For the former, it is certain, that heresies and schisms are of all others the greatest scandals; yea. OF UNITY IN RELIGION. 17 more than corruption of manners : for as in the natural body a wound or solution of continuity is worse than a corrupt humour, so in the spiri- tual : so that nothing doth so much keep men out of the church, and drive men out of the church, as breach of unity ; and, therefore, whensoever it cometh to pass that one saith, ** ecce in deserto," another saith, ** ecce in pe- netralibus ;" that is, when some men seek Christ in the conventicles of heretics, and others in an outward face of a church, that voice had need continually to sound in men's ears, *^ nolite exire," — ** go not out." The doctor of the Gen- tiles (the propriety of whose vocation drew him to have a special care of those without) saith, *' If a heathen come in, and hear you speak with several tongues, will he not say that you are mad?" and, certainly, it is little better: when atheists and profane persons do hear of so many discordant and contrary opinions in reli- gion, it doth avert them from the church, and maketh them ** to sit down in the chair of the scorners." It is but a light thing to be vouched in so serious a matter, but yet it expresseth well the deformity. There is a master of scoffing, that, in his catalogue of books of a feigned library, sets down this title of a book, " The Morris Dance of Heretics :" for, indeed, every sect of them hath a diverse posture, or cringe, by themselves, which cannot but move derision in worldlings and depraved politics, who are apt to contemn holy things. As for the fruit towards those that are within, it is peace, which containeth infinite blessings ; 18 LORD bacon's essays. it establisheth faith ; it kindleth charity ; the outward peace of the church distilleth into peace of conscience, and it turneth the labours of writ- ing and reading controversies into treatises of mortification and devotion. Concerning the bonds of unity, the true plac- ing of them importeth exceedingly. There ap- pear to be two extremes : for to certain zealots all speech of pacification is odious. " Is it peace, Jehu?" — *' What hast thou to do with peace? turn thee behind me." Peace is not the matter, but following and party. Contrari- wise, certain Laodiceans and lukewarm persons think they may accommodate points of religion by middle ways, and taking part of both, and witty reconcilements, as if they would make an arbitrement between God and man. Both these extremes are to be avoided ; which will be done if the league of Christians, penned by our Saviour himself, were in the two cross clauses thereof soundly and plainly expounded : '* He that is not with us is against us ;" and again, *' He that is not against us is with us;" that is, if the points fundamental, and of substance in religion, were truly discerned and distinguished from points not merely of faith, but of opinion, order, or good intention. This is a thing may seem to many a matter trivial, and done already ; but if it were done less partially, it would be embraced more generally. Of this I may give only this advice, according to my small model. Men ought to take heed of rending God's church by two kinds of contro- versies; the one is, when the matter of the point OF UNITY IN RELIGION. 19 controverted is too small and light, not worth the heat and strife about it, kindled only by con- tradiction; for, as it is noted by one of the fathers, Christ's coat indeed had no seam, but the church's vesture was of divers colours ; whereupon he saith, ^* in veste varietas sit, scis- sura non sit," they be two things, unity and uni- formity ; the other is, when the matter of the point controverted is great, but it is driven to an over great subtilty and obscurity, so that it becometh a thing rather ingenious than substan* tial. A man that is of judgment and under- standing shall sometimes hear ignorant men dif- fer, and know well within himself, that those which so differ mean one thing, and yet they themselves would never agree : and if it come so to pass in that distance of judgment, which is between man and man, shall we not think that God above, that knows the heart, doth not dis- cern that frail men, in some of their contradic- tions, intend the same thing, and accepteth of both ? The nature of such controversies is ex- cellently expressed by St. Paul, in the warning and precept that he giveth concerning the same, ** devita profanas vocum novitates, et opposi- tiones falsi nominis scientiae." Men create op- positions which are not, and put them into new terms so fixed, as whereas the meaning ought to govern the term, the term in effect governeth the meaning. There be also two false peaces, or unities: the one, when the peace is grounded but upon an implicit ignorance ; for all colours will agree in the dark : the other, when it is pieced up upon a direct admission of contraries 20 LORD bacon's essays. in fundamental points : for truth and falsehood, in such things, are like the iron and clay in the toes of Nebuchadnezzar's image ; they may cleave, but they will not incorporate. Concerning the means of procuring unity, men must beware, that, in the procuring or m unit- ing of religious unity, they do not dissolve and deface the laws of charity and human society. There be two swords amongst Christians, the spiritual and the temporal; and both have their due office and place in the maintenance of reli- gion : but we may not take up the third sword, which is Mahomet's sword, or like unto it : that is, to propagate religion by wars, or by sangui- nary persecutions to force consciences ; except it be in cases of overt scandal, blasphemy, or intermixture of practice against the state ; much less to nourish seditions ; to authorize conspira- cies and rebellions ; to put the sword into the people's hands, and the likQ, tending to the sub- version of all government, which is the ordi- nance of God ; for this is but to dash the first table against the second; and so to consider men as Christians, as we forget that they are men. Lucretius the poet, when he beheld the act of xAgamemnon, that could endure the sacri- licing of his own daughter, exclaimed: " Tantam rellglo potuit suadere malorum." What would he have said, if he had known of the massacre in France, or the powder trea- son of England ? He would have been seven times more epicure and atheist than he was ; for as the temporal sword is to be drawn with great OF UNITY IN RELIGION. 21 circumspection in cases of religion, so it is a thing monstrous to put it into the hands of the common people ; let that be left unto the ana- baptists and other furies. It was great blas- phemy, when the devil said, ** I will ascend and be like the Highest;" but it is greater blas- phemy to personate God, and bring him in say- ing, '* 1 will descend, and be like the prince of darkness:" and what is it better, to make the cause of religion to descend to the cruel and execrable actions of murdering princes, butchery of people, and subversion of states and govern- ments? Surely this is to bring down the Holy Ghost, instead of the likeness of a dove, in the shape of a vulture or raven ; and to set out of the bark of a Christian- church a flag of a bark of pirates and assassins, therefore it is most ne- cessary that the church by doctrine and decree, princes by their sword, and all learnings, both Christian and moral, as by their mercury rod to damn, and send to hell for ever, those facts and opinions tending to the support of the same, as hath been already in good part done. Surely in councils concerning religion, that counsel of the apostle would be prefixed, " Ira hominis non implet justitiam Dei :" and it was a nota- ble observation of a wise father, and no less in- genuously confessed, that those which held and persuaded pressure of consciences were com- monly interested therein themselves for their own ends. 22 LORD bacon's essays. IV. OF REVENGE. Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out : for as for the first wrong, it doth but offend the law, but the revenge of that wrong putteth the law out of office. Certainly, in taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy ; but in passing it over he is superior ; for it is a prince's part to pardon : and Solomon, I am sure, saith, '* It is the glory of a man to pass by an offence.'^ That which is past is gone and irrecoverable, and wise men have enough to do with things present and to come ; therefore they do but trifle with themselves, that labour in past matters. There is no man doth a wrong for the wrong's sake, but thereby to purchase himself profit, or pleasure, or honour, or the like; therefore why should I be angry with a man for loving himself better than me ? And if any man should do wrong, merely out of ill nature, why, yet it is but like the thorn or brier, which prick and scratch because they can do no other. The most tolerable sort of revenge is for those wrongs which there is no law to re- medy : but then, let a man take heed the revenge be such as there is no law to punish, else a man's enemy is still beforehand, and it is two for one. Some, when they take revenge, are desirous the party should know when it cometh : this is the more generous ; for the delight seem- eth to be not so much in doing the hurt as in making the party repent : but base and crafty OF REVENGE. 23 cowards are like the arrow that flieth in the dark. Cosmus, Duke of Florence, had a des- perate saying against perfidious or neglecting friends, as if those wrongs were unpardonable. ** You shall read," saith he, ** that we are com- manded to forgive our enemies, but you never read that we are commanded to forgive our friends." But yet the spirit of Job was in a better tune : ** Shall we," saith he, *' take good at God's hands, and not be content to take evil also ?" and so of friends in a proportion. This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge, keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well. Public revenges are for the most part fortunate ; as that for the death of Caesar ; for the death of Pertinax ; for the death of Henry the Third of France ; and many more. But in private revenges it is not so ; nay, rather vindicative persons live the life of witches ; who, as they are mischievous, so end they unfortunate. V. OF ADVERSITY. It was a high speech of Seneca (after the man- ner of the Stoics), that the good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired : *' Bona rerum secundarum optabilia, adversarum mirabilia." Certainly, if miracles be the command over nature, they appear most in adversity. It is yet a higher speech of his than the other (much too high for a heathen), ** It is true greatness to have in one the frailty 24 LORD bacon's essays. of a man, and the security of a God :" — *' Vere magnum habere fragilitatem hominis, securita- tem Dei." This would have done better in poesy, were transcendencies are more allowed; and the poets, indeed, have been busy with it; for it is in effect the thing which is figured in that strange fiction of the ancient poets, which seemeth not to be without mystery ; nay, and to have some approach to the state of a Christian, ** that Hercules, when he went to unbind Pro- metheus (by whom human nature is represent- ed),, sailed the length of the great ocean in an earthen pot or pitcher, lively describing Chris- tian resolution, that saileth in the frail bark of the flesh through the waves of the world." But to speak in a mean, the virtue of prosperity is temperance, the virtue of adversity is fortitude, which in morals is the more heroical virtue. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, adversity is the blessing of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction, and the clearer revelation of God's favour. Yet even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many herselike airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath laboured more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not with- out many fears and distastes ; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. We see in needleworks and embroideries, it is more pleas- ing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground : judge, there- fore, of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure OF SIMULATION AND DISSIMULATION. 25 of the eye. Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant where they are incensed, or crushed : for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue. VI. OF SIMULATION AND DISSIMULATION. Dissimulation is but a faint kind of policy, or vrisdom ; for it asketh a strong wit and a strong heart to know when to tell truth, and to do it: therefore it is the weaker sort of politicians that are the greatest dissemblers. Tacitus saith, ** Livia sorted well with the arts of her husband, and dissimulation of her son ; attributing arts or policy to Augustus, and dissimulation to Tiberius :" and again, when Mucianus encourageth Vespasian to take arms against VitelliuS; he saith, '* We rise not against the piercing judgment of Augustus, nor the ex- treme caution or closeness of Tiberius :" these properties of arts or policy, and dissimulation and closeness are, indeed, habits and faculties several, and to be distinguished ; for if a man have that penetration of judgment as he can discern what things are to be laid open, and what to be secreted, and what to be shown at half lights, and to whom and when (which, in- deed, are arts of state, and arts of life, as Taci- tus well calleth them), to him a habit of dissi- mulation is a hinderance and a poorness. But if a man cannot attain to that judgment, then it is left to him generally to be close, and a dis- sembler ; for where a man cannot choose or vary in particulars, there it is good to take the 26 LORD bacon's essays. safest and wariest way in general, like the going softly by one that cannot well see. Certainly the ablest men that ever were have had all an openness and frankness of dealing, and a name of certainty and veracity : but then they were like horses well managed, for they could tell passing well when to stop or turn ; and at such times when they thought the case indeed re- quired dissimulation, if then they used it, it came to pass that the former opinion spread abroad, of their good faith and clearness of deal- ing, made them almost invisible. There be three degrees of this hiding and veiling of a man's self; the first, closeness, re- servation, and secrecy, when a man leaveth him- self without observation, or without hold to be taken, what he is ; the second dissimulation in the negative, when a man lets fall signs and arguments, that he is not that he is ; and the third, simulation in the affirmative, when a man industriously and expressly feigns and pretends to be that he is not. For the first of these, secrecy, it is indeed the virtue of a confessor : and assuredly the secret man heareth many confessions, for who will open himself to a blab or a blabber ? But if a man be thought secret, it inviteth discovery, as the more close air sucketh in the more open ; and, as in confessing, the revealing is not for worldly use, but for the ease of a man's heart, so secret men come to the knowledge of many things in that kind ; while men rather discharge their minds than impart their minds. In few words, mysteries are due to secrecy. Besides OF SIMULATION AND DISSIMULATION. 2 (to say truth) nakedness is uncomely, as well] mind as in body ; and it addeth no small reve- rence to men's manners and actions, if they be not altogether open. As for talkers, and futile persons, they are commonly vain and credulous withal: for he that talketh what he knoweth will also talk what he knoweth not; therefore set it down, that a habit of secrecy is both po- litic and moral : and in this part it is good, that a man's face give his tongue leave to speak ; for the discovery of a man's self, by the tracts of his countenance, is a great weakness and be- traying, by how much it is many times more marked and believed than a man's words. For the second, which is dissimulation, it followeth many times upon secrecy by a neces- sity; so that he that will be secret must be a dissembler in some degree : for men are too cunning to suffer a man to keep an indifferent carriage between both, and to be secret, without swaying the balance on either side. They will so beset a man with questions, and draw him on, and pick it out of him, that, without an absurd silence, he must show an inclination one way ; or if he do not, they will gather as much by his silence as by his speech. As for equivocations, or eraculous speeches, they cannot hold out long. So that no man can be secret, except he give himself a little scope of dissimulation, which is, as it were, but the skirts, or train of secrecy. But for the third degree, which is simulation and false profession, that I hold more culpable. 28 LORD bacon's essays. and less politic, except it be in great and rare matters : and, therefore, a general custom of simulation (which is this last degree), is a vice rising either of a natural falseness, or fearful- ness, or of a mind that hath some main faults; which, because a man must needs disguise, it maketh him practise simulation in other things, lest his hand should be out of use. The advantages of simulation and dissimula- tion are three : first, to lay asleep opposition, and to surprise; for where a man's intentions are published, it is an alarm to call up all that are against them : the second is, to reserve to a man's self a fair retreat; for if a man engage himself by a manifest declaration, he must go through, or take a fall : the third is, the better to discover the mind of another ; for to him that opens himself men will hardly show themselves averse ; but will (fair) let him go on, and turn their freedom of speech to freedom of thought ; and, therefore, it is a good shrewd proverb of the Spaniard, ** Tell a lie and find a troth ;" as if there were no way of discovery but by simu- lation. There be also three disadvantages to set it even; the first, that simulation and dissi- mulation commonly carry with them a show of fearfulness, which, in any business, doth spoil the feathers of round flying up to the mark ; the second, that it puzzleth and perplexeth the con- ceits of many that, perhaps, would otherwise cooperate with him, and makes a man walk al- most alone to his own ends ; the third, and great- est is, that it depriveth a man of one of the most OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN. 29 |>rincipal instruments for action, which is trust and belief. The best composition and tempera- ture is to have openness in fame and opinion ; secrecy in habit; dissimulation in seasonable use; and a power to feign, if there be no remedy. VII. OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN. The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears ; they cannot utter the one, nor they will not utter the other. Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter ; they increase the cares of life, but they mitigate the remembrance of death. The perpetuity by generation is common to beasts; but memory, merit, and noble works are proper to men : and surely a man shall see the noblest works and foundations have proceeded from childless men, which have sought to express the images of their minds, where those of their bodies have failed ; so the care of posterity is most in them that have no posterity. They that are the first raisers of their houses are most indulgent towards their children, beholding them as the continuance, not only of their kind, but of their work; and so both children and creatures. The difference in affection of parents towards their several children, is many times unequal, and sometimes unworthy, especially in the mo- ther; as Solomon saith, ** A wise son rejoiceth the father, but an ungracious son shames the mother." A man shall see, where there is a house full of children, one or two of the eldest respected, and the youngest made wantons; but c 30 LORD bacon's essays. in the midst some that are, as it were, forgotten, who, many times, nevertheless, prove the best* The ilhberality of parents, in allowance towards their children, is a harmful error, and makes them base ; acquaints them with shifts ; makes them sort with mean company ; and makes them surfeit more when they come to plenty ; and therefore the proof is best when men keep their authority towards their children, but not their purse. Men have a foolish manner (both pa- rents, and schoolmasters, and servants), in creat- ing and breeding an emulation between brothers during childhood, which many times sorteth to discord when they are men, and disturbeth fami- lies. The Italians make little difference between children and nephews, or near kinsfolks ; but so they be of the lump they care not, though they pass not through their own body; and, to say truth, in nature it is much alike matter; inso- much that we see a nephew sometimes resem- bleth an uncle, or a kinsman, more than his own parents, as the blood happens. Let parents choose betimes the vocations and courses they mean their children should take, for then they are most flexible ; and let them not too much apply themselves to the disposition of their chil- dren, as thinking they will take best to that which they have most mind to. It is true, that if the aff*ection, or aptness, of the children be ex- traordinary, then it is good not to cross it; but generally the precept is good, ** optimum elige, suave et facile illud faciet consuetudo." Younger brothers are commonly fortunate, but seldom or never where the elder are disinherited. 31 VIII. OF MARRIAGE AND SINGLE LIFE. He that hath wife and children hath given host- ages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmar- ried or childless men ; which, both in affection and means, have married and endowed the public. Yet it were great reason that those that have children should have greatest care of future times, unto which they know they must transmit their dearest pledges. Some there are, who, though they lead a single life, yet their thoughts do end with themselves, and ac- count future times impertinencies; nay, there are some other that account wife and children but as bills of charges : nay, more, there are some foolish rich covetous men, that take a pride in having no children, because they may be thought so much the richer; for, perhaps, they have heard some talk, '' Such a one is a great rich man," and another except to it, ** Yea, but he hath a great charge of children ;" as if it were an abatement to his riches : but the most ordi- nary cause of a single life is liberty, especially in certain selfpleasing and humorous minds, which are so sensible of every restraint, as they will go near to think their girdles and garters to be bonds and shackles. Unmarried men are best friends, best servants; but not always best subjects; for they are light to run away ; and almost all fugitives are of that con- c2 32 LORD bacon's essays. dition. A single life doth well with churchmeli> for charity will hardly water the ground where it must first fill a pool. It is indifferent forjudges and magistrates; for if they be facile and cor- rupt, you shall have a servant five times worse than a wife. For soldiers, I find the generals commonly, in their hortatives, put men in mind of their wives and children ; and I think the des- pising of marriage among the Turks maketh the vulgar soldier more base. Certainly wife and children are a kind of discipline of humanity; and single men, though they may be many times more charitable, because their means are less exhaust, yet, on the other side, they are more cruel and hardhearted (good to make severe in- quisitors), because their tenderness is not so oft called upon. Grave natures, led by custom, and therefore constant, are commonly loving husbands, as was said of Ulysses, **vetulam suam preetulit immortalitati.'^ Chaste women are often proud and froward, as presuming upon the merit of their chastity. It is one of the best bonds, both of chastity and obedience, in the wife, if she think her husband wise ; which she will never do if she find him jealous. Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for mid- dle age, and old men's nurses; so as a man may have a quarrel to marry when he will : but yet he was reputed one of the wise men, that made answer to the question when a man should marry: — ** A young man not yet, an elder man not at all.'' It is often seen, that bad husbands have very good wives : whether it be that it raiseth the price of their husband's kindness OF ENVY. 33 when it comes, or that the wives take a pride in their patience ; but this never fails, if the bad husbands were of their own choosing, against their friends* consent, for then they will be sure to make good their own folly. IX. OP ENVY. There be none of the affections which have been noted to fascinate, or bewitch, but love and envy : they both have vehement wishes ; they frame themselves readily into imaginations and suggestions ; and they come easily into the eye, especially upon the presence of the objects, which are the points that conduce to fascination, if any such thing there be. We see, likewise, the scripture calleth envy an evil eye ; and the astrologers call the evil intiuences of the stars evil aspects ; so that still there seemeth to be ac- knowledged, in the act of envy, an ejaculation, or irradiation of the eye : nay, some have been so curious as to note, that the times, when the stroke or percussion of an envious eye doth most hurt, are, when the party envied is beheld in glory or triumph ; for that sets an edge upon envy : and besides, at such times, the spirits of the person envied do come forth most into the outward parts, and so meet the blow. But leaving these curiosities (though not un- worthy to be thought on in a fit place), we will handle what persons are apt to envy others; what persons are most subject to be envied them- selves ; and what is the difference between pub- lic and private envy. LORD bacon's essays. A man that hath no virtue m himself ever envieth virtue in others; for men's minds will either feed upon their own good, or upon others evil; and who wanteth the one will prey upon the other; and whoso is out of hope to attain another's virtue, will seek to come at even hand^ by depressing another's fortune. A man that is busy and inquisitive is com- monly envious; for to know much of other men's matters cannot be, because all that ado may concern his own estate ; therefore it must needs be that he taketh a kind of play pleasure in look- ing upon the fortunes of others; neither can he that mindeth but his own business find much matter for envy ; for envy is a gadding passion, and walketh the streets, and doth not keep home: ** Non est curiosus, quin idem sit ma- levolus." Men of noble birth are noted to be envious to- wards new men when they rise ; for the distance is altered ; and it is like a deceit of the eye, that when others come on they think themselves go back. Deformed persons and eunuchs, and old men and bastards are envious : for he that cannot possibly mend his own case, will do what he can to impair another's; except these defects light upon a very brave and heroical nature, which thinketh to make his natural wants part of his honour; in that it should be said, ** That a eunuch, or a lame man, did such great matters;" affecting the honour of a miracle : as it was in Narses the eunuch, and Agesilaus and Tamer- lane, that were lame men. OF ENVY. 35 The same is the case of men who rise after calamities and misfortunes ; for they are as men fallen out with the times, and think other men's harms a redemption of their own sufferings. They that desire to excel in too many matters, out of levity and vainglory, are ever envious, for they cannot want work ; it being impossible, but many, in some one of those things, should sur- pass them; which was the character of Adrian the emperor, that mortally envied poets and painters, and artificers in works, wherein he had a vein to excel. Lastly, near kinsfolks and fellows in office, and those that are bred together, are more apt to envy their equals when they are raised ; for it doth upbraid unto them their own fortunes, and pointeth at them, and cometh oftener into their remembrance, and incurreth likewise more into the note of others; and envy ever redoubleth from speech and fame. Cain's envy was the more vile and malignant towards his brother Abel, because, when his sacrifice was better accepted, there was no body to look on. Thus much for those that are apt to envy. Concerning those that are more or less sub- ject to envy. First, persons of eminent virtue, when they are advanced, are less envied ; for their fortune seemeth but due unto them ; and no man envieth the payment of a debt, but rewards and liberality rather. Again, envy is ever joined with the comparing of a man's self; and where there is no comparison, no envy; and therefore kings are not envied but by kings. Neverthe- 36 LORD bacon's essays. less, it is to be noted, that unworthy persons am most envied at their first coming in, and after- wards overcome it better; v^^hereas, contrari- wise, persons of worth and merit are most envied when their fortune continueth long; for by that time, though their virtue be the same, yet it hath not the same lustre, for fresh men grow up to darken it. Persons of noble blood are less envied in their rising; for it seemeth but right done to their birth : besides, there seemeth not much added to their fortune ; and envy is as the sun- beams, that beat hotter upon a bank, or steep rising ground, than upon a flat; and, for the same reason, those that are advanced by degrees are less envied than those that are advanced suddenly, and ** per saltum." Those that have joined with their honour great travels^ cares, or perils, are less subject to envy; for men think that they earn their honours hardly, and pity them sometimes ; and pity ever healeth envy : wherefore you shall observe, that the more deep and sober sort of politic persons, in their greatness, are ever bemoaning themselves what a life they lead, chanting a ** quanta patimur;" not that they feel it so, but only to abate the edge of envy : but this is to be understood of bu- siness that is laid upon men, and not such as they call unto themselves; for nothing increas- eth envy more than an unnecessary and ambiti- ous engrossing of business; and nothing doth extinguish envy more than for a great person to preserve all other inferior officers in their full OF ENVY. 87 rights and preeminences of their places ; for, by that means, there be so many screens between him and envy. Above all, those are most subject to envy which carry the greatness of their fortunes in an insolent and proud manner: being never well but while they are showing how great they are, either by outward pomp, or by triumphing over all opposition or competition : whereas wise men will rather do sacrifice to envy, in suffering themselves, sometimes of purpose, to be crossed and overborne in things that do not much concern them. Notwithstanding so much is tru^e, that the carriage of greatness in a plain and open manner (so it be without arrogancy and vain- glory), doth draw less envy than if it be in a more crafty and cunning fashion ; for in that course a man doth but disavow fortune, and seemeth to be conscious of his own want in worth, and doth teach others to envy him. Lastly, to conclude this part, as we said in the beginning, that the act of envy had somewhat in it of witchcraft, so there is no other cure of envy but the cure of witchcraft ; and that is, to re- move the lot (as they call it), and to lay it upon another ; for which purpose the wiser sort of great persons bring in ever upon the stage some- body upon whom to derive the envy that would come upon themselves ; sometimes upon minis- ters and servants, sometimes upon colleagues and associates, and the like; and, for that turn, there are never wanting some persons of vioknt and undertaking natures, who, so they may have power and business, will take it at any cost. ca S8 LORD bacon's essays. Now, to speak of public envy : there is yet some good in public envy, whereas in private there is none ; for public envy is as an ostracism, that eclipseth men when they grow too great : and therefore it is a bridle also' to great ones to keep within bounds. This envy, being in the Latin word **invidia,'' goeth in the modern languages by the name of discontentment; of which we shall speak in handling sedition. It is a disease in a state like to infection : for as infection spreadeth upon that which is sound, and tainteth it; so, when envy is gotten once into a state, it traduceth even the best actions thereof, and turneth them into an ill odour; and therefore there is little won by intermingling of plausible actions: for that doth argue but weakness and fear of envy, which hurteth so much the more, as it is likewise usual in infections, which, if you fear them, you call them upon you. This public envy seemeth to bear chiefly upon principal officers or ministers, rather than upon kings and states themselves. But this is a sure rule, that if the envy upon the minister be great, when the cause of it in him is small ; or if the envy be general in a manner upon all the minis- ters of an estate, then the envy (though hidden) is truly upon the state itself. And so much of public envy or discontentment, and the diff*er- ence thereof from private envy, which was han- dled in the first place. We will add this in general, touching the af- fection of envy, that of all other affections it is the most importune and continual ; for of other OF LOVE. 39 affections there is occasion given but now and then ; and therefore it was well said, ** Invidia festos dies non agit :" for it is ever working upon some or other. And it is also noted, that love and envy do make a man pine, which other af- fections do not, because they are not so conti- nual. It is also the vilest affection, and the most depraved ; for which cause it is the proper attribute of the devil, who is called, '* The envi- ous man, that soweth tares amongst the wheat by night;" as it always cometh to pass, that envy worketh subtilly, and in the dark, and to the prejudice of good things, such as is the wheat. X. OF LOVE. The stage is more beholding to love than the life of man ; for as to the stage, love is even matter of comedies, and now and then of trage- dies ; but in life it doth much mischief; some- times like a siren, sometimes like a fury. You may observe, that amongst all the great and wor- thy persons (whereof the memory remaineth, either ancient or recent), there is not one that hath been transported to the mad degree of love, which shows that great spirits and great busi- ness do keep out this weak passion. You must except, nevertheless, Marcus Antonius, the half partner of the empire of Rome, and Appius Claudius, the decemvir and lawgiver ; whereof the former was indeed a voluptuous man, and inordinate; but the latter was an austere and wise man : and therefore it seems (though rarely), that love can find entrance, not only into an open 40 LORD bacon'^s essays. heart, but also into a heart well fortified, if watcb be not well kept. It is a poor saying of Epi- curus, *' Satis magnum alter alteri theatrum sumus;" as if man, made for the contemplation of heaven, and all noble objects, should do no- thing but kneel before a little idol, and make himself a subject, though not of the mouth (as beasts are), yet of the eye, which was given him for higher purposes. It is a strange thing to note the excess of this passion, and how it braves the nature and value of things by this, that the speaking in a perpetual hyperbole is comely in nothing but in love: neither is it merely in the phrase ; for whereas it hath been well said, ** That the arch flatterer, with whom all the pretty flatterers have intelligence, is a man's self;" certainly the lover is more; for there was never a proud man thought so absurdly well of hirr)«^*^lf as the lover doth of the person loved; and therefore it was well said, ** That it is impossible to love and to be wise." Neither doth this weakness appear to others only, and not to the party loved, but to the loved most of all, except the love be reciprocal ; for it is a true rule, that love is ever rewarded, either with the reciprocal, or with an inward, or secret con- tempt ; by how much more the men ought to be- ware of this passion, which loseth not only other things, but itself. As for the other losses, the poet's relation doth well figure them: ** That he that preferred Helena, quitted the gifts of Juno and Pallas ;" for whosoever esteemeth too much of amorous aflfection quitteth both riches and wisdom. This passion hath its floods in the OP LOVE. 41 very times of weakness, which are, great pros- perity and great adversity, though this latter hath been less observed ; both which times kin- dle love, and make it more fervent, and therefore show it to be the child of folly. They do best, who, if they cannot but admit love, yet make it keep quarter, and sever it wholly from their serious affairs and actions of life ; for if it check once with business, it troubleth men's fortunes, and maketh men that they can no ways be true to their own ends. I know not how, but martial men are given to love : I think it is, but as they are given to wine; for perils commonly ask to be paid in pleasures. There is in man's nature a secret inclination and motion towards love of others, which, if it be not spent upon some one or a few, doth naturally spread itself towards many, and maketh men become humane and charitable, as it is seen sometimes in friars. Nuptial love maketh mankind; friendly love perfecteth it; but wanton love corrupteth and embaseth it. XI. OF GREAT PLACE. s^Men in great place are thrice servants ; servants ^ of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business ; so as they have no free- dom, neither in their persons nor in their actions, nor in their times. It is a strange desire to seek power and to lose liberty ; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self. The rising unto place is laborious, and by pains men come to greater pains ; and it is sometimes 42 LORD bacon's essays. base, and by indignities men come to dignities. The standing is slippery, and the regress is either a downfall, or at least an eclipse, which is a melancholy thing: ** Cum non sis qui fueris, non esse cur velis vivere]" Nay, retire men cannot when they would, neither will they when it were reason ; but are impatient of privateness even in age and sickness, which require the sha- dow ; like old townsmen, that will be still sitting at their street door, though thereby they offer age to scorn. Certainly great persons had need to borrow other men's opinions to think them- selves happy; for if they judge by their own feeling, they cannot find it : but if they think with themselves what other men think of them, and that other men would fain be as they are, then they are happy, as it w ere, by report, when, perhaps, they find the contrary within : for they are the first that find their own griefs, though they be the last that find their own faults. Cer- tainly, men in great fortunes are strangers to themselves, and while they are in the puzzle of business they have no time to tend their health either of body or mind : ** Illi mors gravis incu- bat, qui notus nimis omnibus, ignotus moritur •V sibi." In place there is license to do good and evil ; whereof the latter is a curse : for in evil the best condition is not to will ; the second not to can. But power to do good is the true and law- ful end of aspiring ; for good thoughts (though God accept them), yet towards men are little better than good dreams, except they be put in act; and that cannot be without power and place, as the vantage or commanding ground. OF GREAT PLACE. 43 Merit and good works is the end of man's mo- tion ; and conscience of the same is the accom- phshment of man's rest : for if a man can be par- taker of God's theatre, he shall likewise be par- taker of God's rest : " Et conversus Deus, ut aspiceret opera, quae fecerunt manus suse, vidit quod omnia essent bona nimis;" and then the ¥■' sabbath. In the discharge of thy place set be- fore thee the best examples; for imitation is a globe of precepts ; and after a time set before thee thine own example ; and examine thyself strictly whether thou didst not best at first. Neglect not also the examples of those that have carried themselves ill in the same place ; not to set off thyself by taxing their memory, but to direct thyself what to avoid. Reform, there- fore, without bravery or scandal of former times and persons ; but yet set it down to thyself, as well to create good precedents as to follow them. Reduce things to the first institution, and observe wherein and how they have dege- nerated; but yet ask counsel of both times; of the ancient time what is best; and of the latter time what is fittest. Seek to make thy course regular, that men may know beforehand what T" they may expect; but be not too positive and peremptory ; and express thyself well when thou digressest from thy rule. Preserve the right of thy place, but stir not questions of jurisdiction ; and rather assume thy right in silence, and *' de facto," than voice it with claims and challenges. Preserve, likewise, the rights of inferior places ; and think it more honour to direct in chief than to be busy in all. Embrace and invite helps and 44 LORB BACON S ESSAYS. advices touching the execution of thy place ; and do not drive away such as bring thee infor- mation as meddlers, but accept of them in good >i|^part. The vices of authority are chiefly fourj delays, corruption, roughness, and facility. For delays give easy access ; keep times appointed ; go through with that which is in hand, and inter- lace not business but of necessity. For corrup- tion doth not only bind thine own hands or thy servant's hands from taking, but bind the hands of suitors also from offering; for integrity used doth the one ; but integrity professed, and with a manifest detestation of bribery,, doth the other; and avoid not only the fault, but the suspicion. Whosoever is found variable, and changeth ma- nifestly without manifest cause, giveth suspicion of corruption : therefore, always, when thou changest thine opinion or course, profess it plainly, and declare it, together with tl>e reasons that move thee to change, and do not think to steal it. A servant or a favourite, if he be in- ward, and no other apparent cause of esteem, is commonly thought but a by-way to close cor- ruption. For roughness, it is a needless cause of discontent : severity breedeth fear, but rough- ness breedeth hate. Even reproofs from autho- rity ought to be grave, and not taunting. As for facility, it is worse than bribery; for bribes come but now and then ; but if importunity or idle respects lead a man, he shall never be with- out; as Solomon saith, *' To respect persons it is not good, for such a man will transgress for a piece of bread.'* It is most true that was an- ciently spoken, *' A place showeth the man ; OF GREAT PLACE. 45 aad it showeth some to the better, and some to the worse*/* ** omnium consensu, capax imperii, nisi imperasset," saith Tacitus of Galba ; but of Vespasian he saith, *' solus imperantium, Ves- pasianus mutatus in melius ;' though the one was meant of sufficiency, the other of manners and affection. It is an assured sign of a worthy and generous spirit, whom honour amends; for ho- nour is, or should be, the place of virtue ; and as in nature things move violently to their place, and calmly in their place, so virtue in ambition is violent, in authority settled and calm. All rising to great place is by a winding stair ; and if there be factions, it is good to side a man's self whilst he is in the rising, and to balance himself when he is placed. Use the memory of thy predecessor fairly and tenderly ; for if thou dost not, it is a debt will sure be paid when thou art gone. If thou have colleagues, respect them; and rather call them when they look not for it, than exclude them when they have reason to look to be called. Be not too sensible or too remembering of thy place in conversation and private answers to suitors; but let it rather be wsaid, " When he sits in place he is another man." XII. OF BOLDNESS. It is a trivial grammar-school text, but yet wor- thy a wise man's consideration. Question was asked of Demosthenes what was the chief part of an orator? he answered, action: what next? action: what next again? action. He said it 46 LORD bacon's essays. that knew it best, and had by nature himself no advantage in that he commended. A strange thing, that that part of an orator which is but superficial, and rather the virtue of a player, should be placed so high above those other noble parts of invention, elocution, and the rest; nay, almost alone, as if it were all in all. But the reason is plain. There is in human nature gene- rally more of the fool than of the wise ; and therefore those faculties by which the foolish part of men's minds is taken, are most potent. Wonderful like is the case of boldness in civil business ; what first ? boldness : what second and third ? boldness. And yet boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness, far inferior to other parts: but nevertheless, it doth fascinate, and bind hand and foot those that are either shallow in judgment or weak in courage, which are the greatest part : yea, and prevaileth with wise men at weak times : therefore we see it hath done wonders in popular states, but with senates and princes less ; and more, ever upon the first entrance of bold persons into action, than soon after ; for boldness is an ill keeper of promise. Surely, as there are mountebanks for the natural body, so there are mountebanks for the politic body ; men that undertake great cures, and perhaps have been lucky in two or three ex- periments, but want the ground of science, and therefore cannot hold out : nay, you shall see a bold fellow many times do Mahomet's miracle. Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The peo- OF BOLDNESS. 47 pie assembled : Mahomet called the hill to come to him again and again ; and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, but said, ** If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Maho- met will go to the hill." So these men, when they have promised great matters and failed most shamefully, yet (if they have the perfection of boldness), they will but slight it over, and make a turn, and no more ado. Certainly to men of great judgment, bold persons are sport to behold; nay, and to the vulgar also boldness hath somewhat of the ridiculous : for if absurdity be the subject of laughter, doubt you not but great boldness is seldom without some absur- dity ; especially it is a sport to see when a bold fellow is out of countenance, for that puts his face into a most shrunken and wooden posture, as needs it must: for in bashfulness the spirits do a little go and come; but with bold men, upon like occasion, they stand at a stay ; like a stale at chess, where it is no mate, but yet the game cannot stir : but this last were titter for a satire, than for a serious observation. This is well to be weighed, that boldness is ever blind; for it seeth not dangers and inconveniences : therefore it is ill in counsel, good in execution; so that the right use of bold persons is, that they never command in chief, but the seconds, and under the direction of others : for in counsel it is good to see dangers, and in execution not to see them, except they be very great. 48 LORD BACON'iS ESSAYS. XIII. OF GOODNESS, AND GOODNESS OF NATURE. I TAKE goodness in this sense, the affecting of the weal of men, which is that the Grecians call Philanthropia ; and the word humanity (as it is used) is a Httle too hght to express it. Good- ness I call the habit, and goodness of nature the inclination. This, of all virtues and dignities of the mind, is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it man is a busy, mis- chievous, wretched thing, no better than a kind of vermin. Goodness answers to the theological virtue charity, and admits no excess but error. The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall: but in charity there is no excess, neither can angel or man come in danger by it. The inclination to goodness is imprinted deeply in the nature of man ; insomuch, that if it issue not towards men, it will take unto other living creatures ; as it is seen in the Turks, a cruel people, who nevertheless are kind to beasts, and give alms to dogs and birds ; insomuch, as Bus- bechius reporteth, a Christian boy in Constanti- nople had like to have been stoned for gagging in a waggishness a long-billed fowl. Errors, indeed, ia this virtue, in goodness or charity, may be committed. The Italians have an un- gracious proverb, ** Tanto buon che val niente;" ** So good, that he is good for nothing :" and one of the doctors of Italy, Nicholas Machiavel, had the confidence to put in writing, almost ia ESSAYS . Bus"becliius reportetli, a Christian "boy ia ConstaxLtinople liad. lilce to Ixave "been stoned for gag-g'ing' a long- iDilled fowl . T»R.A.\W BY KICHATtD WESIEALL ,ILA. ETsTOBAVliD WT J.ir.EOMN SON : PUBLISHED BY JOHiT SHA3?PE , PICCAOILLY. , OCT. 1,1822. ' GOODNESS OF NATURE. 49 plain terms, ** That the Christian faith had given up good men in prey to those that are tyrannical and unjust;" which he spake, because, indeed, there was never law, or sect, or opinion did so much magnify goodness as the Christian religion doth : therefore, to avoid the scandal, and the danger both, it is good to take knowledge of the errors of a habit so excellent. Seek the good of other men, but be not in bondage to their faces or fancies ; for that is but facility or soft- ness, which taketh an honest mind prisoner. Neither give thou ^sop's cock a gem, who would be better pleased and happier if he had a barley corn. The example of God teacheth the lesson truly : ** He sendeth his rain, and maketh his sun to shine upon the just and the unjust;'' but he doth not rain wealth, nor shine honour and virtues upon men equally ! common benefits are to be communicated with all, but peculiar bene- fits with choice. And beware how in making the portraiture thou breakest the pattern : for divi- nity maketh the love of ourselves the pattern; the love of our neighbours but the portraiture ; ** Sell all thou hast, and give it to the poor, and follow me :" but sell not all thou hast, except thou come and follow me ; that is, except thou have a vocation wherein thou mayst do as much ^ood with little means as with great; for other- wise, in feeding the streams, thou driest the fountain. Neither is there only a habit of good- ness directed by right reason ; but there is in some men, even in nature, a disposition towards it; as, on the other side, there is a natural ma- lignity : for there be that in their nature do not 50 LORD bacon's essays. affect the good of others. The lighter sort of malignity turneth but to a crossness, or froward- ness, or aptness to oppose, or difficileness, or the like ; but the deeper sort to envy, and mere mischief. Such men in other men's calamities are, as it were, in season, and are ever on the loading parts : not so good as the dogs that licked Lazarus' sores, but like flies that are still buzzing upon any thing that is raw ; misan- thropi, that make it their practice to bring men to the bough, and yet have never a tree for the purpose in their gardens, as Timon had: such dispositions are the very errors of human nature, and yet they are the fittest timber to make great politiqs of; like to knee timber, that is good for ships that are ordained to be tossed, but not for building houses that shall stand firm. The parts and signs of goodness are many. If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off" from other lands, but a continent that joins to them : if he be compassionate to- wards the afflictions of others, it shows that his heart is like the noble tree that is wounded itself when it gives the balm : if he easily pardons and remits offences, it shows that his mind is planted above injuries, so that he cannot be shot : if he be thankful for small benefits, it shows that he weighs men's minds, and not their trash : but, above all, if he have St. Paul's perfection, that he would wish to be an anathema from Christ, for the salvation of his brethren, it shows much of a divine nature, and a kind of conformity with Christ himself. 61 XIV. OF A KING. 1. A KING is a mortal god on earth, unto whom the living God hath lent his own name as a great honour ; but withal told him, he should die like a man, lest he should be proud, and flatter him- self that God hath with his name imparted unto him his nature also. 2. Of all kind of men God is the least behold- ing unto them ; for he doth most for them, and they do ordinarily least for him. 3. A king that would not feel his crown too heavy for him must wear it every day ; but if he thinketh it too light, he knoweth not of what metal it is made. 4. He must make religion the rule of govern- ment, and not to balance the scale ; for he that casteth in religion only to make the scales even, his own weight is contained in those characters, *' Mene mene, tekel upharsin," " He is found too light, his kingdom shall be taken from him.'^ 5. And that king that holds not religion the best reason of state is void of all piety and jus- tice, the supporters of a king. 6. He must be able to give counsel himself, but not rely thereupon ; for those happy events justify their counsels, yet it is better that the evil event of good advice be rather imputed to a sub- ject than a sovereign. 7. He is the fountain of honour, which should not run with a waste pipe, lest the courtiers sell the water, and then (as papists say of their holy wells) it loses the virtue. 52 LORD bacon's essays. 8. He is the life of the law, not only as he is ^*lex loquens" himself, but because he animateth the dead letter, making it active towards all his subjects, *' praeniio et pcen^." 0. A wise king must do less in altering his laws than he may ; for new government is ever dangerous ; it being true in the body politic as in the corporal, that " omnis subita immutatio est periculosa:" and though it be for the better, yet it is not without a fearful apprehension ; for he that changeth the fundamental laws of a king- dom thinketh there is no good title to a crown but by conquest. 10. A king that settethto sale seats xjf justice oppresseth the people ; for he teacheth his judges to sell justice; and *' pretio parata pretio vendi- tur justitia." 11. Bounty and magnificence are virtues very regal, but a prodigal king is nearer a tyrant than a parsimonious ; for store at home draweth not his contemplations abroad; but want supplieth itself of what is next, and many times the next way : a king herein must be wise, and know what he may justly do„ 12. That king which is not feared is not loved; and he that is well seen in his craft must as well study to be feared as loved ; yet not loved for fear, but feared for love. IS. Therefore, as he must always resemble him whose great name he beareth, and that as in manifesting the sweet influence of his mercy on the severe stroke of his justice sometimes, so in this not to sufi'er a man of death to live; for, be- sides that the land doth mourn, the restraint of OF A KING. 53 justice towards sin doth more retard the affection of love than the extent of mercy doth inflame it ; and sure where love is [ill] bestowed fear is quite lost. 14. His greatest enemies are his flatterers; for though they ever speak on his side, yet their words still make against him. 15. The love which a king oweth to a weal public should not be restrained to any one parti- cular ; yet that his more special favour do reflect upon some worthy ones is somewhat necessary, because there are few of that capacity. 16. He must have a special care of ^ye things, if he would not have his crown to be but to him ** infelix felicitas :" First, that *' simulata sanctitas'^ be not in the church ; for that is ** duplex iniquitas :" Secondly, that ** inutilis aequitas" sit not in the chancery : for that is " inepta misericordia :" Thirdly, that " utilis iniquitas" keep not the exchequer: for that is ** crudele latrocinium :" Fourthly, that ** fidelis temeritas" be not his general ; for that will bring but " seram poeniten- tiam :" Fifthly, that ** infidelis prudentia" be not his secretary : for that is ** anguis sub viridi herb^.' To conclude ; as he is of the greatest power, so he is subject to the greatest cares, made the servant of his people, or else he were without a calling at all. He then that honoureth him not is next au atheist, wanting the fear of God in his heart. 54 LORD bacon's essays. XV. OF NOBILITY. We will speak of nobility first as a portion of an estate, then as a condition of particular persons. A monarchy, where there is no nobility at all, is ever a pure and absolute tyranny, as that of the Turks ; for nobility attempers sovereignty, and draws the eyes of the people somewhat aside from the line royal : but for democracies they need it not ; and they are commonly more quiet, and less subject to sedition, than where there are stirps of nobles ; for men's eyes are upon the bu- siness, and not upon the persons; or if upon the persons, it is for the business sake, as fittest, and not for flags and pedigree. We see the Switzers last well, notwithstanding their diversity of reli- gion and of cantons; for utility is their bond, and not respects. The united provinces of the Low Countries in their government excel ; for where there is an equality the consultations are more indifferent, and the payments and tributes more cheerful. A great and potent nobility addeth majesty to a monarch, but diminisheth power ; and putteth life and spirit into the peo- ple, but presseth their fortune. It is well when nobles are not too great for sovereignty nor for justice ; and yet maintained in that height, as the insolency of inferiors may be broken upon them before it come on too fast upon the majesty of kings. A numerous nobility causeth poverty and inconvenience in a state, for it is a surcharge of expense; and besides, it being of necessity that many of the nobility fall in time to be weak OF NOBILITY. 55 in fortune, it maketh a kind of disproportion be- tween honour and means. As for nobility in particular persons ; it is a re- verend thing to see an ancient castle, or build- ing not in decay, or to see a fair timber tree sound and perfect ; how much more to behold an ancient noble family, which hath stood against the waves and weathers of time? for new nobility is but the act of power, but ancient nobility is the act of time. Those that are first raised to nobility, are commonly more virtuous, but less innocent, than their descendants; for there is rarely any rising but by a commixture of good and evil arts : but it is reason the memory of their virtues remain to their posterity, and their faults die with themselves. Nobility of birth commonly abateth industry; and he that is not industrious, envieth him that is : besides, noble persons cannot go much higher: and he that standeth at a stay when others rise, can hardly avoid motions of envy. On the other side, nobi- lity extinguisheth the passive envy from others towards them, because they are in possession of honour. Certainly, kings that have able men of their nobility shall find ease in employing them, and a better slide into their business ; for people naturally bend to them as born in some sort to command. XVI. OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES. Shepherds of people had need know the calen- dars of tempests in state, which are commonly greatest when things grow to equality ; as natu- ral tempests are greatest about the equinoctia ; D 2 56 LORD bacon's essays. and as there are certain hollow blasts of wind and secret swellings of seas, before a tempest, so are there in states : ' Ille itiam caecos instare tumultus Saepe monet, fraadesqtte et operta tamescere bella." Libels and licentious discourses against the state, when they are frequent and open ; and in like sort false news often running up and down, to the disadvantage of the state, and hastily em- braced, are amongst the signs of troubles. Vir- gil, giving the pedigree of Fame, saith she was sister to the giants : ** lllam Terra parens, irh. irritata Deorum, Extremam (ut perhibeut) Coeo Enceladoque sororem Progenuit." ^neid. IV. 177. As if fame were the relics of seditions past; but they are no less indeed the preludes of seditions to come. Howsoever he noteth it right, that se- ditious tumults and seditious fames differ no more but as brother and sister, masculine and femi- nine ; especially if it come to that, that the best actions of a state, and the most plausible, and which ought to give greatest contentment, are taken in ill sense, and traduced : for that shows the envy great, as Tacitus saith, ** conflata, magna invidia, seu bene, seu male, gesta pre- munt.'^ Neither doth it follow, that because these fames are a sign of troubles, that the sup- pressing of them with too much severity should be a remedy of troubles; for the despising of them many times checks them best, and the going about to stop them doth but make a won- der long lived. Also that kind of obedience. OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES. 57 which Tacitus speaketh of, is to beheld suspect- ed : ** Eratit in officio, sed tamen qui mallent mandata imperantium interpretari, quam exequi;" disputing;, excusing, cavilling upon mandates and directions, is a kind of shaking off the yoke, and assay of disobedience ; especially if in those disputings they which are for the direction speak fearfully and tenderly, and those that are against it audaciously. Also, as Machiavel noteth well, when princes, that ought to be common parents, make them- selves as a party, and lean to a side ; it is as a boat that is overthrown by uneven weight on the one side : as was well seen in the time of Henry the Third of France ; for lirst himself entered league for the extirpation of the Protestants, and presently after the same league was turned upon himself: for when the authority of princes is made but an accessary to a cause, and that there be other bands that tie faster than the band of sovereignty, kings begin to be put almost out of possession. Also, when discords, and quarrels, and fac- tions are carried openly and audaciously, it is a sign the reverence of government is lost; for the motions of the greatest persons in a govern- ment ought to be as the motions of the planets under ** primum mobile" (according to the old opinion), which is, that every of them is carried swiftly by the highest motion, and softly in their own motion ; and, therefore, when great ones in their own particular motion move violently, and, as Tacitus expresseth it well, *' liberius quam ut imperantium meminissent," it is a sign 58 LORD bacon's ESSAYS. the orbs are out of frame : for reverence is that wherewith princes are girt from God, who threat- eneth the dissolving thereof; " solvam cingula regum." So when any of the four pillars of government are mainly shaken, or weakened (which are reli- gion, justice, counsel, and treasure), men had need to pray for fair weather. But let us pass from this part of predictions (concerning which, nevertheless, more light may be taken from that which followeth), and let us speak first of the materials of seditions, then of the motives of them, and thirdly of the remedies. Concerning the materials of seditions, it is a thing well to be considered ; for the surest way to prevent seditions (if the times do bear it) is to take away the matter of them ; for if there be fuel prepared, it is hard to tell whence the spark shall come that shall set it on fire. The matter of seditions is of two kinds, much poverty and much discontentment. It is certain, so many overthrown estates, so many votes for troubles. Lucan noteth well the state of Rome before the civil war, ** Hinc usara vorax, rapidumque in tempore fcenus, Hinc concussa fides, et multis utile bellum." This same ** multis utile bellum" is an assured and infallible sign of a state disposed to seditions and troubles; and if this poverty and broken estate in the better sort be joined with a want and necessity in the mean people, the danger is imminent and great : for the rebellions of the belly are the worst. As for discontentments, they are in the politic body like to humours in OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES. 59 the natural, which are apt to gather a preterna- tural heat and to inflame ; and let no prince mea- sure the danger of them by this, whether they be just or unjust: for that were to imagine peo- ple to be too reasonable, who do often spurn at their own good; nor yet by this, whether the griefs whereupon they rise be in fact great or small; for they are the most dangerous discon- tentments where the fear is greater than the feel- ing: *' Dolendi modus, timendi non item :'' be- sides, in great oppressions, the same things that provoke the patience, do withal mete the cou- rage : but in fears it is not so : neither let any prince, or state, be secure concerning discon- tentments because they have been often, or have been long, and yet no peril hath ensued : for as it is true that every vapour, or fume, doth not turn into a storm, so it is nevertheless true, that storms, though they blow over divers times, yet may fall at last; and, as the Spanish proverb noteth well, '' The cord breaketh at the last by the weakest pull." The causes and motives of seditions are, inno- vation in religion, taxes, alteration of laws and customs, breaking of privileges, general oppres- sion, advancement of unworthy persons, strangers, deaths, disbanded soldiers, factions grown des- perate ; and whatsoever in offending people join- eth and knitteth them in a common cause. For the remedies, there may be some general preservatives, whereof we will speak : as for the just cure, it must answer to the particular dis- ease ; and so be left to counsel rather than rule. The first remedy, or prevention, is to remove; 60 LORD bacon's essays. by all means possible, that material cause of se- dition whereof we speak, which is, want and po- verty in the estate ; to which pnrpose serveth the opening and well balancing of trade ; the che- rishing of manufactures; the banishing of idle- ness; the repressing of waste and excess, by sumptuary laws ; the improvement and husband- ing of the soil ; the regulating of prices of things vendible ; the moderating of taxes and tributes, and the like. Generally, it is to be foreseen that the population of a kingdom (especially if it be not mown down by wars), do not exceed the stock of the kingdom which should maintain them : neither is the population to be reckoned only by number; for a smaller number that spend more and earn less, do wear out an estate sooner than a greater number that live low and gather more ; therefore the multiplying of nobility, and other degrees of quality, in an over proportion to the common people, doth speedily bring a state to necessity ; and so doth likewise an overgrown clergy, for they bring nothing to the stock ; and in like manner, when more are bred scholars than preferments can take off. It is likewise to be remembered, that, foras- much as the increase of any estate must be upon the foreigner (for whatsoever is somewhere got- ten, is somewhere lost), there be but three things which one nation selleth unto another ; the com- modity, as nature yieldeth it; the manufacture; and the vecture, or carriage; so that, if these three wheels go, wealth will flow as in a spring tide. And it cometh many times to pass, that ** materiam superabit opus," that the work and OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES. 61 Carriage is worth more than the material, and enricheth a state more; as is notably seen in the Low Countrymen, who have the best mines above ground in the world. Above all things, good policy is to be used, that the treasure and monies in a state be not gathered into few hands ; for, otherwise, a state may have a great stock, and yet starve : and money is like muck, no good except it be spread. This is done chiefly by suppressing, or, at the least, keeping a straight hand upon the devour- ing trades of usury, ingrossjng, great pasturages, and the like. For removing discontentments, or, at least, the danger of them, there is in every state (as we know) two portions of subjects, the nobles and the commonalty. When one of these is discon- tent, the danger is not great ; for common people are of slow motion, if they be not excited by the greater sort ; and the greater sort are of small strength, except the multitude be apt and ready to move of themselves : then is the danger, when the greater sort do but wait for the troubling of the waters amongst the meaner, that then they may declare themselves. The poets feign that the rest of the gods would have bound Jupiter, which he hearing of, by the counsel of Pallas, sent for Briareus, with his hundred hands, to come in to his aid : an emblem, no doubt, to show how safe it is for monarchs to make sure of the good will of common people. To give moderate liberty for griefs and discon- tentments to evaporate (so it be without too great insolency or bravery), is a safe way : for he that D 3 62 LORD bacon's ESSAYS. tunieth the humours back, and maketh the wound bleed inwards, endangereth malign ulcers and pernicious imposthumations. The part of Epimetheus might well become Prometheus, in the case of discontentments, for there is not a better provision against them. Epimetheus, when griefs and evils flew abroad, at last shut the lid, and kept Hope in the bottom of the vessel. Certainly, the politic and artifi- cial nourishing and entertaining of hopes, and carrying men from hopes to hopes, is one of the best antidotes against the poison of discontent- ments : and it is a certain sign of a wise govern- ment and proceeding, when it can hold men's hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction ; and when it can handle things in such a manner as no evil shall appear so peremptory but that it hath some outlet of hope : which is the less hard to do; because both particular persons and fac- tions are apt enough to flatter themselves, or at least to brave that which they believe not. Also the foresight and prevention, that there be no likely or fit head whereunto discontented persons may resort, and under whom they may join, is a known, but an excellent point of cau- tion. I understand a fit head to be one that hath greatness and reputation, that hath confi- dence with the discontented party, and upon whom they turn their eyes, and that is thought discontented in his own particular ; which kind of persons are either to be won and reconciled to the state, and that in a fast and true manner ; or to be fronted with some other of the same party that may oppose them, and so divide the reputation. OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES. 63 Generally, the dividing and breaking of all fac^ tions and combinations that are adverse to the state, and setting them at a distance, or, at least, distrust among themselves, is not one of the worst remedies; for it is a desperate case, if those that hold with the proceeding of the state be full of discord and faction, and those that are against it be entire and united. I have noted, that some witty and sharp speeches, which have fallen from princes, have given fire to seditions. Caesar did himself infi- nite hurt in that speech, *^ Sylla nescivit literas, non potuit dictare ;" for it did utterly cut off that hope which men had entertained, that he would at one time or other give over his dictatorship. Galba undid himself by that speech, " legi a se militem, non emi ;'* for it put soldiers out of hope of the donative. Probus, likewise, by that speech, ** si vixero, non opus erit amplius Ro- mano imperio militibus ;'' a speech of great des- pair for the soldiers, and many the like. Surely princes had need, in tender matter and ticklish times, to beware what they say, especially in these short speeches, which fly abroad like darts, and are thought to be shot out of their secret in- tentions; for as for large discourses, they are flat things, and not so much noted. Lastly, let princes, against all events, not be without some great person, one or rather more, of military valour, near unto them, for the re- pressing of seditions in their beginnings; for without that, there useth to be more trepidation in court upon the first breaking out of trouble than were fit ; and the state runneth the danger 64 LORD bacon's essays. of that which Tacitus saith, ** atque is habitus animorum fuit, ut pessimum facinus auderent pauci, plures vellent, omnes paterentur :" but let such military persons be assured, and well re- puted of, rather than factious and popular ; hold- ing also good correspondence with the other great men in the state, or else the remedy is worse than the disease. XVII. OF ATHEISM. I HAD rather believe all the fables in the legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind ; and, there- fore, God never wrought miracles to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it. It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bring- eth men's minds about to religion ; for while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scat- tered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no farther ; but when it beholdeth the chain of them confederate, and linked together, it must needs fly to providence and Deity: nay, even that school which is most accused of atheism, doth most demonstrate religion ; that is, the school of Leucippus, and Democritus, and Epicurus : for it is a thousand times more credible, that four mutable elements and one immutable fifth essence, duly and eternally placed, need no God, than that an army of infinite small portions, or seeds unplaced, should have produced this order and beauty without a divine marshal. The scripture saith, " The fool hath said in his heart, OF ATHEISM. 65 there is no God ;" it is not said, ** The fool hath thought in his heart ;" so as he rather saith it by rote to himself, as that he would have, than that he can thoroughly believe it, or be persuaded of it ; for none deny there is a God but those for whom it maketh that there were no God. It ap- peareth in nothing more, that atheism is rather in the lip than in the heart of man, than by this, that atheists will ever be talking of that their opinion, as if they fainted in it within them- selves, and would be glad to be strengthened by the opinion of others : nay more, you shall have atheists strive to get disciples, as it fareth with other sects ; and, which is most of all, you shall have of them that will suffer for atheism, and not recant; whereas, if they truly think that there were no such think as God, why should they trouble themselves? Epicurus is charged, that he did not dissemble for his credit's sake, when he affirmed there were blessed natures, but such as enjoyed themselves without having respect to the government of the world ; wherein they say he did temporize, though in secret he thought there was no God : but certainly he is traduced, for his words are noble and divine : " Non Deos vulgi negare profanum ; sed vulgi opiniones Diis applicare profanum." Plato could have said no more; and, although he had the confidence to deny the administration, he had not the power to deny the nature. The Indians of the west have names for their particular gods, though they have no name for God ; as if the heathens should have had the names Jujpiter, Apollo, Mars, &c. but not the word Deus, which shows, that even 66 LORD bacon's essays. those barbarous people have the notion, though they have not the latitude and extent of it ; so that against atheists the very savages take part with the very subtilest philosophers. The con- templative atheist is rare, a Diagoras, a Bion, a Lucian, perhaps, and some others; and yet they seem to be more than they are ; for that all that impugn a received religion, or superstition, are, by the adverse part, branded with the name of atheists : but the great atheists indeed are hypo- crites, which are ever handling holy things, but without feeling ; so as they must needs be cau- terized in the end. The causes of atheism are, divisions in religion, if there be many ; for any one main division addeth zeal to both sides, but many divisions introduce atheism : another is scandal of priests, when it is come to that which St. Bernard saith, ** non est jam dicere, ut popu- lus, sic sacerdos ; quia nee sic populus, ut sacer- dos :" a third is a custom of profane scoffing in holy matters, which doth by little and little de- face the reverence of religion ; and, lastly, learn- ed times, especially with peace and prosperity ; for troubles and adversities do more bow men's minds to rehgion. They that deny a God de- stroy a man's nobility; for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body ; and, if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature. It destroys, likewise, magnanimity, and the raising human nature ; for take an ex- ample of a dog, and mark what a generosity and courage he will put on when he finds himself maintained by a man, who to him is instead of a God, or '* melior natur^ ;" which courage is ma- OF ATHEISM. 67 nifestly such as that creature, without that confi- dence of a better nature than his own, could never attain. So man, when he resteth and assure th himself upon divine protection and fa- vour, gathereth a force and faith, which human nature in itself could not obtain ; therefore, as atheism is in all respects hateful, so in this, that it deprive th human nature of the means to exalt itself above human frailty. As it is in particular persons, so it is in nations; never was there such a state for magnanimity as Rome ; of this state hear what Cicero saith, '' Quam volumus, licet, Patres conscripti, nos amemus, tamen nee nu- mero Hispanos, nee robore Gallos, nee callidi- tate Poenos, nee artibus Graecos, nee denique hoc ipso hujus gentis et terrse domestico nati- voque sensu Italos ipsos et Latinos ; sed pietate, ac religione, atque hac un*^ sapienti*^, quod Deo- rum immortalium numine omnia regi, guberna- rique perspeximus, omnes gentes nationesque superavimus," XVIIl. OF SUPERSTITION. It were better to have no opinion of God at all, than such an opinion as is unworthy of him ; for the one is unbelief, the other is contumely; and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity. Plutarch saith well to that purpose: *' Surely," saith he, ** I had rather a great deal men should say there was no such a man at all as Plutarch, than that they should say there was one Plu- tarch that would eat his children as soon as they were born;" as the poets speak of Saturn: and, G8 LORD bacon's essays. as the contumely is greater towards God, so the danger is greater towards men. Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation : all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men : therefore atheism did never perturb states ; for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking no farther, and we see the times inclined to athe- ism (as the time of Augustus Caesar) were civil times : but superstition hath been the confusion of many states, and bringeth in a new *' primum mobile," that ravisheth all the spheres of govern- ment. The master of superstition is the people, and in all superstition wise men follow fools ; and arguments are fitted to practice in a reversed order. It was gravely said by some of the pre- lates in the council of Trent, where the doctrine of the schoolmen bore great sway, that the schoolmen were like astronomers, which did feign eccentrics and epycicles, and such engines of orbs, to save the phaenomena, though they knew there were no such things ; and, in like manner, that the schoolmen had framed a num- ber of subtile and intricate axioms and theorems to save the practice of the church. The causes of superstition are pleasing and sensual rites and ceremonies ; excess of outward and pharisaical holiness; over great reverence of traditions, which cannot but load the church; the strata- gems of prelates for their own ambition and lucre ; the favouring too much of good inten- tions, which openeth the gate to conceits and OF SUPERSTITION. 69 novelties; the taking an aim at divine matters by human, which cannot but breed mixture of imaginations : and, lastly, barbarous times, es- pecially joined with calamities and disasters. Superstition, without a veil, is a deformed thing; for as it addeth deformity to an ape to be so like a man, so the similitude of superstition to reli- gion makes it the more deformed : and, as whole- some meat corrupteth to little worms, so good forms and orders corrupt into a number of petty observances. There is a superstition in avoiding superstition, when men think to do best if they go farthest from the superstition formerly re- ceived; therefore care should be had that (as it fareth in ill purgings) the good be not taken away with the bad, which commonly is done when the people is the reformer. XIX. OF TRAVEL. Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of educa- tion; in the elder, a part of experience. He that traveleth into a country, before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel. That young men travel under some tutor, or grave servant, I allow well; so that he be such a one that hath the language, and hath been in the country before; whereby he may be able to tell them what things are wor- thy to be seen in the country where they go, what acquaintances they are to seek, what exer- cises or discipline the place yieldeth; for else young men should go hooded, and look abroad little. It is a strange thing that, in sea voyages. 70 LORD bacon's essays. where there is nothing to be seen but sky and sea, men should make diaries ; but in land tra- vel, wherein so much is to be observed, for the most part they omit it; as if chance were fitter to be registered than observation : let diaries, therefore, be brought in use. The things to be seen and observed, are the courts of princes, especially when they give audience to ambassa- dors; the courts of justice, while they sit and hear causes; and so of consistories ecclesiastic; the churches and monasteries, with the monu- ments which are therein extant; the walls and fortifications of cities and towns ; and so the havens and harbours, antiquities and ruins, libra- ries, colleges, disputations, and lectures, where any are; shipping and navies; houses and gar- dens of state and pleasure, near great cities ; armories, arsenals, magazines, exchanges, burses, warehouses, exercises of horsemanship, fencing, training of soldiers, and the like : comedies, such whereunto the better sort of persons do re- sort; treasuries of jewels and robes; cabinets and rarities ; and, to conclude, whatsoever is memorable in the places where they go : after all which the tutors or servants ought to make dili- gent inquiry. As for triumphs, masks, feasts, weddings, funerals, capital executions, and such shows, men need not to be put in mind of them : yet they are not to be neglected. If you will have a young man to put his travel into a little room, and in short time to gather much, this you must do : first, as was said, he must have some entrance into the language before he goeth; then he must have such a servant, or tutor, as know- OF TRAVEL. 71 eth the country, as was likewise said : let him carry with him also some card, or book, describ- ing the country where he traveleth, which will be a good key to his inquiry ; let him keep also a diary; let him not stay long in one city or town, more or less as the place deserve th, but not long; nay, when he stayeth in one city or town, let him change his lodging from one end and part of the town to another, which is a great adamant of acquaintance; let him sequester himself from the company of his countrymen, and diet in such places where there is good com- pany of the nation where he traveleth : let him, upon his removes from one place to another, procure recommendation to some person of qua- lity residing in the place whither he removeth, that he may use his favour in those things he de- sireth to see or know : thus he may abridge his travel with much profit. As for the acquaint- ance which is to be sought in travel, that which is most of all profitable is acquaintance with the secretaries and employed men of ambassadors : for so in traveling in one country he shall suck the experience of many : let him also see and visit eminent persons in all kinds, which are of great name abroad, that he may be able to tell how the life agreeth with the fame ; for quarrels, they are with care and discretion to be avoided ; they are commonly for mistresses, healths, place, and words : and let a man beware how he keep- eth company with choleric and quarrelsome per- sons, for they will engage him into their own quarrels. When a traveller returneth home, let him not leave the countries where he hath tra- LORD BACON S ESSAYS. led altogether behind him ; but maintain a irespondence by letters with those of his ac- quaintance which are of most worth; and let his travel appear rather in his discourse than in his apparel or gesture ; and in his discourse let him be rather advised in his answers, than forward to tell stories : and let it appear that he doth not change his country manners for those of foreign parts; but only prick in some flowers of that he hath learned abroad into the customs of his own country, XX. OF EMPIRE. It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire, and many things to fear; and yet that commonly is the case with kings, who being at the highest, want matter of desire, which makes their minds more languishing; and have many representations of perils and shadows, which make their minds the less clear : and this is one reason also of that effect which the scrip- ture speaketh of, " That the king's heart is in- scrutable :" for multitude of jealousies, and lack of some predominant desire, that should marshal and put in order all the rest, maketh any man's heart hard to find or sound. Hence it comes, likewise, that princes many times make them- selves desires, and set their hearts upon toys ; sometimes upon a building ; sometimes upon erecting of an order; sometimes upon the ad- vancing of a person ; sometimes upon obtaining excellence in some art, or feat of the hand ; as Nero for playing on the harp ; Domitian for cer^ OF EMPIRE. TS tainty of the hand with the arrow ; Coramodus for playing at fence ; Caracalla for driving cha- riots, and the like. This seemeth incredible unto those that know not the principle, that the mind of man is more cheered and refreshed by profiting in small things, than by standing at a stay in great. We see also that kings that have been fortunate conquerors in their first years, it being not possible for them to go forward infinitely, but that they must have some check or arrest in their fortunes, turn in their latter years to be su- perstitious and melancholy ; as did Alexander the Great, Dioclesian, and in our memory Charles the Fifth, and others : for he that is used to go forward, and findeth a stop, falleth out of his own favour, and is not the thing he was. To speak now of the true temper of empire, it is a thing rare and hard to keep ; for both tem- per and distemper consist of contraries : but it is one thing to mingle contraries, another to inter- change them. The answer of Apollonius to Vespasian is full of excellent instruction. Ves- pasian asked him, what was Nero's overthrow ? he answered, Nero could touch and tune the harp well, but in government sometimes he used to wind the pins too high, sometimes to let them down too low; and certain it is, that nothing de- stroyeth authority so much as the unequal and untimely interchange of power pressed too far, and relaxed too much. This is true, that the wisdom of all these latter times in princes' affairs, is rather fine deliveries, and shiftings of dangers and mischiefs, when they are near, than solid and grounded courses 74 LORD bacon's essays. to keep them aloof : but this is but to try maste- ries with fortune ; and let men beware how they neglect and suffer matter of trouble to be pre- pared ; for no man can forbid the spark, nor tell whence it may come. The difficulties in princes' business are many and great; but the greatest difficulty is often in their own mind; for it is common with princes (saith Tacitus) to will con- tradictories ; ** Sunt plerumque regum volun- tates vehementes, et inter se contrariae ;" for it is the solecism of power to think to command the end, and yet not to endure the means. Kings have to deal with their neighbours, their wives, their children, their prelates or clergy, their nobles, their second nobles or gentlemen, their merchants, their commons, and their men of war; and from all these arise dangers, if care and circumspection be not used. First, for their neighbours, there can no gene- ral rule be given (the occasions are so variable), save one which ever holdeth; which is, that princes do keep due sentinel, that none of their neighbours do overgrow so (by increase of terri- tory, by embracing of trade, by approaches, or the like), as they become more able to annoy them than they were ; and this is generally the work of standing councils to foresee and to hin- der it. During that triumvirate of kings, king Henry the Eighth of England, Francis the First, king of France, and Charles the Fifth emperor, there was such a watch kept that none of the three could win a palm of ground, but the other two would straightways balance it, either by confederation, or, if need were, by a war ; and OF EMPIRE. 75 would not in any wise take up peace at interest : and the like was done by that league (which Guicciardine saith was the security of Italy), made between Ferdinando, king of Naples, Fo- renzius Medices, and Ludovicus Sforsa, poten- tates, the one of Florence, the other of Milan. Neither is the opinion of some of the schoolmen to be received, that a war cannot justly be made, but upon a precedent injury or provocation ; for there is no question, but a just fear of an immi- nent danger, though there be no blow given, is a lawful cause of a war. For their wives, there are cruel examples of tliem. Livia is infamed for the poisoning of her husband ; Roxolana, Solyman's wife, was the destruction of that renowned prince. Sultan Mus- tapha, and otherwise troubled his house and suc- cession ; Edward the Second of England's queen had the principal hand in the deposing and mur- der of her husband. This kind of danger is then to be feared chiefly when the wives have plots for the raising of their own children, or else that they be advoutresses. For their children, the tragedies likewise of danger from them have been many; and gene- rally the entering of the fathers into suspicion of their children hath been ever unfortunate. The destruction of Mustapha (that we named before) was so fatal to Solyman's line, as the succession of the Turks from Solyman until this day is sus- pected to be untrue, and of strange blood; for that Selymus the Second was thought to be sup- posititious. The destruction of Crispus, a young prince of rare towardness, by Constantinus the 76 LORD bacon's essays. Great, his father, was in like manner fatal to his house, for both Constantinus and Constance, his sons, died violent deaths ; and Constantius, his other son, did little better, who died indeed of sickness, but after that Julianus had taken arms against him. The destruction of Demetrius, son to Philip the Second of Macedon, turned upon the father, who died of repentance : and many like examples there are, but few or none where the fathers had good by such distrust, except it were where the sons were in open arms against them; as was Selymus the First against Bajazet, and the three sons of Henry the Second king of England. For their prelates, when they are proud and great, there is also danger from them ; as it was in the times of Anselmus and Thomas Beckett> archbishops of Canterbury, who with their cro- siers did almost try it with the king's sword; and yet they had to deal with stout and haughty kings, William Rufus, Henry the First, and Henry the Second. The danger is not from that state, but where it hath a dependance of foreign authority; or where the churchmen come in and are elected, not by the collation of the king, or particular patrons, but by the people. For their nobles, to keep them at a distance it is not amiss ; but to depress them may make a king more absolute, but less safe, and less able to perform anything that he desires. I have noted it in my History of king Henry the Seventh of England, who depressed his nobility, where- upon it came to pass that his times were full of difficulties and troubles ; for the nobility, though OF EMPIRE. 77 they continued loyal unto him, yet did they not cooperate with him in his business; so that in effect he was fain to do all things himself. For their second nobles, there is not much danger from them, being a body dispersed; they may sometimes discourse high, but that doth little hurt; besides, they are a counterpoise to the higher nobility, that they grow not too po- tent; and, lastly, being the most immediate in authority with the common people, they do best temper popular commotions. For their merchants, they are *' vena porta;'' and if they flourish not, a kingdom may have good limbs, but will have empty veins, and nou- rish little. Taxes and imposts upon them do seldom good to the king's revenue, for that which he wins in the hundred he loseth in the shire; the particular rates being increased, but the total bulk of trading rather decreased. For their commons, there is little danger from them, except it be where they have great and potent heads; or where you meddle with the point of religion, or their custams, or means of life. For their men of war, it is a dangerous state where they live and remain in a body, and are used to donatives, whereof we see examples in the janizaries and pretorian bands of Rome; but trainings of men, and arming them in several places, and under several commanders, and without donatives, are things of defence and no danger. Princes are like to heavenly bodies, which cause good or evil times ; and which have much £ 78 LORD bacon's essays. veneration, but no rest. All precepts concern- ing kings are in effect comprehended in those two remembrances, ** memento quod es homo;" and ** memento quod es Deo, or vice Dei;" the one bridleth their power, and the other their will. XXI. OF COUNSEL. The greatest trust between man and man is the trust of giving counsel; for in other confidences men commit the parts of life, their lands, their goods, their children, their credit, some particu- lar affair ; but to such as they make their coun- sellors they commit the whole : by how much the more they are obliged to all faith and inte- grity. The wisest princes need not think it any diminution to their greatness, or derogation to their sufficiency to rely upon counsel. God himself is not without, but hath made it one of the great names of his blessed Son, '* The Coun- sellor.*' Solomon hath pronounced that ** in counsel is stability." Things will have their first or second agitation : if they be not tossed upon the arguments of counsel, they will be tossed upon the waves of fortune; and be full of inconstancy, doing and undoing, like the reeling of a drunken man. Solomon's son found the force of counsel, as his father saw the necessity of it: for the beloved kingdom of God was first rent and broken by ill counsel ; upon which counsel there are set for our instruction the two marks whereby bad counsel is for ever best dis- cerned, that it was young counsel for the per- sons, and violent counsel for the matter. OF COUNSEL. 79 The ancient times do set forth in figure both the incorporation and inseparable conjunction of counsel with kings, and the wise and politic use of counsel by kings: the one in that they say Jupiter did marry Metis, which signifieth coun- sel; whereby they intend that sovereignty is married to counsel; the other in that which fol- loweth, which was thus : they say, after Jupiter was married to Metis, she conceived by him and was with child, but Jupiter suffered her not to stay till she brought forth, but eat her up; whereby he became himself with child, and was delivered of Pallas armed out of his head. Which monstrous fable containeth a secret of empire, how kings are to make use of their coun- cil of state : that first, they ought to refer mat- ters unto them, which is the first begetting or impregnation; but when they are elaborate, moulded, and shaped in the womb of their coun- cil, and grow ripe and ready to be brought forth, that then they suffer not their council to go through with the resolution and direction, as if it depended on them ; but take the matter back into their own hands, and make it appear to the world, that the decrees and final directions (which, because they come forth with prudence and power, are resembled to Pallas armed), proceeded from themselves ; and not only from their authority, but (the more to add reputation to themselves) from their head and device. Let us now speak of the inconveniences of counsel, and of the remedies. The inconveni- ences that have been noted in calling and using counsel are three : first, the revealing of affairs, e2 80 LORD BACON*S ESSAYS. whereby they become less secret; secondly, the weakening of the authority of princes, as if they were less of themselves ; thirdly, the dan- ger of being unfaithfully counseled, and more for the good of them that counsel than of him that is counseled ; for which inconveniences, the doctrine of Italy, and practice of France in some kings' times, hath introduced cabinet coun- cils ; a remedy worse than the disease. As to secrecy, princes are not bound to com- municate all matters with all counsellors, but may extract and select; neither is it necessary, that he that consulteth what he should do, should declare what he will do ; but let princes beware that the unsecreting of their affairs comes not from themselves; and, as for cabinet councils, it may be their motto, ** plenus rimarum sum:" one futile person that maketh it his glory to tell will do more hurt than many that know it their duty to conceal. It is true there be some affairs which require extreme secrecy, which will hardly go beyond one or two persons beside the king : neither are those counsels unprosperous ; for, besides the secrecy, they commonly go on con- stantly in one spirit of direction without distrac- tion : but then it must be a prudent king, such as is able to grind with a hand mill ; and those in- ward counsellors had need also be wise men, and especially true and trusty to the king's ends ; as it was with king Henry the Seventh of England, who in his greatest business imparted himself to none, except it were to Morton and Fox. For weakness of authority the fable showetU OF COUNSEL. 81 tbe remedy : nay, the majesty of kings is rather exalted than diminished when they are in the chair of council: neither was there ever prince bereaved of his dependencies by his council, ex- cept where there hath been either an over great- ness in one counsellor, or an over strict combina- tion in divers, which are things soon found and holpen. For the last inconvenience, that men will coun- sel with an eye to themselves; certainly, ** non inveniet fidem super terram ," is meant of the na- ture of times, and not of all particular persons. There be that are in nature faithful and sincere, and plain and direct, not crafty and involved : let princes, above all, draw to themselves such natures. Besides, counsellors are not commonly so united, but that one counsel keepeth sentinel over another; so that if any counsel out of fac- tion or private ends, it commonly comes to the king's ear: but the best remedy is, if princes know their counsellors, as well as their counsel- lors know them. '■ Prlnoipis est Tirtas maxima nosse snos.'* And on the other side, counsellors should not be too speculative into their sovereigns person. The true composition of a counsellor is rather to be skilful in his master's business than in his nature; for then he is like to advise him, and not to feed his humour. It is of singular use to princes if they take the opinions of their council both separately and together ; for private opinion is more free, but opinion before others is more reverend. In private, men are more bold in 82 LORD BACON*S ESSAYS. their own humours, and in consort men are more obnoxious to others' humours ; therefore it is good to take both ; and of the inferior sort rather ia private, to preserve freedom ; of the greater, rather in consort, to preserve respect. It is in vain for princes to take counsel concerning mat- ters, if they take no counsel likewise concerning persons; for all matters are as dead images; and the life of the execution of affairs resteth in the good choice of persons : neither is it enough to consult concerning persons, '* secundum ge- nera," as in an idea of mathematical description, what the kind of character the person should be"; for the greatest errors are committed, and the most judgment is shown, in the choice of indivi- duals. It was truly said, ** optimi consiliarii mortui :" ** books will speak plain when coun- sellors blanch ;" therefore it is good to be con- versant in them, specially the books of such as themselves have been actors upon the stage. The councils at this day in most places are but familiar meetings, where matters are rather talked on than debated ; and they run too swift to the order or act of council. It were better that in causes of weight the matter were pro- pounded one day and not spoken to till next day; ** in nocte consilium:" so was it done in the commission of union between England and Scotland, which was a grave and orderly assem- bly. I commend set days for petitions ; for both it gives the suitors more certainty for their atten- dance, and it frees the meetings for matters of estate, that they may ** hoc agere." In choice of committees for ripening business for the coun- .©SB SA€©M'S ESSAYS. roTtune IDce Sybilla's offer, at first offereth. lie ccanmoditv at fall,th.ea consumetli part and. part. aona. still lioMettftip the price DRAWN ]3Y fUniAHD WK STALL, R.A.ENGKj\VED BY JJlJiOBlNSON ; Pl7Kr.JiiHKD HY .lOim SJfABPK, FICC.M>I].LY. OCT.JJ82:?. OF COUNSEL. 83 oil, it is better to choose indifferent persons, tlian to make an indifferency by putting in those that are strong on both sides. I commend, also, standing commissions ; as for trade, for treasure, for war, for suits, for some provinces ; for where there be divers particular councils, and but one council of estate (as it is in Spain), they are, in effect, no more than standing commissions, save that they have greater authority. Let such as are to inform councils out of their particular pro- fessions (as lawyers, seamen, mintmen, and the like), be first heard before committees; and then, as occasion serves, before the council; and let them not come in multitudes, or in a tribunitious manner; for that is to clamour councils, not to inform them, A long table and a square table, or seats about the walls, seem things of form, but are things of substance ; for at a long table a few at the upper end, in effect, sway all the bu- siness ; but in the other form there is more use of the counsellors^ opinions that sit lower. A king, when he presides in council, let him beware how he opens his own inclination too much in that which he propoundeth ; for else counsellors will but take the wind of him, and instead of giving free counsel, will sing him a song of ^* placebo." ^ XXII. OF DELAYS. Fortune is like the market, where many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall; and again, it is sometimes like Sibylla's offer, which at first offereth the commodity at full, then con- 84 LORD bacon's essays. sumeth part and part, and still holdeth up the price; for occasion (as it is in the common verse) turneth a bad noddle after she hath presented her locks in front, and no hold taken; or, at least, turneth the handle of the bottle first to be re- ceived, and after the belly which is hard to clasp. There is surely no greater wisdom than well to time the beginnings and onsets of things. Dan- gers are no more light, if they once seem light; and more dangers have deceived men than forced them: nay, it were better to meet some dangers half way, though they come nothing near, than to keep too long a watch upon their approaches ; for if a man watch too long, it is odds he will fall asleep. On the other side, to be deceived with too long shadows (as some have been when the moon was low and shone on their enemies' back), and so to shoot off before the time ; or to teach dangers to come on by over early buckling to- wards them, is another extreme. The ripeness or unripeness of the occasion (as we said), must ever be well weighed; and generally it is good to commit the beginnings of all great actions to Argos with his hundred eyes, and the ends to Briareus with his hundred hands; first to watch, and then to speed; for the helmet of Pluto, which maketh the politic man go invisible, is secrecy in the council, and celerity in the execu- tion ; for when things are once come to the exe- cution, there is no secrecy comparable to cele- rity ; like the motion of a bullet in the air, which flieth so swift as it outruns the eye. 85 XXIII. OF CUNNING. "We take cunning for a sinister, or crooked wis- dom, and certainly there is a great difiierence between a cunning man and a wise man, not only in point of honesty, but in point of ability. There be that can pack the cards, and yet cannot play well ; so there are some that are good in canvasses and factions, that are otherwise weak men. Again^ it is one thing to understand per- sons, and another thing to understand matters; for many are perfect in men's humours, that are not gTeatly capable of the real part of business, which is the constitution of one that hath studied men more than books. Such men are fitter for practice than for counsel, and they are good but in their own alley : turn them to new men, and they have lost their aim ; so as the old rule, to know a fool from a wise man, " Mitte ambos nudos ad ignotos, et videbis," doth scarce hold for them; and, because these cunning men are like haberdashers of small wares, it is not amiss to set forth their shop. It is a poiat of cunning to wait upon him with whom you speak with your eye, as the Jesuits give it in precept ; for there be many wise men that have secret hearts and transparent counte- nances : yet this would be done with a demure abasing of your eye sometimes, as the Jesuits also do use. Another is, that when you have any thing to obtain of present dispatch, you entertain and amuse the party with whom you deal with some E a 86 LORD bacon's essays. other discourse, that he be not too much awake to make objections. I knew a counsellor and secretary that never came to queen Elizabeth of England with bills to sign, but he would always first put her into some discourse of state, that she might the less mind the bills. The like surprise may be made by moving things when the party is in haste, and cannot stay to consider advisedly of that is moved. If a man would cross a business that he doubts some other would handsomely and effectually move, let him pretend to wish it well, and move it himself, in such sort as may soil it* The breaking off in the midst of that one was about to say, as if he took himself up, breeds a greater appetite in him, with whom you confer, to know more. And because it works better when any thing seemeth to be gotten from you by question than if you offer it of yourself, you may lay a bait for a question by showing another visage and coun- tenance than you are wont ; to the end, to give occasion for the party to ask what the matter is of the change, as Nehemiah did, ** And I had not before that time been sad before the king." In things that are tender and unpleasing, it is good to break the ice by some whose words are of less weight, and to reserve the more weighty voice to come in as by chance, so that he may be asked the question upon the other's speech ; as Narcissus did, in relating to Claudius the mar- riage of Messalina and Silius. In things that a man would not be seen in himself, it is a point of cunning to borrow the OF CUNNING. 07 name of the world ; as to say, " The world says,'^ or ** There is a speech abroad." I knew one that, when he wrote a letter, he would put that which was most material in the postscript, as if it had been a bye matter. I knew another that, when he came to have speech, he would pass over that that he intended most: and go forth and come back again, and speak of it as a thing he had almost forgot. Some procure themselves to be surprised at such times as it is like the party, that they work upon, will suddenly come upon them, and be found with a letter in their hand, or doing some- what which they are not accustomed, to the end they may be opposed of those things which of themselves they are desirous to utter. It is a point of cunning, to let fall those words in a man's own name which he would have ano^ ther man learn and use, and thereupon take ad- vantage. I knew two that were competitors for the secretary's place, in queen Elizabeth's time, and yet kept good quarter between themselves, and would confer one with another upon the bu- siness ; and the one of them said, that to be a secretary in the declination of a monarchy was a ticklish thing, and that he did not affect it : the other straight caught up those words, and dis- coursed with divers of his friends, that he had no reason to desire to be secretary in the declining of a monarchy. The first man took hold of it, and found means it was told the queen; who, hearing of a declination of monarchy, took it so ill, as she would never after hear of the other's suit. I B8 LORD bacon's essays. There is a cunning which we in England cal^ '* The turning of the cat in the pan ;" which isy when that which a man says to another, he lays it as if another had said it to him ; and, to say truth, it is not easy, when such a matter passed between two, to make it appear from which of them it first moved and began. It is a way that some men have, to glance and dart at others by justifying themselves by nega- tives ; as to say, " This I do not ;" as Tigellinus did towards Burrhus, " Se non diversas spes, sed incolumitatem imperatoris simpliciter spec- tare." Some have in readiness so many tales and stories, as there is nothing they would insinuate, but they can wrap it into a tale ; which serveth both to keep themselves more on guard, and to make others carry it with more pleasure. It is a good point of cunning for a man to shape the answer he would have in his own words and propositions ; for it makes the other party stick the less. It is strange how long some men will lie in wait to speak somewhat they desire to say ; and how far about they will fetch, and how many other matters they will beat over to come near it : it is a thing of great patience, but yet of much use. A sudden, bold, and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man, and lay him open. Like to him, that, having changed his name, and walking in Paul's, another suddenly came be- hind him and called him by his true name, whereat straightways he looked back. OF CUNNING. 80 But these small wares and petty points of cunning are infinite, and it were a good deed to make the best of them; for that nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise. But certainly some there are that know the resorts and falls of business, that cannot sink into the main of it ; like a house that hath conve- nient stairs and entries, but never a fair room : therefore you shall see them find out pretty looses in the conclusion, but are no ways able to examine or debate matters : and yet commonly they take advantage of their inability, and would be thought wits of direction. Some build rather upon the abusing of others, and (as we now say) putting tricks upon them, than upon the sound- ness of their owa proceedings : but Solomon saith, ** Prudens advertit ad gressus suos: stuU tus divertit ad doles." XXIV. OF WISDOM FOR A MAN'S SELF. An ant is a wise creature for itself, but it is a shrewd thing in an orchard or garden ; and cer- tainly men that are great lovers of themselves Waste the public. Divide with reason between selflove and society ; and be so true to thyself as thou be not false to others, especially to thy king and country. It is a poor centre of a man's actions, himself. It is right earth; for that only stands fast upon his own centre; whereas all things that have affinity with the heavens move upon the centre of another, which they benefit. The referring of all to a man's self is more toler^ 90 LORD BACON'S ESSAYS. able in a sovereign prince, because themselves are not only themselves, but their good and evil is at the peril of the public fortune : but it is a desperate evil in a servant to a prince, or a citi- zen in a republic ; for whatsoever affairs pass such a man's hands, he crooketh them to his own ends, which must needs be often eccentric, to the ends of his master or state : therefore let princes, or states, choose such servants as have not this mark ; except they mean their service should be made but the accessary. That which maketh the effect more pernicious is, that all proportion is lost; it were disproportion enough for the ser-r vant's good, to be preferred before the master's; but yet it is a greater extreme, when a little good of the servant shall carry things against the great good of the master's : and yet that is the case of bad officers, treasurers, ambassadors, generals, and other false and corrupt servants ; which set a bias upon their bowl, of their own petty ends and envies, to the overthrow of their master's great and important affairs : and, for the most part, the good such servants receive is after the model of their own fortune ; but the hurt they sell for that good is after the model of their mas- ter's fortune : and certainly it is the nature of ex- treme selflovers, as they will set a house on fire, and it were but to roast their eggs ; and yet these men many times hold credit with their mas- ters, because their study is but to please them, and profit themselves; and for either respect they will abandon the good of their affairs. Wisdom for a man's self is, in many branches thereof!, a depraved thing: it is the wisdom of OF INNOVATIONS. 91 rats, that will be sure to leave a house sometime before it fall: it is the wisdom of the fox, that thrusts out the badger, who digged and made room for him : it is the wisdom of crocodiles, that shed tears when they would devour. But that which is specially to be noted is, that those which (as Cicero says of Pompey) are, ** sui amantes, sine rivali," are many times unfortu- nate; and whereas they have all their time sa- crificed to themselves, they become in the end themselves sacrifices to the inconstancy of for-* tune, whose wings they thought by their self wis- dom to have pinioned. XXV. OF INNOVATIONS. As the births of living creatures at first are ill shapen, so are all innovations^ which are the births of time; yet notwithstanding, as those that first bring honour into their family are com- monly more worthy than most that succeed, so the first precedent (if it be good) is seldom at- tained by imitation ; for ill to man's nature, as it stands perverted, hath a natural motion strongest in continuance; but good, as a forced motion, strongest at first. Surely every medicine is an innovation, and he that will not apply new reme- dies must expect new evils ; for time is the great* est innovator ; and if time of course alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end ? It is true, that what is settled by custom, though it be not good, yet at least it is fit; and those things which have long gone together are, as it were, confederate within themselves; whereas LORD bacon's essays. things piece not so well ; but, though they ip by their utihty, yet they trouble by their in- conformity : besides, they are like strangers, more admired, and less favoured. All this is true, if time stood still; which, contrariwise, moveth so round, that a fro ward retention of custom is as turbulent a thing as an innovation ; and they that reverence too much old times are but a scorn to the new. It were good, there- fore, that men, in their innovations, would follow the example of time itself, which indeed inno- vateth greatly, but quietly, and by degrees scarce to be perceived ; for otherwise, whatsoever is new is unlooked for; and ever it mends some and pairs others ; and he that is holpen takes it for a fortune, and thanks the time ; and he that is hurt for a wrong, and imputeth it to the author. It is good also not to try experiments in states, except the necessity be urgent, or the utility evi- dent; and well to beware that it be the reforma- tion that draweth on the change, and not the desire of change that pretendeth the reforma- tion : and lastly, that the novelty, though it be not rejected, yet be held for a suspect; and, as the Scripture saith, '^ That we make a stand upon the ancient way, and then look about us, and discover what is the straight and right way, and so to walk in it." XXVI. OF DISPATCH. Affecteb dispatch is one of the most danger- ous things to business that can be : it is like that which the physicians call predigestion, or hasty digestion ; which is sure to fill the body full of OF DISPATCH. 93 crudities, and secret seeds of diseases : therefore measure not dispatch by the time of sitting, but by the advancement of the business : and as, in races, it is not the large stride, or high lift, that makes the speed ; so, in business, the keeping close to the matter, and not taking of it too mucl> at once, procureth dispatch. It is the care of some only to come oft* speedily for the time, or to contrive some false periods of business, be- cause they may seem men of dispatch : but it is one thing to abbreviate by contracting, another by cutting oft'; and business so handled at seve- ral sittings, or meetings, goeth commonly back- ward and forward in an unsteady manner, I knew a wise man, that had it for a by-word, when he saw men hasten to a conclusion, " Stay a little, that we may make an ead the sooner." On the other side, true dispatch is a rich thing; for time is the measure of business, as money is of wares; and business is bought at a dear hand where there is small dispatch. The Spartans and Spaniards have been noted to be of small dispatch : ** Mivenga la muerte de Spagna;'' — *' Let my death come from Spain," for then it will be sure to be long in coming. Give good hearing to those that give the first information in business, and rather direct them in the beginning than interrupt them in the conti- nuance of their speeches ; for he that is put out of his own order will go forward and backward, and be more tedious while he waits upon his memory, than he could have been if he had gone on in his own course ; but sometimes it is seen that the moderator is more troublesome than the actor. IH LORD bacon's essays. Iterations are commonly loss of time; but there is no such gain of time as to iterate often the state of the question ; for it chaseth away many a frivolous speech as it is coming forth. Long and curious speeches are as tit for dispatch as a robe, or mantle, with a long train, is for a race. Prefaces, and passages, and excusations, and other speeches of reference to the person, are great wastes of time ; and though they seem to proceed of modesty, they are bravery. Yet beware of being too material when there is any impediment, or obstruction, in men's wills ; for preoccupation of mind ever requireth preface of speech, like a fomentation to make the unguent enter. Above all things, order, and distribution, and singling out of parts, is the life of dispatch ; so as the distribution be not too subtile : for he that doth not divide will never enter well into busi- ness ; and he that divided too much will never come out of it clearly. To choose time is to save time ; and an unseasonable motion is but beating the air. There be three parts of busi- ness, the preparation ; the debate, or examina- tion ; and the perfection ; whereof, if you look for dispatch, let the middle only be the work of many, and the tirst and last the work of few. The proceeding upon somewhat conceived iii writing doth for the most part facilitate dispatch : for though it should be wholly rejected, yet that negative is more pregnant of direction than an indetinite, as ashes are more generative than dust. 9^ XXVIT. OF SEEMING WISE. It hath been an opinion that the French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are ; but howsoever it be be- tween nations, certainly it is so between man and man ; for, as the apostle saith of godliness, ** Having a show of godliness, but denying the power thereof;" so certainly there are in points of wisdom and suificiency, that do nothing or little very solemnly: ** magno conatu nugas/' It is a ridiculous thing, and fit for a satire to persons of judgment, to see what shifts these formalists have, and what prospectives to make superficies to seem body that hath depth and bulk. Some are so close and reserved as they will not show their wares but by a dark light, and seem always to keep back somewhat; and when they know within themselves they speak of that they do not well know, would nevertheless seem to others to know of that which they may not well speak. Some help themselves with countenance and gesture, and are wise by signs; as Cicero saith of Piso, that when he answered him he fetched one of his brows up to his fore- head, and bent the other down to his chin ; " respondes, altero ad frontem sublato, altero ad mentum depresso supercilio, crudelitatem tibi non placere." Some think to bear it by speak- ing a great word, and being peremptory ; and go on, and take by admittance that which they can- not make good. Some, whatsoever is beyond their reach, will seem to despise, or make light DO LORD bacon's essays. of it, as impertinent or curious : and so would have their ignorance seem judgment. Some are never without a difference, and commonly by amusing men with a subtilty, blanch the matter; of whom A. Gellius saith, ** hominem delirum, qui verborum minutiis rerum frangit pondera." Of which kind also Plato, in his Protagoras, bringeth in Prodicus in scorn, and maketh him make a speech that consisteth of distinctions from the beginning to the end. Generally such men, in all deliberations, find ease to be of the negative side, and affect a credit to object and foretell difficulties ; for when propositions are de- nied, there is an end of them ; but if they be al- lowed, it requireth a new work; which false point of wisdom is the bane of business. To conclude, there is no decaying merchant, or in- ward beggar, hath so many tricks to uphold the credit of their wealth, as these empty persons have to maintain the credit of their sufficiency. Seeming wise men may make shift to get opi- nion ; but let no man choose them for employ- ment ; for certainly, you were better take for business a man somewhat absurd than over- formal. XXVIII. OF FRIENDSHIP. It had been hard for him that spake it, to have put more truth and untruth together in few words, than in that speech, ** Whosoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or a god :" for it is most true, that a natural and secret hatred and aversion towards society, in any man, hath somewhat of the savage beast; but it is most OP FRIENDSHIP, 07 untrue, that it should have any character at all of the divine nature, except it proceed, not out of a pleasure in solitude, but out of a love and desire to sequester a man's self for a higher con- versation : such as is found to have been falsely and feignedly in some of the heathens ; as Epi- menides, the Candian ; Numa, the Roman; Eni- pedocles, the Sicilian ; and Apollonius of Tyana; and truly and really in divers of the ancient her- mits and holy fathers of the church. But little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth; for a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal where there is no love. The , Latin adage meeteth with it a httle : *' magna civitas, magna solitudo;" because in a great town friends are scattered, so that there is not that fellowship, for the most part, which is in less neighbourhoods: but we may go farther, and affirm most truly, that it is a mere and mi- serable solitude to want true friends, without which the world is but a wilderness ; and even in this scene also of solitude, whosoever in the frame of his nature and affections is unfit for friendship, he taketh it of the beast, and not from humanity. A principal fruit of friendship is the ease and discharge of the fulness of the heart, which pas- sions of all kinds do cause and induce. We know diseases of stoppings and suffocations are the most dangerous in the body ; and it is not much otherwise in the mind ; you may take sarza to open the liver, steel to open the spleen, iiour of sulphur for the lungs, castoreum for the 98 LORD bacon's essays. brain ; but no receipt openeth the heart but a true friend, to whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, counsels, and whatso- ever Heth upon the heart to oppress it, in a kind of civil shrift or confession. It is a strange thing to observe how high a rate great kings and monarchs do set upon this fruit of friendship whereof we speak: so great, as they purchase it many times at the hazard of their own safety and greatness : for princes, in regard of the distance of their fortune from that of their subjects and servants, cannot gather this fruit, except (to make themselves capable thereof) they raise some persons to be, as it were, com- panions, and almost equals to themselves, which many times sorteth to inconvenience. The mo- dern languages give unto such persons the name of favourites, or privadoes, as if it were matter of grace or conversation ; but the Roman name attaineth the true use and cause thereof, naming them ** participes curarum;" for it is that which tieth the knot : and we see plainly that this hath been done, not by weak and passionate princes only, but by the wisest and most politic that ever reigned, who have oftentimes joined to them- selves some of their servants, whom both them- selves have called friends, and allowed others likewise to call them in the same manner, using the word which is received between private men. L. Sylla, when he commanded Rome, raised Pompey (after surnamed the Great) to that height that Pompey vaunted himself for Sylla's overmatch ; for when he had carried the consul- ship for a friend of his, against the pursuit of OF FRIENDSHIP. 99 Sylla, and that Sylia did a little resent thereat, and began to speak great, Pompey turned upon him again, and in effect bade him be quiet; for that more men adored the sun rising than the sun setting. With Julius Cgesar, Deciraus Brutus had obtained that interest, as he set him down in his testament for heir in remainder after his nephew ; and this was the man that had power with him to draw him forth to his death : for when Caesar would have discharged the senate, in regard of some ill presages, and specially a dream of Calpurnia, this man lifted him gently by the arm out of the chair, telling him he hoped he would not dismiss the senate till his wife had dreamed a better dream ; and it seemed his favour was so great, as Antonius, in a letter, which is recited verbatim in one of Cicero's Phi- lippics, called him ** venefica," — '' witch ;" as if he had enchanted Caesar. Augustus raised Agrippa (though of mean birth) to that height, as, when he consulted with Maecenas about the marriage of his daughter Julia, Maecenas took the liberty to tell him, that he must either marry his daughter to Agrippa, or take away his life : there was no third way, he had made him so great. With Tiberius Caesar, Sejanus had as^ cended to that height as they two were termed and reckoned as a pair of friends. Tiberius, in a letter to him, saith, *' haec pro amiciti^ nostra non occultavi ;" and the whole senate dedicated an altar to Friendship, as to a goddess, in res- pect of the great dearness of friendship between them two. The like, or more, was between Sep- timus Severus and Plautianus ; for he forced his 100 LORD bacon's essays. eldest son to marry the daughter of Plautianus, and would often maintain Plautianus in doing affronts to his son : and did write also, in a let- ter to the senate, by these words: ** I love the man so well, as I wish he may overlive me.'* Now, if these princes had been as a Trajan, or a Marcus Aurelius, a man might have thought that this had proceeded of an abundant goodness of nature ; but being men so wise, of such strength and severity of mind, and so extreme lovers of themselves, as all these were, it proveth most plainly, that they found their own felicity (though as great as ever happened to mortal men) but as a half piece, except they might have a friend to make it entire; and yet, which is more, they were princes that had wives, sons, nephews; yet all these could not supply the comfort of friendship. It is not to be forgotten what Comineus ob- serveth of his first master, duke Charles the Hardy, namely, that he would communicate his secrets with none ; and least of all, those secrets which troubled him most. Whereupon he goeth on, and saith, that towards his latter time that closeness did impair and a little perish his under- standing. Surely Comineus might have made the same judgment also, if it had pleased him, of his second master, Louis the Eleventh, whose closeness was indeed his tormentor. The para- ble of Pythagoras is dark, but true, ** Cor ne edito,"— ** eat not the heart." Certainly, if a man would give it a hard phrase, those that want friends to open themselves unto are cannibals of their own hearts : but one thing is most admira- OF FRIENDSHIP. 101 ble (wherewith I will conclude this first fruit of friendship), which is, that this communicating of a man's self to his friend works two contrary effects, for it redoubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in halfs ; for there is no man that imparteth his joys to his friend, but he joyeth the more ; and no man that imparteth his griefs to his friend, but he grieveth the less. So that it is, in truth, of operation upon a man's mind of like virtue as the alchymists use to attribute to their stone for man's body, that it worketh all contrary effects, but still to the good and benefit of nature : but yet, without praying in aid of alchymists, there is a manifest image of this in the ordinary course of nature; for, in bodies, union strengtheneth and cherisheth any natural action ; and, on the other side, weakeneth and dulleth any violent impression ; and even so it is of minds. The second fruit of friendship is healthful and sovereign for the understanding, as the first is for the affections ; for friendship maketh indeed a fair day in the affections from storm and tempests, but it maketh daylight in the understanding, out of darkness and confusion of thoughts: neither is this to be understood only of faithful counsel, which a man receiveth from his friend ; but be- fore you come to that, certain it is, that whoso- ever hath his mind fraught with many thoughts, his wits and understanding do clarify and break up, in the communicating and discoursing with another ! he tosseth his thoughts more easily ; he marshaleth them more orderly; he seeth how they look when they are turned into words; finally, he waxeth wiser than himself; and that F 10*2 LORD bacon's essays. more by an hour's discourse than by a day's me- ditation. It was well said by Themistocles to the king of Persia, '* That speech was like cloth of Arras, opened and put abroad ; whereby the imagery doth appear in figure; whereas in thoughts they lie but as in packs." Neither is this second fruit of friendship, in opening the un- derstanding, restrained only to such friends as are able to give a man counsel (they indeed are best), but even without that a man learneth of himself, and bringeth his own thoughts to light, and whetteth his wits as against a stone, which itself cuts not. In a word, a man were better relate himself to a statue or picture, than to suf- fer his thoughts to pass in smother. Add now, to make this second fruit of friend- ship complete, that other point which lieth more open, and falleth within vulgar observation: which is faithful counsel from a friend. Hera- clitus saith well in one of his enigmas, " Dry light is ever the best," and certain it is, that the light that a man receiveth by counsel from ano- ther, is drier and purer than that which cometh from his own understanding and judgment ; which is ever infused and drenched in his affecr tions and customs. So as there is as much dif- ference between the counsel that a friend giveth, and that a man giveth himself, as there is be- tween the counsel of a friend and of a flatterer ; for there is no such flatterer as is a man's self, and there is no such remedy against flattery of a man's self as the liberty of a friend. Counsel is of two sorts; the one concerning manners, the other concerning business : for the first, the best OF FRIENDSHIP. 103 preservative to keep the mind in health is the faithful admonition of a friend. The calling of a man's self to a strict account is a medicine sometimes too piercing and corrosive; reading good books of morality is a little flat and dead ; observing our faults in others is sometimes im- proper for our case ; but the best receipt (best I say, to vrork and best to take) is the admonition of a friend. It is a strange thing to behold what gross errors and extreme absurdities many (espe- cially of the greater sort) do commit for vrant of a friend to tell them of them, to the great damage both of their fame and fortune : for, as St. James saith, they are as men *' that look sometimes into a glass, and presently forget their own shape and favour :" as for business, a man may think, if he will, that two eyes see no more than one; or, that a gamester seeth always more than a looker on ; or, that a man in anger is as wise as he that hath said over the four and twenty let- ters ; or, that a musket may be shot off* as well upon the arm as upon a rest ; and such other fond and high imaginations, to think himself all in all : but when all is done, the help of good counsel is that which setteth business straight ; and if any man think that he will take counsel, but it shall be by pieces ; asking counsel in one business of one man, and in another business of another man ; it is as well (that is to say, better, perhaps, than if he asked none at all), but he runneth two dangers ; one, that he shall not be faithfully counseled; for it is a rare thing, except it be from a perfect and entire friend, to have counsel given, but such as shall be bowed and f2 104 LORD BACON S ESSAYS. crooked to some ends which he hath that giveth it : the other, that he shall have counsel given hurtful and unsafe (though with good meaning), and mixed partly of mischief, and partly of re- medy; even as if you would call a physician, that is thought good for the cure of the disease you complain of, but is unacquainted with your body ; and, therefore, may put you in a way for present cure, but overthroweth your health in some other kind, and so cure the disease, and kill the patient : but a friend, that is wholly acquainted with a man's estate, will beware, by furthering any present business, how he dasheth upon other inconvenience ; and, therefore, rest not upon scattered counsels ; for they will rather distract and mislead than settle and direct. After these two noble fruits of friendship (peace in the affections, and support of the judg- ment), followeth the last fruit, which is, like the pomegranate, full of many kernels ; I mean, aid and bearing a part in all actions and occasions. Here the best way to represent to life the mani- fold use of friendship is to cast and see how many things there are which a man cannot do himself; and then it will appear that it was a sparing speech of the ancients, to say, ** that a friend is another himself; for that a friend is far more than himself." Men have their time, and die many times in desire of some things which they principally take to heart ; the bestowing of a child, the finishing of a work, or the like. If a man have a true friend, he may rest almost se- cure that the care of those things will continue after him ; so that a man hath, as it were, two OF FRIENDSHIP. 105 lives in his desires. A man hath a body, and that body is confined to a place ; but where friendship is, all offices of life are, as it were, granted to him and his deputy ; for he may exer- cise them by his friend. How many things are there which a man cannot, with any face or comeliness, say or do himself? A man can scarce allege his own merits with modesty, much less extol them ; a man cannot sometimes brook to supplicate, or beg, and a number of the like : but all these things are graceful in a friend's mouth, which are blushing in a man's own. So again, a man's person hath many proper relations which he cannot put off. A man cannot speak to his son but as a father ; to . his wife but as a husband; to his enemy but upon terms : whereas a friend may speak as the case requires, and not as it sorteth with the person : but to enumerate these things were endless ; I haye given the rule, where a man cannot fitly play his own part; if he have not a friend he may quit the stage. XXIX, OF EXPENSE. HiCHES are for spending, and spending for ho- nour and good actions ; therefore extraordinary expense must be limited by the worth of the oc- casion ; for voluntary undoing may be as well for a man's country as for the kingdom of hea- ven ; but ordinary expense ought to be limited by a man's estate, and governed with such re- gard, as it be within his compass; and not sub- 106 LORD bacon's essays. ject to deceit and abuse of servants ; and ordered to the best show, that the bills may be less than the estimation abroad. Certainly, if a man will keep but of even hand, his ordinary expenses ought to be but to the half of his receipts ; and if he think to wax rich, but to the third part. It is no baseness for the greatest to descend and look into their own estate. Some forbear it, not upon negligence alone, but doubting to bring themselves into melancholy, in respect they shall find it broken : but wounds cannot be cured without searching. He that cannot look into his own estate at all had need both choose well those whom he employeth, and change them often ; for new are more timorous and less sub- tle. He that can look into his estate but seldom, it behoveth him to turn all to certainties. A man had need, if he be plentiful in some kind of expense, to be as saving again in some other : as if he be plentiful in diet, to be saving in apparel ; if he be plentiful in the hall, to be saving in the stable, and the like : for he that is plentiful in expenses of all kinds will hardly be preserved from decay. In clearing of a man's estate, he may as well hurt himself in being too sudden, as in letting it run on too long ; for hasty selling is commonly as disadvantageable as interest. Be- sides, he that clears at once will relapse ; for finding himself out of straits, he will revert to his customs : but he that cleareth by degrees in- duceth a habit of frugality, and gaineth as well upon his mind as upon his estate. Certainly, who hath a state to repair may not despise small OF KINGDOMS AND ESTATES. 107 things;, and, commonly, it is less dishonourable to abridge petty charges than to stoop to petty gettings. A man ought warily to begin charges, which once begun will continue : but in matters that return not he may be more magnificent. XXX. OF THE TRUE GREATNESS OF KING- DOMS AND ESTATES. The speech of Themistocles, the Athenian, which was haughty and arrogant, in taking so much to himself, had been a grave and wise ob- servation and censure, applied at large to others. Desired at a feast to touch a lute, he said, *' He could not fiddle, but yet he could make a small town a great city." These words (holpen a little with a metaphor) may express two differing abi- lities in those that deal in business of estate ; for, if a true survey be taken of counsellors and statesmen, there may be found (though rarely) those which can make a small state great, and yet cannot fiddle : as, on the other side, there will be found a great many that can fiddle very cunningly, but yet are so far from being able to make a small state great, as their gift lietu the other way; to bring a great and flourishing estate to ruin and decay : and, certainly, those degene- rate arts and shifts .i^h^rphv man.v, couusellors and governors gam botii lavonr with tKoir mac ters, and estimation with the vulgar, deserve no better name than fiddling; being things rather pleasing for the time, and graceful to themselves only, than tending to the weal and advancement of the state which they serve. There are also 108 LORD bacon's ESSAY&. (no doubt) counsellors and governors which may be held sufficient, *' negotiis pares," able to ma- nage affairs, and to keep them from precipices and manifest inconveniences; which, neverthe- less, are far from the ability to raise and amplify an estate in power, means, and fortune : but be the workmen what they may be, let us speak of the work; that is, the true greatness of kingdoms and estates, and the means thereof. An argu- ment fit for great and mighty princes to have in their hand ; to the end, that neither by over-mea- suring their forces, they lose themselves in vain enterprises ; nor, on the other side, by under- valuing them, they descend to fearful and pusil- lanimous counsels. The greatness of an estate, in bulk and terri- tory, doth fall under measure ; and the greatness of finances and revenue doth fall under computa- tion. The population may appear by musters ; and the number and greatness of cities and towns by cards and maps ; but yet there is not any thing, amongst civil affairs, more subject to error than the right valuation and true judgment con- '^f^rning the power and forces of an estate. The kmgdom of heaven is compared, not to any great kernel, or nut, bud to a grain of mustard-seed; which is one of the least grains, but hath in it a property and spirit hastily to eret up and spread. r^o arc there orUiv^fc; j^^icau Iii Lcn.njj^^ ^nO \ei UOt apt to enlarge or command : and some that have but a stnall dimension of stem, and yet are apt to be the foundation of great monarchies. Walled towns, stored arsenals and armories, goodly races of horse, chariots of war, elephants. OF KINGDOMS AND ESTATES. 109 ordnance, artillery, and the like ; all this is but a sheep in a lion's skin, except the breed and dis- position of the people be stout and warlike. Nay, number (itself) in armies importeth not much, where the people are of weak courage ; for, as Virgil saith, '* It never troubles the wolf how many the sheep he." The army of the Per- sians, in the plains of Arbela, was such a vast sea of people, as it did somewhat astonish the commanders in Alexander's army, who came to him, therefore, and wished him to set upon them by night; but he answered, ** he would not pil- fer the victory ;" and the defeat was easy. When Tigranes, the Armenian, being encamped upon a hill with four hundred thousand men, dis- covered the army of the Romans, being not above fourteen thousand, marching towards him, he made himself merry with it, and said, ** Yon- der men are too many for an ambassage, and too few for a fight:" but, before the sun set, he found them enow to give him the chase with infinite slaughter. Many are the examples of the great odds between number and courage : so that a man may truly make a judgment, that the princi- pal point of greatness, in any state, is to have a race of military men. Neither is money the sinews of war (as it is trivially said), where the sinews of men's arms in base and effeminate peo- ple are failing ; for Solon said well to Croesus (when in ostentation he showed him his gold), ** Sir, if any other come that hath better iron than you, he will be master of all this gold." There- fore, let any prince or state think soberly of his forces, except his militia of natives be of good f3 110 LORD bacon's essays. and valiant soldiers ; and let princes, on the other side, that have subjects of martial disposi- tion, know their own strength, unless they be otherwise wanting unto themselves. As for mercenary forces (which is the help in this case), all examples show that, whatsoever estate, or prince, doth rest upon them, he may spread his feathers for a time, but he will mew them soon after. The blessing of Judas and Issachar will never meet ; that the same people or nation shoidd be both the lion's whelp and the ass between bur- dens : neither will it be, that a people overlaid with taxes should ever become valiant and mar- tial. It is true that taxes, levied by consent of the estate, do abate men's courage less ; as it hath been seen notably in the exercises of the Low Countries ; and, in some degree, in the sub- sidies of England; for, you must note, that we speak now of the heart, and not of the purse ; so that, although the same tribute and tax, laid by consent or by imposing, be all one to the purse, yet it works diversely upon the courage. So that you may conclude, that no people over- charged with tribute is fit for empire. Let states that aim at greatness take heed how their nobility and gentlemen do multiply too fast; for that maketh the common subject grow to be a peasant and base swain, driven out of heart, and, in effect, but a gentleman's labourer. Even as you may see in coppice woods ; if you leave your straddles too thick, you shall never have clean underwood, but shrubs and. bushes. So in countries, if the gentlemen be too many, OF KINGDOMS AND ESTATES. Ill the commons will be base ; and you will bring it to that, that not the hundredth poll will be fit for a helmet ; especially as to the infantry, which is the nerve of an army ; and so there will be great population and little strength. This which I speak of hath been no where better seen than by comparing of England and France ; whereof England, though far less in territory and popu- lation, hath been (nevertheless) an overmatch ; in regard the middle people of England make good soldiers, which the peasants of France do not: and herein the device of king Henry the Seventh (whereof I have spoken largely in the history of his life), was profound and admira- ble ; in making farms and houses of husbandry of a standard ; that is, maintained with such a proportion of land unto them as may breed a subject to live in convenient plenty, and no ser- vile condition ; and to keep the plough in the hands of the owners, and not mere hirelings ; and thus indeed you shall attain to Virgil's cha- racter, which he gives to ancient Italy : " Terra potens armis atque ubere glebae." Neither is that state (which, for any thing I know, is almost peculiar to England, and hardly to be found anywhere else, except it be, perhaps, . iu Poland), to be passed over ; I mean the state of free servants and attendants upon noblemen and gentlemen, which are no ways inferior unto the yeomanry for arms; and, therefore, out of all question, the splendour and magnificence, and great retinues, the hospitality of noblemen and gentlemen received into custom, do much 112 LORD bacon's essays. conduce unto martial greatness : whereas, con- trariwise, the close and reserved living of noble- men and gentlemen causeth a penury of military forces. By all means it is to be procured, that the trunk of Nebuchadnezzar's tree of monarchy be great enough to bear the branches and the boughs ; that is, that the natural subjects of the crown or state bear a sufficient proportion to the strange subjects that they govern : therefore all states that are liberal of naturalisation towards strangers are fit for empire ; for to think that a handful of people can, with the greatest courage and policy in the world, embrace too large ex- tent of dominion, it may hold for a time, but it will fail suddenly. The Spartans were a nice people in point of naturalisation ; whereby, while they kept their compass, they stood firm; but when they did spread, and their boughs were become too great for their stem, they became a windfall upon the sudden. Never any state was, in this point, so open to receive strangers into their body as were the Romans ; therefore it sorted with them accordingly, for they grew to the greatest monarchy. Their manner was to grant naturalisation (which they called ** jus civitatis"), and to grant it in the highest degree, that is, not only **jus coramercii, jus connubii, jus hxreditatis ;" but also "jus suflfragii," and ** jus honorum;" and this not to singular persons alone, but likewise to whole families ; yea, to cities, and sometimes to nations. Add to this their custom of plantation of colonies, whereby the Roman plant was removed into the soil of OF KINGDOMS AND ESTATES. 113 other nations ; and, putting both constitutions together, you will say, that it was not the Ro- mans that spread upon the world, but it was the world that spread upon the Romans; and that was the sure way of greatness. I have marveled sometimes at Spain, how they clasp and contain so large dominions with so few natural Spa- niards : but sure the whole compass of Spain is a very great body of a tree, far above Rome and Sparta at the first; and, besides, though they have not had that usage to naturalise liberally, yet they have that which is next to it; that is, to employ, almost indifferently, all nations in their militia of ordinary soldiers ; yea, and sometimes in their highest commands : nay, it seemeth at this instant, they are sensible of this want of na- tives: as by the pragmatical sanction, now pub- lished, appeareth. It is certain, that sedentary and within-door arts, and delicate manufactures (that require ra- ther the finger than the arm) have in their nature a contrariety to a military disposition; and ge- nerally all warlike people are a little idle, and love danger better than travail; neither must they be too much broken of it, if they shall be preserved in vigour : therefore it was great ad- vantage in the ancient states of Sparta, Athens, Rome, and others, that they had the use of slaves, which commonly did rid those manufactures ; but that is abolished, in greatest part, by the Christian law. That which cometh nearest to it is, to leave those arts chiefly to strangers (which, for that purpose, are the more easily to be re- ceived)j and to contain the principal bulk of the 114 LORD bacon's essays. vulgar natives within those three kinds, tillers of the ground, free servants, and handicraftsmen of strong and manly arts ; as smiths, masons, car- penters, &c. not reckoning professed soldiers. But, above all, for empire and greatness, it importeth most, that a nation do profess arms as their principal honour, study, and occupation ; for the things which we formerly have spoken of are but habilitations towards arms ; and what is habilitation without intention and act ? Romu- lus, after his death (as they report or feign), sent a present to the Romans, that above all they should intend arms, and then they should prove the greatest empire of the world. The fabric of the state of Sparta was wholly (though not wisely) framed and composed to that scope and end ; the Persians and Macedonians had it for a flash; the Gauls, Germans, Goths, Saxons, Normans, and others had it for a time : the Turks have it at this day, though in great decli- nation. Of Christian Europe they that have it are, in effect, only the Spaniards : but it is so plain, that every man profiteth in that he most intendeth, that it needeth not to be stood upon : it is enough to point at it ; that no nation which doth not directly profess arms, may look to have greatness fall into their mouths ; and, on the other side, it is a most certain oracle of time, that those states that continue long in that pro- fession (as the Romans and Turks principally have done) do wonders ; and those that have professed arms but for an age have, notwith- standing, commonly attained that greatness in that age which maintained them long after, when OF KINGDOMS AND ESTATES. 115 their profession and exercise of arms hath grown to decay. Incident to this point is for a state to have those laws or customs which may reach forth unto them just occasions (as may be pretended) of war ; for there is that justice imprinted in the nature of men, that they enter not upon wars (whereof so many calamities do ensue), but upon some, at the least specious, grounds and quarrels. The Turk hath at hand, for cause of war, the propagation of his law or sect, a quarrel that he may always command. The Romans, though they esteemed the extending the limits of their empire to be great honour to their generals when it was done, yet they never rested upon that alone to begin a war : first, therefore, let nations that pretend to greatness have this, that they be sensible of wrongs, either upon borderers, mer- chants, or politic ministers ; and that they sit not too long upon a provocation : secondly, let them be pressed and ready to give aids and succours to their confederates ; as it ever was with the Romans ; insomuch, as if the confederates had leagues defensive with divers other states, and, upon invasion offered, did implore their aids severally, yet the Romans would ever be the foremost, and leave it to none other to have the honour. As for the wars, which were anciently made on the behalf of a kind of party, or tacit conformity of state, I do not see how they may be well justified : as when the Romans made a war for the liberty of Graecia ; or, when the La- cedaemonians and Athenians made war to set up or pull down democracies and oligarchies : or 116 LORD bacon's essays. when wars were made by foreigners, under the pretence of justice or protection, to deliver the subjects of others from tyranny and oppression, and the hke. Let it suffice, that no estate expect to be great, that is not awake upon any just oc- casion of arming. No body can be healthful without exercise, neither natural body nor politic ; and, certainly, to a kingdom, or estate, a just and honourable war is the true exercise. A civil war, indeed, is like the heat of a fever ; but a foreign war is like the heat of exercise, and serveth to keep the body in health ; for, in a slothful peace, both courages v/ill effeminate, and manners corrupt; but howsoever it be for happiness, without all question for greatness, it maketh to be still for the most part in arms : and the strength of a veteran army (though it be a chargeable busi- ness), always on foot, is that which commonly giveth the law ; or, at least, the reputation amongst all neighbour states, as may be well seen in Spain ; which hath had, in one part or other, a veteran army almost continually, now by the space of six score years. To be master of the sea is an abridgment of a monarchy. Cicero, writing to Atticus of Pom- pey his preparation against Csesar, saith, *' Con- silium Pompeii plane Themistocleum est ; putat enim, qui mari potitur, eum rerum potiri ;" and, without doubt, Pompey had tired out Caesar, if upon vain confidence he had not left that way. We see the great eftects of battles by sea : the battle of Actium decided the empire of the world ; the battle of Lepanto arrested the great- OF KINGDOMS AND ESTATES. 117 ness of the Turk. There be many examples, where seafights have been final to the war: but this is when princes, or states, have set up their rest upon the battles ; but thus much is certain, that he that commands the sea is at great liberty, and may take as much and as little of the war as be will ; whereas those that be strongest by land are many times, nevertheless, in great straits. Surely, at this day, with us of Euiope, the van- tage of strength at sea (which is one of the prin- cipal dowries of this kingdom of Great Britain) is great ; both because most of the kingdoms of Europe are not merely inland, but girt with the sea most part of their compass ; and because the wealth of both Indies seems, in great part, but an accessary to the command of the seas. The wars of later ages seem to be made in the dark, in respect to the glory and honour which reflected upon men from the wars in ancient time. There be now, for martial encouragement, some degrees and orders of chivalry, which, neverthe- less, are conferred promiscuously upon soldiers and no soldiers, and some remembrance, per- haps, upon the escutcheon, and some hospitals for maimed soldiers, and such like things; but, in ancient times, the trophies erected upon the place of the victory ; the funeral laudatives and moniimonts for thosp that died in the wars ; the crowns and garlands personal ; the style of em- peror, wnicn me gieat kings uf the world after borrowed; the triumphs of the generals upon their return; the great donatives and largesses upon the disbanding of the armies, were things able to inflame all men's courages ; but, above 118 LORD bacon's essays. all, that of the triumph amongst the Romans was not pageants, or gaudery, but one of the wisest and noblest institutions that ever was : for it contained three things, honour to the general, riches to the treasury out of the spoils, and do- natives to the army : but that honour, perhaps, were not fit for monarchies ; except it be in the person of the monarch himself, or his sons ; as it came to pass in the times of the Roman empe- rors, who did impropriate the actual triumphs to themselves and their sons, for such wars as they did achieve in person, and left only for wars achieved by subjects some triumphal garments and ensigns to the general. To conclude : no man can by care taking (as the Scripture saith) ** add a cubit to his stature,'* in this little model of a man's body ; but in the great fame of kingdoms and commonwealths, it is in the power of princes, or estates, to add am- plitude and greatness to their kingdoms ; for by introducing such ordinances, constitutions, and customs as we have now touched, they may sow greatness to their posterity and succession : but these things are commonly not observed, but left to take their chance. XXXI. OF REGIMEN OF HEALTH. There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules ot physic : a mun's ovrn oboorvottiv/u, vviicii lie finds good of, and what he finds hurt of, is the best physic to preserve health ; but it is a safer con- clusion to say, *' This agreeth not well with me, therefore I will not continue it;" than this, '* I OF REGIMEN OF HEALTH. 119 find no offence of this, therefore I may use it :" for strength of nature in youth passeth over many excesses which are owing a man till his age. Discern of the coming on of years, and think not to do the same thing still ; for age will not be defied. Beware of sudden change in any great point of diet, and, if necessity enforce it, fit the rest to it ; for it is a secret both in nature and state, that it is safer to change many things than one. Examine thy customs of diet, sleep, exercise, apparel, and the like ; and try, in any thing thou shalt judge hurtful, to discontinue it by little and little ; but so, as if thou dost find any inconvenience by the change, thou come back to it again : for it is hard to distinguish that which is generally held good and whole- some from that which is good particularly, and fit for thine own body. To be free minded and cheerfully disposed at hours of meat and sleep, and of exercise, is one of the best^ precepts of long lasting. As for the passions and studies of the mind, avoid envy, anxious fears, anger, fretting inwards, subtile and knotty inquisitions, joys and exhilarations in excess, sadness not communicated. Entertain hopes, mirth rather than joy, variety of delights rather than surfeit of them; wonder and admiration, and therefore no- velties ; studies that fill the mind with splendid and illustrious objects, as histories, fables, and contemplations of nature. If you fly physic in health altogether, it will be too strange for your body when you shall need it; if you make it too familiar, it will work no extraordinary effect when sickness cometh. I commend rather some 120 LORD bacon's essays. diet for certain seasons, than frequent use of physic, except it be grown into a custom ; for those diets alter the body more, and trouble it less. Despise no new accident in your body, but ask opinion of it. In sickness, respect health principally ; and in health, action ; for those that put their bodies to endure in health, may, in most sicknesses which are not very sharp, be cured only with diet and tendering. Celsus could never have spoken it as a physi- cian, had he not been a wise man withal, when he giveth it for one of the great precepts of health and lasting, that a man do vary and inter- change contraries; but with an inclination to the more benign extreme : use fasting and full eat- ing, but rather full eating ; watching and sleep, but rather sleep ; sitting and exercise, but rather exercise, and the like : so shall nature be che- rished, and yet taught masteries. Physicians are some of them so pleasing and conformable to the humour of the patient, as they press not the true cure of the disease ; and some other are so regular in proceeding according to art for the disease, as they respect not sufficiently the con- dition of the patient. Take one of a middle tem- per ; or, if it may not be found in one man, com- bine two of either sort; and forget not to call as well the best acquainted with your body, as the best reputed of for his faculty. 121 XXXII. OF SUSPICION. Suspicions amongst thoughts are like bats amongst birds, they ever fly by twihght; cer- tainly they are to Ibe repressed, or at the least well guarded; for they cloud the mind, they lose friends, and they check with business, whereby business cannot go on currently and constantly : they dispose kings to tyranny, hus- bands to jealousy, wise men to irresolution and melancholy : they are defects, not in the heart, but in the brain ; for they take place in the stout- est natures : as in the example of Henry the Seventh of England ; there was not a more sus- picious man nor a more stout : and in such a composition they do small hurt; for commonly they are not admitted but with examination, whether they be likely or no ; but in fearful na- tures they gain ground too fast. There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little ; and, therefore, men should remedy suspi- cion by procuring to know more, and not to keep their suspicions in smother. What would men have ? do they think those they employ and deal with are saints ? do they not think they will have their own ends, and be truer to themselves than to them] therefore there is no better way to mo- derate suspicions, than to account upon such suspicions as true, and yet to bridle them as false : for so far a man ought to make use of suspicions as to provide, as if that should be true that he suspects, yet it may do him no hurt. Suspicions that the mind of itself gathers 122 LORD bacon's essays. are but buzzes ; but suspicions that are artifi- cially nourished, and put into men's heads by the tales and whisperings of others, have stings. Certainly, the best mean to clear the way in this same wood of suspicion is frankly to communi- cate them with the party that he suspects; for thereby he shall be sure to know more of the truth of them than he did before ; and withal shall make that party more circumspect, not to give further cause of suspicion ; but this would not be done to men of base natures ; for they, if they find themselves once suspected, will never be true. The Italian says, '* Sospetto licentia fede ;" as if suspicion did give a passport to faith; but it ought rather to kindle it to dis- charge itself. XXXIII. OF DISCOURSE. Some in their discourse desire rather commen- dation of wit, in being able to hold all argu- ments, than of judgment in discerning what is true ; as if it were a praise to know what might be said, and not what should be thought. Some have certain common places and themes, wherein they are good, and want variety; which kind of poverty is for the most part tedious, and when it is once perceived ridiculous. The honourablest part of talk is to give the occasion ; and again to moderate and pass to somewhat else, for then a man leads the dance. It is good in discourse, and speech of conversation, to vary and inter- mingle speech of the present occasion with argu- ments, tales with reason, asking of questions OF DISCOURSE. 123 with telling of opinions, and jest with earnest ; for it is a dull thing to tire, and, as we say now, to jade any thing too far. As for jest, there be certain things which ought to be privileged from it; namely, religion, matters of state, great per- sons, any man's present business of importance, and any case that deserveth pity ; yet there be some that think their wits have been asleep, ex- cept they dart out somewhat that is piquant, and to the quick ; that is a vein which would be bridled. ** Parce, puer, stimulis, et fortius utere loris." And, generally, men ought to find the difference between saltness and bitterness. Certainly, he that hath a satirical vein, as he maketh others afraid of his wit, so he had need be afraid of others' memory. He that questioneth much shall learn much, and content much ; but especially if he apply his questions to the skill of the persons whom he asketh ; for he shall give them occa- sion to please themselves in speaking, and him- self shall continually gather knowledge; but let his questions not be troublesome, for that is fit for a poser ; and let him be sure to leave other men their turns to speak : nay, if there be any that would reign and take up all the time, let him find means to take them off, and bring others on : as musicians use to do with those that dance too long galliards. K you dissemble sometimes your knowledge of that you are thought to know, you shall be thought, another time, to know that you know not. Speech of a man's self ought to be seldom, and well chosen. I knew one was 124 LORD bacon's essays. wont to say in scorn, *' He must needs be a wise man, he speaks so much of himself ;'' and there is but one case wherein a man may com- mend himself with good grace, and that is in com- mending virtue in another, especially if it be such a virtue whereunto himself pretendeth. Speech of touch towards others should be sparingly used; for discourse ought to be as a field, with- out coming home to any man. I knew two noblemen, of the west part of England, whereof the one was given to scoff, but kept ever royal cheer in his house ; the other would ask of those that had been at the other's table, *' Tell truly, was there never a flout or dry blow given ?" To which the guest would answer, " Such and such a thing passed." The lord would say, ** I thought he would mar a good dinner.'* Discre- tion of speech is more than eloquence; and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal, is more than to speak in good words, or in good order. A good continued speech, without a good speech of interlocution, shows slowness; and a good reply, or second speech, without a good settled speech, showeth shallowness and weakness. As we see in beasts, that those that are weakest in the course, are yet nimblest in the turn ; as it is betwixt the greyhound and the hare. To use too many circumstances, ere one come to the matter, is wearisome ; to use none at all is blunt. 125 XXX:iV. OF PLANTATIONS. Plantations are amongst ancient, primitive, and heroical works. When the world was young it begat more children ; but now it is old it be- gets fewer: for 1 may justly account new plan- tations to be the children of former kingdoms. I like a plantation in a pure soil ; that is, where people are not displanted to the end to plant in others ; for else it is rather an extirpation than a plantation. Planting of countries is like planting of woods ; for you must make account to lose almost twenty years profit, and expect your re- compense in the end : for the principal thing that hath been the destruction of most plantations hath been the base and hasty drawing of profit in the first years. It is true, speedy profit is not to be neglected, as far as it may stand with the good of the plantation, but no farther. It is a shameful and unblessed thing to take the scum of people and wicked condemned men, to be the people with whom you plant ; and not only so, but it spoileth the plantation ; for they will ever live like rogues, and not fall to work, but be lazy, and do mischief, and spend victuals, and be quickly weary, and then certify over to their country to the discredit of the plantation. The people wherewith you plant ought to be gar- deners, ploughmen, labourers, smiths, carpen- ters, joiners, fishermen, fowlers, with some few apothecaries, surgeons, cooks, and bakers. In a country of plantation, first look about what kind of victual the country yields of itself to 126 LORD bacon's essays. hand: as chesnuts, walnuts, pineapples, olives, dates, plums, cherries, wild honey, and the like, and make use of them. Then consider what victual, or esculent things there are, which grow speedily, and within the year ; as parsnips, car- rots, turnips, onions, radish, artichokes of Jeru-^ salem, maise, and the like : for wheat, barley, and oats, they ask too much labour; but with pease and beans you may begin, both because they ask less labour, and because they serve for meat as well as for bread ; and of rice likewise cometh a great increase, and it is a kind of meat. Above all, there ought to be brought store of biscuit, oatmeal, flour, meal, and the like, in the beginning, till bread may be had. For beasts or birds, take chiefly such as are least subject to disease, and multiply fastest; as swine, goats> cocks, hens, turkeys, geese, house-doves, and the like. The victual in plantations ought to be expended almost as in a besieged town ; that is, with certain allowance : and let the main part of the ground employed to gardens or corn be to a common stock; and to be laid in, and stored up, and then delivered out in proportion ; be- sides some spots of ground that any particular person will manure for his own private use. Consider, likewise, what commodities the soil where the plantation is doth naturally yield, that they may some way help to defray the charge of the plantation ; so it be not, as was said, to the untimely prejudice of the main business, as it hath fared with tobacco in Virginia. Wood commonly aboundeth but too much ; and there- fore timber is fit to be one. If there be iron ore, OF PLANTATIONS. 127 and streams whereupon to set the mills, iron is a brave commodity where wood aboundeth. Mak- ing of bay salt, if the climate be proper for it, would be put in experience : growing silk, like- wise, if any be, is a likely commodity : pitch and tar, where store of firs and pines are, will not fail ; so drugs and sweet woods, where they are, cannot but yield great profit ; soap ashes, likewise, and other things that may be thought of; but moil not too much under ground, for the hope of mines is very uncerta^in, and useth to make the planters lazy in other things. For government, let it be in the hands of one, assisted with some counsel ; and let them have commis- sion to exercise martial laws, with some limita- tion ; and, above all, let men make that profit of being in the wilderness, as they have God al- w^ays, and his service before their eyes : let not the government of the plantation depend upon too many counsellors and undertakers in the country that planteth, but upon a temperate number; and let those be rather noblemen and gentlemen than merchants; for they look ever to the present gain : let there be freedoms from custom, till the plantation be of strength; and not only freedom from custom, but freedom to carry their commodities where they may make their best of them, except there be some special cause of caution. Cram not in people by send- ing too fast company after company ; but rather hearken how they waste, and send supplies pro- portionably ; but so as the number may live well in the plantation, and not by surcharge be in pe- nury. It hath been a great endangering to the g2 128 LORD BACON S ESSAYS. health of some plantations, that they have built ' along the sea and rivers, in marish and unwhole- some grounds : therefore, though you begin there to avoid carriage and other like discommodities, yet build still rather upwards from the stream, than along. It concerneth likewise the health of the plantation that they have good store of salt with them, tuat they may use it in their vic- tuals when it shall be necessary. If you plant where savages are, do not only entertain them with trifles and gingles, but use them justly and graciously, with sufficient guard nevertheless ; and do not win their favour by helping them to invade their enemies, but for their defence it is not amiss ; and send oft of them over to the country that plants, that they may see a better condition than their own, and commend it when they return. When the plantation grows to strength, then it is time to plant with women as well as with men ; that the plantation may spread into generations, and not be ever pierced from without. It is the sinfulest thing in the world to forsake or destitute a plantation once in forward- ness ; for, besides the dishonour, it is the guilti- ness of blood of many commiserable persons. XXXV. OF RICHES. I CANNOT call riches better than the baggage of yirtue; the Roman word is better, ** impedi- menta ;" for as the baggage is to an army, so is riches to virtue ; it cannot be spared nor left be- hind, but it hindereth the march ; yea, and the care of it sometimes loseth or disturbeth the vici- OF RICHES. 129 tory; of great riches there is no real use, except it be in the distribution ; the rest is but conceit ; so saith Solomon, " Where much is, there are many to consume it ; and what hath the owner but the sight of it with his eyes]" The personal fruition in any man cannot reach to feel great riches : there is a custody of them ; or a power of dole and donative of them ; or a fame of them ; but no solid use to the owner. Do you not see what feigned prices are set upon little stones and rarities ? and what works of ostentation are un- dertaken, because there might seem to be some use of great riches 1 But then you will say, they may be of use to buy men out of dangers or troubles ; as Solomon saith, '* Riches are as a strong hold in the imagination of the rich man :" but this is excellently expressed, that it is in ima- ^ gination, and not always in fact : for, certainly, great riches have sold more men than they have bought out. Seek not proud riches, biit such as thou mayst get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly; yet have no abstract or friarly contempt of them ; but distin- guish, as Cicero saith well of Rabirius Posthu- mus, ** in studio rei ampliticandae apparebat, non aviritiae praedam, sed instrumentum bonitati queeri.'' Hearken also to Solomon, and beware of hasty gathering of riches; ** Qui festinat ad divitias, non erit insons." The poets feign, that when Plutus (which is riches) is sent from Ju- piter, he limps, and goes slowly ; but when he is sent from Pluto, he runs, and is swift of foot ; meaning, that riches gotten by good means and just labour pace slowly; but when they come by 130 LORD bacon's essays. the death of others (as by the course of inheri- tance, testaments, and the hke), they come tum- bhng upon a man : but it might be appUed like- wise to Pluto, taking him for the devil : for when riches come from the devil (as by fraud and op- pression and unjust means), they come upon speed. The ways to enrich are many, and most of them foul : parsimony is one of the best, and yet is not innocent ; for it withholdeth men from works of liberality and charity. The improve- ment of the ground is the most natural obtaining of riches; for it is our great mother's blessing, the earth ; but it is slow : and yet, where men of great wealth do stoop to husbandry, it multipli- eth riches exceedingly. I knew a nobleman of England that had the greatest audits of any man in my time, a great grazier, a great sheep master, a great timber man, a great collier, a great corn master, a great lead man, and so of iron, and a number of the like points of husbandry ; so as the earth seemed a sea to him in respect of the perpetual importation. It was truly observed by one, ** That himself came very hardly to little riches, and very easily to great riches;" for when a man's stock is come to that, that he can expect the prime of markets, and overcome those bargains which for their greatness are few men's money, and be partner in the industries of younger men, he cannot but increase mainly. The gains of ordinary trades and vocations are honest, and furthered by two things, chiefly, by diligence, and by a good name for good and fair dealing ; but the gains of bargains are of a more doubtful nature, when men shall wait upon others' neces- OF RICHES. 131 sity ; broke by servants and instruments to draw them on ; put off others cunningly that would be better chapmen, and the like practices, which are crafty and naughty : as for the chopping of bar- gains, when a man buys not to hold, but to sell over again, that commonly grindeth double, both upon the seller and upon the buyer. Sharings do greatly enrich, if the hands be well chosen that are trusted. Usury is the certainest means of gain, though one of the worst, as that whereby a man doth eat his bread, " in sudore vulti^s alieni ;" and, besides, doth plough upon Sun- days : but yet certain though it be, it hath flaws; for that the scriveners and brokers do value un- sound men to serve their own turn. The for- tune, in being the first in an invention, or in a privilege, doth cause sometimes a wonderful overgrowth in riches; as it was with the first sugar man in the Canaries : therefore, if a man can play the true logician, to have as well judg- ment as invention, he may do great matters, es- pecially if the times be fit : he that resteth upon gains certain shall hardly grow to great riches ; and he that puts all upon adventures, doth often- times break and come to poverty: it is good, therefore, to guard adventures with certainties that may uphold losses. Monopolies, and co- emption of wares for resale, where they are not restrained, are great means to enrich ; especially if the party have intelligence what things are like to come into request, and so store himself be- forehand. Kiches gotten by service, though it be of the best rise, yet when they are gotten by flattery, feeding humours, and other servile con* 132 LORD bacon's essays. ditions, they may be placed amongst the worst. As for fishing for testaments and executorships (as Tacitus saith of Seneca, " testamenta et orbos tanquam indagine capi''), it is yet worse, by how much men submit themselves to meaner persons than in service. Believe not much them that seem to despise riches, for they despise them that despair of them; and none worse when they come to them. Be not penny-wise ; riches have wings, and sometimes they fly away of themselves, sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more. Men leave their riches either to their kindred or to the public ; and moderate portions prosper best in both. A great estate left to an heir, is as a lure to all the birds of prey round about to seize on him, if he be not the better established in years and judgment: likewise, glorious gifts and foundations are like sacrifices without salt ; and but the painted sepulchres of alms, which soon will putrefy and corrupt inwardly : therefore measure not thine advancements by quantity, but frame them by measure : and defer not charities till death ; for, certainly, if a man weigh it rightly, he that doth so is rather liberal of another man's than of his XXXVI. OF PROPHECIES. I MEAN not to speak of divine prophecies, nor of heathen oracles, nor of natural predictions ; but only of prophecies that have been of certain memory, and from hidden causes. Saith the Pythonissa to Saul, *' To-morrow thou and thy OF PROPHECIES. 133 sons shall be with me." Virgil hath these verses from Homer: " At domas iEneae cunctis doniinabitur oris, Et nati natorum, et qai nascentur ab illis." j^n. iii. 97. A prophecy, as it seems, of the Roman empire. Seneca, the tragedian, hath these verses ; " Venient annis Saecula seris, quibus Oceanus Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens Pateat Tellus, Tiphjsque novos Detegat orbes ; nee sit terris Ultima Tlmle :*' a prophecy of the discovery of America. The daughter of Polycrates dreamed that Jupiter bathed her father, and Apollo anointed him ; and it came to pass that he was crucified in an open place, where the sun made his body run with sweat, and the rain washed it. Philip of Mace- don dreamed he sealed up his wife's belly ; whereby he did expound it, that his wife should be barren ; but Aristander, the soothsayer, told him his wife was with child, because men do not use to seal vessels that are empty. A phantom that appeared to M. Brutus in his tent, said to him, * Philippis iterum me videbis." Tiberius said to Galba, '* Tu quoque, Galba, degustabis imperium.'' In Vespasian's time there went a prophecy in the East, that those that should come forth of Judea should reign over the world ; which though it may be was meant of our Sa- viour, yet Tacitus expounds it of Vespasian. Domitian dreamed, the night before he was slain, that a golden head was growing out of the nape of his neck ; and indeed the succession that fol- g3 134 LORD BACON'S ESSAYS. lowed him, for many years, made golden times. Henry the Sixth of England said of Henry the Seventh, when he was a lad, and gave him water, *' This is the lad which shall enjoy the crown for which we strive." When I was in France, I heard from one Dr. Pen a, that the queen mother, who was given to curious arts, caused the king her husband's nativity to be calculated under a false name ; and the astrologer gave a judgment, that he should be killed in a duel ; at which the queen laughed, thinking her husband to be above challenges and duels : but he was slain upon a course at tilt, the splinters of the staff of Mont? gomery going in at his beaver. The trivial pro- phecy which I heard when I was a child, and queen Elizabeth was in the flower of her years, was, *' When hempe is spun England's done:" whereby it was generally conceived, that after the princes had reigned which had the principal letters of that word hempe (which were Henry, Edward, Mary, Philip, and Elizabeth), England should come to utter confusion ; which, thanks be to God, is verified in the change of the name; for the king's style is now no more of England but of Britain. There was also another pro- phecy before the year of eighty-eight, which I do not well understand. " There shall be seen upon a day, Between the Bangh and the May, The black fleet of Norway. When that is come and gone, England builds houses of lime and stone, For after wars shall you have none.'* OF PROPHECIES. 135 It was generally conceived to be meant of the Spanish fleet that came in eighty-eight : for that the king of Spain's surname, as they say, is Nor- way. The prediction of Regiomontanus, Octogesimus octavus mirabilis annus," was thought likewise accomplished in the send- ing of that great fleet, being the greatest in strength, though not in number, of all that ever swam upon the sea. As for Cieon's dream, I think it was a jest; it was, that he was devoured of a long dragon ; and it was expounded of a maker of sausages, that troubled him exceed- ingly. There are numbers of the like kind: especially if you include dreams and predictions of astrology; but I have set down these few only of certain credit for example. My judgment is, that they ought all to be despised, and ought to serve but for winter talk by the fireside : though when T say despised, I mean it as for belief; for otherwise, the spreading or publishing of them is in no sort to be despised, for they have done much mischief; and I see many severe laws made to suppress them. That that hath given them grace, and some credit, consisteth in three things. First, that men mark when they hit, and never mark when they miss ; as they do, generally, also of dreams. The second is, that probable conjectures, or obscure traditions many times turn themselves into prophecies : while the nature of man, which coveteth divination, thinks it no peril to foretell that which indeed they do but collect; as that of Seneca's verse; for so much was then subject to demonstration, that 136 LORD bacon's essays. the globe of the earth had great parts beyond the Atlantic, which might be probably conceived not to be all sea : and adding thereto the tradition in Plato's Timaeus, and his Atlanticus, it might encourage one to turn it to a prediction. The third and last (which is the great one), is, that almost all of them, being infinite in number, have been impostures, and by idle and crafty brains, merely contrived and feigned, after the event passed. XXXVII. OF AMBITION. Ambition is like choler, which is a humour thatmaketh men active, earnest, full of alacrity, and stirring, if it be not stopped : but if it be stopped, and cannot have its way, it becometh a dust, and thereby malign and venomous : so am- bitious men, if they find the way open for their rising, and still get forward, they are rather busy than dangerous ; but if they be checked in their desires, they become secretly discontent, and look upon men and matters with an evil eye, and are best pleased when things go backward ; which is the worst property in a servant of a prince or state : therefore it is good for princes, if they use ambitious men, to handle it so as they be still progressive, and not retrograde, which, because it cannot be without inconvenience, it is good not to use such natures at all ; for if they rise not with their service, they will take order to make their service fall with them. But since we have said, it were good not to use men of ambitious natures, except it be upon necessity. OF AMBITION. 137 it is fit to speak in what cases they are of neces- sity. Good commanders in the wars must be taken, be they never so ambitious ; for the use of their service dispenseth with the rest ; and to take a soldier without ambition is to pull off his spurs. There is also great use of ambitious men in being screens to princes in matters of danger and envy ; for no man will take that part except he be like a seeled dove, that mounts and mounts because he cannot see about him. There is use also of ambitious men in pulling down the greatness of any subject that overtops; as Tibe- rius used Macro in the pulling down of Sejanus. Since, therefore, they must be used in such cases, there resteth to speak how they are to be riddled, that they may be less dangerous : there is less danger of them if they be of mean birth than if they be noble; and if they be rather harsh of nature than gracious and popular: and if they be rather new raised, than growing cun- ning and fortified in their greatness. It is count- ed by some a weakness in princes to have fa- vourites ; but it is, of all others, the best remedy against ambitious great ones; for when the way of pleasuring and displeasuring lieth by the fa- vourite, it is impossible any other should be over great. Another means to curb them is to balance them by others as proud as they : but then there must be some middle counsellors, to keep things steady ; for without that ballast the ship will roll too much. At the least, a prince may animate and inure some meaner persons to be, as it were, scourges to ambitious men. As for the having 138 LORD bacon's essays. of them obnoxious to ruin, if they be of fearful natures, it may do well ; but if they be stout and daring, it may precipitate their designs, and prove dangerous. As for the pulling of them down, if the affairs require it, and that it may not be done with safety suddenly, the only way is, the interchange continually of favours and dis- graces, whereby they may not know what to ex- pect, and be, as it were, in a wood. Of ambi- tions, it is less harmful the ambition to prevail in great things, than that other to appear in every thing ; for that breeds confusion, and mars busi- ness : but yet it is less danger to have an ambi- tious man stirring in business, than great in dependences. He that seeketh to be eminent amongst able men hath a great task ; but that is ever good for the public : but he that plots to be the only figure amongst cyphers is the decay of a whole age. Honour hath three things in it; the vantage ground to do good; the approach to kings and principal persons ; and the raising of a man's own fortunes„ He that hath the best of these intentions, when he aspireth, is an honest man ; and that prince, that can discern of these intentions in another that aspireth, is a wise prince. Generally let princes and states choose such ministers as are more sensible of duty than of rising, and such as love business rather upon conscience than upon bravery ; and let them dis- cern a busy nature from a willing mind. 139 XXXVIII. OF MASQUES AND TRIUMPHS. These things are but toys to come amongst such serious observations ; but yet, since princes will have such things, it is better they should be graced with elegancy, than daubed with cost. Dancing to song is a thing of great state and pleasure. I understand it that the song be in quire, placed aloft, and accompanied with some broken music ; and the ditty fitted to the device. Acting in song, especially in dialogues, hath an extreme good grace ; I say acting, not dancing (for that is a mean and vulgar thing) ; and the voices of the dialogue would be strong and manly (a bass and a tenor; no treble), and the ditty high and tragical, not nice or dainty. Several quires placed one over against another, and tak- ing the voice by catches an them wise, give great pleasure. Turning dances into figure is a child- ish curiosity ; and generally let it be noted, that those things which I here set down are such as do naturally take the sense, and not respect petty wonderments. It is true, the alterations of scenes, so it be quietly and without noise, are things of great beauty and pleasure ; for they feed and relieve the eye before it be full of the same object. Let the scenes abound with light, especially coloured and varied ; and let the mas- quers, or any other that are to come down from the scene, have some motions upon the scene itself before their coming down ; for it draws the eye strangely, and makes it with great pleasure to desire to see that it cannot perfectly discern. Let the songs be loud and cheerful, and not chirp- 140 LORD bacon's essays. ings or puliiigs : let the music likewise be sharp and loud, and well placed. The colours that show best by candle light are white, carnation, and a kind of seawater green ; and ouches, or spangs, as they are of no great cost, so they are of most glory. As for rich embroidery, it is lost and not discerned. Let the suits of the masquers be graceful, and such as become the person when the vizards are off; not after examples of known attires ; Turks, soldiers, mariners, and the like. Let antimasquesnotbelong; theyhave been commonly of fools, satyrs, baboons, wild men, antics, beasts, spirits, witches, Ethiopes, pigmies, turquets, nymphs, rustics, Cupids, sta- tues moving, and the like. As for angels, it is not comical enough to put them in antimasques : and any thing that is hideous, as devils, giants, is, on the other side, as unfit; but chiefly, let the music of them be recreative, and with some strange changes. Some sweet odours suddenly coming forth, without any drops falling, are, in such a company as there is steam and heat, things of great pleasure afid refreshment. Dou- ble masques, one of men, another of ladies, add- eth state and variety ; but all is nothing, except the room be kept clean and neat. For justs, and tourneys, and barriers, the glo- ries of them are chiefly in the chariots, wherein the challengers make their entry ; especially if they be drawn with strange beasts : as lions, bears, camels, and the like ; or in the devices of their entrance, or in bravery of their liveries, or in the goodly furniture of their horses and ar- mour. But enough of these toys. i E SS AYS Kattire -vnR lie Inxiued a great time , and yet rew'-e upon the occasion , or temptation-. — Essavxmx. DRAWN" BY -RICHARD WESTALL,E.A . EN"GRAVED BY J.H.ROBnsTSO^ST: PUBLISHED BY JOHN SHARPE, PICCADILLY. OCT. 1 1822. 141 XXXIX. OF NATURE IN MEN. Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished. Force maketh nature more violent in the return ; doctrine and discoure maketh nature less importune ; but custom only doth alter and subdue nature. He that seeketh victory over his nature, let him not set himself too great nor too small tasks ; for the first will make him dejected by often failing, and the second will make him a small proceeder, though by often prevailing : and, at the first, let him practise with helps, as swimmers do with blad- ders, or rushes ; but, after a time, let him prac- tise with disadvantages, as dancers do with thick shoes ; for it breeds great perfection if the prac- tice be harder that the use. Where nature is mighty, and therefore the victory hard, the de- grees had need be, first to stay and arrest nature in time ; like to him that would say over the four and twenty letters when he was angry ; then to go less in quantity : as if one should, in forbear- ing wine, come from drinking healths to a draught at a meal ; and, lastly, to discontinue altoge- ther : but if a man have the fortitude and resolu- tion to enfranchise himself at once, that is the best : " Optimas ille animi vindex, laedeotls pectus Vincula qui rupit, dedoluitque semel." Neither is the ancient rule amiss, to bend nature as a wand, to a contrary extreme, whereby to set it right; understanding it where the contrary ex- 142 LORD bacon's essays. treme is no vice. Let not a man force a habit upon himself with a perpetual continuance, but with some intermission; for both the pause rein- forceth the new onset : and, if a man that is not perfect be ever in practice, he shall as well prac- tise his errors as his abilities, and induce one habit of both; and there is no means to help this but by seasonable intermission : but let not a man trust his victory over his nature too far ; for nature will lie buried a great time, and yet revive upon the occasion, or temptation ; like as it was with iEsop's damsel, turned from a cat to a wo- man, who sat very demurely at the board's end till a mouse ran before her : therefore, let a man either avoid the occasion altogether, or put him- self often to it, that he may be little moved with it. A man's nature is best perceived in private- ness ; for there is no affectation in passion ; for that putteth a man out of his precepts, and in a new case or experiment, for there custom leaveth him. They are happy men whose natures sort with their vocations ; otherwise they may say, '' multum incola fuit anima mea," when they converse in those things they do not aifect. In studies, whatsoever a man commandeth upon himself, let him set hours for it ; but whatsoever is agreeable to his nature, let him take no care for any set times ; for his thoughts will fly to it of themselves, so as the spaces of other business or studies will suffice. A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds ; therefore let him sea- sonably water the one, and destroy the other. 143 XL. OF CUSTOM AND EDUCATION. Men's thoughts are much according to their in- clination ; their discourse and speeches accord- ing to their learning and infused opinions; but their deeds are after as they have been accus- tomed : and, therefore, as Machiavel well noteth (though in an ill favoured instance), there is no trusting to the force of nature, nor to the bravery of words, except it be corroborate by custom. His instance is, that for the achieving of a des- perate conspiracy, a man should not rest upon the fierceness of any man's nature, or his reso- lute undertakings ; but take such a one as hath had his hands formerly in blood : but Machiavel knew not of a friar Clement, nor a Ravillac, nor a Jaureguy, nor a Baltazar Gerard ; yet this rule holdeth still, that nature, nor the engage- ment of words, are not so forcible as custom. Only superstition is now so well advanced that men of the first blood are as firm as butchers by occupation ; and votary resolution is made equi- pollent to custom even in matter of blood. In other things, the predominancy of custom is every where visible, insomuch as a man would wonder to hear men profess, protest, engage, give great words, and then do just as they have done before, as if they were dead images and en- gines, moved only by the wheels of custom. We see also the reign or tyranny of custom, what it is. The Indians (I mean the sect of their wise men) lay themselves quietly upon a stack of wood, and so sacrifice themselves by 144 LORD BACON'S ESSAYS. fire : nay, the wives strive to be burned with the corpse of their husbands. The lads of Sparta, of ancient time, were wont to be scourged upon the altar of Diana, without so much as squeaking. I remember, in the beginning of queen Eliza- beth's time of England, an Irish rebel condemned put up a petition to the deputy that he might be hanged in a wyth, and not in a halter, because it had been so used with former rebels. There be monks in Russia, for penance, that will sit a whole night in a vessel of water, till they be en- gaged with hard ice. Many examples may be put of the force of custom, both upon mind and body : therefore, since custom is the principal magistrate of man's life, let men by all means en- deavour to obtain good customs. Certainly, custom is most perfect when it beginneth in young years : this we call education, which is, in effect, but an early custom. So we see, in lan- guages the tone is more pliant to all expressions and sounds, the joints are more supple to all feats of activity and motions in youth, than af- terwards ; for it is true, the late learners cannot so well take up the ply, except it be in some minds that have not suffered themselves to fix, but have kept themselves open and prepared to receive continual amendment, which is exceeding rare : but if the force of custom, simple and separate, be great, the force of custom, copulate and con- joined and collegiate, is far greater ; for their ex- ample teacheth, company comforteth, emulation quickeneth, glory raiseth; so as in such. places the force of custom is in its exaltation. Cer- tainly, the great multiplication of virtues upon OF FORTUNE. 145 human nature resteth upon societies well or- dained and disciplined ; for commonwealths and good governments do nourish virtue grown, but do not much mend the seeds : but the misery is, that the most effectual means are now applied to the ends least to be desired. XLI. OF FORTUNE. It cannot be denied but outward accidents con- duce much to fortune; favour, opportunity, death of others, occasion fitting virtue : but chiefly, the mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands : *' Faber quisque fortunee suae," saith the poet ; and the most frequent of exter- nal causes is, that the folly of one man is the fortune of another ; for no man prospers so sud- denly as by others' errors ; ** Serpens nisi ser- pen tem comederit non sit draco." Overt and ap- parent virtues bring forth praise; but there be secret and hidden virtues that bring forth fortune; certain deliveries of a man's self, which have no name. The Spanish name, *' disemboltura," partly expresseth them, when there be not stands nor restiffnes^ in a man's nature, but that the wheels of his mind keep way with the wheels of his fortune ; for so Livy (after he had described Cato Major in these words, *' In illo viro, tan- tura robur corporis et animi fuit, ut quocunque loco natus esset, fortunam sibi facturus videre- tur,") falleth upon that he had ** versatile inge- nium ;" therefore, if a man look sharply and at- tentively, he shall see fortune ; for though she be blind, yet she is not invisible. The way of 14G LORD bacon's essays. fortune is like the milky way in the sky ; which is a meeting, or knot, of a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together : so are there a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate : the Italians note some of them, such as a man would little think. When they speak of one that cannot do amiss, they will throw in into his other conditions, that he hath ** Poco di matto;" and, certainly, there be not two more fortunate properties, than to have a little of the fool, and not too much of the ho- nest : therefore extreme lovers of their country; or masters, were never fortunate : neither can they be ; for when a man placeth his thoughts without himself, he goeth not his own way. A hasty fortune maketh an enterprizer and re- mover; (the French hath it better, *' entrepre- nant," or " remnant") ; but the exercised fortune maketh the able man. Fortune is to be honoured and respected, and it be but for her daughters, Confidence and Reputation ; for those two feli- city breedeth ; the first within a man's self, the latter in others towards him. All wise men, to decline the envy of their own virtues, use to ascribe them to Providence and Fortune; for so they may the better assume them : and, be- sides, it is greatness in a man to be the care of the higher powers. So Caesar said to the pilot in the tempest, ** Caesarem portas, et fortunam ejus." So Sylla chose the name of '* Felix," and not of " Magnus :" and it hath been noted, that those who ascribe openly too much to their own wisdom and policy end unfortunate. It is OF USURY. 147 written that Timotheus, the Athenian, after he had, in the account he gave to the state of his government, often interlaced this speech, ** and in this fortune had no part," never prospered in any thing he undertook afterwards. Certainly there be whose fortunes are like Homer's verses, that have a slide and easiness more than the verses of other poets ; as Plutarch saith of Ti- moleon's fortune in respect of that of Agesilaus or Epaminondas : and that this should be, no doubt it is much in a man's self. XLII. OF USURY. Many have made witty invectives against usury. They say that it is pity the devil should have God's part, which is the tithe ; that the usurer is the greatest sabbath-breaker, because his plough goeth every Sunday ; that the usurer is the drone that Virgil speaketh of : " Ignavum fucos pecus a praesepibus arcent;" that the usurer breaketh the first law that was made for mankind after the fall, which was, " in sudore vultiis tui comedes panem tuum ;" not;;, *' in sudore vultus alieni;" that usurers should have orange-tawny bonnets, because they do judaize; that it is against nature for money to beget money, and the like. I say this only, that usury is a " concessum propter duritiem cordis :" for since there must be borrowing and lending, and men are so hard of heart as they will not lend freely, usury must be permitted. Some 148 LORD bacon's essays. others have made suspicious and cunning propo- sitions of banks, discovery of men's estates, and other inventions ; but few have spoken of usury usefully. It is good to set before us the incom- modities and commodities of usury, that the good may be either weighed out, or culled out : and warily to provide, that, while we make forth to that which is better, we meet not with that which is worse. The discommodities of usury are, first, that it makes fewer merchants ; for were it not for thig lazy trade of usury, money would not lie still, but it would in great part be employed upon merchandizing, which is the ** vena porta" of wealth in a state : the second, that it makes poor merchants; for as a farmer cannot husband his ground so w ell if he sit at a great rent, so the merchant cannot drive his trade so well, if he sit at great usury : the third is incident to the other two; and that is, the decay of customs of kings, or estates, which ebb or flow with merchandiz- ing : the fourth, that it bringeth the treasure of a realm or state into a few hands ; for the usurer being at certainties, and the other at uncertain- ties, at the end of the game most of the money will be in the box ; and ever a state flourisheth when wealth is more equally spread: the fifth, that it beats dow n the price of land ; for the em- ployment of money is chiefly either merchandiz- ing or purchasing ; and usury waylays both : the sixth, that it doth dull and damp all industries, improvements, and new inventions, wherein mo- ney would be stirring, if it were not for this slug : OF USURY. 149 the last, that it is the canker and ruin of many men's estates, which in process of time breeds a public poverty. On the other side, the commodities of usury are, first, that howsoever usury in some respect hindereth merchandizing, yet in some other it ad- vanceth it ; for it is certain that the greatest part of trade is driven by young merchants upon bor- rowing at interest ; so as if the usurer either call in, or keep back his money, there will ensue presently a great stand of trade : the second is, that, were it not for this easy borrowing upon in- terest, men's necessities would draw upon them a most sudden undoing, in that they would be forced to sell their means (be it lands or goods) far under foot, and so, whereas usury doth but gnaw upon them, bad markets would swallow them quite up. As for mortgaging, or pawning, it will little mend the matter : for either men will not take pains without use, or if they do, they will look precisely for the forfeiture. I remem- ber a cruel monied man in the country that would say, " The devil take this usury, it keeps us from forfeitures of mortgages and bonds." The third and last is, that it is a vanity to conceive that there would be ordinary borrowing without profit ; and it is impossible to conceive the num- ber of inconveniences that will ensue if borrow- ing be cramped : therefore to speak of the abo- lishing of usury is idle ; all states have ever had it in one kind or rate or other : so as that opinion must be sent to Utopia. To speak now of the reformation and regle- ment of usury, how the discommodities of it may H 150 LORD bacon's essays. be best avoided, and the commodities retained. It appears, by the balance of commodities and discommodities of usury, two things are to be reconciled; the one that the tooth of usury be grinded, that it bite not too much ; the other that there be left open a means to invite monied men to lend to the merchants, for the continuing and quickening of trade. This cannot be done, ex- cept you introduce two several sorts of usury, a less and a greater ; for if you reduce usury to one low rate, it will ease the common borrower, but the merchant will be to seek for money ; and it is to be noted, that the trade of merchandize, being the most lucrative, may bear usury at a good rate : other contracts not so. To serve both intentions, the way would be briefly thus : that there be two rates of usury ; the one free and general for all ; the other under licence only to certain persons, and in certain places of merchandizing. First, therefore, let usury in general be reduced to five in the hun- dred, and let that rate be proclaimed to be free and current ; and let the state shut itself out to take any penalty for the same : this will preserve borrowing from any general stop or dryness ; this will ease infinite borrowers in the country ; this will, in good part, raise the price of land, because land purchased at sixteen years' pur- chase will yield six in the hundred, and some- what more, whereas this rate of interest yields but five: this by like reason will encourage and edge industrious and profitable improvements, because many will rather venture in that kind than take five in the hundred, especially having OF USURY. 151 been used to greater profit. Secondly, let there be certain persons licensed to lend to known merchants upon usury, at a high rate, and let it be with the cautions following : let the rate be, even with the merchant himself, somewhat more easy than that he used formerly to pay ; for by that means all borrowers shall have some ease by this reformation, be he merchant or whosoever : let it be no bank, or common stock, but every man be master of his own money ; not that I al- together dislike banks, but they will hardly be brooked, in regard of certain suspicions. Let the state be answered some small matter for the license, and the rest left to the lender ; for if the abatement be but small, it will no whit discou- rage the lender ; for he, for example, that took before ten or nine in the hundred, will sooner descend to eight in the hundred than give over this trade of usury, and go from certain gains to gains of hazard. Let these licensed lenders be in number indefinite, but restrained to certain principal cities and towns of merchandizing ; for then they will be hardly able to colour other men's monies in the country : so as the license of nine will not suck away the current rate of five ; for no man will lend his monies far off, nor put them into unknown hands. If it be objected that this doth in a sort autho- rise usury, which before was in some places but permissive ; the answer is, that it is better to mi- tigate usury by declaration than to suffer it to rage by connivance. H 2 152 LORD bacon's essays. XLIII. OF YOUTH AND AGE. A MAN that is young in years may be old in hours, if he have lost no time ; but that happen- eth rarely. Generally, youth is like the first cogitations, not so wise as the second : for there is a youth in thoughts as well as in ages ; and yet the invention of young men is more lively than that of old, and imaginations stream into their minds better, and, as it were, more divinely. Natures that have much heat, and great and violent desires and perturbations, are not ripe for action till they have passed the meridian of their years : as it was with Julius Csesar and Septimus Severus ; of the latter of whom it is said, ** juventutem egit, erroribus, imo furoribus plenam ;" and yet he was the ablest emperor, almost, of all the list : but reposed natures may do well in youth, as it is seen in Augustus Cae- sar, Cosmes, duke of Florence, Gaston de Fois, and others. On the other side, heat and vivacity in age is an excellent composition for business. Young men are fitter to invent than to judge ; fitter for execution than for counsel ; and fitter for new projects than for settled business ; for the experience of age, in things that fall within the compass of it, directeth them : but in new things abuseth them. The errors of young men are the ruin of business; but the errors of aged men amount but to this, that more might have been done, or sooner. Young men, in the con- duct and manage of actions, embrace more than they can hold ; stir more than they can quiet ; fiy OF YOUTH AND AGE. 153 to the end, without consideration of the means and degrees ; pursue some few principles which they have chanced upon absurdly; care not to innovate, which draws unknown inconveniences; use extreme remedies at first; and that, which doubleth all errors, will not acknowledge or re- tract them, like an unready horse, that will nei- ther stop nor turn. Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success. Certainly it is good to compound employments of both ; for that will be good for the present, because the virtues of either age may correct the defects of both; and good for succession, that young men may be learners, while men in age are actors ; and, lastly, good for external accidents, because authority follow- eth old men, and favour and popularity youth : but, for the moral part, perhaps, youth will have the preeminence, as age hath for the politic. A certain rabbin upon the text, ** Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams," inferreth that young men are ad- mitted nearer to God than old, because vision is a clearer revelation than a dream : and, certainly, the more a man drinketh of the world, the more it intoxicateth : and age doth profit rather in the powers of understanding than in the virtues of the will and affections. There be some have an over early ripeness in their years, which fadeth betimes : these are, first, such as have brittle wits, the edge whereof is soon turned : such as was Hermogenes the rhetorician, whose books 154 LORD bacon's essays. are exceeding subtle, who afterwards waxed stupid : a second sort is of those that have some natural dispositions, which have better grace in youth than in age ; such as is a fluent and luxu- rious speech; which becomes youth well, but not age : so Tully saith of Hortensius, " Idem manebat, neque idem decebat :" the third is of such as take too high a strain at the first, and are magnanimous more than tract of years can uphold ; as was Scipio Africanus, of whom Livy saith in eff*ect, ** Ultima primis cedebant." XLIV. OF BEAUTY. Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set; and surely virtue is best in a body that is comely, though not of delicate features ; and that hath rather dignity of presence than beauty of aspect; neither is it almost seen, that very beautiful per- sons are otherwise of great virtue ; as if nature were rather busy not to err, than in labour to produce excellency; and therefore they prove accomplished, but not of great spirit; and study rather behaviour than virtue. But this holds not always : for Augustus Caesar, Titus Vespasia- nus, Philip le Belle of France, Edward the Fourth of England, Alcibiades of Athens, Ismael the sophy of Persia, were all high and great spirits, and yet the most beautiful men of their times. In beauty, that of favour is more than that of colour ; and that of decent and gracious motion more than that of favour. That is the best part of beauty which a picture cannot ex- press ; no, nor the first sight of the life. There OF BEAUTY, 165 is no excellent beauty that hath not some strange- ness in the proportion. A man cannot tell whe- ther Apelles or Albert Durer were the more trifler ; whereof the one would make a personage by geometrical proportions : the other, by taking the best parts out of divers faces to make one excellent. Such personages, I think, would please nobody but the painter that made them : not but I think a painter may make a better face than ever was ; but he must do it by a kind of felicity (as a musician that maketh an excellent air in music) and not by rule. A man shall see faces, that, if you examine them part by part, you shall find never a good ; and yet altogether do well. If it be true, that the principal part of beauty is in decent motion, certainly it is no marvel, though persons in years seem many times more amiable ; ** pulchrorura autumnus pulcher;" for no youth can be comely but by pardon, and considering the youth as to make up the comeliness. Beauty is as summer fruits, which are easy to corrupt, and cannot last ; and, for the most part, it makes a dissolute youth, and an age a little out of countenance ; but yet certainly again, if it light well, it maketh virtues shine and vices blush. XLV. OF DEFORMITY. Deformed persons are commonly even with nature ; for as nature hath done ill by them, so do they by nature, being for the most part (as the Scripture saith) ** void of natural affection :" and so they have their revenge of nature. Cer* 156 LORD bacon's essays. tainly there is a consent between the body and the mind, and where nature erreth in the one, she ventureth in the other : " ubi peccat in uno, periclitatur in altero :" but because there is in man an election, touching the frame of his mind, and a necessity in the frame of his body, the stars of natural inclination are sometimes ob- scured by the sun of discipline and virtue ; there- fore it is good to consider of deformity, not as a sign which is more deceivable, but as a cause which seldom faileth of the effect. Whosoever hath any thing fixed in his person that doth in- duce contempt, hath also a perpetual spur in himself to rescue and deliver himself from scorn ; therefore, all deformed persons are extreme bold ; first, as in their own defence, as being exposed to scorn, but in process of time by a general habit. Also it stirreth in them industry, and especially of this kind, to watch and observe the weakness of others, that they may have some- what to repay. Again, in their superiors, it quencheth jealousy towards them, as persons that they think they may at pleasure despise: and it layeth their competitors and emulators asleep, as never believing they should be in pos- sibihty of advancement till they see them in pos- session : so that upon the matter, in a great wit, deformity is an advantage to rising. Kings, in ancient times (and at this present in some coun- tries), were wont to put great trust in eunuchs, because they that are envious towards all are more obnoxious and officious towards one ; but yet their trust towards them hath rather been as to good spials and good whisperers than good OF BUILDING. 157 magistrates and officers : and much like is the reason of deformed persons. Still the ground is, they will, if they be of spirit, seek to free them- selves from scorn ; which must be either by virtue or malice; and, therefore, let it not be marveled, if sometimes they prove excellent persons; as was Agesilaus, Zanger the son of Solyman, ^sop, Gasca, president of Peru; and Socrates may go likewise amongst them, with others. XLVI. OF BUILDING. Houses are built to live in, and not to look on; therefore let use be preferred before uniformity, except where both may be had. Leave the goodly fabrics of houses, for beauty only to the enchanted palaces of the poets, who build them with small cost. He that builds a fair house upon an ill seat committeth himself to prison ; neither do I reckon it an ill seat only where the air is unwholesome, but likewise where the air is unequal ; as you shall see many fine seats set upon a knap of ground, environed with higher hills round about it, whereby the heat of the sun is pent in, and the wind gathereth as in troughs ; so as you shall have, and that suddenly, as great diversity of heat and cold as if you dwelt in several places. Neither is it ill air only that *maketh an ill seat; but ill ways ill markets; and, if you consult with Momus, ill neighbours. I speak not of many more ; want of water, want of wood, shade, and shelter, want of fruitfulness, and mixture of grounds of several natures ; want of prospect, want of level grounds, want of h3 158 LORD bacon's ESSAYS. places at some near distance for sports of hunt- ing, hawking, and races ; too near the sea, too remote ; having the commodity of navigable rivers, or the discommodity of their overflowing ; too far off from great cities, which may hinder business ; or too near them, which lurcheth all provisions, and maketh every thing dear; where a man hath a great living laid together, and where he is scanted ; all which, as it is impossible per- haps to find together, so it is good to know them, and think of them, that a man may take as many as he can; and, if he have several dwellings, that he sort them so that what he wanteth in the one he may find in the other. LucuUus answer- ed Pompey well, who, when he saw his stately galleries and rooms so large and lightsome^ in one of his houses, said, ** Surely an excellent place for summer, but how do you in the win- ter?" Lucullus answered, *^ Why, do you not think me as wise as some fools are, that ever change their abode towards the winter?" To pass from the seat to the house itself, we will do as Cicero doth in the orator's art, who writes books De Oratore, and a book he entitles Orator ; whereof the former delivers the precepts of the art, and the latter the perfection. We will, therefore, describe a princely palace, mak- ing a brief model thereof: for it is strange to see, now in Europe, such huge buildings as the Vati-' can and Escurial, and some others be, and yet scarce a very fair room in them. First, therefore, I say, you cannot have a per* feet palace, except you have two several sides ; a side for the banquet, as is spoken of in the OF BUILDING. 159 book of Esther, and a side for the household; the one for feasts and triumphs, and the other for dwelhng. I understand both these sides to be not only returns, but parts of the front; and to be uniform without, though severally parti- tioned within ; and to be on both sides of a great and stately tower in the midst of the front, that, as it were, joined them together on either hand. I would have, on the side of the banquet in front, one only goodly room above stairs, of some forty foot high ; and under it a room for a dressing or preparing place, at times of triumphs. On the other side, which is the household side, I wish it divided at the first into a hall and a chapel (with a partition between), both of good state and bigness ; and those not to go all the length, but to have at the farther end a winter and a summer parlour, both fair ; and under these rooms a fair and large cellar sunk under ground; and like- wise some privy kitchens, with butteries, and pantries, and the like. As for the tower, I would have it two stories, of eighteen feet high a piece above the two wings ; and goodly leads upon the top, railed with statues interposed ; and the same tower to be divided into rooms, as shall be thought fit. The stairs likewise to the upper rooms, let them be upon a fair and open newel, and finely railed in with images of wood cast into a brass colour ; and a very fair landing place at the top. But this to be, if you do not point any of the lower rooms for a dining place of servants; for, otherwise, you shall have the servants' dinner after your own : for the steam of it will come up as in a tunnel ; and so much for 160 LORD bacon's essays. the front: only I understand the height of the first stairs to be sixteen feet, which is the height of the lower room. Beyond this front is there to be a fair court, but three sides of it of a far lower building than the front ; and in all the four corners of that court fair staircases, cast into turrets on the out- side, and not within the row of buildings them- selves: but those towers are not to be of the height of the front, but rather proportionable to the lower building. Let the court not be paved, for that striketh up a great heat in the summer, and much cold in the winter : but only some side alleys with a cross, and the quarters to graze, being kept shorn, but not too near shorn. The row of return on the banquet side, let it be all stately galleries : in which galleries let there be three or five fine cupolas in the length of it, placed at equal distance, and fine coloured win- dows of several works : on the household side, chambers of presence and ordinary entertain- ments, with some bed chambers : and let all three sides be a double house, without thorough lights on the sides, that you may have rooms from the sun, both for forenoon and afternoon. Cast it, also, that you may have rooms both for summer and winter; shady for summer, and warm for winter. You shall have sometimes fair houses so full of glass that one cannot tell where to become to be out of the sun or cold. For embowed windows, I hold them of good use; (in cities, indeed, upright do better, in respect of the uniformity towards the street;) for they be pretty retiring places for conference; and, ber OF BUILDING. 161 sides, they keep both the wind and sun off; for that which would strike almost through the room doth scarce pass the window : but let them be but few, four in the court, on the sides only. Beyond this court, let there be an inward court, of the same square and height, which is to be environed with the garden on all sides ; and in the inside, cloistered on all sides upon decent and beautiful arches, as high as the first story : on the under story, towards the garden, let it be turned to a grotto, or place of shade, or estiva- tion ; and only have opening and windows to- wards the garden, and be level upon the floor, no whit sunk under ground, to avoid all dampish- ness : and let there be a fountain, or some fair work of statues in the midst of the court, and to be paved as the other court was. These build- ings to be for privy lodgings on both sides, and the end for privy galleries ; whereof you must foresee that one of them be for an infirmary, if the prince or any special person should be sick, with chambers, bed chamber, *' antecamera" and *^ recamera" joining to it ; this upon the se- cond story. Upon the ground story, a fair gal- lery, open, upon pillars ; and upon the third story likewise, an open gallery upon pillars, to take the prospect and freshness of the garden. At both corners of the farther side, by way of return, let there be two delicate or rich cabinets, dain- tily paved, richly hanged, glazed with crystalline glass, and a rich copula in the midst; and all other elegancy that may be thought upon. In the upper gallery too, I wish that there may be, if the place will yield it, some fountains running 162 LORD bacon's essays. in divers places from the wall, with some fine avoidances. And thus much for the model of the palace ; save that you must have, before you come to the front, three courts ; a green court plain, with a wall about it; a second court of the same, but more garnished with little turrets, or rather embellishments, upon the wall ; and a third court, to make a square with the front, but not to be built, nor yet enclosed with a naked wall, but enclosed with terraces leaded aloft, and fairly garnished on the three sides; and cloistered on the inside with pillars, and not with arches below. As for offices, let them stand at distance, with some low galleries to pass from them to the palace itself. XLVII. OF GARDENS. God Almighty first planted a garden ; and, in- deed, it is the purest of human pleasures ; it is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man ; without which buildings and palaces are but gross handyworks : and a man shall ever see, that, when ages grow to civility and elegancy, men come to build stately, sooner than to garden finely ; as if gardening were the greater perfec- tion. I do hold it, in the royal ordering of gar- dens, there ought to be gardens for all the months in the year, in which, severally, things of beauty may be then in season. For December and Ja- nuary, and the latter part of November, you must take such things as are green all winter; holly, ivy, bays, juniper, cypress trees, yew, pines, fir trees, rosemary, lavender ; periwinkle, OF GARDENS. 163 the white, the purple, and the blue ; germander, flag, orange trees, lemon trees, and myrtles, if they be stoved; and sweet marjoram, warm set. There followeth, for the latter part of January and Pebruary, the mezereon tree, which then blossoms ; crocus vernus, both the yellow and the gray ; primroses, anemones, the early tulip, the hyacinthus orientalis, chamairis fritellaria. For March there come violets, especially the single blue, which are the earliest; the early daffodil, the daisy, the almond tree in blossom, the peach tree in blossom, the cornelian tree in blossom, sweetbrier. In April follow the double white violet, the wallflower, the stock gilliflower, the cowslip, flower-de-luces, and lilies of all na- tures; rosemary flowers, the tulip, the double peony, the pale daffbdil, the French honeysuckle, the cherry tree in blossom, the damascene and plum trees in blossom, the whitethorn in leaf, the lilac tree. In May and June come pinks of all sorts, especially the blush-pink ; roses of all kinds, except the musk, which comes later; honeysuckles, strawberries, bugloss, columbine, the French marigold, flos Africanus, cherry tree in fruit, ribes, figs in fruit, rasps, vine flowers, lavender in flowers, the sweet satyrian, with the white flower; herba muscaria, lillium conval- lium, the apple tree in blossom. In July come gilliflowers of all varieties, musk roses, the lime tree in blossom, early pears, and plumbs in fruit, gennitings, codlins. In August come plums of all sorts in fruit, pears, apricots, barberries, fil- berds, musk melons, monks hoods, of all colours. In September come grapes, apples, poppies of 164 LORD bacon's essays. all colours, peaches, melocotones, nectarines, cornelians, wardens, quinces. In October and the beginning of November come services, med- lars, ballaces, roses cut or removed to come late, holly oaks, and such like. These particulars are for the climate of London : but my meaning is perceived, that you may have '* ver perpetuum," as the place affords. And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes, like the war- bling of music) than in the hand, therefore no- thing is more fit for that delight than to know what be the flowers and plants that do best per- fume the air. Roses, damask and red, are fast flowers of their smells ; so that you may walk by a whole row of them, and find nothing of their sweetness ; yea, though it be in a morning's dew. Bays, likewise, yield no smell as they grow, rosemary little, nor sweet marjoram; that which, above all others, yields the sweetest smell in the air, is the violet, especially the white double violet, which comes twice a year, about the middle of April, and about Bartholo- mewtide. Next to that is the musk rose ; then the strawberry leaves dying, with a most excel- lent cordial smell ; then the flower of the vines, it is a little dust like the dust of a bent, which grows upon the cluster in the first coming forth ; then sweetbriers, then wallflowers, which are very delightful to be set under a parlour or lower chamber window ; then pinks and gilliflowers, especially the matted pink and clove-giUiflowers ; then the flowers of the lime tree ; then the ho- neysuckles, so they be somewhat afar off. Of OF GARDENS. 165 bean flowers I speak not, because they are field flowers ; but those which perfume the air most delightfully, not passed by as the rest, but being trodden upon and crushed, are three, that is, burnet, wild thyme, and watermints ; therefore you are to set whole alleys of them, to have the pleasure when you walk or tread. For gardens (speaking of those which are, in- deed, princelike, as we have done of buildings), the contents ought not well to be under thirty acres of ground, and to be divided into three parts ; a green in the entrance, a heath, or de- sert, in the going forth, and the main garden in the midst, besides alleys on both sides ; and, I like well, that four acres of ground be assigned to the green, six to the heath, four and four to either side, and twelve to the main garden. The green hath two pleasures : the one, because no- thing is more pleasant to the eye than green grass finely shorn; the other, because it will give you a fair alley in the midst, by which you may go in front upon a stately hedge, which is to enclose the garden : but because the alley will be long, and, in great heat of the year, or day, you ought not to buy the shade in the gar- den by going in the sun through the green ; therefore you are, of either side the green, to plant a covert alley, upon carpenter's work, about twelve feet in height, by which you may go in shade into the garden. As for the making of knots, or figures, with divers coloured earths, that they may lie under the windows of the house on that side on which the garden stands, they be but toys : you may see as good sights many 166 LORD bacon's essays. times in tarts. The garden is best to be square, encompassed on all the four sides with a stately arched hedge ; the arches to be upon pillars of carpenter's work, of some ten feet high, and six feet broad, and the spaces between of the same dimensions with the breadth of the arch. Over the arches let there be an entire hedge of some four feet high, framed also upon carpenter's work ; and upon the upper hedge, over every arch, a little turret, with a belly enough to re- ceive a cage of birds : and over every space be- tween the arches some other little figure, with broad plates of round coloured glass gilt, for the sun to play upon : but this hedge I intend to be raised upon a bank, not steep, but gently slope, of some six feet, set all with flowers. Also I understand, that this square of the garden should not be the whole breadth of the ground, but to leave on either side ground enough for diversity of side alleys, unto which the two covert alleys of the green may deliver you ; but there must be no alleys with hedges at either end of this great enclosure ; not at the hither end, for letting your prospect upon this fair hedge from the green ; nor at the farther end, for letting your prospect from the hedge through the arches upon the heath. For the ordering of the ground within the great hedge, I leave it to variety of device ; advising, nevertheless, that whatsoever form you cast it into first, it be not too busy, or full of work; wherein I, for my part, do not like images cut out in juniper or other garden stufl^; they be for children. Little low hedges, round like welts, OF GARDENS. 167 with some pretty pyramids, I like well ; and in some places fair columns, upon frames of car- penter's work. I would also have the alleys spacious and fair. You may have closer alleys upon the side grounds, but none in the main gar- den. I wish also, in the very middle, a fair mount, with three ascents and alleys, enough for four to walk abreast ; which I would have to be perfect circles, without any bulwarks or em- bossments; and the whole mount to be thirty feet high, and some fine banqueting house, with some chimneys neatly cast, and without too much glass. For fountains, they are a great beauty and re- freshment ; but pools mar all, and make the gar- den unwholesome, and full of flies and frogs. Fountains I intend to be of two natures; the one that sprinkleth or spouteth water: the other a fair receipt of water, of some thirty or forty feet square, but without fish, or slime, or mud. For the first, the ornaments of images, gilt or of mar- ble, v/hich are in use, do well : but the main, matter is to convey the water, as it never stay, either in the bowls or in the cistern : that the water be never by rest discoloured, green or red, or the like, or gather any mossiness or putrefac- tion; besides that, it is to be cleansed every day by the hand : also some steps up to it, and some fine pavement about it do well. As'for the other kind of fountain, which we may call a bathing pool, it may admit much curiosity and beauty, wherewith we will not trouble ourselves : as, that the bottom be finely paved, and with images ; the sides likewise ; and withal embellished with 168 LORD bacon's essays. coloured glass, and such things of lustre; en- compassed also with fine rails of low statues : but the main point is the same which we men- tioned in the former kind of fountain ; which is, that the water be in perpetual motion, fed by a water higher than the pool, and delivered into it by fair spouts, and then discharged away under ground, by some equality of bores, that it stay little ; and for fine devices, of arching water without spilling, and making it rise in several forms (of feathers, drinking glasses, canopies, and the like), they be pretty things to look on, but nothing to health and sweetness. For the heath, which was the third part of our plot, I wished it to be framed as much as may be to a natural wildness. Trees I would have none in it, but some thickets made only of sweet- brier and honeysuckle, and some wild vine amongst; and the ground set with violets, straw- berries, and primroses ; for these are sweet, and prosper in the shade ; and these are to be in the heath here and there, not in any order. I like also little heaps, in the nature of mole-hills (such as are in wild heaths), to be set with some wild thyme, some with pinks, some with germander, that gives a good flower to the eye ; some with periwinkle, some with violets, some with straw- berries, some with cowslips, some with daisies, some with red roses, some with lilium conval- lium, some with sweetwilliams red, some with bear's foot, and the like low flowers, being withal sweet and sightly : part of which heaps to be with standards of little bushes pricked upon their top, and part without : the standards to be OF GARDENS. 169 toses, juniper, holly, barberries (but here and there, because of the smell of their blossom), red currants, gooseberries, rosemary, bays, sweet- briar, and such like : but these standards to be kept with cutting, that they grow not out of course. For the side grounds, you are to fill them with variety of alleys, private, to give a full shade ; some of them wheresoever the sun be. You are to frame some of them likewise for shelter, that, when the wind blows sharp, you may walk as in a gallery : and those alleys must be likewise hedged at both ends, to keep out the wind; and these closer alleys must be ever finely graveled, and no grass, because of going wet. In many of these alleys, likewise, you are to set fruit trees of all sorts, as well upon the walls as in ranges ; and this should be generally observed, that the borders wherein you plant your fruit trees be fair, and large, and low, and not steep ; and set with fine flowers, but thin and sparingly, lest they deceive the trees. At the end of both the side grounds I would have a mount of some pretty height, leaving the wall of the enclosure breast high, to look abroad into the fields. For the main garden, I do not deny but there should be some fair alleys ranged on both sides, with fruit trees, and some pretty tufts of fruit trees and arbours with seats, set in some decent order ; but these to be by no means set too thick, but to leave the main garden so as it be not close, but the air open and free. For as for shade, I would have you rest upon the alleys of the side grounds, there to walk, if you be dis- 170 LORD bacon's essays. posed, in the heat of the year or day ; but to make account that the main garden is for the more temperate parts of the year, and, in the heat of summer, for the morning or the evening, or overcast days. For aviaries, I like them not, except they be of that largeness as they may be turfed, and have living plants and bushes set in them ; that the birds may have more scope and natural nest- ling, and that no foulness appear on the floor of the aviary. So I have made a platform of a princely garden, partly by precept, partly by drawing ; not a model, but some general lines of it ; and in this I have spared for no cost : but it is nothing for great princes, that, for the most part, taking advice with workmen, with no less cost set their things together, and sometimes add statues, and such things, for state and magni- ficence, but nothing to the true pleasure of a garden. XLVIII. OF NEGOTIATING. It is generally better to deal by speech than by letter ; and by the mediation of a third than by a man's self. Letters are good when a man would draw an answer by letter back again; or when it may serve for a man's justification afterwards to produce his own letter ; or where it may be in danger to be interrupted, or heard by pieces. To deal in person is good when a man's face breedeth regard, as commonly with inferiors ; or in tender cases, where a man's eye, upon the countenance of him with whom he speaketh, may OF NEGOTIATING. 171 give him a direction how far to go ; and, gene- rally, where a man will reserve to himself liberty, either to disavow or expound. In choice of in- struments, it is better to choose men of a plainer sort, that are like to do that that is committed to them, and to report back again faithfully the suc- cess, than those that are cunning to contrive out of other men's business somewhat to grace them- selves, and will help the matter in report, for satisfaction sake. Use also such persons as affect the business wherein they are employed, for that quickeneth much ; and such as are fit for the matter, as bold men for expostulation, fair- spoken men for persuasion, crafty men for inquiry and observation, froward and absurd men for business that doth not well bear out itself. Use also such as have been lucky and prevailed be- fore in things wherein you have employed them ; for that breeds confidence, and they will strive to maintain their prescription. It is better to sound a person with whom one deals afar off, than to fall upon the point at first ; except you mean to surprise him by some short question. It is better dealing with men in appetite than with those that are where they would be. If a man deal with another upon conditions, the start of first performance is all : which a man cannot reasonably demand, except either the nature of the thing be such which must go before ; or else a man can persuade the other party, that he shall still need him in some other thing ; or else that he be counted the honester man. All practice is to discover or to work. Men discover them- selves in trust, in passion, at unawares ; and of 172 LORD bacon's essays. necessity, when they would have somewhat done, and cannot find an apt pretext. If you would work any man, you must either know his nature or fashions, and so lead him ; or his ends, and so persuade him ; or his weakness and dis- advantages, and so awe him ; or those that have interest in him, and so govern him. In dealing with cunning persons, we must ever consider their ends to interpret their speeches ; and it is good to say little to them, and that which they least look for. In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once; but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees. XLIX. OF FOLLOWERS AND FRIENDS. Costly followers are not to be liked ; lest while a man maketh his train longer, he make his wings shorter. I reckon to be costly, not them alone which charge the purse, but which are wearisome and importune in suits. Ordinary followers ought to challenge no higher conditions than countenance, recommendation, and protec- tion from wrongs. Factious followers are worse to be liked, which follow not upon affection to him with whom they range themselves, but upon discontentment conceived against some other ; whereupon commonly ensueth that ill intelligence that we many times see between great person- ages. Likewise glorious followers, who make themselves as trumpets of the commendation of those they follow, are full of inconvenience, for they taint business through want of secrecy; N OF FOLLOWERS AND FRIENDS. 173 and tbey export honour from a man, and make him a return in envy. There is a kind of fol- lowers, likewise, which are dangerous, being* indeed espials ; which inquire the secrets of the house, and bear tales of them to others ; yet such men, many times, are in great favour; for they are officious, and commonly exchange tales. The following by certain estates of men, answer- able to that which a great man himself profess- eth (as of soldiers to him that hath been employed in the wars, and the like), hath ever been a thing civil, and well taken even in monarchies, so it be without too much pomp or popularity : but the most honourable kind of following is to be followed as one that apprehendeth to advance virtue and desert in all sorts of persons ; and yet, where there is no eminent odds in sufficiency, it is better to take with the more passable than with the more able ; and besides, to speak truth, in base times active men are of more use than virtuous. It is true, that in government it is good to use men of one rank equally : for to countenance some extraordinarily is to make them insolent, and the rest discontent; because they may claim a due : but contrariwise in fa- vour, to use men with much difference and elec- tion is good ; for it maketh the persons preferred "more thankful, and the rest more officious : be- cause all is of favour. It is good discretion not to make too much of any man at the first; be- cause one cannot hold out that proportion. To be governed (as we call it) by one is not safe; for it shows softness, and gives a freedom to scandal and disreputation ; for those that would 174 LORD bacon's essays. not censure, or speak ill of a man immediateh'^, will talk more boldly of those that are so great with them, and thereby wound their honour ; yet to be distracted with many is worse ; for it makes men to be of the last impression, and full of change. To take advice of some few friends is ever honourable; for lookers-on many times see more than gamesters ; and the vale best dis- covereth the hill. There is little friendship in the world, and least of all between equals, which was wont to be magnified. That that is, is be- tween superior and inferior, whose fortunes may comprehend the one the other. L. OF SUITORS. Many ill matters and projects are undertaken ; and private suits do putrefy the public good. Many good matters are undertaken with bad minds; I mean not only corrupt minds, but crafty minds, that intend not performance. Some embrace suits which never mean to deal effectu- ally in them ; but if they see there may be life in the matter by some other mean, they will be content to win a thank, or take a second reward, or, at least, to make use in the meantime of the suitor's hopes. Some take hold of suits only for an occasion to cross some other, or to make an information, whereof they could not otherwise have apt pretext, without care what become of the suit when the turn is served ; or, generally, to make other men's business a kind of entertain- ment to bring in their own : nay, some undertake suits with a full purpose to let them fall ; to the OF SUITORS. 175 end to gratify the adverse party, or competitor. Surely there is in some sort a right in every suit ; either a right of equity, if it be a seat of contro- versy ; or a right of desert, if it be a suit of peti- tion. If affection lead a man to favour the wrong side in justice, let him rather use his countenance to compound the matter than to carry it. If af- fection lead a man to favour the less worthy in desert, let him do it without depraving or dis- abling the better deserver. In suits which a man doth not well understand, it is good to refer them to some friend of trust and judgment, that may report whether he may deal in them with honour : but let him choose well his referendaries, for else he may be led by the nose. Suitors are so distasted with delays and abuses that plain dealing in denying to deal in suits at first, and reporting the success barely, and in challenging no more thanks than one hath deserved, is grown not only honourable but also gracious. In suits of favour, the first coming ought to take little place;, so far forth consideration may be had of his trust, that if intelligence of the matter could not otherwise have been had but by him, advan- tage be not taken of the note, but the party left to his other means; and in some sort recom- pensed for his discovery. To be ignorant of the value of a suit is simphcity ; as well to be igno- rant of the right thereof is want of conscience. Secrecy in suits is a great mean of obtaining; for voicing them to be in forwardness may dis- courage some sort of suitors ; but doth quicken and awake others : but timing of the suit is the principal ; timing, I say, not only in respect of I 2 176 LORD BACON'S ESSAYS. the person who should grant it, but m respect of those which are like to cross it. Let a man, in the choice of his mean, rather choose the fittest mean than the greatest mean ; and rather them that deal in certain things than those that are general. The reparation of a denial is some- times equal to the first grant, if a man show him- self neither dejected nor discontented. *' Ini- quum petas, ut aequum feras," is a good rule, where a man hath strength of favour : but other- wise, a man were better rise in his suit ; for he that would have ventured at first to have lost the suitor, will not, in the conclusion, lose both the suitor and his own former favour. Nothing is thought so easy a request to a great person as his letter ; and yet, if it be not in a good cause, it is so much out of his reputation. There are no worse instruments than these general con- trivers of suits ; for they are but a kind of poi- son and infection to public proceeding. Ll. OF STUDIES. Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in private- ness and retiring; for ornament is in discourse ; and for ability is in the judgment and disposition of business ; for expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one: but the general counsels, and the plots and marshal- ing of affairs come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth ; to use them too much for ornament is af- fectation ; to make judgment wholly by their OF STUDIES. 177 rules is the humour of a scholar : they perfect nature, and are perfected by experience : for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study ; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them ; for they teach not their own use ; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consi- der. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and di- gested ; that is, some books are to be read only in parts ; others to be read, but not curiously ; and some few to be read wholly, and with dili- gence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others ; but that would be only in the less im- portant arguments, and the meaner sort of books ; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man ; conference a ready man ; and writing an exact man ; and, therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory : if he confer little, he had need have a present wit : and if he read little, he had need have much cunning to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make men wise ; poets witty ; the mathematics subtile ; natural philosophy deep ; moral grave ; logic and rhetoric able to contend; ** Abeunt studia in mores;" nay, there is no stand or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies : 178 LORD bacon's essays. like as diseases of the body may have appro- priate exercises ; bowling is good for the stone and reins, shooting for the lungs and breast, gen- tle walking for the stomach, riding for the head, and the like : so, if a man's wits be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demon- strations, if his wit be called away never so lit- tle, he must begin again ; if his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen, for they are '* Cymini sectores ;" if he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call upon one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyer's cases : so every defect of the mind may have a special receipt. LII. OF FACTION. Many have an opinion not wise, that for a prince to govern his estate, or for a great person to govern his proceedings, according to the re- spect to factions, is a principal part of policy; whereas, contrariwise, the chiefest wisdom is, either in ordering those things which are general, and wherein men of several factions do never- theless agree, or in dealing with correspondence to particular persons, one by one : but I say not, that the consideration of factions is to be neg- lected. Mean men, in their rising, must adhere ; but great men, that have strength in themselves, were better to maintain themselves indifferent and neutral : yet even in beginners, to adhere so moderately, as he be a man of the one faction, which is most passable with the other, commonly giveth best way. The lower and weaker faction OF FACTION. 179 is the firmer in conjunction ; and it is often seen, that a few that are stiff do tire out a greater number that are more moderate. When one of the factions is extinguished, the remaining sub- divideth ; as the faction between Lucullus and the rest of the nobles of the senate (which they called *' optimates") held out awhile against the faction of Pompey and Csesar; but when the se- nate's authority was pulled down, Caesar and Pompey soon after brake. The faction or party of Antonius and Octavianus Caesar, against Bru- tus and Cassius, held out likewise for a time ; but when Brutus and Cassius were overthrown, then soon after x^ntonius and Octavianus brake and subdivided. These examples are of wars, but the same holdeth in private factions : and, there- fore, those that are seconds in factions do many times, when the faction subdivideth, prove prin- cipals ; but many times also they prove ciphers and cashiered : for many a man's strength is in opposition ; and when that faileth, he grov/eth out of use. It is commonly seen that men once placed take in with the contrary faction to that by which they enter : thinking, belike, that they have their first sure, and now are ready for a new purchase. The traitor in faction lightly goeth away with it, for when matters have stuck long in balancing, the winning of some one man casteth them, and he getteth all the thanks. The even carriage between two factions proceed- eth not always of moderation, but of a trueness to a man^s self, with end to make use of both. Certainly, in Italy, they hold it a little suspect in popes, when they have often in tbeir mouth 180 LORD BACON S ESSAYS. "Padre commune:" and take it to be a sign of one that meaneth to refer all to the greatness of his own house. Kings had need beware how they side themselves, and make themselves as of a faction or party ; for leagues within the state are ever pernicious to monarchies; for they raise an obligation paramount to obligation of sove- reignty, and make the king ** tanquam unus ex nobis ;" as was to be seen in the league of France. When factions are carried too high and too violently, it is a sign of weakness in princes, and much to the prejudice both of their authority and business. The motions of factions Under kings ought to be like the motions (as the astronomers speak) of the inferior orbs, which may have their proper motions, but yet still are quietly carried by the higher motion of " primura mobile." LIII. OF CEREMONIES AND RESPECTS. He that is only real had need have exceeding great ]f>arts of virtue ; as the stone had need to be nch that is set without foil : but if a man mark it well, it is in praise and commendation of men, as it is in gettings and gains : for the pro- verb is true '* That light gains make heavy purses ;'' for light gains come thick, whereas great come but now and then : so it is true, that small matters win great commendation, because they are continually in use and in note : whereas the occasion of any great virtue cometh but on festivals; therefore it doth much add to a man's reputation, and is (as queen Isabella said) like OF CEREMONIES AND RESPECTS. IBl jDerpetual letters commendatory, to have good forms : to attain them, it almost sufficeth not to despise them ; for so shall a man observe them in others ; and let him trust himself with the rest ; for if he labour too much to express them, he shall lose their grace ; which is to be natural and unaffected. Some men's behaviour is like a verse, wherein every syllable is measured ; how can a man comprehend great matters that break- eth his mind too much to small observations ] Not to use ceremonies at all is to teach others not to use them again ; and so diminisheth re- spect to himself; especially they are not to be omitted to strangers and formal natures: but the dwelhng upon them, and exalting them above the moon, is not only tedious, but doth diminish the faith and credit of him that speaks : and, certainly, there is a kind of conveying of effec- tual and imprinting passages amongst com.pli- ments, which is of singular use, if a man can hit upon it. Amongst a man's peers, a man shall be sure of familiarity ; and therefore it is good a little to keep state ; amongst a man's inferiors, one shall be sure of reverence ; and therefore it is good a little to be familiar. He that is too much in any thing, so that he giveth another oc- casion of society, maketh himself cheap. To apply oneself to others is good ; so it be with de- monstration, that a man doth it upon regard and not upon facility. It is a good precept, gene- rally in seconding another, yet to add somewhat of one's own : as if you will grant his opinion, let it be with some distinction ; if you w dl fol- ' low his motion, let it be with condition ; if you I 3 182 LORD bacon's essays. allow his counsel, let it be with alleging farther reason. Men had need beware how they be too perfect in compliments ; for be they never so suf- ficient otherwise, their enviers will be sure to give them that attribute, to the disadvantage of their greater virtues. It is loss also in business to be too full of respects, or to be too curious in observing times and opportunities. Solomon saith, ** He that considereth the wind shall not sow, and he that looketh to the clouds shall not reap." A wise man will make more opportuni- ties than he finds. Men's behaviour should be like their apparel, not too strait or point device, but free for exercise or motion. LIV. OF PRAISE, Praise is the reflection of virtue, but it is as the glass, or body, which giveth the reflection ; if it be from the common people, it is commonly false and nought, and rather followeth vain per- sons than virtuous : for the common people un- derstand not many excellent virtues : the lowest virtues draw praise from them, the middle virtues work in them astonishment or admiration ; but of the highest virtues they have no sense or per- ceiving at all ; but shows and ** species virtuti- bus similes" serve best with them. Certainly, fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid : but if persons of quality and judgment concur, then it is (as the scripture saith) ** No- men bonum instar unguenti fragrantis;" it filleth all round about, and will easily away ; for the OF PRAISE. 183 odours of ointments are more durable than those of flowers. There be so many false points of praise that a man may justly hold it in suspect. Some praises proceed merely of flattery ; and if he be an ordinary flatterer, he will have certain com- mon attributes, which may serve every man ; if he be a cunning flatterer, he will follow the arch- flatterer, which is a man's self, and wherein a man thinketh best of himself, therein the flatterer will uphold him most : but if he be an impudent flatterer, look wherein a man is conscious to him- self that he is most defective, and is most out of countenance to himself, that will the flatterer entitle him to perforce, ** spreta conscientia." Some praises come of good wishes and respects, which is a form due in civility to kings and great persons, ** laudando praecipere;" when by teUing men what they are, they represent to them what they should be : some men are praised malici- ously to their hurt, thereby to stir envy and jea- lousy towards them; *'pessimum genus inimico- rum laudantium ;'* insomuch as it was a proverb amongst the Grecians, that, " he that was praised to his hurt, should have a push rise upon his nose ;" as we say, that a blister will rise upon one's tongue that tells a lie; certainly, moderate praise, used with opportunity, and not vulgar, is that which doth the good. Solomon saith, ** He that praiseth his friend aloud rising early, it shall be to him no better than a curse." Too much magnifying of man or matter doth irritate contradiction, and procure envy and scorn. To praise a man's self cannot be decent, except it be in rare cases ; but to praise a man's office or pro- 184 LORD bacon's essays. fession, he may do it with good grace, and with a kind of magnanimity. The cardinals of Rome, which are tlieologues, and friars, and schoolmen, have a phrase of notable contempt and scorn towards civil business, for they call all temporal business of wars, embassages, judicature, and other employments, slierrerie, which is under- sheriffries, as if they were but matters for un- der-sheriffs and catch poles ; though many times those under-sheriffries do more good than their high speculations. St. Paul, when he boasts of himself, doth oft interlace, " I speak hke a fool ;" but speaking of his calling, he saith, ** magniti- cabo apostolatum meum," LV. OF VAINGLORY. It was prettily devised of ^sop, the fly sat upon the axletree of the chariot wheel, and said, ** What a dust do I raise 1" So are there some vain persons that, whatsoever goeth alone, or moveth upon greater means, if they have never so little hand in it, they think it is they that carry it. They that are glorious must needs be facti- ous ; for all bravery stands upon comparisons. They must needs be violent to make good their own vaunts; neither can they be secret, and therefore not effectual; but according to the French proverb, '* beaucoup de bruit, pen de fruit;"— ** much bruit, little fruit." Yet, cer- tainly, there is use of this quality in civil affairs : where there is an opinion and fame to be created, either of virtue or greatness, these men are good trumpeters. Again, as Titus Livius noteth, in OF VAINGLORY. 185 the case of Antiochus and the iEtolians, there are sometimes great effects of cross lies ; as if a man that negotiates between two princes, to draw them to join in a war towards a third, doth extol the forces of either of them above measure, the one to the other: and sometimes he that deals between man and man raiseth his own cre- dit with both, by pretending greater interest than he hath in either: and in these, and the like kinds, it often falls out, that somewhat is pro- duced of nothing ; for lies are sufficient to breed opinion, and opinion brings on substance. In military commanders and soldiers, vainglory is an essential point; for as iron sharpens iron, so by glory one courage sharpeneth another. In cases of great enterprise upon charge and adven- ture, a composition of glorious natures doth put life into business; and those that are of solid and sober natures, have more of the ballast than of the sail. In fame of learning the flight will be slow without some feathers of ostentation : ** Qui de contemnend^ glori*^ libros scribunt, nomen suum inscribunt." Socrates, Aristotle, Galen, were men full of ostentation : certainly, vain- glory helpeth to perpetuate a man's memory ; and virtue was never so beholden to human na- ture, as it received its due at the second hand. Neither had the fame of Cicero, Seneca, Plinius Secundus borne her age so well if it had not been joined with some vanity in themselves; like unto varnish, that make ceilings not only shine, but last. But ail this while, when 1 speak of vainglory, I mean not of that property that Taci- tus doth attribute to Mucianus, ** Omnium, quae 186 LORD bacon's essays. dixerat feceratque, arte qu^dam ostentator :** for that proceeds not of vanity, but of natural magnanimity and discretion ; and, in some per- sons, is not only comely but gracious : for ex- cusations, cessions, modesty itself, well govern- ed, are but arts of ostentation ; and amongst those arts there is none better than that which Plinius Secundus speaketh of, which is to be liberal of praise and commendation to others, in that wherein a man's self hath any perfection : for, saith Pliny, very wittingly, " In commend- ing another you do yourself right ;" for he that you commend is either superior to you in that you commend, or inferior ; if he be inferior, if he be to be commended, you much more ; if he be superior, if he be not to be commended, you much less. Vainglorious men are the scorn of wise men, the admiration of fools, the idols of parasites, and the slaves of their own vaunts. LVI. OF HONOUR AND REPUTATION. The winning of honour is but the revealing of a man^s virtue and worth without disadvantage ; for some in their actions do woo and affect ho- nour and reputation ; which sort of men are com- monly much talked of, but inwardly little ad- mired: and some, contrariwise, darken their virtue in the show of it ; so as they be under- valued in opinion. If a man perform that which hath not been attempted before, or attempted and given over, or hath been achieved, but not with so good circumstances, he shall purchase more honour than by affecting a matter of greater dif- OF HONOUR AND REPUTATION. 187 ficulty, or virtue, wherein he is but a follower. If a man so temper his actions, as in some one of them he doth content every faction or combina- tion of people, the music will be the fuller. A man is an ill husband of his honour that entereth into any action, the failing wherein may disgrace him move than the carrying of it through can ho- nour him. Honour that is gained and broken upon another hath the quickest reflection, like diamonds cut with fascets ; and, therefore, let a man contend to excel any competitors of his ho- nour, in out-shooting them, if he can, in their own bow. Discreet followers and servants help much to reputation : ** Omnis fama a domesticis emanat." Envy, which is the canker of honour, is best distinguished by declaring a man's self in his ends, rather to seek merit than fame : and by attributing a man's successes rather to divine Providence and felicity than to his own virtue or policy. The true marshaling of the degrees of sovereign honour are these : in the first place are " conditores imperiorum,'' founders of states and commonwealths; such as were Romulus, Cyrus, Caesar, Ottoman, Ismael : in the second place are '* legislatores," lawgivers; which are also called second founders, or *' perpetui prin- cipes," because they govern by their ordinances after they are gone ; such were Lycurgus, Solon, Justinian, Edgar, Alphonsus of Castile, the wise, that made the ** Siete patridas:'' in the third place are *' liberatores," or ** salvatores ;'' such as compound the long miseries of ijivil wars, or deliver their countries from servitude of strangers or tyrants; as Augustus Caesar, Vespasianus, 188 LORD bacon's essays. Aiirelianus, Theodoricus, King Henry the Seventh of England, King Henry the Fourth of France : in the fourth place are *' propagatores," or **pro- pugnatores imperii," such as in honourable wars enlarge their territories, or make noble defence against invaders : and, in the last place, are '* patres patriae," which reign justly, and make the times good wherein they live ; both which last kinds need no examples, they are in such number. Degrees of honour in subjects are, iirst„ **participes curarum," those upon whom princes do discharge the greatest weight of their affairs ; their right hands, as we may call them : the next are ** duces belli," great leaders; sucb as are princes' lieutenants, and do them notable services in the wars : the third are ** gratiosi," favourites ; such as exceed not this scantling, to be solace to the sovereign, and harmless to the people : and the fourth, ** negotiis pares ;'' such as have great places under princes, and execute their places with sufficiency. There is an ho- nour, likewisf^, which may be ranked amongst the greatest, which happeneth rarely ; that is, of such as sacrifice themselves to death or danger ' for the good of their country ; as was M. Regu- lus, and the two Decii. LVII. OF JUDICATURE. Judges ought to remember that their office is ** jus dicere," and not " jus dare;" to interpret law, and not to make law, or give law ; else will it be like the authority claimed by the church of Home, which under pretext of exposition of OF JUDICATURE. 189 scripture, doth not stick to add and alter; and to pronounce that which they do not lind, and by show of antiquity to introduce novelty. Judges ought to be more learned than witty, more re- verend than plausible, and more advised than confident. Abov6 all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue. " Cursed (saith the law) is he that removeth the landmark." The raislayer of a mere stone is to blame ; but it is the unjust judge that is the capital remover of landmarks,^ when he defineth amiss of land and property. One foul sentence doth more hurt than many foul examples ; for these do but cor- rupt the stream, the other corrupteth the foun- tain : so saith Solomon, *' Fons turbatus, et vena corrupta est Justus cadens in caus^ su^ coram adversario.'' The office of judges may have reference unto the parties that sue, unto the advocates that plead, unto the clerks and minis- ters of justice underneath them, and to the sove- reign or state above them. First, for the causes or parties that sue. There be (saith the scripture) *' that turn judgment into wormwood ;" and surely there be also that turn it into vinegar ; for injustice maketh it bitter, and delays make it sour. The principal duty of a judge is, to suppress force and fraud ; whereof force is the more pernicious when it is open, and fraud when it is close and disguised. Add thereto contentious suits, which ought to be spewed out, as the surfeit of courts. A judge ought to prepare his way to a just sentence, as God useth to prepare his way, by raising valleys and taking down hills : so when there appeareth 190 LORD bacon's essays. on either side a high hand, violent prosecution, cunning advantages taken, combination, power, great counsel, then is the virtue of a judge seen to make inequality equal ; that he may plant his judgment as upon an even ground. ** Qui forti- ter emungit, elicit sanguinem ;" and where the winepress is hard wrought, it yields a harsh wine, that tastes of the grapestone. Judges must beware of hard constructions, and strained in- ferences ; for there is no worse torture than the . torture of laws : especially in case of laws penal, they ought to have care that that which w^as meant for terror be not turned into rigour ; and that they bring not upon the people that shower whereof the scripture speaketh, * Pluet super eos laqueos ;" for penal laws pressed are a shower of snares upon the people : therefore let penal laws, if they have been sleepers of long, or if they be grown unfit for the present time, be by wise judges confined in tlie execution : " Ju- dicis officium est, ut res, ita tempora rerum," &c. In causes of life and death judges ought (as far as the law permitteth), in justice to re- member mercy, and to cast a severe eye upon the example, but a merciful eye upon the person. Secondly, for the advocates and counsel that plead. Patience and gravity of hearing is an essential part of justice; and an overspeaking judge is no well tuned cymbal. It is no grace to a judge first to find that which he might have heard in due time from the bar ; or to show quickness of conceit in cutting off evidence or counsel too short, or to prevent information by questions, though pertinent. The parts of a OF JUDICATURE. 191 judge in hearing are four : to direct the evidence; to moderate length, repetition, or impertinency of speech; to recapitulate, select, and collate the material points of that which hath been said, and to give the rule, or sentence. Whatsoever is above these is too much, and proceedeth either of glory or w^illingness to speak, or of impati- ence to hear, or of shortness of memory, or of vrant of a stayed and equal attention. It is a strange thing to see that the boldness of advo- cates should prevail with judges ; whereas they should imitate God, in whose seat they sit, who represseth the presumptuous, and giveth grace to the modest : but it is more strange, that judges should have noted favourites, which cannot but cause multiplication of fees, and suspicion of by- ways. There is due from the judge to the advo- cate some commendation and gracing, where causes are well handled and fair pleaded, espe- cially towards the side which obtaineth not ; for that upholds in the client the reputation of his counsel, and beats down in him the conceit; of his cause. There is likewise due to the public a civil reprehension of advocates, where there appeareth cunning counsel, gross neglect, slight information, indiscreet pressing, or an over bold defence; and let not the counsel at the bar chop with the judge, nor wind himself into the hand- ling of the cause anew after the judge hath de- clared his sentence; but, on the other side, let not the judge meet the cause half way, nor give occasion to the party to say, his counsel or proofs were not heard. Thirdly, for that that concerns clerks and mi- 192 LORD bacon's essays. nisters. The place of justice is an hallowed place ; and therefore not only the bench, but the footpace and precincts, and purprise thereof ought to be preserved without scandal and cor- ruption ; for, certainly, grapes (as the scripture saith) " will not be gathered off thorns or this- tles ;" neither can justice yield her fruit with sweetness amongst the briers and brambles of catching and pulling clerks and ministers. The attendance of courts is subject to four bad in- struments : first, certain persons that are sowers of suits, which make the court swell, and the country pine : the second sort is of those that engage courts in quarrels of jurisdiction, and are not truly " amici curiae," but *' parasiti curiae,^^ in puffing a court up beyond her bounds for their own scraps and advantages : the third sort is of those that may be accounted the left hands of courts : persons that are full of nimble and sinister tricks and shifts, whereby they pervert the plain and direct courses of courts, and bring justice into oblique lines and labyrinths : and the fourth is the poller and exacter of fees ; which justifies the common resemblance of the courts, of justice to the bush, whereunto, while the sheep flies for defence in weather, he is sure to lose part of the fleece. On the other side, an ancient clerk, skilful in precedents, wary in pro- ceeding, and underf'j:anding in the business of the court, is an excellent figure of a court, and doth many times point the way to the judge himself. Fourthly, for that which may concern the so- vereign and estate. Judges ought, above all, to OF JUDICATURE. 193 remember the conclusion of the Roman twelve tables, ** Salus populi suprema lex :" and to know that lav/s, except they be in order to that end, are but things captious, and oracles not well inspired : therefore it is a happy thing in a state, when kings and states do often consult with judges: and again, when judges do often consult with the king and state : the onq, where there is matter of law intervenient in business of state ; the other, when there is some considera- tion of state intervenient in matter of law; for many times the things deduced to judgment may be ** meum" and ** tuum," when the reason and consequence thereof may trench to point of estate : I call matter of estate, not only the parts of sovereignty, but whatsoever introduceth any great alteration, or dangerous precedent; or concerneth manifestly any great portion of peo- ple : and let no man weakly conceive that just laws, and true policy, have any antipathy; for they are like the spirits and sinews, that one moves with the other. Let judges also remem- ber, that Solomon's throne was supported by lions on both sides : let them be lions, but yet lions under the throne : being circumspect, that they do not check or oppose any points of sove- reignty. Let not judges also be so ignorant of their own right as to think there is not left them, as a principal part of their office, a wise use and application of laws ; for they niay remember what the apostle saith of a greater law than theirs : *' Nos scimus quia lex bona est, mode quis e^ utatur legitime." 194 LORD bacon's essays. LVIII. OF ANGER. To seek to extinguish anger utterly isb IVI312149 .uBaI ^m