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VOL. V.
BO<5TO]Sr : WEIiLS AND LILLV, CODRT-STKMT.
1820.
LORDS
BACON AND CLARENDON.
TWO VOLUMES IN ONE.
BOSTON: WILIiB AND LILL.y, COURT^TRIST.
1820.
}
MORAL, ECONOMICAL, AND POUTICAI.,
FRANCIS BACON,
BARON or VERULAM, VISCOUNT.ST. AlBAN.
LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAN*.
MOCCCXX.
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SOME ACCOUNT OF THE AtTTHOR.
THE illostrious author of these Essays is so geneially known as a man and a writer, that any particular account of him on the pre- sent occasion would be superRuous. To dwell, indeed, on the in- cidents of my Lord Bacon's life would be an unpleasant and mor- tifying task : for erer must it be deplored by the lover of literature and his species, that the possessor of this extraordinary intellect should have been exposed to the dangers of a situation to which hit firmness was unequal ; and, withdrawn from the retirement of hiV study, where he was the fisrt of men, should have been thrown into the tumult of businesit, where he dlscorered himself to be among the last. The superiority, it it true, of his talents rendered hjm every where eminent ; and when we see him acting at court, in the senate, at the bar, or on the bench, we behold an engine of mighty force, sufficient, as it would appear, to move the world but when we carry oigr researdi into his bosom, we find nothing there but the ebullition and froth of some common or cormpt pas- sims ; and we are struck with the contrast between the littloiess within, and the ex}ubiti<Hi of energy without. But peace be.to the failings of this wonderful man ! they who alone wera affected by them, his contemporaries and himself, have long since passed to their account ; and existing no more as the statesman or the judge, he survives to us only in bis works, as the father of esperimoital physics, and a great luminary of science.
In his literary character he must always be contemplated with as- tonishment ; and we cannot sufficiently wonder at the riches or the powers of his mind ; at that penetration which no depth could elude ; that comprehensioD for whiqh do object was too large ; that
8
^gour «h)ch no labour could eNliaust ;v that lucmory which no pn»ssiirc of acquisitions fO".W subdue. By his two prcat works, " On the Advaiiceinnit cf LeiiiTiing," and " Thi Ntw Onmn of the Sciences-," written smid the distraction of bHsipess »nd of «ares. «ufflc?pnt of fhpnsplres to have occupied the whole of any . other niii>il. did this n'irhly Rei'ius tint break the shaekles of th^t ■ scholastic philosophv. which lone bad cn'sb<d ih? human intellect ; and dirertirc; the attention from wordi to thinsr*. from theory to experiment, demonstrate the mad to that heij^t of science (ffl which the modems are now seated, and wMch the ancients wore Tuable to re^ch
But these prand displsys of Ms irenius and knowler'ge sir now chiefly recarded, as ihev presert to the cnr'.oiuian illi-strious eri- dence of the powers of the hnman mind Havine awJlVned and directed theexprf ions of Fnrope. the nsefulncw of these ■«ntii»B» *as in a trreat depree be*>n superseded bv the labouis of the snhie- qoent adventurer in science t who. nursuin?tbe track marktd out for them bv their eteat master hav<' foniid it openm? into a rr^ion of clear and ste«dv lieht. Of the oth**nH)i*s of this erreat nan, which were ob"ects <f admirntion to his own times, the following EanVs an- perhaps tb«> onlv ones which retain much of their pris- tine popularity. His Inw treatises have always beeo resTicterfhy their sTihieot within the line of a pmfes«ioial e-rcle: ofhi* s'ate papers and speeches the power his expir-d with the interest of those events to which they were atta'-hed ; ar^l his History of Henry the Seventh, blei'^ished as it is wWh somethine: more than those de. fecH of stvle which from the . ximple and patronaE:e of a p'llant king, then heRan to infect the ptirity of our ooropiftsitidn, is in these llays consulted only by the-jfrw
But these E«says, written at a period of better taste, and <m- iubjects of immediate importance to the conduct of common life, " such as come home to men's business and bosoms," are still read ■with pleasure, and continue to possess, in the present ape. 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 remote intemds of his We, they appear
to hare shared a more than common portion of their great autliors* regard; and thfv ai-p evidently corapos-^in his happiest manner, and with the ThII stretch of hi« powers. In th.-m we are presented with all thf wisdom which thedeepest erudition co'ild recover from the ffiilph of hiiried a^s ; and with all that also, whieh the most sagacious and accurate observation could select from the spectacle of tiie -massing scene: in them we behold iaia^nation and know- ledap ••qnallv succ<»ssfiil in their exertions ; this as the contributor of truths ind that as oiienine: her afl 'tent wardtoh^ for their dress ; oni^ like the earth throwing; o"t of her Ijosom the organize d forms •f matter, and the other like the son arraying them in an endless Tarietyof hues.
Of »!'•• Essay, that most aq;reeahle and perhaps most useful vdii- «le of instruction, my lord Bacon must be co.widered. at least in •Uf iiMintry, as the inventor; and *o the success of his attempt may be ascribed that numerous race of writers, to whose short and entertainini; lessons, the pub'ic niind maybe n^»«ded «s principal- ly indebted fc»r its present ciiHlTat!ot> and refinement
Thus stro\i8:Iy recommended by th-ir intrinsic worth these Kssars possess also an additionil and accide'.tal value, from the circumstance of tlieir can'titutiug all which, in some sense, re- mains of their admicable author. His other works, as it has been already remarked are in fact extinct to 'he many, and now gene- rally known only as a mighty name : and the writer of these short eompoat'oiis the great lord Bacon may nut improperly he con- sidon'das shrunk, like the ashes of an Alexand-r in sPgolden uib, within the limits of this little but sterling volume.
10
1
TO MR. ANTHONY BAC30N.
HIS DEAR BROTHEB.
LOVING and beloyed brother, I do now like some that have sb orcbard ill neighboured, that gather their fruit before it is ripe, to prevent stealing. These fragments of my conceits were ginng to print : to labour the stay of them had been troublesome, and sabject to interpretation ; to let ihem pass had been to adventure the wTong they might receive by untrue copies, or by some gar- niihment 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 pea, without any further disgiaee than the weaknfss of the author ; and as I did eve^ hold, there might be as great a vanity in retiring and withdraw- ing men's conceits (except they be of Some nature) from the world, as in obtruding them : so in these particulars 1 have played myself the inquisitor, and find nothing to my understanding in them con- trary or infectious to the state of religion or manners, but rather, as I'suppose, medicinable : only I dislike now to pu' them out, because they will be like the late new halfpaice, which, though the silver were good, yet the pieces wtie small ; but since they would not stay with their master, but would needs travel abroad, I have pre- ferred them to you that are next myself; dedicating them, such as they are, to our love, in the depth where«f, I assure you, I sometimes wish your infirmities translated upon myself, that her inaje«y might have the service of so ac'ive and able a mind ; and I might be with excise confined to these contemplations and studies, for which I am fittest : so commend I you to the preserva- tion of the Divine Majesty.
Your entire loving brother,
FRANCIS BACON. From my chamber at Gray^s Inn, thitS0thofJmuarylS97.
11
TO MY LOVING BROTHKR,
SIR JOHN CONSTABLE, KT.
NIY last Essays I dedicated to my dear Inother, Mr. Antbony Bar con, who is with God. LooldDg among my papers this vacation, I fbuud others of the same nature : which if I myself shall not suf- fer 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 hood, both of near alliance, and of stnught friendship and socie- ty, and particularly of communication in studies ; wherein I must acknowledge myself bdiolden 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
Tour loving brother and friend,
I*13. FRANCIS BACON.
Sight Honourable my very good Lord
THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM,
His Grace Lord High Admiral of England.
Excellent lord,
SOLOMON says, " A good name is as a precious ointment ;" and I assure myself such will your Grace's name be with posterity : ftr your fortune and merit both have been eminent ; and you have planted things that are like to last. I do now publish my Essays ;
12
which of all my other works, have been most cunent ; for that, ti it sceuj«, liK-j coiiie home to men's business aiid Uisoms- 1 bare enlaig;^ Uiem both in number and weight ; so that iluy are indfed a new work : I thought it thirefore agreeable to ray affection and •hljgitioD to your Grace, to prefix your name before them, both in English and Latin : tor 1 do conceive, that thf Latiu volume of them, being iu the universal language, my last as locig as book* last.' My Instauratiou 1 dedicated to the King ; my History of Henry the Seventh, which I liave now translated imo Latin, and m> por- tions of Natural History, to the Prince ; ai»d these I dedicatr to your lirace, hein^ of the best Iruits, that, by the good uicrease which God gives to my pen and labours, I could yield. God lead your Grace by the liand.
Your Grace's m«8t obliged and faithful senram,
FRANCIS ST. ALB AN.
ESSAYS.
I. OF TRUTH.
What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an arrswer. Certainly there be, that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affect- ing free will in thinking, as well as in act- ing: and though the sects of philosophers 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 an- cients. 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 vol.. V. 2
m
14 LORD bacon's essays.
be in it, that men should love lies, where neither they make for pleasure, as with poets; nor for advantage, as with the mer- chant; but for the lie's sake. But I cannot tell: this same truth is a naked and open day-light, that doth not shew the masques, and mummeries, and triumphs of the world, half so stately and daintily as candlelights. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that sheweth best by day; but it will not rise to the price of a diamond or carbuncle, that sheweth 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 valuations, imagina- tions as one would, and the like, but it would 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 tilleth the imagination, and yet it is but with the shadow of a lie. But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the he, 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 affections, yet truth
OF TRUTH. 15
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 belief 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 sab- bath work, ever since, is the illumination of his Spirit First he breathed light upon , the face of the matter, or chaos; then he breathed light 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 in- ferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well, " It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships toss'd upon the sea; a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle, and the ad- ventures 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 swel-
16 LOflD BACON S ESSAYS.
ling or pride. Certainly it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in chari- ty, rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.
To pass from theological and philoso- phical truth to the truth of civil business, it will be acknowledged, even by those that 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 embaseth 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 xMontaigne saith prettily, when he inquired the reason, why the word of the lie should be such a dis- grace, 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 he faces God, and shrinks from man." Surely the wickedness of fdsehood and breach of faith cannot possibly be so highly expressed, as in that it shall be the last peal to call the judgments of God upon the generations of
OF DEATH. 17
men: it being foretold, that when "Christ Cometh," he shall not "find faith upon earth."
4
n. OF DEATH.
Men fear Death as children fear to go iotq the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other. Certainly, the contemplation of death, as the wages of sin, and passage to another world, is holy and religious; but the fear of it, as a tribute due unto nature, is weak. Yet in religious meditations there is some- times 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 dis- solved; 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 onl}'^ as a philosopher and natural man, it was well said, " Pompa mortis magis terret, quam mors ipsa." Groans, and convulsions, and
18 LORD bacon's essays.
a discoloured face, and friends weeping, and blacks and obsequies, and the like, shew death terrible. It is worthy the observing, that there is no passion in the raind of man so weak, but it mates and masters the fear of death; and therefore death is no such terri- ble enemy when a man hatli so many atten- dants about him that can win the combat of Tiim. Revenge triumphs over death; love slights it; honour aspireth to it; grief flieth to it; fear pre-occupieth it; nay, we read, after Otho the emperor had slam himsell, pity (which is the tenderest of affections) provoked many to die out of mere compas- sion to their sovereign, and as the truest sort of followers. Niy, Seneca adds, nice- ness and satietv: " 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 weari- ness to do the same thing so oft over and over. It is no less worthy to observe, how little alteration in good spirits the ap- proaches of death make; for they appear to be the same men till the last instant. Augustus CaBsar died in a comphment : "Livia, conjugii nostri memor, vive et Tale." Tiberius in dissimulation, as Taci-
OF DEATH. 19
tus saith of him, " Jam Tiberium vires et corpus, non dissimulatio, deserebant:" Ves- pasian in a jest, sitting upon the stool, " Ut puto Deus tio:" Galba with a sen- tence, " Feri, si ex re sit populi Romani," holding foi'th his neck: Septimus Severus in dispatch, " Adeste, si quid mihi restat agendum," and the like. Certainly the Stoics bestowed too much cost upon death, and by their great preparations mitde it appear more fearful. Better, saith he, " qui .finem wtaj- extremum inter munera ponat naturae." It is- as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infint, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other. He that dies in an earnest pursuit, is like one that is wounded in hot blood; who, for the time, scarce fee's 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 can- ticle is, "Nunc diniittis," when a man hath obtained worthy ends and expecta- tions. Death hath this also, that it open- eth the gate to good fame, and extinguishetb envy: " Exstinctus amabitur idem."
iQ LORD bacon's essays.
III. OF UNITY IN RELIGION.
Religion being the chief bond of human society, it is a happy thing when itself is well contained within the true bond of unity. The quarrels and divisions about religion were evils unknown to the heathen. The reason was, because the religion of the heathen consisted rather in rites and ceremonies, than in any constant belief: 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 mix- ture 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- pleasing 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, more than corruption ef manners: for as in the natural body a
"OP CMTY IN RELIGION. 21
wound or solution of continuity is worse than a corrupt humour, so in the spiritual: 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 that pass that one saith, " ecce in deserto," another saith, " ecce in penetraUbus;" that is, when some men seek Christ in the conventicles of here- tics, 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 Gentiles (the propriety of whose vocation drew him to have a special care of those without) saith, " If an 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 religion, 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 scof- fing, that in his catalogue of books of a feigned library, sets down this title of a book, " The Morris-Dance of Heretics:"
22 LORD bacon's essays,
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; it establisheth faith; it kindleth charity; the outward peace of the church distilleth into peace of conscience, and it turneth the labours of writing and reading controversies into treatises of mortification and devotion.
Concerning the bonds of unity, the trne placing ofthemimporteth exceedingly. There appear to be two extremes: for to certain zealots all speech of pacification is odious. " Is it peace, Jehu?"-7-" What hast thou to do with peace? turn thee behind me." Peace is not the matter, but following and party. Contrariwise, certain Laodiceans and luke- warm persons think they may accommodate ^ points of reliajion by middle ways, and taking part of both, and uitly reconcilements, as if they would make an arbitrement between ^ God and man. Both these extreme* are to^^. be avoided; which will be done if the league of, Christians, penned by our Saviour him- self, were in the two cross clauses thereof
OF UNITY IN RELIGION. 23
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 suhstance in religion, were truly discerned and distin- guished from points not merely of faith, hut 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 gene- rally.
Of this I may give only this advice, ac- cording to my small model. Men ought to take heed of rending God's rhurch by two kinds of controversies; the one is, when the matter of the point controverted is too small and light, not worth the heat and strife about it, kindled only by contradiction; for, as it is noted by one of the fathers, Christ's coat indeed bad no seam, but the church's ves- ture was of divers colours; whereupon he saith, " in veste varietas sit, scissura non sit," they be two things, unity and uniformi- ty; 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 becofueth a thing rather ingenious than substantial. A man that is of judgment and understanding shall sometimes hear ig-
24 LORD 6AC0N S ESSAYS.
BoraDt men differ, and know well withia 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 dis- tance of judgment, which is between man and man, shall we not think that God above, that knows the heart, doth not discern that frail men, in some of their contradictions, intend the same thing, and accepteth of both? The nature of such controversies is excel- lently expressed by St. Paul, in the warning and precept that he giveth concerning the same, " devita profanas vocum novitates, et oppositiones falsi nominis scientiae." Men create oppositions which are not, and put them into new terms so fixed, as whereas the meaning ought to govern the term, (he term in effect governeth the meaning. There be also two folse 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 in fun- damental points: for truth and falsehood, in euch 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
OF UMTy IN RELIGION. 2b
muniting of religious unity, they do not dis- solve and deface the laws of charity and of human society There be two swords amongst Christians, the spiritual and temporal; and both have their due office and place in the maintenance of religion: 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 sanguinary persecu- tions to force consciences; except it be in cases of overt scandal, blasphemy, or inter- mixture of practice against the state; much less to nourish seditions; to authorize con- spiracies and rebellions; to put the sword into the people's hands, and the like, tend- ing to the subversion of all government, which is the ordinance 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 Agamemnon, that could endure the sacrificing of his own daughter, exclaimed:
" Tantum religio potnit suadere maloram.''
What would he have said, if he had known of the massacre in France, or the powder treason of England? He would have been
26 LORD bacon's essays.
seven times more epicure and atheist than he was; for as the temporal sword is to be drawn with great circumsjiection in cases of religion, so it is a thing monstrous to put it into the bands of the common people; let that be left unto the anabaptists, and other furies. It was great blasphemy, when the devil said, "1 will ascend and be like the Highest;" but it is greater blasphemy to personate God, and bring him in saying, " 1 will descend, and be like the prince ol darkness:" and what is it better, to make the cause of religion to descend to the cruel and execrable actions of murdering princes, butchery ot people, and subvers'ion of stales and governments?. Surely this is to bring down the Holy Ghost, instead of the like- ness of a dove, in the shape of a vulture or raven; and to set out of the bark of a Chris- tian church a flag of a bark of pirates and assassins, therefore it is most necessary +hat the church bj doctrine and decree, princes by their sword, and all learnings, both Chris- tian 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 m good part done. Surely in councils concerning reli- gion, that counsel of the apostle would be
OP REVENGE. 27
prefixed, •' Ira hominis non implet justitiam Dei:" and it was a notable observation of a wise father, and no less ingenuously confess- ed, that those which held and persuaded pressure of consciences, were commonly interested therein thea>selves for their own ends.
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 him- self profit, or pleasure, or honour, of the
28 LORD bacon's essays.
like; therefore whv should I he angry with a man for loving himself hetter 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 remedy: but then, let a man take heed the revenge be such as there is no law to punish, else a man s ene- my is still before hand, 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 cowards are like the arrovv that flieth in the dark. Cosmus, duke of Florence, had a desperate saying against perfidious or neglecting friends, as if those ^Yougs'yer'^ unpardonable. " You shall read sa.th he, "that we are commanded 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 hetter 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. Ihis is certain, that a man that studieth revenge,
OP ADVERSITY. zy
keeps his own wounds green, which other- wise would hesl and do well. Public re- venges 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 theys, unfortunate.
v. OF ADVERSITY.
It was a high speech of Seneca (after the manner of the Stoics), that the good things which belonajto prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired: "Bona rerum secunda- rum optabilia, adversarum mirabilia.'' Cer- tainly, if miracles be the command over na- ture, they appear most in adversity. It is yet a higher speech of his than the otlter (much too high for a heathen), "It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man, and the security of a God:" — " Vere magnum habere fragilitatem hominis, securi- tatem Dei." This would have done better in poesy, where transcendeocies are aiore
VOL. V. 3
30 LORD bacon's essays.
allowed; and the poets, indeed, have been busy with it; for it is in effect the thing which is figured in that strange hction of the ancient poets, which seemeth not to be with- out mystery; nay, and to have some ap. proach to the state of a Chnst.an "that Her- cules, when he went to unbind Prometheus fbv whom human nature is represented), sailed the length of the great ocean in an ear- thern pot or pitcher, lively describing C hris- tian resolution, that saileth in the frail bark of the flesh through the waves ot the world. But to speak in a mean, the virtue of pros- perity is temperance, the virtue of adversity \s fortitude, which in moral '^ the more heroical virtue. Prosperity is the blessings of the old Testament, adversity is the bless- ing of the New. which carrieth the greater benediction, and the -l^^.^^^/^lf/.^"" f God's favour. Yet even in the Old Testa- ment, if you listen to David s harp, you shall hear as many herse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath la- boured more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. Prospe- rity is not without many fears and distastes and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. We see in needle-works and em- broideries, it is more pleasing to have 9.
OF SIMULATION AND DISSIMULATION. 31
lively work upon a sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground: judge, therefore of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye. Certainly virtue is like pre- cious 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 wisdom; 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 dissem- blers.
Tacitus saith, "Livic\ sorted well with the arts of her husband, and dissimulatioi|j^f 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 extreme caution or close- ness of Tiberius:" these properties of arts or policy, and dissimulation and closeness,
32 LORD bacon's ES3AY3.
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 shewed at half lights, and to whom and when (which indeed are arts of state, and arts ot life, as Tacitus well calleth them), to him a habit of dissimulation is a hinderance and a poorness. But if a man cannot attain to that judgment, then it is left to him gene- rally to be close, and a dissembler; for where a man cannot choose or vary in particulars, there it is good to take the 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 open- ness and frankness of dealing, and a name ot certainty and veracity, but then they were like horses well managed, for they could tell passiiig well when to stop or turn; and at such times when they thought the case in- deed required dissimulation, if then they used it, it came to pass that the former opin- ion spread abroad, of their good faith and clearness of dealing, made them almost invi- sible. ^ , . . • J- J There be three degrees of this hiding and veilin- of a man's self; the first, closeness, reservation, and secresy, when a man leav-
OF SIMULATION AND DISSIMULATtON. 33
eth himself 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, secresy, 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 bab- bler ? But if a man be thought secret, it in- vitetji discovery, as the more close air sucketh in the more open; and, as in con- fessing, 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 secresy. Besides (to say truth) nakedness is uncome- ly, as well in mind as in body; and it addeth no small reverence to men's manners and actions, if they be not altogether open. As for talkers, and futile persons, they are com- monly vain and credulous withal: foi^ he that talketh what he knoweth, will also talk what he kpQweth not; therefore eetitdown,
34 LORD bacon's essays.
that a habit of secresy is both politic 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 weak- ness, and betraying, 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 secresy by a ne- cessity; so that he that will be secret, must be a dissembler in some degree: for men are U)0 cunning to suffer a man to keep an indifle- rent carriage between both, and to be secret, without swaving 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 shew 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 oraculous speeches, they cannot hold out long. So that no man can be secret, except he give himself a little scope of dissimula- tion, which is, as it were, but the skirts, or train of secresy. .
But for the third degree, which is simula- tion and false profession, that I hold more culpable, and less politic, except it be m
OF SIMULATION AND DISSIMULATION. 35
great and rare matters: and, therefore, a ge- neral custom of simulation (which is this last degree), is a vice rising either of a natural falseness, or fearfulness, 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 dissimu- lation are three: first, to lay asleep opposi- tion, 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 fail: the third is, the better to discover the mind of another; for to him that opens him- self men will hardly shew 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 truth;" as if there were no way of discovery but by simulation. There be also three disadvan- gestosetit even; the first, that simulation and dissimulation commonly carry with them a shew of fearfulness, which, in any business, doth spoil the feathers of round flyingupto th*>
^ JLORD bacon's essays.
mark; the second, that it puzzleth and per- plexeth the conceits of mriny, that, perhaps, would otherwise co-operate with hiin, and makes a miin walk almost alone to his own ends; the third, and greatest, is, that it depriv- eth a man of one of the most principal instru- ments for action, which is tr*ist and belief. The best composition and temperature is, to have openness in fame and opinion; secresy in habit; dissimulation in seasonable use; and 9 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 labour?, but they make misfortunes more bitter; they increase the cares of life, but they mitigate the remem- brance of death. The perpetuity by gene- ration 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 child- less men, which have sought to express the images of their minds, where those of their bodies have' failed; so the care of posterity
OP PARENTS AND ChlLDREN. 37
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 ditFerence in affection of parents to- wards their several children, is many times unequal, and sometimes unworthy, espe- cially in the mother; as Solomon saith, •' A wise son rejoiceth the father, but an un- gracious son shames the mother." A man shall see, where there is a house full oi children, one or two of the eldest respected, and the youngest made wantons; but in the midst some that are as it were forgotten, who, many times, nevertheless, prove the best. The iUiberality of parents, in allow- ance towards their children, is an 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 au- thority towards their children, but not their purse. Men have a foolish manner (both parents, and schoolmasters, and servants), in creating and breeding an emulation be- tween brothers during childhood, which
38 LORD bacon's essays.
many times sorteth to discord when tliey are men, and disturbeth families. 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 a like matter; in- somuch that we see a nephew sometmies re- sembleth 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 children, as thinking they will take best to that which they have most mind to. It is true, that if the affection, or aptness, of the children be extraordinary, then it is good not to cross it; but generally the precept is good, " optimum elige, suave et facile illud faciet consuetude." Younger brothers are commonly fortunate, but sel- dom or never where the elder are disinhe- rited.
Vni. OF MARRIAGE AND SINGLE LIFE,
He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impedi-
OF MARRIAGE AND SINGLE LIFE. 39
ments'to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have pro- ceeded from the unmarried 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 trans- mit their dearest pledges. Some there are, who, though they lead a single life, yet their thoughts do end with themselves, and account future times impertinences; 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, be- cause they may be thought so much the richer; for, perhaps, they have heard some talk, "Such an 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, espe- cially in certain self-pleasing and humorous minds, which are so sensible of every re- straint, as they will go near to think their girdles and garters to be bonds and shackles. Hnmarried men are best friends, best mas-
^^^^
40 LORD bacon's essays.
ters, best servants; but not always best sub- jects; for they are light to run away; and almost all fugitives are of that condition. A single life doth well with churchmen, for chariry will hardly water the ground where it must first fill a pool. It is indifferent for judges and magistrates; for if they be facile and corrupt, you shall have a servant five times worse than a wife. For soldiers, I find the generals commonly, in their hor- tatives, put men in mind of their wives and children; and 1 think the despising of mar- riage among the Turks maketh the vulgar soldier more base. Certainly wife and chil- dren are a kind of discipline ot 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 inquisitors), because their tenderness is not so oft called upon. Grave natures, led by custom, and therefore con- stant, are commonly loving husbands, as was said of Ulysses, "vetulam suam praetulit immortalitati." Chaste women are oiten proud and froward, as presuming upon the merit of their chastity. It is one of the be-'t bonds, both of chastity and obedience, in the wife, if she thiak her husband wise;
OP ENVY. 41
wliich she will never do if she find him jealous. Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle 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 kind- ness when it comes, or that the wives take a pride in their patience; but this never fails, if the bad husbands were of their owa choosing, against their friends' consent, for then they will be sure to make good their own folly.
IX. OF 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 tbemsehes readily into imaginations and suggestions; and they come easily into the eye, especially upon the pre- sence of the objects, which are the points that conduce to fascination, if any such thing
42 LORD bacon's ESSAYS.
there be. We see, likewise, the scripture calleth envy, an evil eye; and the astrologers ra the evil inHuences of the stars, evil Spect- so that still there seeineth to be Snowled^ed, in the act of envy, an ejacu- lation, or irradiation of the eye: nay some have been so corious as to note, that the times, «hen 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 beside., a^ such times, the spirits of the person en- 'led do come forth most into the outward parts, and so meet the blow. ^"iut leaving these curiosities (though not unworthy to be thought on in fit place), we wiU handle what persons are apt to envy Others; what persons are most subject to be envied themselves; and what is the differ- ence between public and private envy.
A man that hath no virtue m h.«»«elf. ever envieth virtue in others; for men s minds ^vill either feed upon their own good, or ^pon others evil; and who wanteth the one ^^11 prey upon the other; and whoso =, out Tf hope to attain another's virtue, will seek ?o come at even hand, by depressing an- other's fortune.
.OP ENVY. 43
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 looking 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 malevolus."
Men of noble birth are noted to be en- vious towards new men when they rise; for the dist;Mice 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 an 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 Tamerlane, that were lame men.
44 LORD bacon's bssats.
The same is the case of men who rtse 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 vain glory, are ever envious, for they cannot want work; it being impossible, but many, in some one of those things, should surpass them; which was the character of Adrian the emperor, that mortally envied poets and painters, and artificers in works, wherein be 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 incorreth 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 subject to envy. First, persons of eminent
OF EN'vy. 46
virtue, when they are advanced, are less envied; for their fortune seemeth but due nnto them; and no man envieth the payment of a debt, but rewards and libarality rather. A^ain, envy is ever joined with the compar- iiii^ of a man's self; and where there is no comparison, no envy; and therefore kings are not envied but by kings. Nevertheless, it is to be noted, that unworthy persons are most envied at their first coming in, and afterwards overcome it better; whereas, contrariwise, 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 sunbeams, that beat hotter upon a bank, or steep rising ground, than upon a tlat; 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 sub- ject to envy; for men think that they earn their-honours hardly, and pity them some-
VOL. V. 4
46 LORD bacon's essays.
times; and pity ever healeth envy: where- fore you shall observe, that the more deep and sober sort of politic persons in their oreutness, 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 business that is laid upon men, and not such as they call unto themselves; for nothing increaseth envy more than an unnecessary and ambitious engrossing ot business; and nothing doth extinguish envy more than for a great person to preserve all other inferior officers in their full rights and pre-eminences of their places; for, by that means, there be so many screens between him ajnd 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 bv triumphing over all opposition or com- petition: 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 con- cern them. Notwithstanding so much is true, that the carriage of greatness m a
OF ENVY, 47
plain and open manner (so it be without ar- rogancy and vain glory), doth draw less envy than if it be in a more crafty and cun- ning fashion; for in that course a man doth but disavow fortune^ and seemeth to be con- scious of his own want in worth, and doth but 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 witch- craft; and-that is, to remove 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 somebody upon whom to derive the envy that would come upon themselves; sometimes upon ministers and servants, sometimes upon colleagues and associates, and the like; and, for that turn, there are never wanting some persons of violent and undertaking natures, who, so they may have power and business, will take it at any cost.
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.
ill
48 LORD bacon's essays.
This envy, being in the Latin word " in- vidia," goeth in the modern languages by the name of discontentment; of which we shall speak in handling sedition. It is a dis- ease in a state like to infection: for as infec- tion spreadeth upon that which is sound, and tainteth it; so, when envy is gotten once into a state, it traduceth even the best ac tions thereof, and turneth thern into an il odour; and therefore there is little won by intermingling of plausible actions: for that doth argue but a 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 ministers of an es- tate, then the envy (though hidden) is truly upon the state itself. And so much of pub- lic envy or discontentment, and the diffe- rence thereof from private envy, which was handled in the first place.
We will add this in general, touching the affection of envy, that of all other affec-
OF LOVE. 49
tions it is the most importune and continual; for of other 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 affections do not, be- cause they are not ?o continual. It is also the vilest affection, and the most deprav- ed; for which cause it is the proper attri- bute 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 tragedies; but in life it doth much mis- chief; sometimes like a siren, sometimes like a fury. You may observe, that amongst all the great and worthy persons (whereof the memory reraaineth, either ancient or recent), there is not one that hath beep
60 LORD BACON S ESSAYS.
transported to the mad degree of love, which shews, that great spirits and great business do keep out this weak passion. You must except, nevertheless, Marcus An- tonius, the half partner of tlie empire of Rome, and Appius Claudius, the decemvir and lawgiver; whereof the former was in- deed 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 heart, but also into a heart well fortified, if watch be not well kept. It is a poor say- ing of Epicurus, " Satis magnum alter alteri tbeatrum sumus;" as if man, made for the contemplation of heaven, and all noble ob- jects, should do nothing 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 i>assion, 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;
OF LOVE. 51
for there was never a proud man thought so absurdly well of himself 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 contempt; by how much more the men ought to beware 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 Pal- las;" for whosoever esteemeth too much of amorous affection, quilteth both riches and wisdom. This passion hath its floods in the very times of weakness, which are, great prosperity and great adversity, though this latter hath been less observed; both which times kindle love, and make it more fer- vent, and therefore shew 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, anJ
52 LORD bacon's essays.
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 paitl in pleasures. There is in man's nature a secret inclina-* tion and motion towards love of others, which, if it be not spent upon some one or a few, doth naturally spread itself tovrards many, and maketh men become humane and "^charitable, as it is seen sometimes in friars. Nuptial love maketh mankind; friend- ly love perfccteth it; but wanton love cor- mpteth and embaseth it.
XI. OF GREAT PLACE.
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 freedom, 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 labo- rious, and by pains men come to greater pains; and it is sometimes base, and by in- di!initie« men come to dignities. The stand-
OP GREAT PLACE. 53
ing 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 impa- tient of privateness even in age and sickness, which require the shadow; like old towns- men, that will be still sitting at their street door, though thereby they offer age to scorn. Certainly great persona had need to borrow other men's opinions to think themselves happy; for if they judge by their own feel- ing, 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 were by report, when, perhaps, they find the contra- ry within: for they are the first that find their own griefs, though they be the last that find their own faults. Certainly, 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: "llli mors gravis incubat, qui notus nimis omnibus, ignotus moritur 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
^^ LORD bacon's essays.
^ood is the true and lawful end of aspir-
them) vet towards men are little belter than good dreams except they be put in act; and
hat cannot be wUhout power and plac^, a.
md iTn^^ "f con,manding ground. Merit and good works .s the end of man's motion: and conscience of the same is the accomi plis .ment of man's rest: for if a man can be partaker of God;s theatre, he shall hkewise be partaker of God's rest: "Et conversus i^eus, ut aspiceret opera, quae fecerunt ma- nus sus, v.d.t quod omnia essent bona ni- mis; and then the sabbath. In the dis-
Ji^IrS% ^^/ ^''"^ '"* ^^^^'•^ thee the best examples; for imitation is a globe of pre- cept; and after a time set before thee thine own example; and examine thvself strictly whether thou didst not best at first. S cltrLt'' *^^ ^^^'"Ples of those that have
toT'f ^T''';f '" '" '^^ '^"^^ PJ«^e: not ^ set otr thyself by taxing the.r memory, but to d.rect thyself what to avoid. Reform ^erefore, without bravery or scandal of termer times and persons; but yet set it down to thyself, as well to create ^goodpre cedents asto follow them. Reduce things to the first institution, and observe wherein and how they have degenerated; but yet ask counsel of both times; of the ancient time
OF GREAT PLACE. 55
what is best; and of the latter time what is fittest. Seek to make thy course regular, that men may know beforehand what they may expect; but be not too positive and pe- remptory; 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 advices touching the execution of thy place; and do not drive away such as bring thee in- formation as meddlers, but accept of them in good part. The vices of authority are chiefly four; delays, corruption, roughness, and facility. For delays, give easy access; keep times appointed; go through with that which is in hand, and interlace not business but of necessity. For corruption 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,
'56 LORD BACON S ESSAYS.
and changeth manifestly without manifest cause, givelh suspicion of corruption: there- fore, always, when thou changest thine opinion or course, profess it plainly, and de- clare it, together with the reasons that move thee to change, and do not think to steal it. A servant or a favourite, if he be inward, and no other apparent cause of esteem, is commonly thought but a by-way to close corruption. For roughness, it is a needless cause of discontent: severity breedeth fear, but roughness breedeth hate. Even reproofs from authority 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 without; as Solo- mon 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 anciently spoken, "A place sheweth the man; and it sheweth some to the better, and some to the worse:" "omnium consensu capax imperii, nisi imperasset," saith Taci- tus of Galba; but of Vespasian he saith, "solus imperantium, Vespasianus mutatus in melius;" though the one was meant of suffi- ciency, the other of manners and affection. It is an assured sign of a worthy and gene-
' OF BOLDNESS. 57
reus 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 fac- tions, it is good to side a man's self \vhil?t he is in the rising, and to balance himself when he is placed. Use the memory of thy predecessor fairly and tenderly; for if thoi] dost not, it is a debt will sure be paid when thou art gone. If thou have col- leagues, 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 an- swers to suitors; but let it rather be said, "When he sits in place he is another man."'
XII. OF BOLDNESS.
It is a trivial grammar-school text, but yet worthy a wise man's consideration. Ques- tion was asked of Demosthenes, what was the chief part of an oratcfr? he answer- ed, action: what next? action: what next
58 LORD bacon's essays.
again? action. He said it that knew it best, and had by nature himself no advantage in that'lie commended. A strange thing, that that part of an orator which is but superfi- cial, and rather the viitue of a pluyer, 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 generally more of the fool than of the wise; and therefore those Aicul- ties by which the foolish part of men's mmds is taken, are most potent. Wonderful like is the case of boldness in civil business; what first? boldness: what second and third? bold- ness. And yet boldness is a child of igno- rance and baseness, far inferior to other parts: but nevertheless, it doth fascmate, 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 m popular states, but with senates and princes lessr and more, ever upon the first entrance of bold persons into action, than soon after; for boldness is an ill keeper of promis-e. Surely, as there are mountebanks for the natural body, so are there mountebanks for
OF BOLDNESS. 59
the politic body; men that undertake great cures, and perhaps have been lucky in two or three experiments, but want the ground of scicHce, 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 people 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, Mahomet will go to the hill." So these men, when they have promised great matters and failed most shamefijlly, 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 bold- ness hath somewhat of the ridiculous: for if absurdity be the subject of laughter, doubt you not but great boldness is seldom without some absurdity; 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
60 LORD BAC»«'S ESSAYS.
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 \et the game cannot stir: but tliis last were titter for a satire, than for a serious observation. This is well to be weighed, that boldness 13 ever blind; for it seeth not dangers and in- conveniences; therefore it is ill in counsel, good in execution; so that the right use of bold ].ersons is, that they never com- mand in ciiief, but be 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.
XIII. OF GOODNESS, AND GOODNESS OF NATURE.
1 TAKE goodness in this sense, the affect- ing of the weal of men, which is that the Grecians call Philanthropia; and the word humanity (as it is used), is a little too light to express it. Goodness 1 call the habit, and goodness of nature the inclina- tion. This, of all virtues and dignities of the mind, is the greatest, being the cha- racter of the Deity; and without it man is a hwSy, mischievous, wretched thing, no better than a kind of vermin. Goodness
GOODNESS OF NATURE. 61
answers to the theological virtue charity, and admits no excess but error. The de- sire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knovvledge 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 Busbe- chius reporteth, a Christian boy in Constan- tinople had like to have been stoned for gagging in a waggishness a long-billed fowl. Errors indeed, in this virtue, in goodness or charity, may be committed. The Italians have an ungracious 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 confi- dence to put in writing, almost in plain terms, " That the Christian faith had given up good men in prey to those that are tyran- nical and unjust;'' which he spake, be- cause, indeed, there was never law, or sect, or opinion did so much magnify good. Qess as the Christian religion doth: there.
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62 LORD bacon's essays.
fore, to avoid the scandal, and the dan- ger both, it is good to take knowledge of the errors of an habit so excellent. Seek the good of other men, but be not in bon- dage to their faces or fancies; for that is but facility or softness, which taketh an honest mind prisoner. Neither give thou iEsop'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 dolh not rain wealth, nor shine honour and virtues upon men equally: common benefits are to be communicated with all, but pecu- liar benefits with choice. And beware how in making the portraiture thou breakest the pattern: for divinity maketh the love of our- selves the pattern; the love of our neigh- bours 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 Tocation wherein thou mayest do as much good with little means as with great; for otherwise, in feeding the streams, thou dri- est the fountain. Neither is there only a babit of goodness directed by right reason; but there is in some men, even in nature, a
GOODNESS OF NATURE. 63
disposition towards it; as, on the other side, there is a natural mahgnity: for there be that in their nature do not affect the good of others. The lighter sort of malignity turn- eth but to a crossness, or frowardoess, or aptness to oppose, or difficileness, or the like; but the deeper sort to envy, and mere mischief. Such men in other men's cala- mities, 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; misanthropi, that make it their practice to bring men to the bough, and yet have never a tree for the purpose in their gar- dens, as Timon had: such dispositions are the very errors of human nature, and yet they are the fittest timber to make great politics 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 stran- gers, it shews 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 towards the afflictions of others, it shews that his heart is like the noble tree that is wounded itself
64 t.OHD bacon's essays. ,
when it gives the balm: if he easily pardons and remits offences, it shews that his mind is planted above injuries, so that he cannot be shot: if he be thankful for small benetits, it shew* 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 salva- tion of his brethren, it shews much of a divine nature, and a kind of conformity with Christ himself
XIV. OF A KINu.
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 himself that God hath with his name imparted unto him his nature also.
2. Of all kind of men, God is the least beholding unto them; for he doth most for them, and tbej 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 think it too light, he knoweth not of'what metal it is made.
OF A KING. 66
4. He must make religion the rule of government, 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 king- dom shall be taken from him."
6. And that king that holds not religion the best reason of state, is void of all piety and justice, the supporters of a king.
6. He must be able td give counsel him- self, but not rely thereupon; for though happy events justify their counsels, yet it is better that the evil event of good advice be rather imputed to a subject 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.
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, " praemio et pcona."
9. A wise king must do less in altering bis laws than he may; for new government is ever dangerous; it being true in the body pohtic, as in the corporal, that " omnis subi^ta immutatio est periculosa:" and though it be for the belter, vet it is not without a
€6 LORD bacon's essays.
fearful apprehension; for he that changeth the fundamental laws of a kingdom thinketh there is no good title to a crown but by con- quest.
10. A king that setteth to sale seats of jus- tice, oppresseth the people; for he teacheth his judges to sell justice; and " pretio parata pretio venditur 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 supplietb itself of what is next, and many tibaes 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 io his craft roust as well study to be feared as loved; yet not loved for fear, but feared for love.
lb. Therefore, as he must always resem- ble him whose great narne he beareth, and that as in manifesting the sweet influence of his mercy on the severe stroke of his justice soraf^imes. so in this not to suffer a man of death to live; for, besides that the land doth mourn, the restraint of justice towards sin doth more retard the afTertion of love than the extent of mercy doth io-
or A KINO. 67
flame it; and sure where love is fill] bestow- ed fear is quite lost.
14. His greatest enemies are his flatter- ers; 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 particular; 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 five things, if he would not have his crown to be but to him " infelix fehcilas:"
First, that "simulata sanctitas" be not in the church; ,for that is " duplex iniquitas:"
Secondly, that '' inutilis requitas" sit not in the chancery: for that is, " inepta miseri- cordia:"
Thirdly, that *' ntilis iniquitas" keep not the exchequer: for that is " crudele latro- cinium:"
Fourthly, that " fidelis temeritas" be not his general; for that will bring but " seram poenitentiam:"
Fifthly, that " infidelis prOdentia" be not his secretary: for that \s " anguis sub viridi herba."
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To concliide; as he is of the greatest power, so he is subject to the greatest cares, made the servant of his people, or else be were without a calling at all.
He then that honoureth him not is next an atheist, wanting the fear of God in his lieart.
\ XV. OF NOBILIXy.
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 business, and not upon the persons; or if upon the persons, it is for the business sake, as fittest, and not for llags and pedi- gree. We see the Switzers last well, not- withstanding their diversity of religion and of cantons; for utility is their bond, and not respects. The united provinces of the Low
OP NOBiLixr. 69
Countries id 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 j^pirit into the people, 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 inso- lency 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 nobi- lity fall in time to be weak in fortune, it raaketh a kind of disproportion between honour and means.
As for nobility in particular persons, it is a reverend thing to see an ancient castle or building 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 common-
70 LORD bacon's essays.
ly more virtnoiJs, 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 af a stay when others rise, can hardly avoid motions of en- vy. On the other side, nobility extinguish- eth 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 m em- ploying them, and a better slide into their business; for people naturally bend to them as born in some sort to command.
XVI. OF SEDITIONS iND TROUBLES.
Shepherds of people had need know the calendars of tempests in state, which are commonly greatest when things grow to equality; as natural tempests are greatest about the equinortia; and as there are cer- tain hollow blasts of wind and secret swel-
OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES. 71
lings of seas, beiore a tempest, so are there in states :
— — — — " Die etiam eteMs instare tomultus Saepe mouet, fraudesque et catena tumeicen; bella."
Libels and lioentious discourses against the stale, when they are frequent and open; and in like sort false news often running up and dovvn, to the disadvantage of the state, and hastily embraced, are amongst the signs of troubles. Virgil, giving the pedigree of Fame, saith she was sister to the giants:
" Illam Terra pareiM, ira irritata Dtonim, EstKmam (iit pertiibent) Coo Enceladoque aonneta Progoiuit." JEneid. IV- 177.
As if fame were the relics of seditions past; but thfey are no less indeed the preludes of seditions to come. Howsoever he noteth it right that seditious tumults and seditious fames differ no more but as brother and sister, masculine and feminine; especially if it come to that, that the best actions of a state, and the most plausible, and which ouglit to give greatest contentment, are taken in ill sense, and traduced: for that sho^*s the envy great, as Tacitus saith, "conflata, magna iuvidia, seu bene, sea
72 LORD bacon's essays.
male, gesta premunt." Neither doth it fol- low, that because these fames are a sign of troubles, that the suppressing 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 wonder long lived. Also that kind of obedience, which Tacitus speaketh of, is to be held suspected: "Erant in officio, sed tamen qui mallent mandata imperantium interpretari, quam ex- equi;" 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 ten- derly, and those that are against it auda- ciously.
Also, as Machiavel noteth well, when princes that ought to be common parents, make themselves 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 first himself entered league for the extirpation of the Protestants, and pre- sently after the same league was turned upon himself; for when the authority of princes is made but an accessary to a cause,
OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES. 73
and that th'ere 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 factions, are carried openly and audaciously, it is a sign the reverence of government is lost; for the motions of the greatest persons in a government ought to be as the motions of the planets under "primum mobile," (ac- cording to the old opinion,) which is, that every of them is carried swiftly by (he highest motion, and softly in their own mo- tion; 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 the orbs are out of frame: for reverence is that wherewith princes are girt from God, who threateneth the dissolving thereof; "sol- vam cingula regum."
So when any of the four pillars of govern- ment are mainly shaken, or weakened (which are religion, justice, counsel, and treasure), men had need to pray for fair weather. But let us pass from this part of predictions (cbn- cerning which, nevertheless, more light may be taken from that which folio weth), and let us speak first of the materials of se- ditions, then of the motives of them, and thirdly of the remedies.
74 JLORD bacon's essays.
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 dis- contentment. It is certain, so many over- thrown estates, so many votes for troubles. Lucan noteth well the state of Rome before the civil war,
" Rinc nsiira vorax, rapidumqne in tempore foemM, Hiiic coDcusaa fides, et imultis utile bellum."
This same "multis utile helium," is an assur- ed and infallible sign of a state disposed to seditions and troubles; and if this poverty and broken estate in the better sort be join- ed 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 po- litic body like to humours in the natural, which are apt to gather a preternatural heat and to inflame; and let no prince measure the danger of them by this, whether they be just or unjust: for that were to imagine peo-
OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES. 75
pie 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 dan- gerous discontentments where the fear is greater than the feeling: "Dolendi modus, timendi non item:" besides, in great oppres- sions, the same things that provoke the patience, do withal mete the courage; but in fears it is not so: neither let an} prince, or state, be secure concerning discontent- ments 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 neverthe*- less 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, innovation in refigion, taxes, alteration of laws and customs, breaking of privileges, general oppression, advancement of unwor- thy persons, strangers, deaths, disbanded sol- diers, factions grown desperate; and whatso- ever in offending people joineth and knitteth them in a common cause.
For the remedies, there may be some general preservatives, whereof we will
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speak: as for the' just cure, it must answer to the particular disease; and so be left to f:Qunsel rather than role.
The first remedy, or prevention, is to re- move, by all means possible, that material cause of sedition whereof we speak, which is, want and poverty in the estate; to which purpose serveth the opening and well-ba- lancing of trade; the cherishing of manufac- tures; the banishing of idleness; the repress- ing of waste and excess, by sumptuary laws; the improvement and husbanding 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 main- tain them: neither is the population lo 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: there- fore 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 likeivjse an overgrown clergy, for they bring nothing to the stock; and in like manner, when more
OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES. 77
are bred scholars than preferments can take off.
It is likewise to be remembered, that, for- asmuch as the increase of any estate must be upon the foreigner (for whatsoever is some- where gotten, is somewhere lost), there be but three things which one nation selleth unto another; the commodity, as nature yieldeth it; the manufacture; and the vec- ture, or carriage ; so that, if these three wheels go, wealth will flo»v as in a spring tide. And it cometh many times to pass, that "materiam superabit opus," that the work and 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, other- wise, 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 strait hand upon the devouring trades of usury, ingrossing, great pasturages, and the like.
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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 discontent, the dan- ger is not great; for common people are of slow motion, if they be not excited by tlie 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 PaUas, sent for Briareus, with his hun- dred hands, to come in to his aid: an em- blem, 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 grief? and discontentments to evaporate (so it be with- out too great insolency or bravery), is a safe way: for he that turneth the humours back, and maketh the wound bleed inwards, en- dangereth malign ulcers and pernicious im- posthumations.
OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES. 79
The part of Epimetheus might well be- come Prometheus, in the case of discontent- ments, 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. Cer- tainly, the politic and artificial 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 government 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 ap- pear so peremptory but that it hath some outlet of hope: which is the less hard to do; because both particular persons and factions 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 dis- contented persons may resort, and under whom they may join, is a known, but an excellent point of caution. I understand a fit head to be one that hath greatness and reputation, that hath confidence with the discontented party, and upon whom they turn their eyes, and that is tboaght dis-
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contented in his own particular; which kind of persons are either to be won and re- conciled 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. Generally, the dividing and breaking of all factions and combinations that are adverse to the state, and setting them at a dis- tance, or, at least'j distrust among them- selves, is not one of the worst remiedies; 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 infinite 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, like- wise, by that speech, " si vixero, non opus erit amplius Romano imperio militi- bus;*' a speech of great despair for the
OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES. 81
soldiers, and many the like. Surely prin- ces had need, in tender matter and tick- lish times, to beveare what they say, es- pecially in these short speeches, which fly abroad like darts, and are thought to be shot out of their secret intentions; for as for large discourses, they are flat Aings, 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 repressing' 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 of that which Tacitus saith, " aique is habi- tus animorum fuit, ut pessimum facinus auderent pauci, plures vellent, omnes pa- terentur:" but let such military persons be assured, and well reputed of, rather than factious and popular; holding also good correspondence with the other great men in ■ the state, or else the remedy is worse than the disease.
8^ LORD bacon's essays.
XVII. OF ATHEISM.
I HAD rather believe all the fables in the legends, and the Talmud, and tbeAkoran, than that this universal frame is witlout a mind; and, theiefore, 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 bringeth men's minds about to religion; for while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sotqetimes rest in them, and go no farther; Out 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 demon- strate religion; that is, the school of Leu- cippus, 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 prn<hiced this order and beauty with- out a divine marshal. The scripture saith, " The fool hath said in his heart, there is
OF ATHEISM. 63
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 appeareth in noth- ing 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 strengthen- ed by the opinion of others: nay more, you shall have atheists strive to get disciples, as it fareth with other seels; and, which is most of all, you shall have of them that will suffer for atheism, and not recant; whereas, if they did truly think th it there were no such thing 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 the}' 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 applicaie
84 LORD BACOK's' ESSAYS.
profanum." Plato could have said no more; and, although be 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 hea- thens should have had the names Jupiter, Apollo, Mars, k.c. but not the word Deus, which shews, that even those barbarous people hhve the notion, though they have not the latitude and extent of it; so that against atheists the very savages take part with the very snbtilest philosophers. The contemplative 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 re- ligion, or superstition, are, by the adverse part, branded with the name of atheists: but the great atheists indeed are hypocrites, which are ever handling holy things, but without feeling; so as they must needs be cauterized in the end. The catises of atheism are, divisions in religion, if there be many; for any one main division addeth /e^l to both sides, but many divisions intro- duce atheism: another is, scandal of priests, when it is come to that which St. Bernard i;nth, " non est jam dicere, ut populus, sic
OF ATHEISM. 85
sacerdos; quia nee sic populus, ut sacerdos:" a third is, a custom of profane scoffing in holy matters, which doth by little and little deface the reverence of religion; and, lastly, learned times, especially with peace and prosperity; for troubles and adversities do more bow men's minds to religion. They that deny a God destroy a man's nobility; for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by liis body; and, if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble crea- ture. It destroys likewise magnanimity, and the raising humaif nature; for take""an example of a dog, and mark what a gene- rosity and courage he will put on when he linds himself maintained by a man, who to him is instead of a God, or " melior natura;" which courage is manifestly such as that creature, without that confidence of a better nature than his own, could never attain. So man, when he resteth and assureth him- self upon divine protection and favour, 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 depriveth 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
86 LohD bacon's essays.
maajnanimity as Home; of this state hear what Cicero saith, '• t^iiam volumus, licet, Patres conscripti, nos nmemus, taraen nee niimero Hispanos, nee robf>re Gallos, nee calliditate Pcenos, nee artibus Graeeos, nee denique hoc ipso hiijus gentis et terrze do* mpstico hativoqiie serisu Italos ipsos et La- tinos; sed pietate, ac religione, atque hac udS. sapientia, quod Deonim iramortalium numine omnia regi, gnbernarique perspexi- mus, omnes gentes nationesque superavi- mus."
XVUI. 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 F'lutarch 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 Plutarch, that would eat his children as soon as they were born;" as the poets speak of Saturn: and, as the contumely is greater .towards God, so the danger is greater towards men.
OF SUPERSTITION. 87
Atheism Idaves a man to sense, to philoso- phy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation: all which mav be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but super- stition dismounts all these, and erecteth aa absolute monarchy in the fliinds of men: therefore atheism did never perturb states; for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking no farther, and we see the tirjes inclined to atheism (as the time of Augus- tus Caesar) were civil times: but supersti- tion hath been the confusion of many states, and bringeth in a new " primum mobile," that ravisheth all the spheres of government. 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 prelates in the council oi Trent, where the doctrine of the schoolmen bare great sway, that the schoolmen were like astronomers, which did feign eccentrics and epicycles, and such engines of orbs, to save the phajnomena, though they knew there were no such things; and, in like manner, that the schoolmen had framed a number of subtile and intricate axioms and theorems, to save the practice of the church. The causes of superstition are pleasing and sen-
88 LORD bacon's ESSATfl.
sual rites and ceremonies; excess of out- ward and Pharisaical holiness; over great reverence of traditions, which cannot but load the church; the stratagems of prelates for their own ambition and lucre; the favour- ing too much of good intentions, which openeth the gate to conceits and novelties; the taking an aim at divine matters by human, which cannot but breed mixture of imaginations: and, lastly, barbarous times, especially joined with calamities and disas- ters. Superstition, without a veil, is a de- formed thing; for, as it addeth deformity to an ape to be so like a man, so the similitude of superstition to religion makes it the more deformed: and, as wholesome meat corrupt- eth to little worms, so good forms and orders corrupt into a number of petty observances. There is a superstition in avoiding supersti- tion, 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 rs done when the people is the reformer.
OF TRAVEL. 89
XIX. 6f travel.
Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. He that travelleth 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 ser- vant, 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 worthy 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 shall go hooded, and look abroad little. It is a strange thing that, in sea voyages, where there is nothing to be seen but sky and sea, men should make dia- ries; but in land travel, 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, espe- cially when they give audience to ambassa- dors; the courts of justice, while they sit and hear causes; and so of consistories ec-
90 LORD bacon's essays.
clesiastic; the churches and monasteries, with the monuments which are therein ex- tant; the walls and fortifications of cities and towns; and so the havens and harbours, an- tiquities and ruins, libraries, colleges, dispu- tations, and lectures, where any are; ship- ping and navies; houses and gardens 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 resort; treasuries of jewels and robes; cabinets and rarities; and, to con- clude, whatsoever is memorable in the places where they go: after all which the tutors or servants ought to make diligent 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 knoweth the country, as was likewise said: let him carry with him also some card, or book, describing the
OF TRAVEL. 91
country where he travelleth, 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 deserveth, 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 an- other, which is a great adamant of acquain- tance; let him sequester himself from the company of his countrymen, and diet in such places where there is good company of the nation where he travelleth: let him, upon his removes from one place to another, pro- cure recommendation to some person of quality residing in the place whither he re- moveth, that he may use his favour in those things he desireth to see or know: thus he may abridge his travel with much profit. As for the acquaintance which is to be sought in travel, that which is most of all profitable, is acquaintance with the secreta- ries and employed men of ambassadors: for so in travelling 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
92 LORD bacon's essays.
for mistresses, healths, place, and words: and let a man beware how he keepeth com- pany with choleric and quarrelsome persons, for they will engage him into their own quarrels. When a traveller returneth home, let him not leave the countries where he hath travelled altogether behind him; but maintain a correspondence by letters with those of his acquaintance 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 ad- vised 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 flow- ers 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 mat- ter of desire, which makes their minds more languishing; and have many representations of perils and shadows, which make their
OF EMPIRE. 93
minds the less clear: and this is one reason also of that effect which the scripture speak- eth of, " That the king's heart is inscruta- ble:''' 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 themselves desires,, and set their hearts upon toys; sometimes upon a build- ing; sometimes upon erecting of an order; sometimes upon the advancing of a person; sometimes upon obtaining excellence in some art, or feat of the hand; as Nero for playing on the harp; Domitian for certainty of the hand with the arrow; Commodus for playing at fence; Caracalla for driving chariots, and the like. This seemetb incredible unto those that know not the principle, that the mind of man is more cheered and refreshed by protiting in small things, than by standing at a stay in great. We see also that icings 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 superstitious and melancholy; as did- Alexander the Great, t)ioclesian, and in our memory Charles the
VOL. V. 7
94 LORD bacon's essays.
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 em- pire, it is a thing rare and hard to keep; for both temper and distemper consist of contraries: but it is one thing to mingle con- traries, another to interchange them. The answer of Apollonius to Vespasian is full of excellent instruction. Vespasian 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 destroyeth 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 mis- chiefs, when they are near, than solid and grounded courses to keep them aloof: but this is but to try masteries with fortune; and let men beware how they neglect and suffer matter of trouble to be prepared; for BO man can forbid the spark, nor tell whence It may come. The diflBculties in princes' business are many aad great; but the great-
OF EMPIRE. 95
est difficulty is often in their own mind; for it is common with princes (saith Tacitus) to will contradictories; "Suntplerumque regum voluntates vehementes, et inter se contra- riae;" 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 general 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 territory, 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 counsels to foresee and to hinder it. During that triumvirate of kings, king Hen- ry the Eighth of England, Francis the First, king of France, and Charles the Fifth empe- ror, there was such a watch kept that none of the three could win a palm of ground.
96 LORD bacon's essays.
but the other two would straightways balance it, either by confederation, or, if need were, by a war; and 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 be- tween Ferdinando, king of Naples, Lorenzius Medices, and Ludovicus Sforza, potentates, the one of Florence, the other of Milan. Neither is the opinion of some of the school- men to be received, that a war cannot justly be made, but upon a precedent injury or pro- vocation; for there is no question, but a just fear of an imminent daiiger, though there be no blow given, is a lawful cause of a war.
For their wives, there are cruel examples of them. Livia is infamed for the poisoning of her husband; Roxolana, Solyman's wife, was the destruction of that renowned prince, Sultan Mustapha, and otherwise troubled his house and succession; Edward the Second of England's queen had the principal hand in the deposing and murder 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 dangers from them have been many; and
OF EMPIRE. 97
generally the enteriog of the fathers into suspicion of their children hath been ever unfortunate. The destruction of Mustapha (that we named before) was so fatal to Soly- man's line, as the succession of the Turks from Solyman until this day is suspected 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 Coji>- stantinus the Great, his father, was in like manner fatal to his house, for both Con- stantinus and Constance, his sons, died vio' lent deaths; and Constautius, 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 song were in open arms against them; as was Se- lymus the First against Bajazet, and the three sons of Henry the Second king of Engl.ind.
For their prelates, when they are proud and great, there is also danger from them; t^s it was in the times of Anselmus and Tho-
98 LORD bacon's essays.
mas Becket, archbishops of Canterbury, who with their crosiers 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 dependence 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 dis- tance it is not amiss; but to depress them may make a king more absolute, but less safe, and less able to perform any thing that he desires, f have noted it in my History* of king Henry the Seventh of England, who depressed his nobility, whereupon it came to pass that his times were full of dif- ficulties and troubles; for the nobility, though they continued loyal unto him, yet did they not co-operate with him in his busi- ness; 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 dis- persed: they may sometimes discourse high, but that doth little hurt; besides, they are a counterpoise to the higher nobility, that they grow not too potent; and, lastly, being
OF EMPIRE. 99
tbe most immediate in authority with the common people, they do best temper popu- lar commotions.
For their merchants, they are "vena por- ta;" and if they flourish not, a kingdom tnay have good limbs, but will have empty veins, and nourish 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 med- dle with the point of religion, or their cus- toms, 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 praetorian 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 veneration, but no rest. All precepts concerning kings are in effect comprehended
100 LORD bacon's essays.
in those two remembrances, "memento quotl es homo;" and "memento quod es Deus, or ▼ice Dei;" the one bridleth their power, and the other their will.
XXI. OF COCNSEt.
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 particular affair; but to such as they make their counsellors they commit the whole: by how much the more they are obliged to all faith and integrity. The wisest princes need not think it any diminu- tion to their greatness, or derogation to their sufficiency^ to rely upon counsel. God him- self is not without, knit hath made it one of the great names of his blessed Son, "The Counsellor." 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 coun- sel, they will be tossed upon the waves of fortune; and be full of inconstancy, doing and undoing, like the reehng of a drunken man. Solomon's son found the force of
OF COUNSEL. 101
coansel, 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 discerned, that it was young counsel for the persons, and violent counsel for the matter.
The ancient times do set forth in figure both the incorporation and inseparable con- junction 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 signitieth counsel; whereby they in- tend that sovereignty is married to counsel; the other in that which followeth, which was thus: they say, after Jupiter was married to Metis, she conceived by him and was with child, but Jupiter sufiered 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 council of state: that first, they ought to refer matters unto them, which is the first begetting or impregnation; but when they are elaborate, moulded, and shaped in the womb of their council, and
102 LORD bacon's essays.
grow ripe and ready to be brought forth, that then they suffer not their council to go through with the resohition 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 resem- bled to P'allas armed,) proceeded from them- selves; and not only from their authority, but (the more to add repntation to themselves) from their head and device.
Let us now speak of the inconveniences of counsel, and of the remedies. The in- conveniences that have been noted in calling and using counsel, are three: first, the re- -yealing of affairs, whereby they become less secret; secondly, the weakening of the authority of princes, as if tliey were less of themselves; thirdly, the danger of being un- faithfully counselled, and more for the good of them that counsel, than of him that is counselled; for which inconveniences, the doctrine of Italy, and practice of France in some kings' times, hath introduced cabinet councils; a remedy worse than the disease.
As to secrecy, princes are not hound to communicate all matters with all counsel- lors, but may extract and select; neither is
OF COUNSEL^ 103
it necessary, that he that consulteth what he should do, should declare what he will do; but let princes beware that the unsecreting oftlieir affairs comes not from themselves: and, as for cabinet councils, it may be their motto, "plenus rimarum sum:" one futile person, that maketb it his glory to tell, will do more hurt than many, that know it their July 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 constantly in one spirit of direction without distraction: but then it must be a prudent king, such as is able to grind with a hand-mill; and those inward 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 bu- siness imparted himself to none, except it were to Morton and Fox.
For weakness of authority the fable shew- eth the 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 depen- dencies by his council, except where there
104 LORD bacon's essays.
hath been either an over-greatness in one counsellor, or an OFer-strict combination in divers, which are things soon found and hoi- pen.
For the last inconvenience, that men will counsel with an eye to themselves; certainly, "non inveniet lidem super terram," is meant of the nature of times, and not of all par- ticular persons. There be that are in na- ture 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 counsellor keepeth sen- tinel over another; so that if any counsel out of faction or private ends, it commonly comes to the king's ear: but the best reme- dy is, if princes know their counsellors, as well as their counsellors know them.
** Pliiieipii ett Tirtos inaxima none soot.'*
And on the other side, connsellors should not be too speculative into their sovereign's person. The true composition of a coun- sellor is, rather to be skilful in their mas- ter's business, than in his nature; for then he is like to advise him, and not to feed his humouj*. It is of singular use to princes if
OF COUNSEL. 105
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 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 in private, to preserve freedom; of the greater, rather in consort, to preserve respect. It is in vain for princes to take counsel concerning matters, if they take no counsel likewise concerning persons; for all matters are as dead images; and the life of the execution of afiFairs rest- eth in the good choice of persons: neither is it enough to consult concerning persons, "secundum genera,'* as in an idea of mathe- matical description, what the kind of charac- ter of the person should be; for the greatest errors are committed, and the most judg- ment is shown, in the choice of individuals. It was truly said, "optimi consiliarii mortui:" "books will speak plain when counsellors blanch;" therefore it is good to be conver- sant 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
106 LORD bacon's essays.
too swift to the order or act of council. It were better that in causes of weight the matter were propounded one day and not spoken to till next day; "in nocte consi- lium:" so was it done in the commission of union between England and Scotland, which was a grave and orderly assembly. I com- mend set days for petitions; for both it gives the suitors more certainty for their attend- ance, and it frees the meetings for matters of estate, that they may "hoc agere." In choice of committees for ripening business for the council, it is better to choose indif- ferent persons, than to make an indiflferency by putting in those that are strong on both sides. I commend, also, standing commis- sions; 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 com- missions, save that they have greater autho- rity Let such as are to inform councils out of their particular professions, (as lawyers, seamen, mintmen, and the like.) be first beard before committees; and then, as occa- sion serves, before the council; and let them not come in multitudes, or in a tribunitious maDoer; for that is to clamour councils, not
OF DELAYS. 107
to inform them. A long table and a square table, or seats about the walls, seem things of Ibrm, but are things of substance; for at a long table a few at the upper end, in eflfect, sway all the business; but in the other form there is more use of the counsellors' opi- nions that sit lower. A king, when he pre- sides 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 consumeth 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, turn- eth the handle of the bottle first to be received, and after the belly which is hard to clasp. There is surely no greater wis-
106 LORD bacon's essays.
dom than well to time the beginnings and onsets of things. Dangers 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 ap- proaches; for if a man watch too long, it is odds he will fall a^sleep. 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 oflf before the time; or to teach dan- gers to come on by over-early buckling towards 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 hun- dred ej'es, 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 se- cref^y in the council, and celerity in the execution; for when things are once come to -the execution, there is no secresy com- parable to celerity ; like the motion of a bullet in the air, which flieth so swift as it outruns the eye. _ .
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JIXIII. OF CUNNING.
We take cunning for a sinister, or crooked wisdom; and certainly there is a great dif- ference 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 fac- tions, that are otherwise weak men. Again, it is one thing to understand persons, and another thing to understand matters; for many are perfect in men's humours, that are not greatly capable of the real part of Jbusi- uess, 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; ^ind, because these cunning men are like haber- dashers of small wares, it is not amiss to set forth their shop.
It is a point of cunning to wait upon him with whom you speak, with your eye, as the Jesuits give it in precept; for there be manj
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wise men that have secret hearts and trans- parent countenances : 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 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 vvith 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 mov- ing 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 foil 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
OF CUKNINO. Ill
question, than if you offer it of yourself, you may lay a bait for a question, by show- ing another visage and countenance 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 re- lating to Claudius the marriage of Messalina and Silius.
In things that a man would not be seen in himself, it is a point of cunning, to borrow the 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 in- tended most: and go forth and come back again, and speak of it as a thing he had al- most forgot.
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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 somewhat which they are not accustomed, to the end they may be op- posed of those things which of themselves they are desirous to utter.
It is a point of cunning, to let fall those words in a mane's own name which he would have another man learn and use, and thereupon take advantage. 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 business; and the one of them said, that to be a secretary in the- dechnation of a mo- narchy was a ticklish thing, and that he did not affect it: the other straight caught up those words, and discoursed with divers of his friends, that he had no reason to de- sire to be secretary in the declining of a mo- narchy. 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.
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There is a cunning, which we in England call "The turning of the cat in the pan;" which is, 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 negatives; as to say, "This I do not;" as Tigellinus did towards Burrhus, "Se non diversas spes, sed incolumitatem imperatoris simpliciter spectare."
Some have in readiness so many tales and stories, as there is nothing they would insi- nuate, 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 thiag of great pa- tience, but yet of much use.
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A sudden, bold, and unexpected question doth many tirnes surprise a man, and lay bim open. Like to bim, that, baving changed his name, and walking in Paul's, another suddenly came behind him and cal- led him by his true name, whereat straight- ways he looked back.
But these small wares and petty points of cunning are infinite, and it were a good deed to make a list 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 convenient 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 ad- vantage of their inability > and would be thought wits of direction. Some build ra- ther upon the abusing of others, and (as we now say) putting tricks upon them, than upon the soundness of their own proceed- ings: but Solomon saith, "Prudens advertit ad gressus suos; stultus divertit ad dolos."
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aXIV. 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 certainly men that are great lovers of themselves waste the public. Divide with reason between self-love 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, him- self 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 tolerable in a sove- reign 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 citizen in a republic; for whatsoever affairs pass such a man's bands, 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 there service should be made but the accessary. That which maketh the
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effect more pernicious is, that all proportion is lost; it were disproportion enough for the servant'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 masters: and yet that is the case of bad officers, trea- surers, 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 mas- ter'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 master's fortune: and cer- tainly it is the nature of extreme self-lovers, as they will set an house on fire, and it vvere but to roast their eggs; and yet these men many times hold credit with their masters, because their study is but to please them, and profit themselves; and for either re- spect they will abandon the good of their affairs.
Wisdom for a man's self is, in many bran-, ches thereof, a depraved thing: it is the wis- dom of rats, that will be sure to leave a house sometime before it fall : it is the wisdom of the tox, that thrusts out the badger, who digged
OF INNOVATIONS. 117
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 ritali," are many times unfortunate; and wl.ereas they have all their time sacrificed to themselves, they become in the end them- selres sacrifices to the inconstancy of fortune, whi)se wings they thought by their self-wis- dotr. to have pinioned.
XXV. OF IWOVATIONS.
As the births of living creatures at first are ill-sh»pen, so are all innovations, which are the b\rths of time; yet notwithstanding, as those that first bring honour into their family are commonly more worthy than most that succeed, so the first precedent (if it be gaod) is seldom attained by imitation; for ill to man's nature as it stands pervert- ed, hath a natural motion strongest in con- tinuance; but good, as a forced motion, strongest at first. Surely every medicine is an innoration, and he that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator; and if time
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of course alter things to the worse, and wis^ dom and counsel shall not alter them to t&e 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 new things piece not so well; but, thouj^h they help by their utility, yet they tro!]ble by their inconformity: besides, tley are like strangers, more admired, and iess favoured. All this is true, if time stood still; which contrariwise, moveth so round, that a froward retention of custom is as tur- bulent a thing as an innovation; and they that reverence too much old times, art but a scorn to the new. It were good, there- fore, that men, in their innovations, would follow the example of time itself, whicb indeed innovateth greatly, but quietlj, and by degrees scarce to be perceived; for other- wise, whatsoever is new is uulooked fcr; 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 evident; and well to beware that it be the
OF DISPATCH. 119
reformation that draweth on the change, and not the desire of change that pretendeth the reformation: 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 tt^ straight and right way, and so to walk in it.
XXVI. OF DISrATCH.
Affected dispatch is one of the most dan- gerous things to business that can be: it is like that which the physicians call prediges- tion, or hasty digestion; which is sure to fill the body full of crudities, and secret seeds of diseases: therefore measure not dispatch by the time of sitting, but by the advance- ment 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 much at once, procureth dispatch. It is the care of some only to come off speedily for the time, or to contrive some false periods of business, because they may seem men of dispatch: but it !« one thing to abbreviate by contractiag, another by cutting off; and busi-
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ness so handled at several sittings, or meet- ings, goeth comraonly backward and for- , ward 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 end 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: " Mi venga 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 di- rect them in the beginning, than interrupt them in the continuance 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.
Iterations are commonly loss of time; but there is no such gain of time as to iterate ©ftea the state of the question; for it cbaseth
OP DISPATCH. 121
away many a frivolous speech as it is coming forth. Long and cufious 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 refe- rence 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 impe- diment, or obstruction, in men's wills; for preoccupation of mind ever requireth pre- face 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 dis- patch; so as the distribution be not too sub- tile: for he that doth not divide will never enter well into business; and he that divideth too much will never come out of it clearly. To choose time is to save time; and an un- seasonable motion is but beating the air. There be three parts of business, the pre- paration; the debate, or examination; and the perfection; whereof, if you look for dispatch,. let the middle only be the work of many, and the first and last the work of few. The proceeding upon somewhat conceived in writing doth for the most part facilitate dispatch: for though it should be wholly
Vti LORD BACOiVs ESSAYS.
rejected, yet that negative is more pregnant of direction than an indefinite, as ashes are more generative than dust. ,
XXVII. 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 between nations, certainly it is so be- tween man and man; for, as the apostle saith of godliness, " Having a shew of godliness, but denying the power thereof;" so cer- tainly there are in points of wisdom and suf- ficiency, that do nothing or little very so- lemnly: " magno conatu nugas." It is a ridiculous thing, and fit for a satire to persons of judgment, to see what shifts these forma- lists 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 shew their wares but by a dark light, and seem always to keep back some- what; and when they know within them- selves 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
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gesture, and are wise by signs; as Cicero saith of Piso, that when he answered him be fetched one of his brows up to hi« forehead, and bent the other down to his chin; "■ re- spondes, altero ad frontem sublato, altero ad mentum depresso supercilio, crudelitatem tibi non placere." Some think to bear it by speaking a great word, and being peremp- tory; and go on, and take by admittance that which they cannot make good. Some, what- soever is beyond their reach, will seem to despise, or make light of it, as impertinent or curious: and so would have their igno- rance seem judgment. Some are never without a difference, and commonly by amus- ing men with a subtilty, blanch the matter; of whom A. Gellius saith, " hominem deli- rum, qui verborum, minutiis rerum fran'git pondera." Of which kind also Plato, in his Protagoras, bringeth in Prodicus in scorn, and maketh him make a speech that consist- eth of distinctions from the beginning to the end. Generally such men, in all delibera- tions, find ease to be of the negative side, and affect a credit to object and foretell dif- ficulties; for when propositions are denied, 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.
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To conclude, there is no decaying merchant, or inward 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 opinion; but let no man choose them for employment; for cer- tainly, 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, " Whoso- ever is delighted in sohtude, 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 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 conversation: such as is found to have been falsely and feignedly in some of the heathens; as Epimenides, the Candian; Numa, the Ro- man; Empedocles, the Sicilian; and Apollo-
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nius of Tyana; and truly and really in divers of the ancient hermits 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 'out a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal where there is no love. The Latin adage meeteth with it a little: '•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 aflinn most truly, that it is a mere and miserable 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 friend- ship, he taketh it of the beast, and not from humanity.
A principal fruit of friendship is the ease and discharge of the fullness of the heart, which passions of all kinds do cause and in- duce. 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, flower of sulphur for the lungs, castoreura for the brain; but
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126 LORD BACON S ESSAYS.
no receipt openeth the heart but a true friend, to whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, counsels, and what- soever lieth 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 ser- vants, cannot gather this fruit, except (to make themselves capable thereof) they raise some persons to be as it were compa- nions, and almost equals to themselves, which many times sorteth to inconvenience. The modern 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 pjrinces only, but by the wisest and most politic that ever reigned, who have often- times joined to themselves some of their servants, whom both themselves have called
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friends, and allowed others likewise to call them in the same manner, using the wqrd 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 foi;S\11a's overmatch; for when he had car- ried the consulship 'for a friend of his, against the pursuit of Sylla, and that Sylla did a lit- tle resent thereat, and began to speak great, Pompey turned upon him again, and in effect bade him be quiet; for that more men ador- ed the sun rising than the sun setting With' Julius Cassar, Decimus Brutus had obtained that interest, as he set him down in his tes- tament for heir in remainder after his ne- phew; 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 his 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 re- cited verbatim in one of Cicero's Philippics, called him "venefica," — "witch;" as if he had enchanted Cassar. Augustus raised Agrippa
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(though of mean birth) to that height, as, when he consulted with Mascenas 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 'I^befius Cajsar, Sejanus had ascended to that height as they two were termed and reckoned as a pair of friends. Tiberius, in a letter to him, saith, "base pro amicitia nostra non occul- tavi;" and the whole senate dedicated an altar to Friendship, as to a goddess, in re- spect of the great dearness of friendship between them two. The like, or more, was between Septimus and Severus and Plautia- Dus; for he forced his 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 letter to the senate, by these words: "I love the man so well, as 1 wish he may over-live 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 good- ness 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 provetb, most plainly, that they
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found their own felicity (though as great as ever happened to mortal men) but as an half piece, except they might have a friend to make it entire ; and yet, which is more, they were princes that had wives, pons„ nephews; yet all these could not supply the comfort of friendship.
It is not to be forgotten what Comineus observeth of his first master, duke Charles the Hardy, namely, that be would communi- cate his secrets with none; and Icjtst of all, those secrets which troul>led him most. Whereupon he goeth on, and saith, that towards his latter time that closeness did impair and a little perish his understanding. 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 parable 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 admirable (wherewith I will conclude this first fruit of friendshij)), 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 ;
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for there is no man that imparteth his joys to his friend, hut he joveth 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 na- ture; for, in bodies, union strengtheneth and cherisheth any natural action; and, on the other side, weakeneth and dulleth any violent impression ; and even so is it 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 day- light 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 before you come to that, certain it is, that who- soever hath his mind fraught with many thoughts, his wits and understanding do clarify and break up, in the communicating
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and discoursing with another; he tosseth his thoughts more easily; he marshalleth them more orderly; he seethhow they look when they are turned into words; finally, he wax- eth wiser than himself; and that more by an hour's discourse than by a day's meditation. 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 understanding, 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 suffer his thoughts to pass in smother.
Add now, to make this second fruit of friendship complete, that other point which lieth more open, and falleth with4n vulgar ob- servation : which is faithful counsel from a friend. Heraclitus saith well in one of his enigmas, "Dry light is ever the best," and certain it is, that the light that a man re- ceiveth by counsel from another, is drier
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and purer than that which cometh from his oXvn understanding and judgment,- which is ever infused and drenched in his affections and customs. So as there is as much dif- ference between the counsel that a friend giveth, and that a man giveth himself, as ihere is between 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 reme- dy against flattery of a man's self as the lib- erty of a friend. Counsel is of two sorts; the oue concerning manners, the other con- cerning business: for the first, the best pre- servative 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 medi- cine sometimes too piercing and corrosive; reading good books of morality is a little flat and dead; observing our faults in others is sometimes improper for our case; but the best receipt (best I say to work and best to take) is the admonition of a friend. It is a strange thing to behold what gross errors and extreme absurdities many (especially of the greater sort) do commit for want 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
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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 run- neth two dangers; one, that he shall not be faithfully counselled; 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 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 remedy; even as if you would call a physician, that is thought good for the cure of the disease you com- plain of, but is unacquainted with your body;
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and, therefore, may put )'ou in a way for present cure, bjjt overthrovveth 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 coun- sels; for they will rather distract and mis- lead, than settle and direct.
After these two noble fruits of friendship, (peace in the affections, and support of the judgment), foUoweth 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 repre- sent to life the manifold 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 secure that the care of those things will continue after him; so that a man
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hath, as it were, two lives in his desires. A man hath a body, and that body is confin- ed to a place; but where friendship is, all offices of life are, as it were, granted to him and his deputy; for he may exercise them by his friend. How many things are there which a man cannot, with any face, or come- liness, 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 Uke: 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 proj^er 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 enume- rate these things were endless; I have given the rule, where a man cannot fitly play his own part; if he have not a friend, he may quit the stage.
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XXIX. OF EXPENSE.
Riches are for spending, and spending for honour and good actions; therefore extraor- dinary expense must be hmited by the worth of the occasion; for voluntary undo- ing may be as well for a man's country as for the kingdom of heaven; but ordinary ex- pense ought to be limited by a man's estate, and governed with such regard, as it be within his compass; and not subject to de- ceit and abuse of servants; and ordered to the best shew, that the bills may be less than the estimation abroad. Certainly, if a man will keep but of even hand, his ordina- ry 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 negli- gence alone, but doubting to bring them- selves into melancholy, in respect they shall find it broken: b.it 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 timo- rous and less subtle. He that can look into
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his estate but seldom, it behoveth him to turn all to certainties. A man bad 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 preserv- ed from decay. In clearing of a man's es- tate, he may as well hurt himself in being too sudden, as in letting it run on too long; for hasty selling is commonly as disadvan- tageable as interest. Besides, 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 induceth 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 things; and, commonly, it is less dishonoura- ble to abridge petty charges than to stoop to petty gettings. A man ought warily to begin charges, which once begun*will con- tinue: but in matters that return not he may be more magniScent.
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XXX. OF THE TRUE GREATNESS OF KINGDOMS 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 observation and censure, apphed 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 abili- ties 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 lieth the other way; to bring a great and flourishing estate to ruin and decay; and, certainly, those degenerate arts and shifts, whereby many counsellors and governors gain both favour with their masters, and estimation with the vulgar, de- serve no better name than fiddhng; being things rather pleasing for the time, and
OF KINGDOMS AND ESTATES. 139
graceful to themselves only, than tending to the weal and advancement of the state which they serve. There are also (no doubt) counsellors and governors which may be held sufficient, "negotiis pares," able to manage affairs, and to keep them from pre- cipices and manifest inconveniences; which, nevertheless, 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 argument 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 undervaluing them, they descend to fearful and pusillanimous counsels.
The greatness of an estate, in bulk and territory, doth fall under measure; and the greatness of finances and revenue doth fall under computation. The population may appear by musters; and the number and greatness of cities and towns by cards and maps; but yet there is not anything, amongst civil affairs, more subject to error than the right valuation and true judgment concern- ing the power and forces of an estate. The
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kingdom of heaven is compared, not to any great kernel, or nut, but to a grain of mns- tard-seed; which is one of the least grains, but hath in it a property and spirit hastily to get up and spread. So are there states great in territory, and yet not apt to enlarge or command: and some that have but a small dimension of stem, and yet are apt to be the foundation of great monarchies.
Walled towns, stored arsenals and armo- ries, goodly races of horse, chariots of war, elephants, ordinance, artillery, and the like; all this is but a sheep in a lion's skin, ex- cept the breed and disposition of the peojde be stout and warlike. Nay, number (itself) in armies importeth not much, where the people are of weak courage; for, as Vir- gil saith, " It never troubles the wolf hovv many the sheep be." The army of the Persians, in the plains of Arbela, was such a vast sea of people, as it did scmewhat 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 pilfer the vic- tory;" and the defeat was easy. When Tigranes, the Armenian, being encamped upon a hill with four hundred thousand men, discovered the army of the Romans, being
OF KINGDOMS AND ESTATES. 141
not above fourteen thousand, marching towards him, he made himself merry with it, and said, " Yonder 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 chace 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 principal 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 people are failing; for Solon said well to Croesus (when in osten- tation he shewed him his gold), " Sir, if any other come that hath better iron than you, he will be master of all this gold." Therefore, let any prince, or state, think soberly of his forces, except his militia of natives be of good and valiant soldiers; and let princes, on the other side, that have sub- jects of martial disposition, know their own strength, unless they be otherwise wanting unto themselves. As for mercenary forces (which is the help in this case), all exam- ples show that, whatsoever estate, or prince, doth rest upon them, he may spread his roL. r. lO
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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 na- tion, should be both the lion's whelp and the ass between burdens: neither will it be, that a people overlaid with taxes should ever become valiant and martial. 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 subsidies 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 overcharged 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 com- mon subject grow to be a peasant and base swain, driven out of heart, and, in effect, but a gentleman's labourer. Evea as you may see in coppice woods; if you leave your staddles too thick, you shall never have clean underwood, but shrubs
OP KINGDOMS AND ESTATES. 143
and bashes. So in countries, if the gentle- men be too many, the commons will be base; and you will bring it to that, that not the hundreth poll will be fit for an helmet; es- pecially 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 terri- tory and population, hath been (neverthe- less) an overmatch; in regard the middle people of England make good soldiers, which the peasants of France do not: and Ijerein the device of king Henry the Seventh (whereof 1 have spoken largely in the his- tory of his life) was profound and admirable; 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 servile 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 character, which he gives to ancient Italy:
" Toia poteos armis atque ubore glete."
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Neither is that state (which, for any thiug I know, is alnaost peculiar to England, and hardly to be found any where else, except it be, perhaps, in Poland) to be passed over; I mean the state of free servants and atten- dants upon noblemen and gentlemen, which are no ways inferior luito the yeomanry for arms; and therefore, out of all ques- tion, the splendour and magnificence, and great retinues, the hospitality of noblemen and gentlemen received into custom, do much conduce unto martial greatness: where- as, contrariwise, the close and reserved liv- ing of noblemen and gentlemen causeth a penury of military forces.
By all means it is to be procured, that the trunk of Nebuchadnezzar's tree of monar- chy be great enough to bear the branches and the boughs; that is, that the natural sub- jects of the crown, or state, bear a sufficient proportion to the strange subjects that they go- vern: therefore all states that are liberal of na- turalization towards strangers are fit for em- pire: for to think that an handful of people can, with the greatest courage and po- licy in the world, embrace too large extent of dominion, it may hold for a time, but it will fail suddenly. The Spartans were a nice people in point of naturalization;
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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 naturalization (which they called "jus civitatis"),and to grant it in the highest degree, that is, not only "jus commercii, jus connubii, jus haereditatis;" but also, "jus suffragii," 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 other nations; and putting both constitu- tions together, you will say, that it was not the Romans that spread upon the world, but it was the world that spread upon the Ro- mans; and that was the sure way of great- ness. I have marvelled sometimes at Spain, how they clasp and contain so large domi- nions with so few natural Spaniards: but sure the whole compass of Spain is a very great body of a tree, far above Rome and Sparta
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at the first; and, besides, though they have not had that usage to naturaHze 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 natives: as by the Pragmatical sanction, now published, ap- peareth.
It is certain, that sedentary and within- door arts, and delicate manufactures (that require rather the finger than the arm), have in their nature a contrariety to a mili- tary disposition; and generally all warlike people are a little idle, and love danger bet- ter than travail; neither must they be too much broken of it, if they shall be preserv- ed in vigour: therefore it was great advan- tage 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 pur- pose, are the more easily to be received), and to contain the principal bulk of the vul- gar natives within those three kinds, tillers
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of the ground, free servants, and handicrafts- men of strong and manly arts; as smiths, ma- sons, carpenters, &c. not reckoning profes- sed 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 for- merly have spoken of are but habilitations towards arras; and what is habilitation without intention and act? Romulus, after his death (as they report or feign), sen* a present to the Romans, that above all they should intend arms, and then they should prove the greatest empire of the world. The febric of the state of Sparta was wholly (though not wisely) framed and composed to that scope and end; the Persians and Mace- donians had it for a flash; the Gauls, Ger- mans, Goths, Saxons, Normans, and others, had it for a time: the Turks have it at this day, thonjih in great declination. Of Chris- tian Europe they that have it are, in efl'ect, only the Spaniards: but it is so plain, that every man profiteth in that he most in- tendeth, 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 inta their
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mouths; and, on the other side, it is a most certain oracle of time, that those states that continue long in that profession (as the Ro- mans and Turks principally have done) do wonders; and those that have professed arras but for an age have, notwithstanding, com- monly attained that greatness in that age which maintained them long after, when their profession and exercise of arms hath grown to decay.
Incident to this point is for a state to have those laws or customs wliich may reach forth unto them jtist occasions (as may be pretended) of war; for there is that jus- tice 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 Ro- mans, though they esteemed the extending the limits of their empire to be great ho- nour 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, merchants, or politic ministers; and that
OF KINGDOMS AND ESTATES. 149
they sit not too long upon a provocation: secondly, let them be pressed and ready to give aids and succours to their confede* rates; as it ever was with the Romans; inso- much, as if the confederates had leagues defensive with divers other states, and, upon invasion oflfered, 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 Grajcia; or, when the Lacedsemonians and Athenians made a war to set up or pull down democracies and oligarchies: or when wars were made by foreigners, under the pretence of justice or protection, to deliver the subjects of others from tyranny and op- pression and the like. Let it suffice, that no estate expect to be great, that is not awake upon any just occasion of arming.
No body can be healthful without exercise, neither natural body nor politic; and, cer- tainly, to a kingdom, or estate, a just and honourable war is the true exercise. A ci- vil war, indeed, is like the heat of a fever; but a foreign war is like the heat of exer-
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cise, and serveth to keep the body in health; for, in a slothful peace, both courages will effeminate, and manners corrupt; but how- soever it be for happiness, without all ques- tion 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 business), always on foot, is that which com- monly giveth the law; or, at least, the re- putation 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 Pompey his preparation against Caesar, saith, "Consilium Pompeii plane Themisto- cleum est; pntat enim, qui raari potitur, eura rerum potiri;" and, without doubt, Pompey had tired out Caesar, if upon vain confidence he had not left that way. We see the great effects of battles by sea: the battle of Actium decided the empire of the world; the battle of Lepanto arrested tiie greatness of the Turk. There be many examples, where sea-fights 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
«
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certain, that he that commands the sea is at great Hberty, and may take as much and as little of the war as he will; whereas those that be strongest by land, are many times, nevertheless, in great straits. Surely, at this day, with us of Europe, the vantage of strength at sea (which is one of the principal 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 be- cause 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 he made in the dark, in respect to the glory and ho- nour which reflected upon men from the wars in ancient time. There be now, for martial encouragement, some degrees and orders of chivalry, which, nevertheless, are conferred promiscuously upon soldiers and no soldiers, and some remembrance perhaps 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 lauda- tives and monuments for those that died in the wars; the crowns and garlands personal; the style of emperor, which the great kings
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of 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 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 gene- ral, riches to the treasury out of the spoils, and donatives to the army: but that honour, perhaps, were not fit for monarchies; ex- cept it be in the person of the monarch himself, or his sons; as it came to pass in the times of the Roman emperors, who did impropriate the actual triumphs to them- selves and their sons, for such wars as they did achieve in person, and left only for wars achieved by subjects, some triumphal gar- ments 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 com- monwealths, it is in the power of princes, or estates, to add amplitude and greatness to their kingdoms; for by introducing such or- dinances, constitutions, and customs, as we hare now touched, they may sow greatness
OF REGIMEN OP HEALTH. 153
to their posterity and succession: but these things are commonly not observed, but left to take their chance.
ItXXI. OF REOIMEN OF HEALTH.
There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic: a man's own observation, what he finds good of, and what he finds hurt of, is the best physic to preserve health; but it is a safer conclusion to say, " This agreeth not well with me, therefore I will not continue it;" than this, " I find no offence of this, therefore I may use it:" for strength of na- ture in youth passeth over many excesses which are owing a man till his age. Dis- cern of the coming on of years, and think not to do the same things 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 incon- venience by the change, thou come back to
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it again: for it is hard to distinguish that which is generally held good and wholesome, 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, sub- tile and knotty inquisitions, joys and exhila- rations in excess, sadness not communicated. Entertain hopes, mirth rather than joy, va- riety of delights rather than surfeit of them;- wonder and admiration, and therefore novel- ties; 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 diet for certain sea- sons, 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 opi- nion of it. In sickness, respect health prin- cipally; and in health, action: for those that pot their bodie« tp endure in health, may,
OF SV3PICI0K. 155
in most sicknesses which are not very sharp, be cured only with diet and tendering. Cei- sus could never have spoken it as a physician, 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 interchange contraries; but with an inclina- tion to the more benign extreme: use fasting and full eating, but rather full eating; watch- ing and sleep, but rather sleep; sitting and exercise, but rather exercise, and the like: so shall nature be cherished, 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 condition of the patient. Take one of a middle temper; or, if it may not be found in one man, combine 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.
XXXII. OF SUSFICIOV.
SusFTcioNS amongsf thoughts are like bats amongst birds, they ever fly by twilight:
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certainly they are to be reprepsed, or at the least well guarded; for they cloud the mind, they lose friends, and they check with busi- ness, whereby business cannot go on current- ly and constantly: they dispose kings to ty- ranny, husbands to jealousy, wise men to irresolution and melancholy: they are de- fects, not in the heart, but in the brain; for they take place in the stoutest natures: as in the example of Henry the Seventh of England; there was not a more suspicious man, nor a more stout: and in such a compo- sition they do small hurt; for commonly they are not admitted but with examiivation, whe- ther they be likely or no? but in fearful natures they gain ground too fast. There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little; and, thei-efore, men should remedy suspicion by procuring to know more, and not to k6ep 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 moderate suspicions, than to account upon such suspicions as true, and yet to bri- dle them as false: for so far a man ought to make use of suspicioBS, as to provide, as if
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that should be true that he suspects, yet it may do hiaa no hurt. Suspicions that the mind of itself gathers, are but buzzes; but suspicions that are artificially nourished, and put into men's heads by the tales and whis- perin-gs of others, have stings. Certainly, the best mean to clear the way in this same wood of suspicion, is frankly to communicate 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 circum- spect, 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 discharge itself.
XXXIII. OF DISCOURSE.
Some in their discourse desire rather com- mendation of wit, in being able to hold all arguments, 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
VOL. V. 11
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and themes, wherein they are good, and want variety; which kind of poverty is for the most part tedious, and, when it is once per- ceived, 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 dis- course, and speech of conversation, to vary and intermingle speech of the present occa- sion with arguments, tales with reasons, ask- ing of questions 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, reli- gion, matters of state, great persons, any man's present business of importance, and any case that deserveth pity; yet there be some that think their wits have been asleep, except they dart out somewhat that is piquant, and to the quick; that is a vein which would be bridled;
" Faree, poer, stimnlit, «t ftrdo* titere lorit."
And, generally, men ought to find the differ- ence between saltness and bitterness. Cer- tainly, he that hath a satirical vein, as he maketh others afraid of his wit, so he had
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need be afraid of others' memory. He that questioneth much shall learn much, and con- tent much; but especially if he appl} his questions to the skill of the persons whom he asketh; for he shall give them occasion 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. If 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 ougfct to be seldom, and well chosen. I knew one was wont to say in scorn, " He must needs be a wise man, he speaks so much of him- self:" and there is but one case wherein a man may commend himself with good grace, and that is in commending virtue in another, especially if it be such a virtue whereunto himself pretendeth. Speech of touch to- wards others should be sparingly used; for discourse ought to be as a field, without coming home to any man. I knew two
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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." Discretion 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, with- out a good speech of interlocution, shews slowness; and a good reply, or second speech, without a good settled speech, sheweth 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.
XXXIV. OF PLANTATIONS.
Plaittatioks are amongst ancient, primitive, and heroical works. When the world was
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young, it begat more children; but now it is old, it begets fewer: for I may justly account new plantations 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 recompense 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 plan- tation, but no farther. It is a shameful and unblessed thing to take the scum of people and wicked condemned men, to be the peo- ple 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 plan- tation. The people wherewith you plant ought to be gardeners, ploughm'en, labour- ers, smiths, carpenters, joiners, fishermen, fowlers, with some few apothecaries, sur-
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geons, cooks, and bakers. In a country of plantation, first look about what kind of vic- tual the country yields of itself to hand; as chesnuts, walnuts, pine-apples, 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 pars- nips, carrots, turnips, onions, radish, arti- chokes of Jerusalem, maize, 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 la- bour, 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 diseases, and multiply fastest; as swine, goats, cocks, hens, tur- keys, geese, house-doves, and the like. The victual in plantations ought to be ex- pended 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
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proportion; besides some spots of ground that any particular person will manure for his own private use. Consider, likewise, what commodities the soil where the planta- tion 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 therefore timber is fit to be one. If there be iron ore, and streams whereupon to set the mills, iron is a brave commodity where wood aboundeth. Making of bay-salt, if the climate be proper for it, would be put in experience: growing silk likewise, 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 uncer- tain, and useth to make the planters lazy in otlier things. For government, let it be in the hands of one, assisted with some coun- sel; and let them have commission to ex- ercise martial laws, with some limitation; and, above all, let men make that profit of
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being in the wilderness, as they have God always, and his service before their eyes: let not the government of the plantation de- pend upon too many counsellors and under- takers in the country that planteth, but upon a temperate number; and let those be ra- ther noblemen and gentlemen, than mer- chants; for they look ever to the present gain: let there be freedoms from custom, till the plantation be of strength ; and notonly free- dom 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 sending too fast company after company; but rather hearken how they waste, and send supplies proportionably; but so as the num- ber may live well in the plantation, and not by surcharge be in penury. It hath been a great endangering to the health of some plantations, that they have built nlong the sea and rivers, in marish and unwholesome grounds: therefore, though yon begin there to avoid carriage and other like discommodi- ties, yet build still rather upwards from the stream, than along. It concerneth likewise the health of the plantation that they have goo(i store of salt with them, that they may use it in their victuals when it shall be neces-
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sary. 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 in- vade 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 com- mend it whexj they return. When the plan- tation 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 sinfullest thing in the world to forsake or destitute a plantation once in forwardness; 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 virtue; the Roman word is better, "im- pedimenta;" for as the baggage is to an army, so is riches to virtue; it cannot be spared nor left behind, but it hindereth the march; 3'^ea, and the care of it sometimes loseth or disturbeth the victory; of great
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riches there is no real use, except it be ia the distribution; the rest is but conceit; so saith Solonoon, "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 ostenta- tion are undertaken, because there might seem to be some use of great riches ? 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 imagination, and not always in fact: for, cer- tainly, great riches have sold more men than they have bought out. Seek not proud riches, but such as thou mayest get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly; yet have no abstract or friarly contempt of them; but distinguish, as Cicero saith well of Rabirius Postumus, "in studio rei amplificandae apparebat, non avaritiae praedam, sed instrumentum bonitati quaeri." Hearken also to Solomon, and be-
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ware of hasty gathering of riches; "Qui fes- tinat ad divitias, non erit insons." The poets feign, that when Plutus (which is riches) is sent from Jupiter, he Hmps, and goes slowly; but when he is sent froai 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 the death of others (as by the course of inherit- ance, testaments, and the Hke), they come tumbling upon a man: but it might be appli- ed likewise to Pluto, taking him for the devil: for when riches come from the devil (as by fraud and oppression, and unjust means), they come upon speed. The ways to enrich are many, and most of them fool: parsimony is one of the best, and yet is not innocent; for it withholdeth men from works of liberality and charity. The improvement of the ground is the most natural obtaining of riches; for it is our great mother's bless- ing, the earth; but it is slow: and yet, where men of great wealth do stoop to husbandry, it multiplieth riches exceedingly. I knew a nobleman of England that had the greatest audits of any man in my time, a great gra- zier, a great sheep master, a great timber man, a great collier, a great corn master, a great lead mao, and so of iron, and a duiu-
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ber 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 mar- kets, 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 gdod and fair dealing; but the gains of bargains are of a more doubtful nature, when men shall wait upon others' necessity; broke by servants and instruments to draw them on; put off others cunningly that would be bet-