THE ESSAYS 
 
 '^•''^' COUNSELS 1 
 
 UC-NRLF 
 
 B M IID 2fib 
 
 PRANCIS BACON 
 
GIFT OF 
 Felix Flupiel 
 

 
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 Dr. FlOgel 
 
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 Leipzig, Sidoniensti. 39 
 
BACON'S ESSAYS 
 
Neither repetitions nor fancies " 
 
 Francis Bacon 
 
THE , 
 
 •ESSAYS OR COUNSELS 
 
 CIl^IL AND MORAL 
 
 OF 
 
 FRANCIS BACON 
 
 VISCOUNT ST. ALBAN, BARON VERULAM 
 
 Etiiteti bjitlj an EntraUuction anU Kates 
 By MELVILLE B. ANDERSON 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 A. C. McCLURG AND COMPANY 
 
 1890 
 
Copyright, 
 By a. C. McClurg and Co. 
 
 A. D. i8qO. 
 
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 INTRODUCTION. IB'^€> 
 
 ORIGINAL EDITIONS AND DEDICATIONS. 
 
 The editio princeps of Bacon's Essays, published 
 in the year 1597, was a small octavo volume con- 
 taining also his " Religious Meditations " (in 
 Latin), and his " Table of Colors, or Appearances, 
 of Good and Evil " (in English). The essays were 
 but ten in number, as follows : — 
 
 1. Of Study. 
 
 2. Of Discourse. 
 
 3. Of Ceremonies and Respects. 
 
 4. Of Followers and Friends. 
 
 5. Suitors. 
 
 6. Of Expense. 
 
 7. Of Regiment of Health. 
 
 8. Of Honor and Reputation. 
 
 9. Of Faction. 
 
 10. Of Negotiating. 
 
 The " Epistle Dedicatory " was as follows : — 
 
 " To M. Anthony Bacon his dear Brother 
 
 " Loving and beloved Brother, — I do now like 
 some that have an orchard ill-neighbored, that gather 
 
 ivi3()35J2l3 
 
6..r ,.,... . .BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 their 'fruit t)excre i^ is fipe to prevent stealing. These 
 fragments of my conceits were going to print ; to 
 labor the stay of them had been troublesome and 
 subject to interpretation ; to let them pass had been to 
 adventure the wrong they mought receive by untrue 
 copies, or by some garnishment which it mought please 
 any that should set them forth to bestow upon them. 
 Therefore I held it best discretion to publish them 
 myself as they passed long ago from my pen, without 
 any further disgrace than the weakness of the author. 
 And as I did ever hold there mought be as great a 
 vanity in retiring and withdrawing men's conceits 
 (except they be of some nature) from the world, as in 
 obtruding them, so in these particulars I have played 
 myself the inquisitor, and find nothing in them con- 
 V/trary or infectious to the state of religion or manners, 
 but rather, as I suppose, medicinable. Only 1 dis- 
 liked now to put them out, because they will be like 
 the late new half-pence, which, though the silver were 
 good, yet the pieces were small. But since they 
 would not stay with their master, but would needs 
 travel abroad, I have preferred them to you that are 
 next myself, dedicating them, such as they are, to 
 our love ; in the depth whereof, I assure you, I some- 
 times wish your infirmities translated upon myself, 
 that her Majesty mought have the service of so active 
 and able a mind, and I mought be with excuse con- 
 fined to these contemplations and studies for which I 
 am fittest. So commend I you to the preservation 
 of the divine Majesty. From my chamber at Grav's 
 Inn, this 30th of January, 1597. 
 
 " Your entire loving brother. 
 
 " Fran. Bacon." 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 . If Bacon thought to prevent stealing by gather- 
 ing his fruit before it was ripe, he reckoned with- 
 out the book pirates, who flourished then as now. 
 Mr. Arber and Mr. Wright enumerate several evi- 
 dently unauthorized editions during the author's 
 life. These, and the translations into French and 
 Italian, attest the immediate popularity of the 
 Essays. In the year 16 12 Bacon published a sec- 
 ond author's edition of his Essays, including nine 
 of the original group (all but that " Of Honor and 
 Reputation"), considerably altered and enlarged, 
 with twenty-nine new ones, — in all thirty-eight. 
 The title was, " The Essaies of S' Francis Bacon 
 Knight, the Kings Solliciter Generall," and the 
 dedication to his brother-in-law as follows : — 
 
 ''To my loving brother, Sir John Constable, Knight. 
 " My last essays I dedicated to my dear brother, 
 Master Anthony Bacon, who is with God. Looking 
 amongst my papers this vacation, I found others of 
 the same nature; which if I myself shall not suffer 
 to be lost, it seemeth the world will not, by the often 
 printing of the former. Missing my brother, I found 
 you next in respect of bond of near alliance, and 
 of strait friendship and society, and particularly of 
 communication in studies. Wherein I must acknowl- 
 edge myself beholding to you. For as my business 
 found rest in my contemplations, so my contempla- 
 tions ever found rest in your loving conference and 
 judgment. So, wishing you all good, I remain, 
 " Your loving brother and friend, 
 
 " Fra. Bacon." 
 
8 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 Bacon's intention had been to dedicate this 
 edition to Prince Henry, who died in this year 
 (1612). Some time before this date Bacon had 
 caused a faithful transcript of the Essays to be 
 made, as if for publication. This MS. is fortunately 
 preserved, if in a slighdy mutilated form, in the 
 British Museum, and contains thirty-four essays, 
 of which two — " Of Honor and Reputation," and 
 '' Of Seditions and Troubles " — are not found in 
 the edition of 1 6 1 2 . Belonging to this MS., though 
 now separated from it, is the following unprinted 
 dedication. 
 
 " To the ?nosi high and excellent Prince Henry, 
 Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, and 
 Earl of Chester. 
 " It may please your Highness : Having divided 
 my life into the contemplative and active part, I 
 am desirous to give his Majesty and your High- 
 ness of the fruits of both, simple though they be. 
 To write just treatises requireth leisure in the writer 
 and leisure in the reader; and therefore are not so 
 fit, neither in regard of your Highness's princely 
 affairs, nor in regard of my continual services. 
 Which is the cause that hath made me choose to 
 write certain brief notes, set down rather signifi- 
 cantly than curiously, which I have called Essays, — 
 the word is late but the thing is ancient. For Sen- 
 eca's Epistles to Lucilius, if one mark them well, are 
 but Essays, — that is, dispersed meditations, though 
 conveyed in the form of episdes. These labors of 
 mine I know cannot be worthy of your Highness — 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 for what can be worthy of you ? But my hope is they 
 may be as grains of salt, that will rather give you an 
 appetite than offend you with satiety. And although 
 they handle those things wherein both men's lives 
 and their pens are most conversant, yet what I have 
 attained I know not, but I have endeavored to make 
 them not vulgar, but of a nature whereof a man shall 
 find much in experience, little in books ; so as they 
 are neither repetitions nor fancies. But howsoever, 
 I shall most humbly desire your Highness to accept 
 them in gracious part, and to conceive that if I can- 
 not rest, but must show my dutiful and devoted af- 
 fection to your Highness in these things which pro- 
 ceed from myself, I shall be much more ready to do 
 it in performance of any your princely command- 
 ments. And so, wishing your Highness all princely 
 felicity, I rest your Highness's most humble servant." 
 
 The third and final edition of the Essays, pub- 
 lished under the supervision of the author, was 
 that of 1625. It contains the thirty-eight essays 
 of the edition of 16 12, together with the two es- 
 says noted above as omitted in that edition, and 
 eighteen new ones, — fifty-eight in all. All of the 
 earlier essays are more or less revised, and many 
 of them are very greatly altered and enlarged. 
 This final edition is the one upon which all mod- 
 ern texts are necessarily based. Comparison of 
 this text with the earUer ones is, however, ex- 
 tremely interesting, both as revealing Bacon's 
 methods of revision, and, still more, as throwing a 
 strong light upon the development of his character 
 
lO BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 under the tutorship of experience. Such compar- 
 ison of the three printed texts and one MS. above 
 described has been made easy by the intelligent 
 industry of Professor Edward Arber, to whose 
 " Harmony of the Essays " the present editor is 
 very greatly indebted. 
 
 Between the years 1618 and 162 1 there were 
 two translations of the Essays into Italian, and two 
 into French. For several years before his death, 
 Bacon had in mind a Latin translation. The evi- 
 dence of this is most interesting, as showing his 
 opinion of the relative permanence of English and 
 Latin. In a letter to his friend, Toby Matthew, 
 written some three years before Bacon's death, he 
 says : — 
 
 " It is true my labors are now most set to have 
 those works which I had formerly published, — as 
 that of Advancement of Learning, that of Henry VII., 
 that of the Essays, being retractate and made more 
 perfect, — well translated into Latin, by the help of 
 some good pens which forsake me not. For these 
 modern languages will, at one time or other, play the 
 bankrupts with books; and since I have lost much 
 time with this age, I would be glad, as God shall 
 give me leave, to recover it with posterity." 
 
 The Italian translation had been entitled " Saggi 
 Morali," — Moral Saws. To this and to the pro- 
 posed Latin version Bacon refers in the following 
 passage from his celebrated letter to Father Ful- 
 gentio (1625) : — 
 
INTROD UCTION. 1 1 
 
 "I wish to make known to your Reverence my in- 
 tentions with regard to the writings which I meditate 
 and have in hand ; not hoping to perfect them, but 
 desiring to try; and because I work for posterity; 
 these things requiring ages for their accomplishment. 
 I have thought it best, then, to have all of them trans- 
 lated into Latin and divided into volumes. The first 
 volume consists of the books concerning ' The Ad- 
 vancement of Learning'; and this, as you know, is 
 already finished and published, and includes the 
 Partitions of the Sciences ; which is the first part of 
 my Instauration, The ' Novum Organum ' should 
 have followed ; but I interposed my moral and polit- 
 ical writings, as being nearer ready. These are : 
 first, the History of the Reign of Henry the Seventh, 
 King of England ; after which will follow the little 
 book which, in your language, you have called ' Saggi 
 Morali.' But I give it a weightier name, entitling 
 it ' Faithful Discourses, or the Inwards of Things.' 
 But these discourses will be both increased in num- 
 ber and much enlarged in treatment." 
 
 In the dedication to Buckingham of the final 
 English edition of the Essays, Bacon expresses his 
 faith " that the Latin volume of them, being in the 
 universal language, may last as long as books last." 
 But he did not live to see this definitive volume 
 through the press, though there is evidence that 
 he superintended the work of translating. This 
 Latin edition was first published in 1638 by Dr. 
 Rawley, together with other works, " civil and 
 moral." The title is that given by Bacon in the 
 letter to Fulgentio : '' Sermones fideles, sive inte- 
 
12 BACON'S ESS A VS. 
 
 riora rerum." It is said that among the " divers 
 hands " by whom the translation was made were 
 " the learned and judicious poet," Ben Jonson, and 
 the famous philosopher, Thomas Hobbes. That 
 their work was most carefully revised by Bacon is 
 inferred from the circumstance that there are in- 
 numerable alterations and additions, some of them 
 important, which surely no one but the author 
 would have ventured to make. So it is that this 
 edition is of great value for the light it throws upon 
 the author's real meaning in many passages, which 
 would, by themselves, be subject to misinterpreta- 
 tion or dispute. 
 
 RECENT EDITIONS. 
 
 To the student, the most useful modern texts of 
 the Essays are undoubtedly the exact reprints 
 made by Mr. W. Aldis Wright and Professor 
 Arber. The text of the Essays given by Mr. 
 James Spedding in his monumental edition of 
 Bacon's Complete Works, is also an exact reprint 
 of the edition of 1625, except that spelling and 
 punctuation are modernized. Mr. Spedding also 
 reprints, without modernization, the editions of 
 1597 and 1 61 2. These reprints attest the devoted 
 care and scholarly accuracy of their makers. From 
 a careful and detailed collation of them, I judge 
 that, in point of accuracy, Mr. Arber falls a little 
 below both Mr. Wright and Mr. Spedding ; at least, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 in nearly if not quite all the cases of divergence 
 between the readings of Arber and Wright, I have 
 found in Spedding's text confirmation of the read- 
 ing of Wright. 
 
 Of modern popular editions, I have carefully 
 examined that of Whately and Heard (Boston, 
 1879), of Little, Brown, & Co. (Boston, 1884), of 
 Henry Morley (ui Cassell's National Library, 1889), 
 of Selby (London, 1889), of David Stott (London, 
 1890), of Dr. E. A. Abbott (seventh edition, Lon- 
 don, 1 886) , and an edition printed for John Bumpus 
 and others (London, 1825). Of these, by far 
 the most useful and scholarly edition is that of 
 Dr. Abbott, whose notes are the fullest and the 
 most satisfactory that I have found. Yet the text 
 presented by Dr. Abbott is inferior to that of one 
 or two of the other editions examined ; indeed, it 
 is so full of slips of almost all degrees of serious- 
 ness as to be, not merely uncritical, but absolutely 
 untrustworthy. \\\ view of this fact, one is amused 
 to find a recent editor pluming himself upon hav- 
 ing *•' most carefully collated " his text with that of 
 Dr. Abbott, in order to secure '* the most authori- 
 tative reading possible." In one case Dr. Abbott 
 actually substitutes one word for another, and then 
 gravely explains in a note the meaning of the sub- 
 stituted word {affecting for effecting, Essay LV., 
 \ 2, first sentence). 
 
14 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 THE PRESENT EDITION. 
 
 The text of the present edition is based upon a 
 thorough-going collation of the reprints, which we 
 owe to the accurate care of Mr. Arber, Mr. Wright, 
 and Mr. Spedding, of the final edition printed in 
 Bacon's lifetime and under his supervision. A 
 reprint in every respect exact of this final edition 
 can be of no value except to students of literature, 
 for it is, to use Mr. Arber's words, " disfigured by 
 a perfect eruption of capital letters, and is often 
 cut up into almost inch lengths with commas." In 
 point of punctuation and capitalization it is, in 
 truth, so singular, even among books of that time, 
 as to be a typographical curiosity. In other re- 
 spects, however, it is a remarkably accurate piece 
 of typography. T'his union of singularity and cor- 
 rectness is most readily explained upon the assump- 
 tion that Bacon, or his secretary, read the proofs 
 with care, but that they left matters merely typo- 
 graphical to the printer. It is noteworthy that the 
 second edition of the Essays (1612) has no such 
 peculiarity ; as Mr. Arber remarks again, '' It al- 
 most reads like a modern book." 
 
 Obviously, the modern editor of the Essays must 
 exercise his own taste in the matter of punctuation. 
 This I have endeavored to do in a conservative 
 way, taking advantage of the labors of others at 
 every step. I have also followed, but not slavishly. 
 Dr. Abbott's excellent precedent in introducing a 
 
INTROD UCTION. 
 
 IS 
 
 more perspicuous system of paragraphing than that 
 which obtains in other editions. I have been able 
 to correct some serious errors which disfigure all 
 the modernized texts (Spedding's alone excepted), 
 and have avoided scores and hundreds of corrup- 
 tions which appear sporadically, to a greater or 
 less extent, in all the modern popular editions 
 examined. In preparing tliis text I have striven, 
 in the spirit of the modest words of self-gratulation 
 prefixed by Mr. Spedding to his great edition of 
 the Complete Works : " . . . though I must not 
 suppose that my mind has observed everything 
 that my eyes have looked at, I am not without 
 hope that the text of this edition will be found 
 better and more faithful than any that has hitherto 
 been produced." Translations of the Latin quo- 
 tations not explained in the text have been placed 
 among the foot-notes. It is hoped that the notes 
 — which will bite no one who lets them alone — 
 may not too painfully illustrate, for the thousand 
 and first time, 
 
 " How commentators each dark passage shun, 
 And hold their farthing candle to the sun." 
 
 THE FORM. 
 
 The various forms taken by the modern Essay 
 under the hands of such masters as Lamb, De 
 Quincey, Macaulay, Emerson, and Stevenson, have 
 been primarily determined by the exigencies of the 
 
1 6 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 great reviews and popular magazines. These, in 
 turn, are the natural outcome of the vast multipli- 
 cation of books incident to the spread of the read- 
 ing habit and to the specialization of research. 
 There are now regiments of specialists, armies of 
 students, and whole populations of readers, whose 
 mercurial curiosity will not stay for the labored 
 treatise. The general public demands, not " works," 
 but the results of work. The student who would 
 broaden his intellectual horizon cannot afford to 
 keep his eye forever fixed upon the navel of a 
 quarto volume. Hence the evolution of the re- 
 view, first quarterly, then monthly, finally fort- 
 nightly, determining the scope and structure of 
 the nineteenth century essay, — a new literary or- 
 gan, difficult to define ; something not a book, 
 nor a treatise, nor a dissertation : long enough to 
 instruct, to interest, to suggest a thousand things, 
 and (what is perhaps its most important note) 
 short enough to be read at a single sitting. 
 
 The sixteenth century essay was no such thing. 
 The first writer of essays was Montaigne, whose 
 first volumes were published when Bacon was about 
 twenty. Bacon's own brother, Anthony, met Mon- 
 taigne at Bordeaux, and the two seem to have had 
 some intimacy. John Florio's translation made 
 the " Essais " popular, in the best sense of the 
 word, in England; Shakspere and Ben Jonson 
 possessed and read Florio's book. Doubtless 
 Francis Bacon read it too, and the original as 
 
INTRODUCTION. 1 7 
 
 well, but there is no evidence : his first and only 
 , mention of Montaigne is in the essay "Of Truth" 
 (1625). We have already seen Bacon, in the 
 letter to Prince Henry, pointing back to Seneca as 
 an essayist. Perhaps his indebtedness to Mon- 
 taigne for the essay form is not very great; cer- 
 tainly there is litde in common between the 
 terseness of Bacon and the charming garrulity of 
 the lively and candid Gascon. 
 
 Mr. Arber has discovered an English essayist 
 before Bacon, but only a year before. In 1596 
 there appeared a book entitled " Anonymous his 
 Remedies against Discontentment." A sentence 
 is worth quoting, as showing that, with respect to 
 brevity, " Anonymous " was of the school of Bacon 
 rather than of the school of Montaigne : — 
 
 " For I was long since thus persuaded, that the 
 receipts which we seek to calm and appease our 
 mind withal, ought to be gathered into the fewest 
 words and shortest precepts that may be, that we 
 may always have them about us." 
 
 This recalls Bacon's definidon of his essays as 
 " certain brief notes set down "rather "significantly 
 than curiously," — or, in our more commonplace 
 dialect, rather suggestively than systematically. 
 
 In fact, both Bacon and Montaigne use the 
 word " essay " in a sense very close to the original /S 
 one (Latin exagium, a weighing) . The twin words 
 "essay" and "assay" had already parted com- 
 2 
 
1 8 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 pany, but still remained within hail of each other. 
 The two distinct forms of composition which 
 Bacon and Montaigne severally styled Essays, had 
 this in common : each was an assay of some 
 topic, and a "try'* at its treatment. The title 
 expressly waived any attempt at completeness, 
 still less at exhaustiveness ; the essay was not yet 
 a body, but a mere group of disjecta me7nbra. 
 In the first Baconian essays the subject was a 
 mere heading, under which the author's obiter 
 dicta were jotted down with the utmost concise- 
 ness. That this was his first conception of the 
 essay is clearly shown in the edition of 1597 by 
 the frequent use of the paragraph mark (^), to 
 emphasize the breaks in the sense. As he 
 returned to these essays from time to time 
 throughout a period of thirty years, retouching 
 and adding, they naturally grew into something 
 more organic ; and perhaps some of the later 
 essays are about as coherent, and in their way 
 complete, as some of Emerson's. 
 
 LITERARY STYLE. 
 
 The natural effect of this method of composition 
 upon the style is obvious. In his treatise concern- 
 ing " The Advancement of Learning, " Bacon had 
 scope and verge to roll out his mind, 
 
 " Long crumpled, till creased consciousness lay bare." 
 
JNTROD UCTION. 1 9 
 
 But in the Essays the great fabric lies in creases. 
 Or, rather, we perceive no continuous web, but 
 the maker cuts us off little snippets, which we 
 carry about with us as samples of the product of 
 those marvellous looms. 
 
 Mr. Swinburne makes the following suggestive 
 comparison between the style of Bacon and that 
 of Ben Jonson : — 
 
 " The dry, curt style of the statement, docked and 
 trimmed into sentences that are regularly snapped 
 off or snipped down at the close of each deliverance, 
 is as alien and as far from the fresh and vigorous 
 spontaneity of the poet's, as is the trimming and 
 hedging morality of the essay on ' Simulation and 
 Dissimulation ' from the spirit and instinct of the 
 man who ' of all things loved to be called honest.' " 
 
 But Ben Jonson himself has far more aptly 
 characterized the style of the Essays, in words 
 that will live with the eternity of Bacon's fame. 
 Jonson is speaking of Bacon's oratory, but the 
 reader may judge whether his words do not fit 
 the Essays as well : — 
 
 "... Yet there happened in my time one noble 
 speaker, who was full of gravity in his speaking ; his 
 language (where he could spare or pass by a jest) 
 was nobly censorious. No man ever spake more 
 neatly, more pressly, more weightily, or suffered less 
 emptiness, less idleness, in what he uttered. No 
 member of his speech but consisted of his own 
 graces." 
 
20 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 What follows, although of less immediate perti- 
 nence, must not be omitted ; — 
 
 " His hearers could not cough, or look aside from 
 him, without loss. He commanded where he spake, 
 and had his judges angry and pleased at his devo- 
 tion. No man had their affections more in his 
 power. The fear of every man that heard him was 
 lest he should make an end." 
 
 It will be noted that these weighty sentences 
 are, to repeat Mr. Swinburne's words, '' docked 
 and trimmed " as much as any of Bacon's. Before 
 assenting to Mr. Swinburne's disparagement of the 
 style of the Essays, we should consider whether 
 this style does not grow out of the peculiar charac- 
 ter of the work. As we have already seen, Bacon 
 makes a careful distinction between his "just 
 treatises," requiring " leisure in the writer and 
 leisure in the reader," and his Essays, which are 
 merely " certain brief notes, set down rather sig- 
 nificantly than curiously," and which, he hopes, 
 " may be as grains of salt, that will rather give you 
 an appetite than offend you with satiety." Surely 
 in such writings as these a " dry curt style," with 
 sentences " regularly snapped off or snipped down," 
 is the best style, being the style into which the 
 subject-matter naturally crystallizes. 
 
 To assume that this is the distinctively Baconian 
 style is a great, though a frequent, mistake. When, 
 as in "The Advancement of Learning," Bacon un- 
 
INT ROD UC TION. 2 1 
 
 dertakes to write "just treatises," the deep broad 
 current of his thought sometimes sweeps grandly 
 onward with a " compulsive course " suggestive of 
 other parallels than that of Ben Jonson. Espe- 
 cially in touching upon that belief, which was a 
 religion with him, in the greatness and fruitful- 
 ness of the undiscovered country, — the kingdom 
 of experimental knowledge, — to which he aspired 
 to be the Columbus, does Bacon dilate with real 
 prophetic fervor. Even in the English translation 
 from the Baconian Latin the solemn enthusiasm 
 and the warm imaginative coloring are by no 
 means lost. Who can read without a certain 
 sweUing of the heart the following noble and 
 characteristic passage from the (translated) Preface 
 to the (Latin) Natural History? 
 
 "If therefore, there be any humility towards the 
 Creator, any reverence for, or disposition to magnify, 
 his works, any charity for man and anxiety to relieve 
 his sorrows and necessities, any love of truth in na- 
 ture, any hatred of darkness, any desire for the puri- 
 fication of the understanding, we must entreat men 
 again and again to discard, or at least set apart for 
 a while, these volatile and preposterous philosophies 
 which have preferred theses to hypotheses, led expe- 
 rience captive, and triumphed over the works of God; 
 and to approach with humility and veneration to un- 
 roll the volume of Creation, to linger and meditate 
 therein, and with minds washed clean from opin- 
 ions to study it in purity and integrity. For this is 
 that sound and language which ' went forth into all 
 
2 2 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 lands,' and did not incur the confusion of Babel; 
 this should men study to be perfect in, and, becom- 
 ing again as little children, condescend to take the 
 alphabet of it into their hands, and spare no pains to 
 search and unravel the interpretation thereof, but pur- 
 sue it strenuously and persevere even unto death." 
 
 No better and more instructive comment upon 
 his style and method of composition has ever been 
 made than that of his friend and first biographer. 
 Dr. Rawley. I make no apology for quoting it 
 here : — 
 
 " I have been induced to think, that if there were 
 a beam of knowledge derived from God upon any 
 man in these modern times, it was upon him. For 
 though he was a great reader of books, yet he 
 had not his knowledge from books, but from some 
 grounds and notions from within himself; which, not- 
 withstanding, he vented with great caution and cir- 
 cumspection. His book of ' Instauratio Magna' 
 (which in his own account was the chiefest of his 
 works) was no shght imagination or fancy of his 
 brain, but a settled and concocted notion, the pro- 
 duction of many years' labor and travail. I myself 
 have seen at the least twelve copies of the ' Instaura- 
 tion,' revised year by year one after another, and 
 every year altered and amended in the frame thereof, 
 till at last it came to that model in which it was com- 
 mitted to the press; as many living creatures do lick 
 their young ones, till they bring them to their strength 
 of limbs. 
 
 <' In the composing of his books he did rather 
 drive at a masculine and clear expression than at 
 
IN TROD UC TION. 2 3 
 
 any fineness or affectation of phrases, and would 
 often ask if the meaning were expressed plainly 
 enough, as being one that accounted words to be 
 but subservient or ministerial to matter, and not the 
 principal. And if his style were polite, it was be- 
 cause he would do no otherwise. Neither was 
 he given to any light conceits, or descanting upon 
 words, but did ever purposely and industriously 
 avoid them ; for he held such things to be but 
 digressions or diversions from the scope intended, 
 and to derogate from the weight and dignity of 
 the style." 
 
 BACON AND SHAKSPERE. 
 
 Inasmuch as the question of the Baconian au- 
 thorship of the Shaksperian drama has become 
 of late one of the most popular of literary topics, 
 it may be well to point out in conclusion one or 
 two of the chief notes of difference between the 
 style and method and tone of Bacon in the Essays, 
 and the style and method and tone of Shakspere 
 in the Plays. 
 
 I would premise by saying that the silence of 
 Bacon concerning the great dramatist is, to the 
 student, not very remarkable. Shakspere was to 
 him simply one of a group of popular authors 
 writing in a language which Bacon despised as 
 an ephemeral dialect. He is not satisfied until 
 he gets all his important books embalmed in Latin. 
 He speaks of readers being excluded from reading 
 
24 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 "The Advancement of Learning" because of 
 "the privateness of the language wherein it was 
 written," and of the Latin version he writes, " It 
 is a book I think will live, and be a citizen of the 
 world, as English books are not." Strange as this 
 belief may now seem, in Bacon's time the balance 
 of probabilities was perhaps in its favor. At all 
 events, he shared in the prepossession of the let- 
 tered class of his day, that no serious literary work 
 had been done, or could be done, save in the 
 classical tongues. Bacon's silence concerning 
 Shakspere is no whit stranger than his silence con- 
 cerning many another poet and dramatist of the 
 time, and far less strange than his silence concern- 
 ing Kepler's calculations, and Napier's logarithms, 
 and Galileo's theory of the acceleration of falling 
 bodies. Not being a writer of literary history, he 
 was not bound to make mention of literary men, 
 while as a natural philosopher he was bound to 
 take advantage of the memorable discoveries of 
 scientific men. Yet he totally ignored Kepler, 
 Napier, Wright, and Harvey, barely mentioned 
 Harriott, sneered at Gilbert as having "himself 
 become a magnet," and at the whole body of illus- 
 trious philosophers who made the Copernican 
 theory their working hypothesis, as "these new 
 carmen which drive the earth about." 
 
 In fact, Bacon, despite his prodigious activity of 
 intellect and his almost unparalleled capacity for 
 work, had not the leisure to master the history of 
 
INTRODUCTION. 25 
 
 scientific discovery, much less to keep abreast of 
 the rapid advance of research in his own day. Yet, 
 considering his lifelong invalidism, and his activity 
 as a lawyer, a councillor, a courtier, a high func- 
 tionary of state, his known achievements in letters 
 and philosophy are indeed marvellous. Professor 
 Gardiner, no mean judge, is of the opinion that 
 Bacon was the greatest statesman, as well as the 
 greatest philosophic thinker, of his time and land. 
 It will be difficult to convince any one who has 
 acquainted himself with the recorded activity of 
 this too busy life, that this same man should have 
 had time and energy for the production of any 
 considerable unacknowledged literary work. More- 
 over, as he repeatedly and with the most patent 
 sincerity assures men in his private letters and else- 
 where, his deepest Hfe was centred in his inspiring 
 project of teaching men to know. His "con- 
 templative ends" were as vast, he insists, as his 
 " civil ends " were moderate. If he found himself 
 early deflected by unusual stress of circumstances 
 from the course he had laid out, compelled to 
 subordinate for the time being his vast contempla- 
 tive ends to his civil ends, and forced at last to 
 leave his great design for future ages to complete, 
 there is not the slightest probability that he made 
 this immense sacrifice for the sake of any work 
 merely literary and artistic. In fact, there is al- 
 most every evidence to the contrary. 
 
 It has been urged that Bacon's admitted imagi- 
 
26 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 native power proves his spiritual kinship to the 
 author of the Shakspere plays. But Bacon's im- 
 agination is not, like that of Shakspere, creative. 
 His imaginative force exhibits itself principally in 
 the tracing of hidden or remote resemblances, 
 sometimes fanciful and sometimes real, but al- 
 ways ancillary to an argument. When he has 
 occasion to deal with poetical material, he either 
 transmutes it into prose or presses it into the ser- 
 vice of his theory. Thus, in his " Wisdom of the 
 Ancients," the fables of the Greek mythology, 
 which have charmed countless generations of 
 poets, are gravely interpreted as allegories figura- 
 tively conceaHng and handing down the wisdom 
 of prehistoric ages. In Shakspere, on the other 
 hand, all history and all knowledge are pressed 
 into the service of the Muse. Shakspere's aim 
 and method are, in short, artistic ; Bacon's, didactic 
 and scientific. 
 
 The Essays are an epitome of worldly wisdom, a 
 handbook for him who wishes to work men to his 
 ends, a digest of most of the arts and shifts where- 
 by the crafty and the unscrupulous succeed in that 
 scramble for place and wealth in which the weaker 
 goes to the wall. The product of profound and 
 dispassionate intelligence, of wide experience aided 
 by a furtive eye ever on the alert to surprise those 
 meaner sides of character which men reveal only 
 when off their guard, the essays flash the light of a 
 dark lantern into many secret places of human 
 
INTRODUCTION, 27 
 
 character. Nor do they fail to illuminate what we 
 should be glad enough to leave hidden, — the 
 dubious and petty side of the author's personal 
 character. In speaking of Cunning, of Negoti- 
 ating, of Seeming Wise, of Simulation and Dis- 
 simulation, he seems perfectly at home. True, 
 Shakspere shows the same curious observation of 
 the shady side of human nature. There is no 
 suggestion in the essay "■ Of Cunning," for exam- 
 ple, that could not have been inferred from the 
 practice of such personages as lago, or Edmund 
 in "Lear." The difference is that, while in the 
 Essays these observations are coldly formulated, in 
 the plays they are embodied in unmistakably real 
 and living types of human character. Bacon 
 shrewdly notes the shifts and tricks of men who 
 would fain seem wiser than they are, inserts a few 
 connective words and phrases, and you have his 
 essay "Of Seeming- Wise." Shakspere alone had 
 the secret .of putting a still greater fund of ob- 
 servation/' and a profounder, because more sym- 
 pathetic, insight, into such a character as that of 
 Polonius. 
 
 That .one and the same man might first have 
 created the characters in the plays and then made 
 the generalizations in the Essays, may be possible. 
 But there is a moral as well as an artistic contrast, 
 which renders the gulf between the two works too 
 wide for the reach of the most gigantic human crea- 
 tive capacity. Bacon's Essays have no imaginative 
 
28 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 and emotional lift. The fine imaginative touches 
 that illuminate them here and there are mere 
 analogies or figures, which fail to penetrate beyond 
 the understanding to what we call the soul. To 
 that deepest self in man, Francis of Verulam 
 seldom appeals. He appeals to it profoundly, 
 indeed, in those solemn and energizing procla- 
 mations summoning men to enter upon their heir- 
 ship over Nature through experimental knowledge. 
 But in the Essays there is nothing of this. The 
 writer's tone is adjusted to the level of the count- 
 ing-house and the cabinet. There are unfaiHng 
 shrewdness, abundant wit, useful admonition, and 
 all the wisdom possible to him who looks at life 
 in what Bacon was so fond of calling "a dry 
 light." 
 
 How refreshing and liberalizing, after dwelling 
 in this dry light of intellect purged of human feel- 
 ing, to emerge into the warm sunlight of Shak- 
 spere's genius ! One feels at once the distinction 
 between the worldly and the human. To borrow 
 one of Matthew Arnold's favorite quotations, Shak- 
 spere "sees life steadily, and sees it whole." 
 Bacon sees life steadily enough, but he sees it as 
 a half-moon ; the life in the sympathies and the 
 affections lies in the shadow. " Are not the pleas- 
 ures of the intellect greater than the pleasures of 
 the affections?" he exclaims in his '''Praise of 
 Knowledge." So it comes about that Shakspere, 
 without sacrifice of shrewdness or severity of 
 
INTRODUCTION. 29 
 
 judgment, imparts a broader, because a more gen- 
 erous, impression of human life. Where Bacon's 
 wit coruscates, Shakspere's humor penetrates and 
 reveals. While Bacon is furtively eying his man, 
 if haply he may espy some quaint whim or darling 
 foible, Shakspere is making an interpretation, the 
 more subtile because sympathetic, of the entire 
 character. In short, Bacon is endowed with one 
 of the most comprehensive of intellects, but he has 
 little sympathy and no sentiment. Sympathy and 
 sentiment are out of place in science ; yet I deem 
 it no paradox to assert, that, with a greater endow- 
 ment of sympathy and sentiment, Bacon would 
 have been not only a better man but also a greater 
 philosopher. His genuine zeal " for the relief of 
 man's estate " {philanthropia he termed it ) would 
 then have prompted him to sacrifice high place 
 and royal favor in the interest of those splendid 
 philosophical plans which seemed so visionary to 
 his contemporaries, but which we recognize as so 
 entirely rational. He might have become some- 
 thing niore than a sign-post pointing to a road that 
 he could not travel ; and what was more impor- 
 tant to himself, he might have been spared that 
 sad shipwreck of character and fortune. He might 
 yet have been to us what he seemed to Walton, 
 " the great secretary of Nature and all knowledge " \ 
 he would have rendered impossible that sneer of 
 Harvey, '' He writes philosophy like a Lord Chan- 
 cellor," and pointless the profane gibe of King 
 
30 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 James touching the "Novum Organum": "Tis 
 like the peace of God, — it passeth all understand- 
 ing." He might have realized all that he had 
 dreamed of being and doing ; and still he would 
 not have been Shakspere. 
 
 M. B. A. 
 State University of Iowa, 
 August 25, 1890. 
 
DATES RELATIVE TO FRANCIS BACON 
 AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. 
 
 Francis Bacon b. 22 Jan., 1561. 
 
 Lope de Vega b. 1562. 
 
 Michael Angelo d. 1564. 
 
 William Shakspere b, 1564. 
 
 Marlowe b. 1564. 
 
 Galileo b. 1564. 
 
 Kepler b. 1571. 
 
 Battle of Lepanto, 1571. 
 
 Bacon student at Trinity College, Cambridge, 1573. 
 
 Ben Jonson b. 1573. 
 
 Titian d. 1576. 
 
 Bacon admitted at Gray's Inn, 1576. 
 
 In France with Sir Amias Paulet, 1577-78. 
 
 His father, Sir Nicholas Bacon, d. 1579. 
 
 Camoens d. 1579. 
 
 Bacon admitted Utter Barrister, 1582. 
 
 Grotius b. 1583. 
 
 Bacon member of Parliament, 1584. 
 
 Sir Philip Sidney d. 1586. 
 
 Mary Queen of Scots executed, 1587. 
 
 Destruction of the Spanish Armada, 1588. 
 
32 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 Thomas Hobbes b. 1588. 
 
 Essex the Queen's favorite, 1589. 
 
 Montaigne d. 1592. 
 
 Marlowe d. 1593. 
 
 Bacon incurs the Queen's displeasure, 1593. 
 
 Essex aids Bacon in his unsuccessful suits for the 
 
 place of Attorney-General, and then for that of 
 
 Solicitor-General, 1593-95. 
 Torquato Tasso d. 1595. 
 Essex gives Bacon an estate, 1595. 
 Descartes b. 1596. 
 Essays (first edition), 1597. 
 Oliver Cromwell b. 1599. 
 Spenser d. 1599. 
 Hooker d. 1600. 
 Calderon b. 1600. 
 Execution of Essex, 1601. 
 Anthony Bacon d. 1601. 
 Tycho Brahe d. 1601. 
 Queen Elizabeth d. 1603. 
 Dr. Gilbert d. 1603. 
 Bacon knighted by King James, 1603. 
 King's Counsel, 1604, 
 The Advancement of Learning, 1605. 
 Corneille b. 1606. 
 
 Bacon married to Alice Barnham, 1606. 
 Solicitor-General, 1607. 
 Virginia colonized, 1607. 
 John Milton b. 1608. 
 Bacon's mother, Lady Ann, d. 1610. 
 Essays (second edition), 161 2. 
 Attorney-General, 161 3. 
 Napier d. 1615. 
 
DA TES. 
 
 Z2> 
 
 Shakspere and Cervantes d. 1616. 
 Bacon Privy Councillor, 161 6. 
 Coke suspended from the Chief-Justiceship, 1616. 
 Bacon Lord Keeper, 161 7. 
 Lord Chancellor, 1618. 
 Baron Verulam, 161 8. 
 Execution of Raleigh, 161 8. 
 Landing of the Pilgrims, 1620. 
 The Novum Organum, 1620. 
 Viscount St. Alban, 1621. 
 Sentenced for bribery, 1621. 
 Moli^re b. 1622. 
 Pascal b. 1623. 
 James L d. 1625. 
 Essays (third edition), 1625. 
 Mme. de S^vigne b. 1626 
 
 Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, d. 9 
 April, 1626. 
 
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 To the Right Honorable viy veyy 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 pos- 
 terity. P"or your fortune and merit both have 
 been eminent, and you have planted things 
 that are like to last. I do now publish my 
 Essays, which, of all my other works, have been 
 most current ; for that, as it seems, they come 
 home to men's business and bosoms. I have 
 enlarged them both in number and weight ; so 
 that they are indeed a new work. I thought it 
 therefore agreeable to my affection and obliga- 
 tion to your Grace, to prefix your name before 
 them, both in English and in Latin. For I do 
 
36 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 conceive that the Latin volume of tliem (being 
 in the universal language) may last as long as 
 books last. My '' Instauration," I dedicated to 
 the King; my '"' History of Henry the Seventh" 
 (which I have now also translated into Latin) 
 and my portions of " Natural History," to the 
 Prince ; and these I dedicate to your Grace ; 
 being of the best fruits that, by the good in- 
 crease which God gives to my pen and labors, 
 I could yield. God lead your Grace by the 
 hand. 
 
 Your Grace's most obliged and faithful servant, 
 Fr. St. ALBAN. 
 
THE TABLE, 
 
 E^AY 
 
 II. 
 III. 
 
 \/IV. 
 
 v/V. 
 
 yvi. 
 
 VII. 
 
 v/VIII. 
 
 IX. 
 
 \yx. 
 
 XL 
 
 XII. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 XV. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 vxx. 
 vyxxi. 
 
 ./XXII. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 V XXIV. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 V XXVII. 
 
 v/ 
 
 Of Truth 39 
 
 Of Death 42 
 
 Of Unity in Religion 45 
 
 Of Revenge 52 
 
 Of Adversity 54 
 
 Of Simulation and Dissimulation . . 56 
 
 Of Parents and Children 61 
 
 Of Marriage and Single Life ... 63 
 
 Of Envy 66 
 
 Of Love 73 
 
 Of Great Place 76 
 
 Of Boldness 81 
 
 Of Goodness, and Goodness of Nature 84 
 
 Of Nobility 88 
 
 Of Seditions and Troubles .... 90 
 
 Of Atheism loi 
 
 Of Superstition 105 
 
 Of Travel 108 
 
 Of Empire 11 1 
 
 Of Counsel 118 
 
 Of Delays 125 
 
 Of Cunning 127 
 
 Of Wisdom for a Man's Self. . . . 133 
 
 Of Innovations 135 
 
 Of Dispatch 137 
 
 Of Seeming Wise 140 
 
 Of Friendship 142 
 
38 
 
 THE TABLE. 
 
 ESSAY 
 
 XXVIII. 
 XXIX. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 xx:s^ix. 
 
 N_/XL. 
 
 XLI. 
 
 XLIL 
 
 XLIII. 
 
 XLIV. 
 
 XLV. 
 
 XLVI. 
 
 XLVII. 
 
 ^^XLVIII. 
 
 , /XLIX. 
 
 V L. 
 
 LI. 
 
 LI I. 
 
 ^JL\\\. 
 
 LIV. 
 
 /LV. 
 
 LVI. 
 
 LVIl. 
 
 LVIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Of Expense 153 
 
 Of the True Greatness of King- 
 doms AND Estates 155 
 
 Of Regiment of Health .... 169 
 
 Of Suspicion 171 
 
 Of Discourse 173 
 
 Of Plantations 176 
 
 Of Riches 181 
 
 Of Prophecies 186 
 
 Of Ambition 191 
 
 Of Masks and Triumphs .... 194 
 
 Of Nature in Men 197 
 
 Of Custom and Education .... 199 
 
 Of Fortune 202 
 
 Of Usury 205 
 
 Of Youth and Age 211 
 
 Of Beauty 214 
 
 Of Deformity 216 
 
 Of Building 218 
 
 Of Gardens 224 
 
 Of Negotiating 234 
 
 Of Followers and Friends . . . 236 
 
 Of Suitors 239 
 
 Of Studies 242 
 
 Of Faction 244 
 
 Of Ceremonies and Respects . . . 247 
 
 Of Praise 249 
 
 Of Vain-glory 252 
 
 Of Honor and Reputation . . . 255 
 
 Of Judicature 258 
 
 Of Anger 264 
 
 Of Vicissitude of Things .... 267 
 
ESSAYS CIVIL AND MORAL. 
 
 I._OF TRUTH. 
 
 (1625.) 
 
 "What is truth ? " said jesting Pilate ; and would 
 not stay for an answer. Certainly there be that 
 delight in giddiness ; and count it a bondage to 
 fix a behef; affecting ^ free-will in thinking, as well 
 as in acting. And though the sect 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 ancients. But it is not only 
 the difficulty and labor 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 favor : but a natural though corrupt love of 
 the lie itself One of the later school of the 
 Grecians^ examineth the matter, and is at a stand 
 to think what should be in it that men should love 
 
 1 Aiming at. "^ Probably Lucian. 
 
40 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 lies : where neither they make for pleasure, as with 
 poets ; nor for advantage, as with the merchant ; 
 but for the lie's sake. But I cannot tell : this 
 same truth is a naked and open daylight, that doth 
 not show the masks, and mummeries, and triumphs 
 of the world half so stately and daintily as candle- 
 lights. Truth may perhaps come to the price of 
 a pearl, that showeth best by day ; but it will not 
 rise to the price of a diamond or carbuncle, that 
 showeth best in varied lights. A mixture of a lie 
 doth ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt, 
 that if there were taken out of men's mmds vain 
 opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imag- 
 inations as one would, and the like, but it would 
 leave the minds of a number of men poor 
 shrunken things, full of melancholy and indispo- 
 sition, and unpleasing to themselves ? One of the 
 Fathers, in great severity, called poesy vimuji 
 dcBmoiium^ because it filleth 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, 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 
 
 1 The wine of demons. 
 
OF TRUTH. 41 
 
 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 Sabbath work ever since is the illumina- 
 tion 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 
 arid inspireth light into the face of his chosen. 
 The poet ^ that beautified the sect that was other- 
 wise inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well : 
 *' It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to 
 see ships tossed upon the sea ; a pleasure to stand 
 in the window of a castle, and to see a battle, and 
 the adventures thereof below : but no pleasure is 
 comparable to the standing upon the vantage 
 ground of truth " (a hill not to be commanded, 
 and where the air is always clear and serene) 
 " and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, 
 and tempests, in the vale below : " so always, that 
 this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling 
 or pride. Certainly, it is heaven upon earth to 
 have a man's mind move in charity, rest in provi- 
 dence, and turn upon the poles of truth. 
 
 To pass from theological and philosophical 
 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 honor of man's 
 
 ^ Lucretius. Bacon's habit is to quote from memory, 
 or to paraphrase, as he does here. 
 
42 
 
 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 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 Montaigne ^ saith 
 prettily, when he inquired the reason why the word 
 of the lie should be such a disgrace, and such an 
 odious charge : saith he, " If it be well weighed, 
 to say that a man lieth is as much as to say that 
 he is brave towards God and a coward towards 
 men." For a lie faces God, and shrinks from 
 man. Surely the wickedness of falsehood, and 
 breach of faith, cannot possibly be so highly ex- 
 pressed as in that it shall be the last peal to call 
 the judgments of God upon the generations of 
 men : it being foretold that when Christ cometh 
 " He shall not find faith upon the earth." 
 
 IL — OF DEATH. 
 
 (1612 ; somewhat enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 Men fear death as children fear to go in the 
 dark ; and as that natural fear in children is 
 increased with tales, so is the other. Certainly, 
 
 1 This is the only direct quotation in the Essays from 
 Montaigne. 
 
OF DEATH. 43 
 
 the contemplation of death, as the wages of sin 
 and passage to another world, is holy and reli- 
 gious ; but the fear of it, as a tribute due unto 
 nature, is weak. Yet in religious meditations 
 there is sometimes mixture of vanity and of su- 
 perstition. You shall read in some of the friars' 
 books of mortification, that a man should think 
 with himself what the pain is if he have but his 
 finger's end pressed or tortured, and thereby 
 imagine what the pains of death are, when the 
 whole body is corrupted and dissolved ; when 
 many times death passeth with less pain than the 
 torture of a limb : for the most vital parts are not 
 the quickest of sense. And by him that spake 
 only as a philosopher and natural man it was well 
 said, " Pompa mortis magis terret, quam mors 
 ipsa." ^ Groans and convulsions, and a dis- 
 colored face, and friends weeping, and blacks, 
 and obsequies, and the like, show death terrible. 
 
 It is worthy the observing, that there is no 
 passion in the mind of man so weak, but it mates 
 and masters the fear of death ; and therefore death 
 is no such terrible enemy, when a man hath so 
 many attendants about him that can win the 
 combat of him. Revenge triumphs over death ; 
 love slights it ; honor aspireth to it ; grief flieth 
 to it ; fear preoccupateth it : nay, we read, after 
 
 1 " The trappings of death affright us more than death 
 itself." — Seneca. The following sentence is very much 
 condensed from Montaigne's Essay on Death. 
 
44 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 Otho the emperor had slain himself, pity, which is 
 the tenderest of affections, provoked many to die, 
 out of mere compassion to their sovereign, and as 
 the truest sort of followers. Nay, Seneca adds 
 niceness and satiety : *' Cogita quamdiu eadem 
 feceris ; mori velle, non tantum fortis, aut miser, 
 sed etiam fastidiosus potest." ^ A man would die, 
 though he were neither valiant nor miserable, only 
 upon a weariness to do the same thing so oft over 
 and over. It is no less worthy to observe, how 
 httle alteration in good spirits the approaches of 
 death make ; for they appear to be the same men 
 till the last instant. Augustus Caesar died in a 
 compliment : " Livia, conjugii nostri memor vive, 
 et vale." ^ Tiberius in dissimulation ; as Tacitus 
 saith of him : " Jam Tiberium vires et corpus, non 
 dissimulatio, deserebant." ^ Vespasian in a jest; 
 sitting upon the stool : " Ut puto, Deus fio." ^ 
 Galba with a sentence : " Feri, si ex re sit populi 
 Romani;"^ holding forth his neck. Septimius 
 Severus in despatch : " Adeste, si quid mihi restat 
 agendum ; " ® and the like. 
 
 Certainly the Stoics bestowed too much cost 
 
 1 Whenever a Latin quotation is not translated in a 
 footnote, it is to be understood that Bacon translates it. 
 
 2 Farewell, Livia; and remember our married life. 
 
 * Tiberius was losing his strength and vitality, but not 
 his dissimulation. 
 
 * As I suppose (purge), I am becoming a god. 
 
 6 Strike, if it be for the good of the Roman people. 
 6 Make haste, if there is anything more for me to do. 
 
OF UNITY IN RELIGION. 45 
 
 upon death, and by their great preparations made 
 it appear more fearful. Better saith he, " qui 
 fmem vitae extremum inter munera ponat naturae." ^ 
 It is as natural to die as to be born ; and to a 
 little infant, 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 feels the hurt ; and therefore a mind 
 fixed and bent upon somewhat that is good doth 
 av'ert the dolors of death. But above all, believe 
 it, the sweetest canticle is Nunc dimittis^ when 
 a man hath obtained worthy ends and expecta- 
 tions. Death hath this also, that it openeth the 
 gate to good fame, and extinguisheth envy. — 
 " Extinctus amabitur idem." ^ 
 
 III. — OF UNITY IN RELIGION. 
 
 (1612 ; greatly enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 Religion being the chief band of human society, 
 it is a happy thing when itself is well contained 
 within the true band of unity. The quarrels and 
 divisions about religion were evils unknown to the 
 heathen. The reason was, because the religion of 
 
 1 Who accounts the end of life as one of Nature's 
 boons. 
 
 '■^ Now lettest thou thy servant depart. 
 
 ^ Let him die, and you '11 love him to-morrow. 
 
46 
 
 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 the heathen consisted rather in rites and cere- 
 monies ihan in any constant beUef. 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 rehgion will endure no mixture nor partner. 
 We shall therefore speak a few words concerning 
 the unity of the Church : what are the fruits 
 thereof, what the bounds, 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 of manners. For as in the natural 
 body, a wound, or solution of continuity, is worse 
 than a corrupt humor; 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 penetral- 
 ibus ; " ^ that is, when some men seek Christ in 
 the conventicles of heretics, and others in an 
 outward face of a church, that voice had need 
 
 1 Behold he is in the desert. 
 
 2 Behold he is in the closet. (Bacon's Scriptural quo- 
 tations are from the Vulgate.) 
 
OF UNITY IN RELIGION. 47 
 
 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 sev- 
 eral tongues, will he not say that you are mad? " 
 And certainly it is litde 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 manner, 
 but yet it expresseth well the deformity : there is 
 a master of scoffing,^ that in his catalogue of books 
 of a feigned library sets down this title of a book, 
 "The Morris-dance of Heretics." For indeed 
 every sect of them hath a diverse posture or cringe 
 by themselves, which cannot but move derision in 
 worldlings and depraved politics,^ who are apt to 
 contemn holy things. 
 
 As for the fruit towards those that are within, 
 it is peace ; which contain eth infinite blessings : it 
 establisheth faith ; it kindleth charity ; the outward 
 peace of the Church distilleth into peace of con- 
 science ; and it turneth the labors of writing and 
 reading of controversies into treatises of mortifi- 
 cation and devotion. 
 
 1 Teacher. - Rabelais. 
 
 3 Politician. For the form of the word compare 
 heretic. 
 
48 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 Concerning the bounds of unity : the true 
 placing of them importeth exceedingly. There 
 appear to be two extremes. For to certain zelants 
 all speech of pacification is odious. ** Is it peace, 
 Jehu? What hast thou to do with peace? turn 
 thee behind me." Peace is not the matter, but 
 following and party. Contrariwise, certain Laodi- 
 ceans and lukewarm persons think they may 
 accommodate points of religion by middle ways, 
 and taking part of both, and witty reconcilements : 
 as if they would make an arbitrement between 
 God and man. Both these extremes are to be 
 avoided ; which will be done, if the league of 
 Christians, penned by our Saviour himself, were, 
 in the two cross clauses thereof, soundly and 
 plainly expounded : '' He that is not with us is 
 against us ; " and again, *' He that is not against 
 us is with us ; " that is, if the points fundamental, 
 and of substance, in religion, were truly discerned 
 and distinguished from points not merely of faith, 
 but of opinion, order, or good intention. This is 
 a thing may seem to many a matter trivial, and 
 done already ; but if it were done less partially, 
 it would be embraced more generally. 
 
 Of this I may give only this advice, according 
 to my small model. Men ought to take heed of 
 rending God's Church by two kinds of contro- 
 versies. The one is, when the matter of the point 
 controverted is too small and light, not worth the 
 heat and strife about it, kindled only by contra- 
 
OF UNITY IN RELIGION. 49 
 
 diction. For, as it is noted by one of the Fathers, 
 Christ's coat indeed had no seam, but the 
 Church's vesture was of divers colors : where- 
 upon he saith, '' In veste varietas sit, scissura non 
 sit ; " ^ they be two things, unity and uniformity. 
 The other is, when the matter of the point con- 
 troverted is great, but it is driven to an over-great 
 subtilty and obscurity, so that it becometh a thing 
 rather ingenious than substantial. A man that is 
 of judgment and understanding shall sometimes 
 hear ignorant men differ, and know well within 
 himself that those which so differ mean one thing, 
 and yet they themselves would never agree. And 
 if it come so to pass in that distance of judgment 
 which is between man and man, shall we not think 
 that God above, that knows the heart, doth not 
 discern that frail men, in some of their contra- 
 dictions, 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 scientioe." ^ Men create oppositions 
 which are not, and put them into new terms so 
 fixed, as, whereas the meaning ought to govern 
 the term, the term in effect govemeth the mean- 
 
 1 Let there be variety, but no division, in the garment. 
 
 2 Avoiding the profane novelties of words, and opposi- 
 tions of knowledge falsely so called (Vulgate). 
 
 (vc. 
 
50 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 ing. There be also two false peaces or unities : 
 the one, when the peace is grounded but upon an 
 implicit ignorance ; for all colors will agree in the 
 dark : the other, when it is pieced up upon a 
 direct admission of contraries in fundamental 
 points. For truth and falsehood in such things 
 are like the iron and clay in the toes of Nebu- 
 chadnezzar's image : they may cleave, but they 
 will not incorporate. 
 
 Concerning the means of procuring unity : men 
 must beware that in the procuring or muniting of__ 
 religious unity, they do not dissolve 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, wliich is Mahomet's 
 sword, or like unto it: that is, to propagate re- 
 ligion by wars, or by sanguinary persecutions to 
 force consciences ; except it be in cases of overt 
 scandal, blasphemy, or intermixture of practice 
 against the state : much less to nourish seditions, 
 to authorize conspiracies 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 
 
OF UNITY IN RELIGION. 51 
 
 Agamemnon, that could endure the sacrificing of 
 his own daughter, exclaimed : 
 
 "Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum." 1 
 
 What would he have said if he had known of 
 the massacre ^ in France, or the powder treason of 
 England ? He would have been seven times more 
 epicure and atheist than he was. For as the tem- 
 poral sword is to be drawn with great circumspec- 
 tion in cases of religion, so it is a thing monstrous 
 to put into the hands of the common people. Let 
 that be left unto the Anabaptists and other furies. 
 It was great blasphemy when the devil said, " I 
 will ascend, and be like the Highest ; " but it is 
 greater blasphemy to personate God, and bring him 
 in saying, '' I will descend, and be like the prince 
 of darkness." And what is it better to make the 
 cause of religion to descend to the cruel and exe- 
 crable actions of murdering princes, butchery of 
 people, and subversion of states and governments ? 
 Surely this is to bring down the Holy Ghost, instead 
 of the likeness of a dove, in the shape of a vulture 
 or raven ; and to set, out of the bark of a Christian 
 Church, a flag of a bark of pirates and assassins. 
 Therefore it is most necessary that the Church by 
 doctrine and decree, princes by their sword, and 
 all learnings, both Christian and moral, as by their 
 
 1 So great the evils which reh'gion could instigate ! 
 
 2 On St. Bartholomew's day, 1572. Bacon could re- 
 member the indignation it stirred in England. 
 
52 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 mercury rod, do damn and send to hell for ever 
 those facts ^ and opinions tending to the support of 
 the same ; as hath been already in good part done. 
 Surely in counsels concerning religion, that counsel 
 of the apostle would ^ be prefixed, " Ira hominis 
 non implet justitiam Dei." ^ And it was a notable 
 observation of a wise father, and no less ingenu- 
 ously confessed, " that those which held and per- 
 suaded pressure of consciences were commonly 
 interessed therein themselves for their own ends." 
 
 IV. — OF REVENGE. 
 
 (1625.) 
 
 Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the 
 more a 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." 
 
 1 Deeds. Commonly used by Shakspere of n'il deeds. 
 Thus, of the murder of Duncan : *' Damned fact." 
 
 2 Should. See note i, Essay xxii. page 128. 
 
 3 The anger of man worketh not the justice of God 
 (Vulgate). 
 
OF REVENGE. 53 
 
 That which is past is gone and irrevocable, and 
 wise men have enough to do with things present 
 and to come : therefore they do but trifle with 
 themselves that labor in past matters. There is 
 no man doeth a wrong for the wrong's sake ; but 
 thereby to purchase himself profit, or pleasure, or 
 honor, or the like. Therefore why should I be 
 angry with a man for loving himself better than 
 me? And if any man should do wrong merely 
 out of ill-nature, why, yet it is but like the thorn 
 or briar, which prick or 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 enemy is still 
 beforehand, and it is two for one. 
 
 Some, when they take revenge, are desirous the 
 party should know whence it coraeth ; this is the 
 more generous. For the delight seemeth to be 
 not so much in doing the hurt as in making the 
 party repent. But base and crafty cowards are 
 like the arrow that flieth in the dark. 
 
 Cosmus, Duke of Florence, had a desperate 
 saying against perfidious or neglecting friends, as 
 if those wrongs were unpardonable : " You shall 
 read," saith he, " that we are commanded to forgive 
 our enemies ; but you never read that we are com- 
 manded to forgive our friends." But yet the spirit 
 of Job was in a better tune : " Shall we/' saith he, 
 
54 BACON- S ESSAYS. 
 
 " take good at God's hands, and not be content to 
 take evil also ? " And so of friends in a proportion. 
 This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge 
 keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise 
 would heal and do well. Public revenges are for 
 the most part fortunate ; as that for the death of 
 Caesar, for the death of Pertinax, for the death of 
 Henry III. of France, and many more. But in 
 private revenges it is not so. Nay, rather, vindic- 
 tive persons live the life of witches, who, as they 
 are mischievous, so end they infortunate. 
 
 v. — OF ADVERSITY. 
 
 (1625.) 
 
 It was a high speech- of Seneca, after the 
 manner of the Stoics, that the good things which 
 belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the 
 good things that belong to adversity are to be 
 admired. " Bona rerum secundarum optabilia, ad- 
 versarum mirabilia." Certainly if miracles be the 
 command over Nature, they appear most in ad- 
 versity. It is yet a higher speech of his than the 
 other (much too high for a heathen), " It is true 
 greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and 
 the security of a God." " Vere magnum, habere 
 fragilitatem hominis, securitatem Dei." This would 
 have done better in poesy, where transcendencies 
 
OF ADVERSITY. 55 
 
 are more allowed. And the poets, indeed, have 
 been busy with it ; for it is in effect the thing 
 which is figured in that strange fiction of the 
 ancient poets which seemeth not to be without 
 mystery ; nay, and to have some approach to the 
 state of a Christian : that Hercules, when he went 
 to unbind Prometheus (by whom human nature is 
 represented), sailed the length of the great ocean 
 in an earthen pot or pitcher; lively describing 
 Christian resolution that saileth in the frail bark of 
 the flesh through the waves of the world. 
 
 But to speak in a mean : ^ the virtue of pros- 
 perity is temperance, the virtue of adversity is for- 
 titude, which in morals is the more heroical virtue. 
 Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, 
 adversity is the blessing of the New, which carrieth 
 the greater benediction and the clearer revelation 
 of God's favor. Yet, even in the Old Testament, 
 if you listen to David's harp you shall hear as many 
 hearse-like airs as carols ; and the pencil of the 
 Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the 
 afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. 
 Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes, 
 and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. 
 We see in needle-works and embroideries it is 
 more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad 
 and solemn ground than to have a dark and mel- 
 ancholy work upon a lightsome ground : judge, 
 
 1 In a moderate fashion. 
 
56 BACON'S ESSAYS, 
 
 therefore, of the pleasure of the heart by the pleas- 
 ure of the eye. Certainly virtue is like precious 
 odors, most fragrant when they are incensed or 
 crushed ; for prosperity doth best discover vice, 
 but adversity doth best discover virtue.^ 
 
 VI. — OF SIMULATION AND DIS- 
 SIMULATION. 
 
 (1625.) 
 
 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 politics ^ that are 
 the great dissemblers. 
 
 Tacitus saith, " Livia sorted well with the arts 
 
 ■^ John Webster's great play, "The White Devil," was 
 printed thirteen years before this essay. It contains the 
 following passage (i. i ) : — 
 
 " Perfumes, the more they are chafed, the more thej' render 
 Their pleasing scents ; and so affliction 
 Expresseth virtue fully, whether true 
 Or else adulterate." 
 
 Webster's " Duchess of Malfi,^' published two years 
 before this essay, contains the same figure (iii. 5) : — 
 
 " Man, like to cassia, is proved best being bruised.'' 
 
 Bacon (Apothegm 253) attributes the figure to another. 
 — See note, Essay xxxiv. page 1S3. 
 2 Politicians. 
 
OP SIMULATION AND DISSIMULATION. 57 
 
 of her husband and dissimulation of her son " ; 
 attributing arts or poHcy to Augustus and dissim- 
 ulation 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 closeness of Tiberius." These proper- 
 ties of arts or policy, and dissimulation or close- 
 ness, 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 showed at half-lights,^ and to whom 
 and when, (which, indeed, are arts of state and arts 
 of life, as Tacitus well calleth them,) to him a 
 habit of dissimulation is a hindrance and a poor- 
 ness. But if a man cannot obtain to that judg- 
 ment, then it is left to him, generally, 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. Cer- 
 tainly the ablest men that ever were have had all 
 an openness and frankness of dealing, and a name 
 of certainty and veracity ; but then they were 
 like horses, well managed - ; for they could tell 
 passing well when to stop or turn. And at such 
 tuT:ies, when they thought the case indeed re- 
 
 ^ Compare the word " twilight." 
 ^ Trained, broken. 
 
58 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 quired dissimulation, if then they used it, it came 
 to pass that the former opinion spread abroad of 
 their good faith and clearness of dealing made 
 them almost invisible. 
 
 There be three degrees of this hiding and veil- 
 ing of a man's self. The first, closeness, reser- 
 vation, and secrecy, when a man leaveth 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, simula- 
 tion in the affirmative, when a man industriously 
 and expressly feigns and pretends to be that he 
 is not. 
 
 For the first of these, secrecy : it is indeed the 
 virtue of a confessor ; and assuredly the secret man 
 heareth many confessions, for who will open him- 
 self to a blab or a babbler? But if a man be 
 thought secret it inviteth discovery, as the more 
 close air sucketh in the more open. And as in 
 confession the revealing is not for worldly use, but 
 for the ease of a man's heart, so secret men come 
 to the knowledge of many things in that kind ; 
 while men rather discharge their minds than 
 impart their minds. In few words, mysteries are 
 due to secrecy. Besides, to say truth, naked- 
 ness is uncomely as well in mind as 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 commonly 
 
OF SIMULATION AND DISSIMULATION 59 
 
 vain and credulous withal. For he that talketh 
 what he knovveth, will also talk what he knoweth 
 not. Therefore set it down that an habit of 
 secrecy 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 follow- 
 eth many times upon secrecy by necessity ; so that 
 he that will be secret must be a dissembler in 
 some degree. For men are too cunning to suffer 
 a man to keep an indifferent carriage between 
 both, and to be secret, without swaying the bal- 
 ance on either side. They will so beset a man 
 with questions, and draw him on, and pick it out 
 of him, that, without an absurd silence, he must 
 show an inclination one way ; or if he do not, they 
 will gather as much by his silence as by his speech. 
 As for equivocations or oraculous speeches, they 
 cannot hold out long. So that no man can be 
 secret, except he give himself a litde scope of 
 dissimulation, which is, as it were, but the skirts or 
 train of secrecy. 
 
 But for the third degree, which is simulation and 
 false profession : that I hold more culpable and 
 less politic, except it be in great and rare matters. 
 
 1 Traits. 
 
6o BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 And therefore a general 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 simu- 
 lation in other things, lest his hand should be out 
 of ure. 
 
 The great advantages of simulation and dissim- 
 ulation are three : — First, to lay asleep opposi- 
 tion and to surprise ; for where a man's intentions 
 are published, it is an alarum to call up all that are 
 against them. The second is, to reserve to a man's 
 self a fair retreat ; for if a man engage himself by a 
 manifest declaration, he must go through or take 
 a fall. The third is, the better to discover the 
 mind of another ; for to him that opens himself, 
 men will hardly show themselves adverse ; 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 disadvantages to set it even : — The first, 
 that simulation and dissimulation commonly carry 
 with them a show of fearfiilness, which in any 
 business doth spoil the feathers of round ^ flying up 
 to the mark. The second, that it puzzleth and 
 perplexeth the conceits of many that perhaps 
 
 1 Fairly, smoothly. They will "assent with civil leer." 
 
 2 Flying square up. 
 
OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN. 6 1 
 
 would Otherwise co-operate with him, and makes 
 a man walk almost alone to his own ends. The 
 third and greatest is, that it depriveth a man of one 
 of the most principal instruments for action, which 
 is trust and belief. The best composition and tem- 
 perature is to have openness in fame and opinion, 
 secrecy in habit, dissimulation in seasonable use, 
 and a power to feign if there be no remedy. 
 
 VII. — OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN. 
 
 (1612 ; somewhat enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 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 
 labors, but they make misfortunes more bitter; 
 they increase the cares of life, but they mitigate 
 the remembrance of death. The perpetuity by 
 generation is common to beasts ; but memory, 
 merit, and noble works are proper to men ; and 
 surely a man shall see the noblest works and 
 foundations have proceeded from childless men, 
 which have sought to express the images of their 
 minds where those of their bodies have failed ; so 
 the care of posterity is most in them that have no 
 posterity. They that are the first raisers of their 
 houses are most indulgent towards their children, 
 beholding them as the continuance, not only of 
 
62 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 their kind, but of their work ; and so both children 
 and creatures. 
 
 The difference in affection of parents towards 
 their several children is many times unequal, and 
 sometimes unworthy, especially in the mother ; as 
 Solomon saith, " A wise son rejoiceth the father, 
 but an ungracious son shames the mother." A 
 man shall see, where there is a house full of chil- 
 dren, 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 illiberality of parents in allowance towards 
 their children is an harmful error, — makes them 
 base, acquaints them with shifts, makes them sort 
 with mean company, and makes them surfeit more 
 when they come to plenty ; and therefore the 
 proof is best when men keep their authority to- 
 wards their children, but not their purse. Men 
 have a foolish manner (both parents and school- 
 masters and servants) in creating and breeding an 
 emulation between brothers during childhood, 
 which many times sorteth to discord when they 
 are men, and disturbeth families. 
 
 The Italians make little difference between chil- 
 dren and nephews or near kinsfolks ; but so they 
 be of the lump, they care not tliough they pass 
 not through their own body. And, to say truth. 
 
 1 Spoiled bv indulgence. 
 
OF MARRIAGE AND SINGLE LIFE. 63 
 
 in nature it is much a like matter ; insomuch that 
 we see a nephew sometimes resembleth an uncle 
 or a kinsman more than his own parent, 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 extra- 
 ordinary, then it is good not to cross it ; but 
 generally the precept is good, '' Optimum elige, 
 suave et facile illud faciet consuetudo." ^ Younger 
 brothers are commonly fortunate, but seldom or 
 never where the elder are disinherited. 
 
 VIII. — OF MARRIAGE AND SINGLE 
 LIFE. 
 
 (161 2; enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 He that hath wife and children hath given hos- 
 tages to fortune, for they are impediments to great 
 enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. Certainly 
 the best works and of greatest merit for the public 
 have proceeded from the unmarried or childless 
 
 1 Choose what is best : habit will make it pleasant and 
 easy. 
 
64 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 men, which both in affection and means have 
 married and endowed the public. Yet it were 
 great reason that those that have children should 
 have greatest care of future times, unto which they 
 know they must transmit their dearest pledges. 
 
 Some there are who, though they lead a single 
 life, yet their thoughts do end with themselves, 
 and 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, because 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 ordinary cause of a sin- 
 gle life is liberty, especially in certain self-pleasing 
 and humorous^ minds, which are so sensible of 
 every restraint, as they will go near to think their 
 girdles and garters to be bonds and shackles. 
 
 Unmarried men are best friends, best masters, 
 best servants, but not always best subjects ; for 
 they are light to run away, and almost all fugitives 
 are of that condition. A single life doth well with 
 Churchmen, for charity will hardly water the 
 ground where it must first fill a pool. It is indif- 
 ferent - for judges and magistrates, for if they be 
 
 1 Whimsical, crotchety. 2 Immaterial. 
 
OP MARRIAGE AND SINGLE LIFE. 65 
 
 facile and corrupt, you shall have a servant five 
 times worse than a wife. For soldiers, I find the 
 generals commonly, in their hortatives, put men in 
 mind of their wives and children. And I think 
 the despising of marriage amongst the Turks maketh 
 the vulgar soldier more base. 
 
 Certainly, wife and children are a kind of disci- 
 pline of humanity ; and single men, though they 
 be many times more charitable, because their 
 means are less exhaust, yet, on the other side, 
 they are more cruel and hard-hearted (good to 
 make severe inquisitors), because their tenderness 
 is not so oft called upon. Grave natures, led by 
 custom, and therefore constant, are commonly 
 loving husbands ; as was said of Ulysses, " Vetu- 
 1am suam praetulit immortalitati." ^ Chaste wo- 
 men are often proud and froward, as presuming 
 upon the merit of their chastity. It is one of the 
 best bonds both of chastity and obedience in the 
 wife, if she think her husband wise ; which she will 
 never do if she find him jealous. 
 
 Wives are young men's mistresses, companions 
 for 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 
 
 1 He preferred his old wife to immortality. 
 
 2 Attributed to Thales. 
 
 5 
 
66 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 have very good wives ; whether it be that it raiseth 
 the price of their husband's kindness when it. 
 comes, or that the wives take a pride in their 
 patience. But this never fails, if the bad husbands 
 were of their own choosing against their friends' 
 consent ; for then they will be sure to make good 
 their own folly. 
 
 IX. — OF ENVY. 
 
 (1625.) 
 
 There be none of the affections which have 
 been noted to fascinate or bewitch, but love and 
 envy. They both have vehement wishes ; they 
 frame themselves readily into imaginations and 
 suggestions ; and they come easily into the eye, 
 especially upon the presence of the objects ; which 
 are the points that conduce to fascination, if any 
 such thing there be. We see likewise the Scrip- 
 ture calleth envy an evil eye, and the astrologers 
 call the evil influences of the stars evil aspects ; so 
 that still there seemeth to be acknowledged in the 
 act of envy an ejaculation/ or irradiation, of the 
 eye. Nay, some have been so curious as to note 
 that the times when the stroke or percussion of an 
 envious eye doth most hurt, are when the party 
 envied is beheld in glory or triumph, for that sets 
 
 1 A darting forth. 
 
OF ENVY. 67 
 
 an edge upon envy ; and, besides, at such times the 
 spirits of the person envied do come forth most 
 into the outward parts, and so meet the blow. 
 
 But leaving these curiosities, (though not un- 
 worthy to be thought on in fit place,^) we will 
 handle what persons are apt to envy others ; what 
 persons are most subject to be envied themselves ; 
 and what is the difference between public and 
 private envy. 
 
 A man that hath no virtue in himself ever 
 envieth virtue in others. For men's minds will 
 either feed upon their own good or upon others' 
 evil ; and who wanteth the one will prey upon the 
 other ; and whoso is out of hope to attain to an- 
 other's virtue will seek to come at even hand by 
 depressing another's fortune. 
 
 A man that is busy and inquisitive is commonly 
 envious. For to know much of other men's mat- 
 ters cannot be because all that ado may con- 
 cern 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 envious 
 
 1 In his " Natural History " Bacon had made the same 
 observations about the evil eye. 
 
 2 Every busybody is malevolent. 
 
(,S BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 towards new men when they rise. For the dis- 
 tance 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 up- 
 on a very brave and heroical nature, which thinketh 
 to make his natural wants part of his honor ; in 
 that it should be said that an eunuch or a lame 
 man did such great matters ; affecting the honor 
 of a miracle : as it was in Narses the eunuch, and 
 Agesilaus and Tamberlanes, that were lame men. 
 
 The same is the case of men that rise after 
 calamities and misfortunes ; for they are as men 
 fallen out with the times, and think other men's 
 harms a redemption of their own sufferings. 
 
 They that desire to excel in too many matters, 
 out of levity and 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 he had a vein to 
 excel. 
 
 Lastly, near kinsfolks, and fellows in office, and 
 those that have been bred together, are more apt 
 to envy their equals when they are raised. For it 
 doth upbraid unto them their own fortunes, and 
 
OF ENVY. 69 
 
 pointeth at them, and cometh oftener into their 
 remembrance, and incurreth^ likewise more into 
 the note of others; and envy ever redoubleth 
 from speech and fame. Cain's envy was the more 
 vile and malignant towards his brother Abel be- 
 cause, when his sacrifice was better accepted, 
 there was nobody 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 virtue when 
 they are advanced are less envied, for their fortune 
 seemeth but due unto them ; and no man envieth 
 the payment of a debt, but rewards and liberality 
 rather. Again, envy is ever joined with the 
 comparing of a man's self, and where there is no 
 comparison, no envy; and therefore kings are 
 not envied but by kings. 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 that 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 
 
 1 Entereth. 
 
70 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 hotter upon a bank or steep rising ground than 
 upon a flat.-^ And for the same reason, those 
 that are advanced by degrees are less envied 
 than those that are advanced suddenly, and per 
 saltum? 
 
 Those that have joined with their honor great 
 travels,-^ cares, or perils are less subject to envy, 
 for men think that they earn their honors hardly, 
 and pity them sometimes; and pity ever healeth 
 envy. Wherefore you shall observe that the more 
 deep and sober sort of politic persons, in their 
 greatness, are ever bemoaning themselves what a 
 life they lead, chanting a " Quanta patimur ; " * 
 not that they feel it so, but only to abate the edge 
 of envy. But this is to be understood of business 
 that is laid upon men, and not such as they call 
 unto themselves. For nothing increaseth envy 
 more than an unnecessary and ambitious engross- 
 ing of business ; and nothing doth extinguish envy 
 more than for a great person to preserve all other 
 inferior officers in their full rights and pre-emi- 
 nences of their places : for by that means there be 
 so many screens between him and envy. 
 
 Above all, those are most subject to envy which 
 carry the greatness of their fortunes in an insolent 
 
 1 In the edition of 1612 this figure appears in the essay 
 " Of Nobility." 
 
 2 At a bound. 
 
 * Travails, labors. 
 
 * How much we suffer. 
 
OF ENVY. 71 
 
 and proud manner, being never well but while 
 they are showing how great they are, either by 
 outward pomp, or by triumphing over all oppo- 
 sition or competition j whereas wise men will 
 rather do sacrifice to envy, in suffering themselves 
 sometimes of purpose to be crossed and overborne 
 in things that do not much concern them. Not- 
 withstanding, so much is true, that the carriage of 
 greatness in a plain and open manner, so it be 
 without arrogancy and vain-glory, doth draw less 
 envy than if it be in a more crafty and cunning 
 fashion. For in that course a man doth but disa- 
 vow fortune, and seemeth to be conscious 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 witchcraft; and that is to re- 
 move the lot,^ as they call it, and to lay it upon 
 another. For which purpose the wiser sort of 
 great persons bring in ever upon the stage some- 
 body upon whom to derive^ the envy that would 
 come upon themselves : sometimes upon minis- 
 ters and servants, sometimes upon colleagues and 
 associates, and the like ; and for that turn there 
 are never wanting some persons of violent and 
 
 1 Spell. It seems to be a translation of the Latin sors 
 (French sort)., whence " sorcerer." 
 
 2 Turn off. 
 
72 BACON'S ESSAYS, 
 
 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 
 them within bounds. 
 
 This envy, being in the Latin word invidia, go- 
 eth in the modern languages by the name of " dis- 
 contentment," of which we shall speak in handling 
 sedition. It is a disease in a state like to infec- 
 tion ; for as infection spreadeth upon that which 
 is sound, and tainteth it, so when envy is gotten 
 once into a state, it traduceth even the best actions 
 thereof, and turneth them into an ill odor. And 
 therefore there is little won by intermingling of 
 plausible actions ; for that doth argue but a weak- 
 ness 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 beat chiefly upon 
 principal officers or ministers, rather than upon 
 kings and estates 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 estate, then the envy, though hidden, is truly 
 upon the state itself And so much of public envy 
 or discontentment, and the difference thereof 
 
OF LOVE. 73 
 
 from private envy, which was handled in the first 
 place. 
 
 We will add this in general, touching the affec- 
 tion of envy, that of all other affections it is the 
 most importune and continual ; for of other affec- 
 tions 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, because 
 they are not so continual. It is also the vilest af- 
 fection and the most depraved, for which cause it 
 is the proper attribute of the devil, who is called 
 " the envious man, that soweth tares amongst the 
 wheat by night ; " as it always cometh to pass that 
 envy worketh subtilely and in the dark, and to the 
 prejudice of good things, such as is the wheat. 
 
 X. — OF LOVE. 
 
 (1612; greatly enlarged, 1625) 
 
 The stage is more beholding^ to love than the 
 life of man. For, as to the stage, love is ever 
 matter of comedies and now and then of tragedies ; 
 but in life it doth much mischief, sometimes like a 
 
 - Envy keeps no holidays. 
 
 2 Beholden. A common form of the word in the 17th 
 century. 
 
74 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 siren, sometimes like a fury. You may observe 
 that amongst all the great and worthy persons 
 whereof the memory remaineth, either ancient or 
 recent, there is not one that hath been transported 
 to the mad degree of love ; which shows that great 
 spirits and great business do keep out this weak 
 passion. You must except, nevertheless, Mar- 
 cus Antonius, the half-partner of the Empire of 
 Rome, and Appius Claudius, the decemvir and law- 
 giver ; whereof the former was indeed a voluptu- 
 ous 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 forti- 
 fied, if watch be not well kept. It is a poor saying 
 of Epicurus : " Satis magnum alter alteri theatrum 
 sumus," ^ as if man, made for the contemplation of 
 Heaven and all noble objects, should do nothing 
 but kneel before a httle idol and make himself 
 subject, though not of the mouth, as beasts are, 
 yet of the eye, which was given him for higher 
 purposes. 
 
 It is a strange thing to note the excess of this 
 passion, and how it braves the nature and value 
 of things, by this, that the speaking in a perpet- 
 ual 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 
 
 1 We are to one another a theater large enough. 
 
OF LOVE, 75 
 
 whom all the petty flatterers have intelligence, is a 
 man's self, certainly the lover is more. For there 
 was never 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 iQve be 
 reciproque. For it is a true rule that love is ever 
 rewarded either with the reciproque or with an 
 inward and secret contempt ; by how much the 
 more 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 Pallas ; for whosoever esteemeth 
 too much of amorous affection quitteth both riches 
 and wisdom. 
 
 This passion hath his floods in the very times of 
 weakness, which are great prosperity and great 
 adversity, though this latter hath been less ob- 
 served ; both which times kindle love and make 
 it more fervent, and therefore show it to be the 
 child of folly. They do best who, if they cannot 
 but admit love, yet make it keep quarter, and sever 
 it wholly from their serious affairs and actions of 
 Hfe ; for if it check^ once with business it troubleth 
 men's fortunes, and maketh men that they can no- 
 
 1 Interfere. 
 
76 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 ways be true to their own ends. I know not how, 
 but martial men are given to love ; I think it is 
 but as they are given to wine, for perils commonly 
 ask to be paid in pleasures. 
 
 There is in man's nature a secret inclination and 
 motion towards love of others, which, if it be not 
 spent upon some one or a few, doth naturally 
 spread itself towards many, and maketh men be- 
 come humane and charitable, as it is seen some- 
 time in friars. Nuptial love maketh mankind, 
 friendly love perfecteth it, but wanton love cor- 
 rupteth and embaseth it. 
 
 XI. — OF GREAT PLACE. 
 
 (1612; enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 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 laborious, and by pains men come to 
 greater pains ; and it is sometimes base, and by 
 indignities men come to dignities. The standing 
 is slippery, and the regress is either a downfall or 
 at least an eclipse, which is a melancholy thing. 
 
OF GREAT PLACE. 77 
 
 "Cum non sis qui fueris, non esse cur velis 
 vivere." ^ Nay, retire men cannot when they 
 would, neitlier will they when it were reason, but 
 are impatient of privateness, even in age and sick- 
 ness, 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 persons had need to borrow other men's 
 opinions to think themselves happy, for if they 
 judge by their own feeling they cannot find it ; 
 but if they think with themselves what other men 
 think of them, and that other men would fain be 
 as they are, then they are happy as it were by 
 report, when perhaps they find the contrary within. 
 For they are the first that find their own griefs, 
 though they be the last that find their own faults. 
 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. " Illi mors gravis incu- 
 bat, 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 good is the true and lawful end 
 
 1 When you are no longer what you were, you lose 
 your interest in life. 
 
 2 Death falls heavy upon him who dies well known to 
 the world and a stranger to himself. 
 
7 8 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 of aspiring. For good thoughts, though God ac- 
 cept them, yet towards men are little better than 
 good dreams, except they be put in act ; and that 
 cannot be without power and place, as tlie vantage 
 and commanding ground. Merit and good works 
 is the end of man's motion, and conscience of the 
 same is the accomplishment of man's rest. For if 
 a man can be partaker of God's theater, he shall 
 likewise be partaker of God's rest. " Et conversus 
 Deus, ut aspiceret opera, qu?e fecerunt manus 
 suae, vidit quod omnia essent bona nimis," ^ and 
 then the Sabbath. 
 
 In the discharge of thy place set before thee the 
 best examples, for imitation is a globe of precepts. 
 And after a time set before thee thine own exam- 
 ple, and examine thyself strictly, whether thou didst 
 not best at first. Neglect not also the examples of 
 those that have carried themselves ill in the same 
 place, not to set off thyself by taxing their mem- 
 ory, but to direct thyself what to avoid. Reform, 
 therefore, without bravery ^ or scandal of former 
 times and persons ; but yet set it down to thyself, 
 as well to create good precedents as to follow them. 
 Reduce things to the first institution, and observe 
 wherein and how they have degenerate ; but yet 
 ask counsel of both times : of the ancient time 
 
 1 And God turned to behold all the works which his 
 hands had wrought, and he saw that they were all very 
 good. 
 
 2 Ostentation. 
 
OF GREAT PLACE. 79 
 
 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 peremptory, and express thy- 
 self well when thou digressest from thy rule. Pre- 
 serve the right of thy place, but stir not questions 
 of jurisdiction ; and rather assume thy right in si- 
 lence and de facto, than voice it with claims and 
 challenges. Preserve likewise the rights of inferior 
 places, and think it more honor 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 nifor- 
 mation, 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 busi- 
 ness but of necessity. For corruption : do not 
 only bind thine own hands, or thy servants' hands, 
 from taking, but bind the hands of suitors also 
 from offering. For integrity used doth the one ; but 
 integrity professed, and with a manifest detestation 
 of bribery, doth the other. And avoid not only 
 the fault but the suspicion. Whosoever is found 
 variable, and changeth manifestly without manifest 
 cause, giveth suspicion of corruption. Therefore 
 
 1 Pliability, fickleness. 
 
So BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 always when thou changest thine opinion or course, 
 profess it plainly, and declare it, together with the 
 reasons that move thee to change, and do not 
 think to steal it. A servant or a favorite, if he be 
 inward,^ and no other apparent cause of esteem, is 
 commonly thought but a by-way to close corrup- 
 tion. 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 facil- 
 ity, 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 Sol- 
 omon saith : "To respect persons is not good ; for 
 such a man will transgress for a piece of bread." 
 
 It is most true that was anciently spoken, " A 
 place showeth the man j " and it showeth some to 
 the better and some to the worse. " Omnium con- 
 sensu, 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 sufficiency,^ the 
 
 1 Intimate, confidential. 
 
 2 " A judge were better be a briber than a respecter of 
 persons ; for a corrupt judge offendcth not so lightly 
 [readily] as a facile." Advance77ient of Learning, ii. 23. 6. 
 
 * Everybody would have judged him worthy of the 
 purple, if he had never worn it. 
 
 * Vespasian was the one emperor who changed for the 
 better. 
 
 ^ Administrative capacity. 
 
OP BOLDNESS. 8 1 
 
 Other of manners and affection. It is an assured 
 sign of a worthy and generous spirit, whom honor 
 amends. For honor is, or should be, the place of 
 virtue : and as in nature things move violently to 
 their place, and calmly in their place ; so virtue in 
 ambition is violent, in authority settled and calm. 
 
 All rising to great place is by a winding stair, 
 and, if there be factions, it is good to side a man's 
 self ^ whilst he is in the rising, and to balance him- 
 self when he is placed. Use the memory of thy 
 predecessor fairly and tenderly ; for if thou dost 
 not, it is a debt will sure be paid when thou art 
 gone. If thou have colleagues, respect them, and 
 rather call them when they look not for it, than ex- 
 clude them when they have reason to look to be 
 called. Be not too sensible or too remembering of 
 thy place in conversation and private answers to 
 suitors ; but let it rather be said, " When he sits in 
 place he is another man." 
 
 XII. —OF BOLDNESS. 
 
 (1625.) 
 
 It is a trivial grammar-school text, but yet wor- 
 thy a wise man's consideration. Question was 
 asked of Demosthenes, What was the chief part 
 of an orator? He answered, Action. What next? 
 
 1 To take sides. 
 6 
 
82 BACON ^S ESSAYS. 
 
 — Action. What next again? — Action. He said 
 it that knew it best, and had by nature himself no 
 advantage in that he commended. A strange thing, 
 that that part of an orator which is but superficial, 
 and rather the virtue of a player, should be placed 
 so high above those other noble parts of invention, 
 elocution, and the rest ; nay, almost alone, as if it 
 were all in all. But the reason is plain. There is 
 in human nature generally more of the fool than of 
 the wise ; and therefore those faculties by which 
 the foolish part of men's minds is taken are most 
 potent. Wonderful like is the case of boldness in 
 civil business. What first ? — Boldness. What 
 second and third? — Boldness. And yet boldness 
 is a child of ignorance and baseness, far inferior to 
 other parts. But, nevertheless, it doth fascinate 
 and bind hand and foot those that are either shal- 
 low in judgment or weak in courage, which are 
 the greatest part; yea, and prevaileth with wise 
 men at weak times. Therefore, we see it hath 
 done wonders in popular states, but with senates 
 and princes less ; and more ever upon the first en- 
 trance of bold persons into action than soon after ; 
 for boldness is an ill keeper of promise. 
 
 Surely, as there are mountebanks for the natu- 
 ral body, so are there mountebanks for the politic 
 body ; men that undertake great cures, and per- 
 haps have been lucky in two or three experiments, 
 but want the grounds of science, and therefore 
 cannot hold out. Nay, you shall see a bold fellow 
 
OF BOLDNESS. 83 
 
 many times do Mahomet's miracle. Mahomet 
 made the people believe that he would call an 
 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 shamefully ; yet, if 
 they have the perfection of boldness, they will but 
 slight it over, and make a turn, and no more ado. 
 
 Certainly to men of great judgment bold per- 
 sons are a sport to behold ; nay, and to the vulgar 
 also boldness hath somewhat of the ridiculous ; for 
 if absurdity be the subject of laughter, doubt you 
 not but great boldness is seldom without some ab- 
 surdity. Especially, it is a sport to see when a 
 bold fellow is out of countenance, for that puts his 
 face into a most shrunken and wooden posture, as 
 needs it must ; for in bashfulness the spirits do a 
 little go and come ; but with bold men, upon like 
 occasion, they stand at a stay, like a stale at chess, 
 where it is no mate, but yet the game cannot stir. 
 But this last were fitter for a satire than for a seri- 
 ous observation. 
 
 This is well to be weighed, that boldness is ever 
 blind : for it seeth not dangers and inconveniences. 
 Therefore it is ill in counsel, good in execution ; so 
 that the right use of bold persons is that they never 
 
84 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 command in chief, 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. 
 
 XIIL — OF GOODNESS, AND GOODNESS 
 OF NATURE. 
 
 (1612; considerably enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 I TAKE goodness in this sense, the affecting of^ 
 the weal of men, which is that the Grecians call 
 philanthropia ; and the word " humanity," as it 
 is used, is a little too light to express it. Good- 
 ness I call the habit, and goodness of nature the 
 inclination. This of all virtues and dignities of 
 the mind is the greatest, being the character of 
 the Deity : and without it man is a busy, mis- 
 chievous, wretched thing, no better than a kind 
 of vermin. Goodness answers to the theological 
 virtue charity, and admits no excess, but error. 
 The desire of power in excess caused the angels 
 to fall ; the desire of knowledge in excess caused 
 man to fall; but in charity there is no excess, 
 neither can angel or man come in danger by it. 
 The inclination to goodness is imprinted deeply 
 in the nature of man, insomuch that if it issue not 
 towards men, it will take unto other living crea- 
 
 1 Aiming at, seeking. 
 
GOODNESS, AND GOODNESS OF NATURE. 85 
 
 tures : 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 Busbechius 
 reporteth, a Christian boy in Constantinople had 
 like to have been stoned for gagging, in a waggish- 
 ness, a long-billed fowl. 
 
 Errors, indeed, in this virtue of 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 confidence to put in writing, almost in plain 
 terms, " that the Christian faith had given up 
 good men in prey to those that are tyrannical and 
 unjust ; " which he spake because indeed there 
 was never law, or sect, or opinion, did so much 
 magnify goodness as the Christian religion doth. 
 Therefore, to avoid the scandal and the danger 
 both, it is good to take knowledge of the errors 
 of an habit so excellent. Seek the good of other 
 men, but be not in bondage to their faces or 
 fancies ; for that is but facility^ or softness, which 
 taketh an honest mind prisoner. Neither give 
 thou ^sop's cock a gem, who would be better 
 pleased and happier if he had a barleycorn. The 
 example of God teacheth the lesson truly : " He 
 sendeth his rain, and maketh his sun to shine, 
 upon the just and unjust ; " but he doth not rain 
 
 1 Pliability. " As for facility, it is worse than bribery." 
 Essay xi. page -jZ, 
 
86 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 wealth, nor shine honor and virtues, upon men 
 equally. Common benefits are to be communi- 
 cate with all, but peculiar benefits with choice. 
 And beware how in making the portraiture thou 
 breakest the pattern ; for divinity maketh the love 
 of ourselves the pattern, the love of our neighbors 
 but the portraiture. " Sell all thou hast, and give 
 it to the poor, and follow me." But sell not all 
 thou hast except thou come and follow me ; that 
 is, except thou have a vocation, wherein thou 
 may est do as much good with little means as 
 with great ; for, otherwise, in feeding the streams 
 thou driest the fountain. 
 
 Neither is there only a habit of goodness 
 directed by right reason, but there is in some men, 
 even in nature, a disposition towards it ; as on 
 the other side there is a natural malignity. For 
 there be that in their nature do not affect ^ the 
 good of others. The lighter sort of malignity 
 turneth but to a crossness, or frowardness, or 
 aptness to oppose, or difficileness, or the like ; 
 but the deeper sort to envy and mere ^ mischief. 
 Such men in other men's calamities are, as it 
 were, in season, and are ever on the loading 
 part ^ ; not so good as the dogs that licked Laza- 
 
 1 Seek, aim at. " Sheer, absolute. 
 
 8 Adding their weight to the load. Abbott explains 
 loading as a verbal noun used adjectively with part. Com- 
 pare walking-stick, church-going bell. But it may be a mis- 
 print for loadcn. 
 
GOODNESS, AND GOODNESS OF NATURE. 87 
 
 rus' sores, but like flies that are still t^uzzing upon 
 anything that is raw : misanthropic that make it 
 their practice to bring men to the bough, and yet 
 have never a tree for the purpose in their gardens, 
 as Timon had.^ Such dispositions are the very 
 errors of human nature, and yet they are the fittest 
 timber to make great 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 strangers, 
 it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his 
 heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a 
 continent that joins to them. If he be compas- 
 sionate towards the afflictions of others, it shows 
 that his heart is like the noble tree that is wounded 
 itself when it gives the balm. If he easily par- 
 dons and remits offences, it shows that his mind 
 is planted above injuries, so that he cannot 
 be shot. If he be thankful for small benefits, it 
 
 1 Timon's invitation to the Athenians is given as fol- 
 lows in North's Plutarch : " My lords of Athens, I have a 
 little yard at my house where there groweth a fig-tree, on 
 the which many citizens have hanged themselves : and 
 because I mean to make some building on the place, I 
 thought good to let you all understand it, that, before the 
 fig-tree be cut down, if any of you be desperate, you may 
 there in time go hang yourselves." Compare Shakspere's 
 •' Timon of Athens," v. i. 
 
 '^ Politicians. Compare heretic* 
 
88 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 shows that he weighs men's minds, and not their 
 trash.^ But, above all, if he have St. Paul's per- 
 fection, that he would wish to be an anathema 
 from Christ for the salvation of his brethren, it 
 shows much of a divine nature, and a kind of con- 
 formity with Christ himselL'^ 
 
 XIV. — OF NOBILITY. 
 
 (1612 ; much enlarged and altered, 1625.) 
 
 We will speak of nobility, first as a portion of 
 an estate, tli^n 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 3 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 flags and pedigree. We see the 
 Switzers last well, notwithstanding their diver- 
 sity of religion, and of cantons, for utility is 
 
 1 Sometimes then used as a cant word for money : 
 ** Who steals my purse, steals trash." 
 
 2 This beautiful final paragraph was added in 1625 
 * Stems, families. 
 
OP NOBILITY. 89 
 
 their bond, and not respects. The United Prov- 
 inces of the Low Countries in their government 
 excel ; for where there is an equahty, the consul- 
 tations are more indifferent,^ and the payments 
 and tributes more cheerful. A great and potent 
 nobility addeth majesty to a monarch, but di- 
 rainisheth power; and putteth life and spirit 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 insolency of inferiors may be broken upon 
 them, before it come on too fast upon the majesty 
 of kings. A numerous nobility causeth poverty 
 and inconvenience in a state, for it is a surcharge 
 of expense ; and, besides, it being of necessity 
 that many of the nobility fall in time to be weak 
 in fortune, it maketh a kind of disproportion 
 between honor and means. 
 
 As for nobility in particular persons, it is a rev- 
 erend 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 and 
 noble family which hath stood against the waves 
 and weathers of time. For new nobility is but the 
 act of power, but ancient nobility is the act of 
 time. Those that are first raised to nobility are 
 commonly more virtuous," but less innocent, than 
 their descendants, for there is rarely any rising but 
 
 1 Impartial. 2 Manly, able. 
 
90 
 
 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 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. Be- 
 sides noble persons cannot go much higher ; and 
 he that standeth at a stay, when others rise, can 
 hardly avoid motions of envy. On the other side, 
 nobility extinguisheth the passive envy from others 
 towards them, because they are in possession of 
 honor.^ Certainly, kings that have able men of their 
 nobility shall find ease in employing them, and a 
 better slide into their business ^ ; for people naturally 
 bend to them, as born in some sort to command. 
 
 XV.— OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES. 
 (1625.3) 
 
 Shepherds of people had need know the calen- 
 dars of tempests in state, which are commonly 
 greatest when things grow to equality ; as natural 
 tempests are greatest about the equiiwctia. And 
 as there are certain hollow blasts of wind, and 
 
 1 See the Essay " Of Envy," foot-note, page 70. 
 
 2 Will find their business flow more smoothly (Latin 
 translation). 
 
 3 Although this Essay does not appear in the edition 
 of 1 61 2, yet it is known to have been written, or rather 
 sketched, before that date. 
 
OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES. 91 
 
 secret swellings of seas, before a tempest, so are 
 there in states : 
 
 " Ille etiam caecos instare tumultus 
 Saepe monit, fraudesque et operta tumescere bella."i 
 
 Libels and licentious discourses against the 
 state, when they are frequent and open, and in 
 like sort false news often running up and down 
 to the disadvantage of the state, and hastily em- 
 braced, are amongst the signs of troubles. Virgil, 
 giving the pedigree of Fame, saith she was sister 
 to the giants : 
 
 "Illam Terra parens, ira irritata Deorum, 
 Extremam, ut perhibent, Caeo Enceladoque sororem 
 Progenuit." ^ 
 
 As if fames were the relics of seditions past ; but 
 they are no less indeed the preludes of seditions 
 to come. Howsoever he noteth it right, that sedi- 
 tious 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 
 ought to give greatest contentment, are taken in 
 ill sense and traduced ; for that shows the envy 
 great, as Tacitus saith, " Confiata magna invidia, 
 
 1 " Of troubles imminent, and treasons dark. 
 
 Thence warning comes, and wars in secret gathering." 
 Virgil (Spedding's trans.). 
 
 2 " Enraged against the Gods, revengeful Earth 
 
 Produced her, last of the Titanian birth." 
 
 (Dryden's trans.) 
 
92 
 
 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 seu bene, seu male, gesta premunt." ^ Neither 
 doth it follow 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 obe- 
 dience which Tacitus speaketh of is to be held sus- 
 pected : '■' Erant in officio, sed tamen qui mallent 
 mandata imperantium interpretari, quam exequi." '^ 
 Disputing, excusing, cavilHng upon mandates and 
 directions, is a kind of shaking off the yoke, and 
 assay of disobedience ; especially if in those dis- 
 putings they which are for the direction speak 
 fearfully and tenderly, and those that are against 
 it audaciously. 
 
 Also, as Machiavel noteth well, when princes, 
 that ought to be common parents, make them- 
 selves as a party and lean to a side, it is as a boat 
 that is overthrown by uneven weight on the one 
 side ; as was well seen in the time of Henry III. 
 of PVance : for first himself entered league for the 
 extirpation of the Protestants, and presently after 
 the same league was turned upon himself. For 
 when the authority of princes is made but an ac- 
 
 1 When envy is aroused, good and bad acts alike 
 offend. 
 
 ^ They remained in their places, yet they preferred to 
 quibble about the commands of their ofiicers rather than 
 to obey them. 
 
OP SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES. 93 
 
 cessary to a cause, and that there be other bands 
 that tie faster than the band of sovereignty, kings 
 begin to be put ahnost 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 priminn 
 mobile^ according to the old opinion, which is that 
 every of them is carried swiftly by the highest mo- 
 tion, and softly in their own motion. And there- 
 fore 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 : " Solvam cingula 
 regum." ^ 
 
 So when any of the four pillars of government 
 are mainly shaken or weakened (which are re- 
 ligion, justice, counsel, and treasure), men had 
 need to pray for fair weather. But let us pass 
 from this part of predictions (concerning which, 
 nevertheless, more light may be taken from that 
 
 1 According to the old astronomers, the tenth or high- 
 est transparent, starless sphere, enclosing the solar system. 
 Called by Milton, in Paradise Lost, the " Prime Orb." 
 
 '^ More freely than is consistent with their duty to the 
 government. 
 
 3 I will loose the girdles of kings. 
 
94 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 which followeth), and let us speak first of the ma- 
 terials of seditions ; then of the motives of them ; 
 and thirdly of the remedies. 
 
 Concerning the materials of seditions, it is a 
 thing well to be considered ; for the surest way to 
 prevent seditions, if the times do bear it, is to take 
 away the matter of them. For if there be fuel 
 prepared, it is hard to tell whence the spark shall 
 come that shall set it on fire. The matter of se- 
 ditions is of two kinds : much poverty, and much 
 discontentment. It is certain, so many overthrown 
 estates, so many votes for troubles. Lucan noteth 
 well the state of Rome before the civil war : 
 
 " Hinc usura vorax, rapidumque in tempore foenus, 
 Hinc concussa fides, et multis utile bellum." ^ 
 
 This same " multis utile bellum " is an assured and 
 infallible sign of a state disposed to seditions and 
 troubles. And if this poverty and broken estate 
 in the better sort be joined with a want and neces- 
 sity 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 pol- 
 itic body like to humors 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 
 
 1 Hence rapacious usury and greedy interest at the 
 day of payment ; hence shaken credit, and war a gain to 
 the many {rapidiim should be avidum). 
 
OP SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES. 
 
 95 
 
 to imagine people to be too reasonable, who do 
 often spurn at their own good ; nor yet by this, 
 whether the griefs whereupon they rise be in fact 
 great or small, for they are the most dangerous 
 discontentments where the fear is greater than the 
 feeling : " Dolendi modus, timendi non item." ^ 
 Besides, in great oppressions, the same things that 
 provoke the passions do withal mate the courage ; 
 but in fears it is not so. Neither let any prince or 
 state be secure concerning discontentments, be- 
 cause they have been often or have been long, and 
 yet no peril hath ensued ; for as it is true that 
 every vapor or fume doth not turn into a storm, so 
 it is nevertheless true that storms, though they blow 
 over divers times, yet may fall at last ; and, as the 
 Spanish proverb noteth well, " The cord breaketh 
 at the last by the weakest pull." 
 
 The causes and motives of seditions are inno- 
 vation in religion, taxes, alteration of laws and 
 customs, breaking of privileges, general oppres- 
 sion, advancement of unworthy persons, strangers, 
 dearths, disbanded soldiers, factions grown des- 
 perate ; and whatsoever in offending people joineth 
 and knitteth them in a common cause. 
 
 For the remedies, there may be some general 
 preservatives, whereof we will speak ; as for the just 
 cure, it must answer to the particular disease, and 
 so be left to counsel rather than rule. 
 
 ^ There is a limit to suffering, but not to fear. 
 
96 
 
 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 The first remedy or prevention is to remove by 
 all means possible that material cause of sedition 
 whereof we spake, which is want and poverty in 
 the estate. To which purpose serveth the open- 
 ing and well-balancing of trade, the cherishing of 
 manufactures, the banishing of idleness, the re- 
 pressing of waste and excess by sumptuary laws, the 
 improvement and husbanding of the soil, the regu- 
 lating of prices of things vendible, the moderating 
 of taxes and tributes, and the like. Generally it 
 is to be foreseen that the population of a kingdom, 
 especially if it be not mown down by wars, do not 
 exceed the stock ^ of the kingdom which should 
 maintain them. Neither is the population to be 
 reckoned only by number ; for a smaller number 
 that spend more and earn less, do wear out an 
 estate sooner than a greater number that live lower 
 and gather more. Therefore, the multiplying of 
 nobility and other degrees of quality, in an over 
 proportion to the common people, doth speedily 
 bring a state to necessity ; and so doth likewise an 
 overgrown clergy, for they bring nothing to the 
 stock ; and in like manner, when more are bred 
 scholars than preferments can take off. 
 
 It is likewise to be remembered that, forasmuch 
 as the increase of any estate must be upon the 
 foreigner (for whatsoever is somewhere gotten is 
 somewhere lost), there be but three things which 
 
 1 Produce. 
 
OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES. 97 
 
 one nation selleth unto another : the commodity 
 as nature yieldeth it, the manufacture, and the 
 vecture or carriage. So that if these three wheels 
 go, wealth will flow as in a spring tide. And it 
 cometh many times to pass that " materiam super- 
 abit opus," that the work and carriage is more 
 worth 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 moneys in a state be not gath- 
 ered into few hands ; for otherwise a state may 
 have a great stock, and yet starve. And money 
 is like muck, not 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, engrossing, great pasturages, and the 
 like. 
 
 For removing discontentments, or at least the 
 danger of them, there is in every state, as we know, 
 two portions of subjects, the noblesse and the com- 
 monalty. When one of these is discontent, the 
 danger is not great ; for common people are of 
 slow motion if they be not excited by the greater 
 sort ; and the greater sort are of small strength, 
 except the multitude be apt and ready to move of 
 themselves. Then is the danger, when the greater 
 sort do but wait for the troubling of the waters 
 amongst the meaner, that then they may declare 
 themselves. The poets feign that the rest of the 
 7 
 
98 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 gods would have bound Jupiter ; which he hearing 
 of, by the counsel of Pallas sent for Briareus with 
 his hundred hands to come in to his aid. An 
 emblem, no doubt, to show how safe it is for mon- 
 archs to make sure of the good-will of common 
 people. 
 
 To give moderate liberty for griefs and discon- 
 tentments to evaporate, so it be without too great 
 insolency or bravery,^ is a safe way ; for he that 
 turneth the humors back, and maketh the wound 
 bleed inwards, endangereth malign ulcers and 
 pernicious impostumations. 
 
 The part of Epimetheus mought well become 
 Prometheus in the case of discontentments ; for 
 there is not a better provision against them. Epi- 
 metheus, when griefs and evils flew abroad, at last 
 shut the lid, and kept Hope in the bottom of the 
 vessel. Certainly the politic and artificial nourish- 
 ing and entertaining of hopes, and carrying men 
 from hopes to hopes, is one of the best antidotes 
 against the poison of discontentments. And it is 
 a certain sign of a wise government and proceed- 
 ing, when it can hold men's hearts by hopes, when 
 it cannot by satisfaction ; and when it can handle 
 things in such manner, as no evil shall appear so 
 peremptory but that it hath some outlet of hope ; 
 which is the less hard to do, because both partic- 
 ular persons and factions are apt enough to flatter 
 
 ^ Bravado. 
 
OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES. 99 
 
 themselves, or at least to brave ^ that which they 
 believe not. 
 
 Also the foresight and prevention that there be 
 no likely or fit head whereunto discontented per- 
 sons 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 dis- 
 contented party, and upon whom they turn their 
 eyes ; and that is thought discontented in his own 
 particular : which kind of persons are either to be 
 won and reconciled to the state, and that in a fast 
 and true manner; or to be fronted with some 
 other of the same party that may oppose them, and 
 so divide the reputation. Generally, the dividing 
 and breaking of all factions and combinations that 
 are adverse to the state, and setting them at dis- 
 tance, or at least distrust, amongst themselves, is 
 not one of the worst remedies. For it is a desper- 
 ate case if those that hold with the proceedings 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 die- 
 tare j " ^ for it did utterly cut off that hope which 
 
 1 Ostentatiously to assume or pretend, as in party 
 platforms. 
 
 2 Sylla did not know his letters, he could not dictate. 
 
lOO BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 men had entertained, that he would at one time 
 or other give over his dictatorship. Galba un- 
 did himself by that speech, " Legi a se militem, 
 non emi," ^ for it put the soldiers out of hope of 
 the donative. Probus likewise by that speech, 
 " Si vixero, non opus erit amphus Romano im- 
 perio militibus," ^ a speech of great despair for the 
 soldiers. And many the like. Surely, princes 
 had need, in tender matters and tickhsh times, to 
 beware what they say ; especially in these short 
 speeches, which fly abroad like darts and are 
 thought to be shot out of their secret intentions. 
 For as for large discourses, they are flat things, 
 and not so much noted. 
 
 Lasdy, let princes, against all events, not be with- 
 out some great person, one, or rather more, of 
 military valor 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 troubles than were fit. 
 And the state runneth the danger of that which 
 Tacitus saith : " Atque is habitus animorum fuit, ut 
 pessimum facinus auderent pauci, plures vellent, 
 omnes paterentur." ^ But let such military per- 
 
 1 That he did not buy his soldiers, but levied them. 
 
 2 If I live, the Roman Empire shall have no further 
 need of soldiers. 
 
 ^ And such was the temper of their minds, that a few 
 were in a mood to attempt mischief, more to desire it, and 
 all to wink at it. 
 
OF ATHEISM. lOl 
 
 sons be assured and well reputed of, rather than 
 factious and popular ; holding also good corre- 
 spondence with the other great men in the state ; 
 or else the remedy is worse than the disease. 
 
 XVI. — OF ATHEISM. 
 
 (i6i2 ; much enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 I HAD rather believe all the fables in the Legend,^ 
 and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this 
 universal frame is without a mind. And therefore 
 God never wrought miracle 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 
 sometimes rest in them and go no further ; but 
 when it beholdeth the chain of them confederate 
 and linked together, it must needs fly to Provi- 
 dence and Deity. Nay, even that school which 
 is most accused of atheism doth most demonstrate 
 religion : that is, the school of Leucippus, and 
 Democritus, and Epicurus. For it is a thousand 
 times more credible that four mutable elements, 
 
 1 The " Golden Legend " of the 13th century. 
 
 2 Confute. 
 
 3 Efficient causes. 
 
I02 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 and one immutable fifth essence,^ duly and eter- 
 nally placed, need no God, than that an army of 
 infinite small portions or seeds, unplaced, should 
 have produced this order and beauty without a 
 divine marshal. 
 
 The Scripture saith, " The fool hath said in his 
 heart, There is no God." It is not said, "The 
 fool hath thought in his heart;" so as he rather 
 saith it by rote to himself, as that he would have, 
 than that he can thoroughly believe it, or be per- 
 suaded of it. For none deny there is a God, but 
 those for whom it maketh that there were no God. 
 It appeareth in nothing more that atheism is rather 
 in the lip than in the heart of man than by this, 
 that atheists will ever be talking of that their 
 opinion, as if they fainted in it within themselves, 
 and would be glad to be strengthened by the con- 
 sent of others. Nay more, you shall have atheists 
 strive to get disciples, as it fareth with other sects ; 
 and, which is most of all, you shall have of them 
 that will suffer for atheism, and not recant; 
 whereas if they did truly think that there were no 
 such thing as God, why should they trouble them- 
 selves ? Epicurus is charged that he did but dis- 
 semble for his credit's sake, when he affirmed there 
 were blessed natures, but such as enjoyed them- 
 selves without having respect to the government 
 of the world. Wherein, they say, he did tem- 
 
 1 The quintessence of which Aristotle supposed the 
 heavenly bodies to be composed. 
 
OF ATHEISM. 103 
 
 porize, though in secret he thought there was 
 no God. But certainly he is traduced, for his 
 words are noble and divine : " Non deos vulgi ne- 
 gare profanum ; sed vulgi opiniones diis apphcare 
 profanum." ^ Plato could have said no more. 
 And although he had the confidence to deny the 
 administration, he had not the power to deny the 
 nature. The Indians of the West have names for 
 their particular gods, though they have no name 
 for God : as if the heathens should have had the 
 names Jupiter, Apollo, Mars, &c., but not the word 
 Deus ; which shows that even those barbarous peo- 
 ple have the notion, though they have not the lat- 
 itude and extent of it. So that against atheists 
 the very savages take part with the very subtilest 
 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 religion, or 
 superstition, are, by the adverse part, branded with 
 the name of atheists. But the great atheists, in- 
 deed, are hypocrites, which are ever handling holy 
 things, but without feeling ; so as they must needs 
 be cauterized in the end. 
 
 The causes of atheism are : divisions in religion, 
 if they be many, for any one main division addeth 
 zeal to both sides, but many divisions introduce 
 
 1 Profanity consists, not in denying the gods of the 
 vulgar, but in adhering to vulgar beliefs concerning the 
 gods. 
 
104 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 atheism. Another is scandal of priests, when it is 
 come to that which St. Bernard saith, '' Non est 
 jam dicere, ut populus, sic sacerdos : quia nee sic 
 populus, ut sacerdos." ^ A third is custom of pro- 
 fane scoffing in holy matters, which doth by little 
 and little deface the reverence of religion. And, 
 lastly, learned times, specially with peace and pros- 
 perity ; for troubles and adversities do more bow 
 men's minds to religion.^ 
 
 They that deny a God destroy man's nobility ; 
 for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his 
 body, and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, 
 he is a base and ignoble creature. It destroys like- 
 wise magnanimity, and the raising of human nature. 
 For take an example of a dog, and mark what a 
 generosity and courage he will put on when he 
 finds himself maintained by a man, who to him is 
 instead of a God, or vielior 7iatura ; ^ which cour- 
 age 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 assur- 
 eth himself upon divine protection and favor, gath- 
 ereth a force and faith which human nature in 
 itself could not obtain. Therefore as atheism is in 
 
 1 One can no longer say, the priest is as bad as the 
 people, for now the people is not so bad as the priest. 
 
 2 This paragraph, and the last sentence of the preced- 
 ing, were originally in the essay "Of Superstition." In 
 transferring them, Bacon, as his habit was, expanded them. 
 
 8 A better nature. 
 
OF SUPERSTITION. 105 
 
 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 
 magnanimity as Rome; of this state hear what 
 Cicero saith : " Quam volumus licet, patres con- 
 scripti, nos amemus, tamen nee numero Hispanos, 
 nee robore Gallos, nee calliditate Poenos, nee artibus 
 Groecos, nee denique hoc ipso hujus gentis et ter- 
 rae domestico nativoque sensu Italos ipsos et La- 
 tinos ; sed pietate, ac religione, atque hac una 
 sapientia, quod deorum immortalium numine om- 
 nia regi gubernarique perspeximus, omnes gentes 
 nationesque superavimus." ^ 
 
 XVII. — OF SUPERSTITION. 
 
 (1612; considerably altered and enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 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 cer- 
 
 1 High as we may rate ourselves, Conscript Fathers, 
 we cannot claim superiority 10 the Spaniards in number, 
 to the Gauls in bodily strength, to the Carthaginians in 
 craft, to the Greeks in art, nor yet to our own Italians 
 and Latins in the homely and inbred sense peculiar to 
 this land and race ; but we have surpassed all tribes and 
 nations in piety, in religion, and in our acknowledgment 
 of the one great truth that all things are subject to the 
 sway of the Immortal Gods. 
 
I06 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 tainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity. 
 Plutarch saith well to that purpose : ^' Surely," saith 
 he, " I had rather a great deal men should say there 
 was no such man at all as Plutarch, than that they 
 should say that 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. Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, 
 to natural piety, to laws, to reputation ; all which 
 may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though 
 religion were not. But superstition dismounts all 
 these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the 
 minds of men. Therefore atheism did never perturb 
 states, for it makes men wary of themselves, as look- 
 ing no further. And we see the times inclined to 
 atheism (as the time of Augustus Ccesar) were civil 
 times. But superstition hath been the confusion of 
 many states, and bringeth in a x\&\n primiivi viobile ^ 
 that ravisheth ^ all the spheres of government. 
 
 The master of superstition is the people, and in 
 all superstition wise men follow fools, and argu- 
 ments are fitted to practise in a reversed order. 
 It was gravely said by some of the prelates in the 
 Council of Trent, where the doctrine of the school- 
 men bore great sway, " that the schoolmen were 
 like astronomers, which did feign eccentrics and 
 epicycles, and such engines of orbs, to save the 
 
 1 Prime Orb. See note i, Essay xv. page 93. 
 
 2 Whirls away. 
 
OF SUPERSTITION. 107 
 
 phenomena, though they knew there were no such 
 things ; " ^ and, in hke manner, that the school- 
 men 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 
 sensual rites and ceremonies ; excess of outward 
 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 favoring 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 disasters.^ 
 
 Superstition without a veil is a deformed thing ; 
 for as it addeth deformity to an ape to be so like a 
 man, so the similitude of superstition to religion 
 makes it the more deformed. And as wholesome 
 meat corrupteth to little worms, so good forms 
 
 1 Compare Milton, Paradise Lost, viii. : — 
 
 " How they will wield 
 The mighty frame ; how build, unbuild, contrive 
 To save appearances ; how gird the sphere 
 With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er, 
 Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb." 
 
 2 In the paragraph transferred in 1625 to the essay 
 *' Of Atheism," the causes of atheism were here set over 
 against the causes of superstition. 
 
Io8 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 and orders corrupt into a number of petty ob- 
 servances. 
 
 There is a superstition in avoiding superstition, 
 when men think to do best if they go furthest from 
 the superstition formerly received. Therefore care 
 would be had that, as it fareth in ill purgings, the 
 good be not taken away with the bad ; which com- 
 monly is done when the people is the reformer.^ 
 
 XVIII. — OF TRAVEL. 
 
 (1625.) 
 
 Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of educa- 
 tion ; in the elder, a part of experience. He that 
 travelleth into a country before he hath some en- 
 trance into the language, goeth to school, and not 
 to travel. That young men travel under some tutor 
 or grave servant, I allow well ; so that he be such 
 a one that hath the language and hath been in the 
 country before, whereby he may be able to tell 
 them what things are worthy to be seen in the 
 country where they go, what acquaintances they 
 are to seek, what exercises 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 
 
 1 This last paragraph is one of the additions of 1625. 
 It indicates Bacon's growing distrust of the Puritans. 
 
OF TRAVEL. IO9 
 
 there is nothing to be seen but sky and sea, men 
 should make diaries ; 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 ob- 
 servation. Let diaries therefore be brought in use. 
 
 The things to be seen and observed are : the 
 courts of princes, specially when they give audi- 
 ence to ambassadors ; the courts of justice, while 
 they sit and hear causes ; and so of consistories 
 ecclesiastic ; the churches and monasteries, with 
 the monuments which are therein extant ; the walls 
 and fortifications of cities and towns, and so the 
 havens and harbors ; antiquities and ruins ; libra- 
 ries, colleges, disputations, and lectures, where any 
 are ; shipping and navies ; houses and gardens of 
 state and pleasure near great cities ; armories, ar- 
 senals, magazines, exchanges, burses, warehouses ; 
 exercises of horsemanship, fencing, training of sol- 
 diers, and the like ; comedies, such whereunto the 
 better sort of persons do resort ; treasuries of 
 jewels and robes, cabinets and rarities ; and, to 
 conclude, whatsoever is memorable in the places 
 where they go : after all which the tutors or ser- 
 vants ought to make diligent inquiry. As for 
 triumphs, masques, feasts, weddings, funerals, capi- 
 tal executions, and such shows, men need not to 
 be put in mind of them ; yet are they 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, 
 
no BA CON' S ESS A YS. 
 
 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 de- 
 scribing the 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 another, which is a great adamant ^ 
 of acquaintance. Let him sequester himself from 
 the company of his countrymen, and diet in such 
 places where there is good company of the nation 
 where he travelleth. Let him, upon his removes 
 from one place to another, procure recommenda- 
 tion to some person of quality residing in the place 
 whither he removeth, that he may use his favor 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 ac- 
 quaintance with the secretaries 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 
 
 1 A form of the word chart. 
 - Lodestone. 
 
OF EMPIRE. Ill 
 
 able to tell how the life agreeth with the fame. 
 For quarrels, they are with care and discretion to 
 be avoided. They are commonly for mistresses, 
 healths, place, and words. And let a man beware 
 how he keepeth company with choleric and quar- 
 relsome 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 ac- 
 quaintance which are of most worth. And let his 
 travel appear rather in his discourse than in his 
 apparel or gesture ; and in his discourse let him 
 be rather advised in his answers than forwards to 
 tell stories. And let it appear that he doth not 
 change his country manners for those of foreign 
 parts, but only prick in i some flowers of that he 
 hath learned abroad, into the customs of his own 
 country. 
 
 XIX. —OF EMPIRE. 
 
 (1612; altered and much enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 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 of kings, who, 
 being at the highest, want matter of desire, which 
 makes their minds more languishing ; and have 
 1 Plant. 
 
112 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 many representations of perils and shadows, which 
 makes their minds the less clear. And this is one 
 reason also of that effect which the Scripture 
 speaketh of, " that the king's heart is inscrutable." 
 For multitude of jealousies, and lack of some pre- 
 dominant 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, some- 
 times upon the advancing of a person, sometimes 
 upon obtaining excellency in some art or feat of the 
 hand, — as Nero for playing on the harp, Domitian 
 for certainty of the hand with the arrow, Comrao- 
 dus for playing at fence, Caracalla for driving char- 
 iots, and the like. This seemeth incredible unto 
 those that know not the principle, that the mind of 
 man is more cheered and refreshed by profiting in 
 small things, than by standing at a stay in great. 
 We see also that kings that have been fortunate 
 conquerors in their first years, it being not possible 
 for them to go forward infinitely, but that they 
 must have some check or arrest in their fortunes, 
 turn in their latter years to be superstitious and 
 melancholy ; as did Alexander the Great, Diocle- 
 tian, and in our memory Charles V., and others ; 
 for he that is used to go forward, and findeth a 
 stop, falleth out of his own favor, and is not the 
 thing he was. 
 
OF EMPIRE. 113 
 
 To speak now of the true temper of empire, it is 
 a thing rare and hard to keep ; for both temper 
 and distemper consist of contraries. But it is one 
 thing to mingle contraries, 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 mischiefs 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 
 no man can forbid the spark, nor tell whence it 
 may come. The difficulties in princes' business 
 are many and great ; but the greatest difficulty is 
 often in their own mind. For it is common with 
 princes, saith Tacitus, to will contradictories. 
 '•'Sunt plerumque regum voluntates vehementes, 
 et inter se contrariae." ^ For it is the solecism of 
 
 1 Deliverances, means of escape. 
 
 2 As a rule, the desires of kings are violent and incon- 
 sistent. 
 
 8 
 
1 14 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 power to think to command the end, and yet not 
 to endure the mean. 
 
 Kings have to deal with their neighbors, 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 neighbors, 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 neighbors 
 do overgrow so, by increase of territory, by em- 
 bracing of trade, by approaches, or the like, as 
 they become more able to annoy them than they 
 were. And this is generally the work of standing 
 councils, to foresee and to hinder it. During that 
 triumvirate of kings, King Henry VIII. of Eng- 
 land, Francis I., King of France, and Charles V., 
 Emperor, there was such a watch kept that none 
 of the three could win a palm of ground, but the 
 other two would straightways balance it, either by 
 confederation, or if need were by a war, and 
 would not in any wise take up peace at interest. 
 And the like was done by that league, which, 
 Guicciardine saith, was the security of Italy, made 
 between Ferdinando King of Naples, Lorenzius 
 Medices, and Ludovicus Sforza, potentates, the 
 one of Florence, the other of Milan. Neither 
 is the opinion of some of the schoolmen to be 
 
OP EMPIRE. 115 
 
 received, that a war cannot justly be made but 
 upon a precedent injury or provocation : for there 
 is no question but a just fear of an imminent 
 danger, 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 de- 
 struction of that renowned prince. Sultan Musta- 
 pha, and otherwise troubled his house and succes- 
 sion ; Edward II. of England his 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 gener- 
 ally, the entering of fathers into suspicion of their 
 children hath been ever unfortunate. The de- 
 struction of Mustapha, that we named before, was 
 so fatal to Solyman's line, as the succession of the 
 Turks, from Solyman until this day, is suspected to 
 be untrue, and of strange blood ; for that Selymus 
 II. was thought to be supposititious. The destruc- 
 tion of Crispus, a young prince of rare towardness, 
 by Constantinus the Great, his father, was in like 
 manner fatal to his house ; for both Constantinus 
 
 1 Adulteresses. 
 
Il6 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 and Constans, his sons, died violent deaths ; and 
 Constantius, his other son, did httle better, who 
 died indeed of sickness, but after that Juhanus 
 had taken arms against him. The destruction of 
 Demetrius, son to Philip II. of Macedon, turned 
 upon the father, who died of repentance. And 
 many like examples there are ; but few or none 
 where the fathers had good by such distrust, 
 except it were where the sons were up in open 
 arms against them ; as was Selymus I. against Ba- 
 jazet, and the three sons of Henry II., King of 
 England. 
 
 For their prelates, when they are proud and 
 great, there is also danger from them, as it was in 
 the times of Anselmus and Thomas Becket, Arch- 
 bishops 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 I., and Henry II. The danger is 
 not from that state, but where it hath a depend- 
 ence of foreign authority ; or where the Church- 
 men come in, and are elected, not by the collation 
 of the king or particular patrons, but by the 
 people. 
 
 For their nobles, to keep them at a distance it 
 is not amiss ; but to depress them may make 
 a king more absolute, but less safe, and less able 
 to perform anything that he desires. I have 
 noted it in my " History of King Henry VII. of 
 England," who depressed his nobility; where- 
 
OF EMPIRE. 117 
 
 upon it came to pass that his times were full of 
 difficulties and troubles, for the nobility, though 
 they continued loyal unto him, yet did they not 
 co-operate with him in his business. So that in 
 effect he was fain to do all things himself. 
 
 For their second nobles, there is not much dan- 
 ger from them, being a body dispersed. They 
 may sometimes discourse high, but that doth lit- 
 tle hurt ; besides they are a counterpoise to the 
 higher nobility, that they grow not too potent ; and 
 lastly, being the most immediate in authority with 
 the common people, they do best temper popular 
 commotions. 
 
 For their merchants, they are vena porta ;'^ 
 and if they flourish not, a kingdom may have 
 good limbs, but will have empty veins, and nour- 
 ish little. Taxes and imposts upon them do 
 seldom good to the king's revenue, for that that 
 he wins in the hundred he leeseth 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 po- 
 tent heads ; or where you meddle with the point 
 of religion, or their customs, or means of life. 
 
 For their men of war, it is a dangerous state 
 
 1 The gate-vein : then supposed to be the avenue of 
 distribution of the chyle to the liver. Bacon seems 
 never to have accepted Harvey's theory of the circulation 
 of the blood. 
 
Ii8 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 where they live and remain in a body, and are 
 used to donatives ; whereof we see examples in 
 the janizaries, and pretorian bands of Rome ; but 
 trainings of men, and arming them in several 
 places and under several commanders, and with- 
 out 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 in those two 
 remembrances : " Memento quod es homo," 
 and " Memento quod es Deus," or ''' vice Dei ; " ^ 
 the one bridleth their power, and the other their 
 will. 
 
 XX. — OF COUNSEL. 
 
 (^i6i2; considerably enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 The greatest trust between man and man is 
 the trust of giving counsel. For in other con- 
 fidences, 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 
 
 i Remember that you are a man ; and remember that 
 you are a god, or God's vicegerent. 
 
OF COUNSEL. 1 19 
 
 integrity. The wisest princes need not think it 
 any diminution to their greatness, or derogation 
 to their sufficiency, to rely upon counsel. God 
 himself is not without, but hath made it one of 
 the great names of his blessed Son, " the Counsel- 
 lor." Solomon hath pronounced that "in counsel 
 is stability." Things will have their first or second 
 agitation ; if they be not tossed upon the argu- 
 ments of counsel, they will be tossed upon the 
 waves of fortune, and be full of inconstancy, doing 
 and undoing, like the reeling of a drunken man. 
 Solomon's son found the force of counsel, as his 
 father saw the necessity of it. For the beloved 
 kingdom of God was first rent and broken by ill 
 counsel ; upon which counsel there are set for 
 our instruction the two marks whereby bad coun- 
 sel 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 conjunction of 
 counsel with kings, and the wise and politic use 
 of counsel by kings ; the one, in that they say 
 Jupiter did marry Metis, which signifieth counsel, 
 whereby they intend that sovereignty is married 
 to counsel ; the other in that which followeth, 
 which was thus : they say, after Jupiter was mar- 
 ried to Metis, she conceived by him and was with 
 child, but Jupiter suffered her not to stay till she 
 brought forth, but ate her up ; whereby he became 
 
I20 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 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 grow ripe and ready 
 to be brought forth, that then they suffer not their 
 council to go through with the resolution and 
 direction, as if it depended on them ; but take 
 the matter back into their own hands, and make 
 it appear to the world that the decrees and final 
 directions (which, because they come forth with 
 prudence and power, are resembled to Pallas 
 armed), proceeded from themselves, and not 
 only from their authority, but, the more to add 
 reputation to themselves, from their head and 
 device. 
 
 Let us now speak of the inconveniences of 
 counsel, and of the remedies. The inconveni- 
 ences that have been noted in calling and using 
 counsel are three : first, the revealing of affairs, 
 whereby they become less secret ; secondly, the 
 weakening of the authority of princes, as if they 
 were less of themselves; thirdly, the danger of 
 being unfaithfully counselled, and more for the 
 good of them that counsel than of him that is 
 counselled. For which inconveniences the doc- 
 trine of Italy, and practice of France, in some 
 
. " 2 
 
 OF COUNSEL. 121 
 
 kings' times, hath introduced cabinet councils, — 
 a remedy worse than the disease.^ 
 
 As to secrecy, princes are not bound to commu- 
 nicate all matters with all counsellors, but may 
 extract and select. Neither is it necessary that 
 he that consulteth what he should do, should 
 declare what he will do. But let princes beware 
 that the unsecreting of their affairs comes not 
 from themselves. And as for cabinet councils 
 it may be their motto : " Plenus rimarum sum ; 
 one futile person, that maketh it his glory to tell, 
 will do more hurt than many that know it their 
 duty to conceal. It is true, there be some affairs 
 which require extreme secrecy, which will hardly 
 go beyond one or two persons besides the king : 
 neither are those counsels unprosperous ; for, 
 besides the secrecy, they commonly go on con- 
 stantly in one spirit of direction, without distrac- 
 tion. But then it must be a prudent king, such 
 as is able to grind with a hand-mill ; and those 
 
 1 There can be no question here of the modern Cabi- 
 net, which did not yet exist. What is meant is clearly 
 shown by the following bit of context in a MS. copy of 
 the Essays preserved in the British Museum (date; 1607- 
 1612). After the word "disease" read: "which hath 
 tourned Metis the wife, to Metis the mistresse, that is the 
 councelles of State to which Princes are marryed, to coun- 
 cells of gracious persons recommended cheifly by flattery 
 and affection." This Bacon prudently suppressed, possi- 
 bly out of consideration for Buckingham. 
 
 2 I am full of chinks. 
 
122 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 inward counsellors had need also be wise men, 
 and especially true and trusty to the king's ends ; 
 as it was with King Henry VIZ. of England, who 
 in his greatest business imparted himself to none, 
 except it were to Morton and Fox. 
 
 For weakening of authority, the fable showeth 
 the remedy. Nay, the majesty of kings is rather 
 exalted than diminished, when they are in the 
 chair of counsel ; neither was there ever prince 
 bereaved of his dependencies by his counsel, ex- 
 cept where there hath been either an over-greatness 
 in one counsellor, or an over-strict combination in 
 divers ; which are things soon found and holpen. 
 
 For the last inconvenience, that men will coun- 
 sel with an eye to themselves, certainly " Non 
 inveniet fidem super terram " ^ is meant of the 
 nature of times, and not of all particular persons. 
 There be that are in nature faithful and sincere, 
 and plain and direct, not crafty and involved ; let 
 princes above all draw to themselves such natures. 
 Besides, counsellors are not commonly so united 
 but that one counsellor keepeth sentinel over 
 another ; so that if any do counsel out of faction 
 or private ends, it commonly comes to the king's 
 ear. But the best remedy is, if princes know 
 their counsellors, as well as their counsellors know 
 
 them : 
 
 ** Principis est virtus maxima nosse suos."^ 
 
 1 He shall not find faith on eartli. 
 
 2 It is ihe chief virtue of a ruler to know his subjects. 
 
• OF COUNSEL. 123 
 
 And on the other side, counsellors should not be 
 too speculative into their sovereign's person. The 
 true composition of a counsellor is rather to be 
 skilful in tlieir master's business than in his nature ; 
 for then he is like to advise him, and not to feed 
 his humor. It is of singular use to princes if they 
 take the opinions of their counsel 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 humors, and in 
 consort, men are more obnoxious ^ to others' hu- 
 mors ; 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 re- 
 spect. 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 affairs rest- 
 eth in the good choice of persons. Neither is it 
 enough to consult concerning persons secundum 
 genera^ as in an idea or mathematical description, 
 what the kind and character of the person should 
 be ; for the greatest errors are committed, and the 
 most judgment is shown, in the choice of indi- 
 viduals. It was truly said, " Optimi consiliarii 
 mortui ; " ^ books will speak plain when counsel- 
 
 1 Exposed; hence, submissive. 
 
 '^ By classes. 
 
 3 The best counsellors are the dead. 
 
124 
 
 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 lors blanch.^ Therefore it is good to be conver- 
 sant in them, specially the books of such as them- 
 selves have been actors upon the stage. 
 
 The councils at this day, in most places are but 
 familiar meetings, where matters are rather talked 
 on than debated ; and they run too swift to the 
 order or act of council. It were better that, m 
 causes of weight, the matter were propounded one 
 day and not spoken to till the next day ; " in nocte 
 consilium." ^ So was it done in the commission 
 of union between England and Scotland, which 
 was a grave and orderly assembly.^ I commend 
 set days for petitions, for both it gives the suitors 
 more certainty for their attendance, 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 
 indifferent ^ persons, than to make an indifferency 
 by putting in those that are strong on both sides. 
 I commend also standing commissions,^ as for 
 trade, for treasure, for war, for suits, for some 
 provinces ; for where there be divers particular 
 councils, and but one council of estate (as it is in 
 
 1 Shirk, blink. " In annotations ... it is over usual 
 to blanch the obscure places, and discourse uj^on the 
 plain." (Adv. of Learning.) 
 
 2 There 's counsel in a night. 
 
 8 In which Bacon played a leading part. 
 
 4 Attend to business. 
 
 ^ Neutral. 
 
 ^ Compare page 114: " standing councils." 
 
OF DELAYS. 1 25 
 
 Spain), they are, in effect, no more than standing 
 commissions, save that they have greater authority. 
 Let such as are to inform councils out of their 
 particular professions (as lawyers, seamen, mint- 
 men, and the like), be first heard before commit- 
 tees, and then, as occasion serves, before the 
 council. And let them not come in multitudes 
 or in a tribunitious manner ; for that is to clamor 
 councils, not to inform them. A long table and 
 a square table, or seats about the walls, seem 
 things of form, but are things of substance : for 
 at a long table a few at the upper end, in effect, 
 sway all the business ; but in the other form there 
 is more use of the counsellors' opinions that sit 
 lower. A king, when he presides in council, let 
 him beware how he opens his own inclination too 
 much in that which he propoundeth ; for else 
 counsellors will but take the wind of him, and 
 instead of giving free counsel, sing him a song of 
 placebo} 
 
 XXL— OF DELAYS. 
 
 (1625.) 
 
 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 
 
 1 I shall please. Properly the vesper hymn for the 
 dead : " I will please the Lord in the land of the living." 
 
126 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 at first ofFereth the commodity at full, then con- 
 sumeth part and part, and still holdeth up the 
 price. For ''occasion (as it is in the common 
 verse) turneth a bald noddle, after she hath pre- 
 sented her locks in front, and no hold taken ; " 
 or at least turneth the handle of the bottle first 
 to be received, and after the belly, which is hard 
 to clasp. There is surely no greater wisdom than 
 well to time the beginnings and onsets of things. 
 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 asleep. On the other side, to be deceived 
 with too long shadows (as some have been when 
 the moon was low and shone on their enemies' 
 back), and so to shoot off before the time ; or to 
 teach dangers to come on, by over-early buckling 
 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 
 Argus with his hundred eyes, and the ends to 
 Briareus with his hundred hands, — first to watch 
 and then to speed. For the helmet of Pluto, 
 which maketh the politic man go invisible, is 
 secrecy in the counsel and celerity in the execu- 
 tion. For wlien things are once come to the 
 
OF CUNNING. 127 
 
 execution, there is no secrecy comparable to 
 celerity ; like the motion of a bullet in the air, 
 which flieth so swift as it outruns the eye. 
 
 XXIL— OF CUNNING. 
 
 (161 2; enlarged almost five-fold, 1625.) 
 
 We take cunning for a sinister or crooked 
 wisdom. And certainly there is great difference 
 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 can- 
 vasses and factions, 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 humors that are not greatly 
 capable of the real part of business ; which is the 
 constitution of one that hath studied men more 
 than books. Such men are fitter for practice than 
 for counsel, and they are good but in their own 
 alley ; turn them to new men and they have lost 
 their aim ; so as the old rule to know a fool from 
 a wise man, " Mitte ambos nudos ad ignotos, et 
 videbis," ^ doth scarce hold for them. And be- 
 cause these cunning men are like haberdashers of 
 
 1 Turn them both naked among strangers, and you will 
 see. 
 
128 BACON'S ESSAYS. ■ 
 
 small vvares, 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 many wise men that 
 have secret hearts and transparent countenances. 
 Yet this would ^ be done with a demure abasjf- 
 ing of your eye sometimes, as the Jesuits also do 
 use. 
 
 Another is, that when you have anything 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 councillor .. and 
 secretary ^ that never came to Queen Elizabeth 
 of England with bills to sign, but he would always 
 first put her into some discourse of estate, that 
 she mought the less mind the bills. 
 
 The hke surprise may be made by moving things 
 when the party is in haste, and cannot stay to con- 
 sider 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 
 
 1 Requires to. Compare " Hamlet," iii. 3. " That would 
 be scanned." 
 
 ^ Perhaps Walsingham, or Cecil. 
 8 Suspects, or fears. 
 
OF CUNNING. 
 
 129 
 
 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 anything 
 seemeth to be gotten from you by question than if 
 you offer it of yourself, you may lay a bait for a 
 question by showing another visage and counte- 
 nance than you are wont, to the end to give occa- 
 sion for the party to ask what the matter is of the 
 change ; as Nehemiah did, " And I had not before 
 that time been sad before the king." 
 
 In things that are tender and unpleasing it is 
 good to break the ice by some whose words are of 
 less weight, and to reserve the more weighty voice 
 to come in as by chance, so that he may be asked 
 the question upon the other's speech ; as Narcissus 
 did, in relating to Claudius the marriage of Messa- ' 
 lina and Silius. 
 
 In things that a man would not be seen in him- 
 self, 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 intended 
 most, and go forth and come back again, and 
 speak of it as of a thing that he had almost forgot. 
 
 Some procure themselves to be surprised at such 
 9 
 
130 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 times^ as it is like the party that they work upon 
 will suddenly come upon them ; and to be found 
 with a letter in their hand, or doing somewhat 
 which they are not accustomed, to the end they 
 may be apposed ^ of those things which of them- 
 selves they are desirous to utter. 
 
 It is a point of cunning to let fall those words in 
 a man's own name, which he would have another 
 man learn and use, and thereupon take advantage. 
 I knew two that were competitors for the secre- 
 tary'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 
 declination of a monarchy 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 desire to be sec- 
 retary in the declination of a monarchy. The first 
 man took hold of it, and found means it was told 
 the Queen, who, hearing of a declination of a 
 monarchy, took it so ill as she would never after 
 hear of the other's suit.^ 
 
 There is a cunning which we in England call, 
 " The turning of the cat^ in the pan ; " which is, 
 
 1 Questioned. See note i, Essay xxxii. page 175. 
 
 2 These worthies are supposed to be Sir Thomas Bod- 
 ley and Bacon's kinsman and prosperous rival, Sir Robert 
 Cecil. 
 
 3 Originally cate (cake). 
 
OF CUNNING. 131 
 
 when that which a man saith to another, he lays it 
 as if another had said it to him. And to say truth 
 it is not easy, when such a matter passed between 
 two, to make it appear from which of them it first 
 moved and began. 
 
 It is a way that some men have to glance and 
 dart at others, by justifying themselves by nega- 
 tives ; as to say, " This I do not," asTigeilinus did 
 towards Burrhus : " Se non diversas spes, sed in- 
 columitatem imperatoris simpliciter spectare." ^ 
 
 Some have in readiness so many tales and stories 
 as there is nothing they would insinuate but they 
 can wrap it into a tale ; which serveth both to keep 
 themselves more in guard, and to make others 
 carry it with more pleasure. 
 
 It is a good point in 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 mat- 
 ters they will beat over, to come near it. It is a 
 thing of great patience, but yet of much use. 
 
 A sudden, bold, and unexpected question doth 
 many times surprise a man, and lay him open. 
 Like to him that, having changed his name, and 
 
 1 He entertained not various hopes, but simply looked 
 to the emperor's safety. 
 
132 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 walking in Paul's/ another suddenly came behind 
 him and called him by his true name, whereat 
 straightways he looked back. 
 
 But these small wares and petty points of cun- 
 ning 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. There- 
 fore you shall see them find out pretty looses ^ in 
 the conclusion, but are no ways able to examine or 
 debate matters. And yet commonly they take 
 advantage of their inability, and would be thought 
 wits of direction. Some build rather upon the 
 abusing of others, and, as we now say, putting 
 tricks upon them, than upon soundness of their 
 
 1 The body of old St. Paul's church was a sort of 
 cockney Rialto. 
 
 ^ Wright and Abbott think main here means the sea, 
 metaphorically contrasted with resorts (springs) z.nd fails. 
 It does not appear that resort (French ressort) is elsewhere 
 used for fountain. But Bacon, like Shakspere, was fond 
 of playing with his words. Compare " Merchant of Ven- 
 ice," V. I. 
 
 " Empties itself, as doth an inland brook 
 Into the main of waters." 
 
 3 Solutions. Perhaps the same as deliveries, note i, 
 Essay xix. page 113. 
 
OF WISDOM FOR A MAN'S SELF. 133 
 
 own proceedings. But Solomon saith, " Prudens 
 advertit ad gressus suos : stultus divertit ad 
 dolos." 1 
 
 XXIII.— OF WISDOM FOR A MAN'S SELF. 
 (1612; enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 An ant is a wise creature for itself, but it is a 
 shrewd ^ thing in an orchard or garden. And cer- 
 tainly men that are great lovers of themselves 
 waste the public. Divide with reason between 
 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, himself It is right earth. For that only 
 stands fast upon his own centre ; whereas all things 
 that have affinity with the heavens move upon the 
 centre of another, which they benefit.'^ 
 
 The referring of all to a man's self is more toler- 
 able in a sovereign prince, because themselves are 
 not only themselves, but their good and evil is at 
 the peril of the public fortune. But it is a despe- 
 rate evil in a servant to a prince, or a citizen in a 
 
 1 The prudent man looks to his steps ; the fool turns 
 aside to the snare. - Mischievous. 
 
 3 Compare " Hamlet," i. 3. 
 
 " This above all : to thine own self be true," etc. 
 
 4 Bacon did not accept the Copernican theory. 
 
134 
 
 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 republic. For whatsoever affairs pass such a man's 
 hands, he crooketh them to his own ends, which 
 must needs be often eccentric to the ends of his 
 master or state. Therefore let princes or states 
 choose such servants as have not this mark, ex- 
 cept they mean their service should be made but 
 the accessary. 
 
 That which maketh the effect more pernicious 
 is that all proportion is lost. It were disproportion 
 enough for the 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 a great good of the master's. And yet that 
 is the case of bad officers, treasurers, ambassadors, 
 generals, and other false and corrupt servants ; 
 which set a bias ^ upon their bowl, of their own 
 petty ends and envies, to the overthrow of their 
 master's great and important affairs. And for the 
 most part, the good such servants receive is after 
 the model of their own fortune, but the hurt they 
 sell for that good is after the model of their mas- 
 ter's fortune. And certainly it is the nature of 
 extreme self-lovers, as they will set an house on 
 fire, and it were but to roast their eggs ; and yet 
 these men many times hold credit with their mas- 
 ters, because their study is but to please them, and 
 profit themselves ; and for either respect they will 
 abandon the good of their affairs. 
 
 1 A load of lead inserted in the bowl, to cause an 
 oblique motion, or bias. 
 
OF INNOVATIONS. 135 
 
 Wisdom for a man's self is, in many branches 
 thereof, a depraved thing. It is the wisdom of 
 rats, that will be sure to leave a house somewhat 
 before it fall. It is the wisdom of the fox, that 
 thrusts out the badger who digged and made room 
 for him. It is the wisdom of crocodiles, that shed 
 tears when they would devour. But that which is 
 specially to be noted is, that those which, as Cicero 
 says of Pompey, are " sui amantes sine rivali," ^ 
 are many times unfortunate. And whereas they 
 have all their time sacrificed to themselves, they 
 become in the end themselves sacrifices to the 
 inconstancy of fortune, whose wings they thought 
 by their self-wisdom to have pinioned. 
 
 XXIV. — OF INx\OVATIONS. 
 
 (1625.) 
 
 As the births of living creatures at first are ill- 
 shapen, so are all innovations, which are the births 
 of time. Yet, notwithstanding, as those that first 
 bring honor into their family are commonly more 
 worthy than most that succeed, so the first prece- 
 dent, if it be good, is seldom attained by imitation. 
 For ill, to man's nature as it stands perverted, hath 
 a natural motion strongest in continuance ; but 
 good, as a forced motion, strongest at first. Surely 
 
 ^ Self-lovers without a rival. 
 
136 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 every medicine is an innovation, and he that will 
 not apply new remedies must expect new evils. 
 For time is the greatest innovator ; and if time 
 of course ^ alter things to the worse, and wisdom 
 and counsel shall not alter them to the better, 
 what shall be the end? 
 
 It is true that what is settled by custom, though 
 it be not good, yet at least it is fit. And those 
 things which have long gone together are, as it 
 were, confederate within themselves ; whereas new 
 things piece not so well, but though they help by 
 their utility, yet they trouble by their inconformity. 
 Besides, they are Hke strangers, more admired and 
 less favored. All this is true if time stood still, 
 which contrariwise moveth so round that a froward 
 retention of custom is as turbulent a thing as an in- 
 novation ; and they that reverence too much old 
 times are but a scorn to the new. 
 
 It were good, therefore, that men in their inno- 
 vations would follow the example of time itself, 
 which indeed innovateth greatly, but quietly, and 
 by degrees scarce to be perceived. For otherwise, 
 whatsoever is new is unlooked for, and ever it 
 mends some and pairs '^ others ; and he that is 
 holpen takes it for a fortune, and thanks the time ; 
 and he that is hurt, for a wrong, and imputeth it 
 to the author. 
 
 It is good also not to try experiments in states, 
 
 1 In its course. - Impairs. 
 
OF DISPATCH. 137 
 
 except the necessity be urgent, or the utility evi- 
 dent ; and well to beware that it be the 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 
 the straight and right way, and so to walk in it." 
 
 XXV. — OF DISPATCH. 
 
 (1612 ; slightly altered and enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 Affected dispatch is one of the most danger- 
 ous things to business that can be. It is like that 
 which the physicians call predigestion, or hasty 
 digestion, which is sure to fill the body full of cru- 
 dities and secret seeds of diseases. Therefore 
 measure not dispatch by the times of sitting, but 
 by the advancement of the business. And as in 
 races it is not the large stride, or high lift, that 
 makes the speed, so in business, the keeping 
 close to the matter, and not taking of it too 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 
 
 1 Suspected thing. Shakspere uses it for suspicion : 
 " The ornament of beauty is suspect." 
 
138 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 they may seem men of dispatch. But it is one 
 thing to abbreviate by contracting, another by 
 cutting off ; and business so handled at several 
 sittings or meetings goeth commonly backward 
 and forward in an unsteady manner. I knew a 
 wise man ^ that had it for a byword, 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 direct them in 
 the beginning than interrupt them in the continu- 
 ance 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 mem- 
 ory, 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 
 
 1 Sir Amias Paulet (Apophthegm 76). But Lloyd, in 
 his " State Worthies," attributes the saying to Bacon's 
 father. 
 
OF DISPATCH. 139 
 
 is no such gain of time as to iterate often the state 
 of the question, for it chaseth away many a frivo- 
 lous speech as it is coming forth. Long and 
 curious ^ speeches are as fit for dispatch as a robe 
 or mantle with a long train is for race. Prefaces, 
 and passages, and excusations, and other speeches 
 of reference to the person, are great wastes of 
 time ; and though they seem to proceed of mod- 
 esty, they are bravery.^ Yet beware of being too 
 material^ when there is any impediment or ob- 
 struction in men's wills ; for preoccupation of 
 mind ever requireth preface of speech, like a 
 fomentation to make the unguent enter. 
 
 Above all things, order, and distribution, and 
 singling out of parts, is the life of dispatch, so as 
 the distribution be not too subtile ; for he that 
 doth not divide will never enter well into business, 
 and he that divideth too much will never come out 
 of it clearly. To choose time is to save time, and 
 an unseasonable motion is but beating the air. 
 There be three parts of business : the preparation, 
 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 facili- 
 
 1 Elaborate. 
 
 2 Ostentation. 
 
 3 Beware of coming to the point at the outset (Latin 
 translation). 
 
140 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 tate dispatch ; for though it should be wholly re- 
 jected, yet that negative is more pregnant of 
 direction than an indefinite, as ashes are more 
 generative than dust. 
 
 XXVI. — OF SEEMING WISE. 
 
 (1612; the last sentence added in 1625.) 
 
 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 between man and man. 
 For as the Apostle saith of godliness, " having a 
 show of godliness, but denying the power thereof," 
 so certainly there are in point of wisdom and suf- 
 ficiency that do nothing or little very solemnly, 
 *' magno conatu nugas." ^ It is a ridiculous thing, 
 and fit for a satire to persons of judgment, to see 
 what shifts these formalists have, and wliat pros- 
 pectives^ to make superficies to seem body that 
 hath depth and bulk. Some are so close and re- 
 served as they will not show their wares but by a 
 dark light, and seem always to keep back some- 
 what ; and when they know within themselves they 
 speak of that they do not well know, would never- 
 theless seem to others to know of that which they 
 
 1 Trifles with a vast effort. 
 
 2 Perspective glasses, analogous to the stereoscope. 
 
OF SEEMING WISE. 141 
 
 may not well speak. Some help themselves with 
 countenance and gesture, and are wise by signs, as 
 Cicero saith of Piso, that when he answered him 
 he fetched one of his brows up to his forehead 
 and bent the other down to his chin : " Respondes, 
 altero ad frontem sublato, altero ad mentum de- 
 presso supercilio, crudelitatem tibi non placere." ^ 
 Some think to bear it by speaking a great word 
 and being peremptory, and go on and take by 
 admittance that which they cannot make good. 
 Some, whatsoever is beyond their reach, will seem 
 to despise or make light of it as impertinent or 
 curious ; and so would have their ignorance seem 
 judgment. Some are never without a difference, 
 and commonly, by amusing men with a subtilty, 
 blanch - the matter ; of whom A. Gellius saith, 
 " Hominem delirum, qui verborum minutiis rerum 
 frangit pondera. " ^ Of which kind also Plato in his 
 " Protagoras " bringeth in Prodicus in scorn, and 
 maketh him make a speech that consisteth of dis- 
 tinctions from the beginning to the end. Gener- 
 ally such men in all deliberations find ease to be of 
 the negative side, and affect^ a credit to object and 
 
 1 You answer, with one eyebrow arched to your fore- 
 head and the other curved to your chin, that you do not 
 approve of cruelty. 
 
 - Gloss over (lit. zuhiteiuash). See note i, Essay xx. 
 page 124. 
 
 3 A trifler, who breaks the weight of business with 
 verbal quibbles. 
 
 * Try to get credit for. See note i, Essay i. page 39. 
 
142 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 foretell difficulties. For when propositions are 
 denied, there is an end of them ; but if they be 
 allowed, it requireth a new work : which false point 
 of wisdom is the bane of business. 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 certainly you 
 were better take for business a man somewhat 
 absurd than over-formal. 
 
 XXVII. — OF FRIENDSHIP. 
 
 (1625.^) 
 
 It had been hard for him that spake it to have 
 put more truth and untruth together in few words 
 than in that speech, " Whosoever is delighted in 
 solitude is either a wild beast or a God." For it 
 is most true that a natural and secret hatred and 
 aversation towards society in any man hath some- 
 what 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 
 
 ^ There was an essay "Of Friendship" in the edition 
 of 161 2, but it was hardly more than the germ of the 
 present one, wliich is about nine times as long. 
 
OF FRIENDSHIP. 143 
 
 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 heathen, as Epimenides the Candian, Numa 
 the Roman, Empedocles the Sicilian, and Apollo- 
 nius of Tyana ; and truly and really in divers of the 
 ancient hermits and holy fathers of the Church. 
 But litde do men perceive what solitude is, and 
 how far it extendeth ; for a crowd is not company, 
 and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk 
 but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love. 
 The Latin adage meeteth with it a litde, " Magna 
 civitas, magna solitudo ; " ^ because in a great town 
 friends are scattered, so that there is not that fel- 
 lowship, for the most part, which is in less neigh- 
 borhoods. But we may go further, and affirm 
 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 sense also of 
 solitude, whosoever in the frame of his nature and 
 affections is unfit for friendship, he taketh it of the 
 beast, and not from humanity. 
 
 A principal fruit of friendship is the ease and 
 discharge of the fulness and swellings of the heart, 
 which passions of all kinds do cause and induce. 
 We know diseases of stoppings and suffocations 
 are the most dangerous in the body, and it is not 
 
 1 A great town is a great solitude. 
 
 2 Utter. " The mere [sheerl destruction of the Turkish 
 fleet."— Othello. 
 
1 44 BA CON ' 5 ESS A YS. 
 
 much otherwise in the mind ; you may take sarza^ 
 to open the hver, steel to open the spleen, flour of 
 sulphur for the lungs, castoreum for the brain, but 
 no receipt openeth the heart but a true friend, to 
 whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, 
 suspicions, counsels, and whatsoever 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 sub- 
 jects and servants, cannot gather this fruit except, 
 to make themselves capable thereof, they raise 
 some persons to be, as it were, companions and 
 almost equals to themselves, which many times 
 sorteth to inconvenience. The modern languages 
 give unto such persons the name of favorites or 
 privadoes, as if it were matter of grace or conver- 
 sation 'y but the Roman name attaineth the true 
 use and cause thereof, naming them *' participes 
 curarum," ^ for it is that which tieth the knot. 
 And we see plainly that this hath been done, not 
 by weak and passionate princes only, but by the 
 wisest and most politic that ever reigned ; who have 
 oftentimes joined to themselves some of their ser- 
 vants, whom both themselves have called friends, 
 1 Sarsaparilla. '^ Partners in cares. 
 
OF FRIENDSHIP. 1 45 
 
 and allowed others likewise to call them in the 
 same manner, using the word which is received 
 between private men. 
 
 L. Sylla, when he commanded Rome, raised 
 Pompey, after surnamed the Great, to that height 
 that Pompey vaunted himself for Sylla's over- 
 match. For when he had carried the consulship 
 for a friend of his against the pursuit of Sylla, and 
 that Sylla did a little resent thereat, and began to 
 speak great, Pompey turned upon him again, and 
 in effect bade him be quiet, " for that more men 
 adored the sun rising than the sun setting." With 
 JuHus Caesar, Decimus Brutus had obtained that 
 interest, as he set him down in his testament for 
 heir in remainder after his nephew. And this was 
 the man that had power with him to draw him 
 forth to his death. For when Caesar would have 
 discharged the senate, in regard of some ill pres- 
 ages, and especially a dream of Calpurnia, this man 
 lifted him gendy by the arm out of his chair, tell- 
 ing him he hoped he would not dismiss the senate 
 till his wife had dreamt a better dream. And 
 it seemeth his favor was so great as Antonius, 
 in a letter which is recited verbatim in one of 
 Cicero's Philipics, calleth him " venefica," witch, 
 as if he had enchanted Caesar. Augustus raised 
 Agrippa, though of mean birth, to that height 
 as, when he consulted with Maecenas about the 
 marriage of his daughter Julia, Maecenas took 
 
146 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 the liberty to tell him, "That he must either 
 marry his daughter to Agrippa or take away his 
 life ; there was no third way, he had made him so 
 great." With Tiberius Caesar, Sejanus had as- 
 cended to that height as they two were termed and 
 reckoned as a pair of friends. Tiberius in a letter 
 to him saith : " Haec pro amicitia nostra non oc- 
 cultavi ; " ^ and the whole senate dedicated an 
 altar to friendship, as to a goddess, in respect of 
 the great dearness of friendship between them two. 
 The like or more was between Septimius Severus 
 and Plautianus. 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 I 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 
 goodness of nature ; but being men so wise, of 
 such strength and severity of mind, and so extreme 
 lovers of themselves, as all these were, it proveth 
 most plainly that they found their own felicity, 
 though as great as ever happened to mortal men, 
 but as a half-piece, except they mought have a 
 friend to make it entire. And yet, which is more, 
 they were princes which had wives, sons, nephews ; 
 
 1 On account of our friendship I have not kept these 
 things back. 
 
OF FRIENDSHIP. 1 47 
 
 and yet all these could not supply the comfort of 
 friendship. 
 
 It is not to be forgotten what Commineus 
 observeth of his first master, Duke Charles the 
 Hardy; namely, that he would communicate his 
 secrets with none, and least of all those secrets 
 which troubled him most. Whereupon he goeth 
 on, and saith that towards his latter time '' that 
 closeness did impair, and a little perish his under- 
 standing." Surely Commineus mought have made 
 the same judgment also, if it had pleased him, 
 of his second master, Louis XL, whose closeness 
 was indeed his tormentor. The parable of Pythag- 
 oras 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 them- 
 selves unto are cannibals of their own hearts. 
 But one thing is most admirable (wherewith I 
 will conclude this first-fruit of friendship), which 
 is, that this communicating of a man's self to his 
 friend works two contrary effects : for it redoubleth 
 joys, and cutteth griefs in halves. For there is 
 no man that imparteth his joys to his friend, but 
 he joyeth the more ; and no man that imparteth 
 his griefs to his friend, but he grieveth the less. 
 So that it is, in truth, of operation upon a man's 
 mind, of like virtue as the alchemists used 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 
 
148 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 in aid of alchemists, there is a manifest image of 
 this in the ordinary course of nature. For in 
 bodies, union strengtheneth and cherisheth any 
 natural action, and, on the other side, weakeneth 
 and dulleth any violent impression : and even so 
 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 daylight in the understanding out 
 of darkness and confusion of thoughts. Neither 
 is this to be understood only of faithful counsel, 
 which a man receiveth from his friend ; but before 
 you come to that, certain it is, that whosoever 
 hath his mind fraught with many thoughts, his wits 
 and understanding do clarify and break up in the 
 communicating and discoursing with another : 
 he tosseth his thoughts more easily, he marshalleth 
 them more orderly, he seeth how they look when 
 they are turned into words; finally, he waxeth 
 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 friend- 
 ship, in opening the understanding, restrained 
 only to such friends as are able to give a man 
 
OF FRIENDSHIP. 
 
 149 
 
 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 statua or 
 picture, than to suffer his thoughts to pass in 
 smother. 
 
 Add now, to make this second fruit of friend- 
 ship complete, that other point which lieth more 
 open, and falleth within vulgar observation : which 
 is faithful counsel from a friend. Heraclitus 
 saith well in one of his enigmas, " Dry light is 
 ever the best." And certain it is, that the light 
 that a man receiveth by counsel from another 
 is drier and purer than that which cometh from 
 his own understanding and judgment, which is 
 ever infused and drenched in his affections 
 and customs. So as there is as much differ- 
 ence between the counsel that a friend giveth, 
 and that a man giveth himself, as there is 
 between the counsel of a friend and of a flat- 
 terer. For there is no such flatterer as is a 
 man's self; and there is no such remedy against 
 flattery of a man's self as the liberty of a friend. 
 Counsel is of two sorts : the one concerninfr 
 manners, the other concerning business. For the 
 first, the best preservative to keep the mind in 
 health is the faithful admonition of a friend. The 
 calling of a man's self to a strict account is a 
 
 medicine sometime too piercing and corrosive. 
 
150 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 Reading good books of morality is a little flat and 
 dead. Observing our faults in others is sometimes 
 unproper 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, espe- 
 cially 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 forget their own shape and 
 favor." 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 letters ; or that a 
 musket may be shot off as well upon the arm as 
 upon a rest ; and such other fond and high imag- 
 inations, 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 well (that is to say, better perhaps than if he 
 asked none at all), but he runneth two dangers. 
 One, that he shall not be faithfully 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 
 
OF FRIENDSHIP. 151 
 
 which he hath that giveth it. The other, that he 
 shall have counsel given, hurtful and unsafe, 
 though with good meaning, and mixt 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 complain of, but is 
 unacquainted with your body ; and therefore may 
 put you in way for a present cure, but overthrow- 
 eth 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, there- 
 fore, rest not upon scattered counsels ; they will 
 rather distract and mislead than settle and direct. 
 
 After these two noble fruits of friendship (peace 
 in the affections, and support of the judgment) 
 followeth the last fruit, which is like the pomegran- 
 ate, full of many kernels : I mean aid, and bearing 
 a part in all actions and occasions. Here, the 
 best way to represent to life the 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 him- 
 self. 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, 
 
152 
 
 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 he may rest almost secure that the care of those 
 thmgs will continue after him. So that a man hath, 
 as it were, two lives in his desires. A man hath a 
 body, and that body is confined to a place ; but 
 where friendship is, all offices of Hfe 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 comeliness, 
 say or do himself ! A man can scarce allege his 
 own merits with modesty, much less extol them ; 
 a man cannot sometimes brook to supplicate or 
 beg; and a number of the like. But all these 
 things are graceful in a friend's mouth, which are 
 blushing in a man's own. So again, a man's per- 
 son hath many proper ^ relations which he cannot 
 put off. A man cannot speak to his son, but as a 
 father ; to his wife but as a husband ; to his enemy 
 but upon terms ; whereas a friend may speak as 
 the case requires, and not as it sorteth with the 
 person. But to enumerate these things were end- 
 less. 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. 
 
 1 Personal, peculiar. 
 
OF EXPENSE. 153 
 
 XXVIII. — OF EXPENSE. 
 
 (1597; somewhat enlarged, 1612; and again, 1625.) 
 
 Riches are for spending, and spending for honor 
 and good actions. Therefore extraordinary ex- 
 pense must be Umited by the worth of the occa- 
 sion ; for voluntary undoing ^ may be as well for a 
 man's country as for the kingdom of heaven. But 
 ordinary expense ought to be limited by a man's 
 estate, and governed with such regard as it be 
 within his compass, and not subject to deceit and 
 abuse of servants, and ordered to the best show, 
 that the bills may be less than the estimation 
 abroad. Certainly, if a man will keep but of even 
 hand, his ordinary expenses ought to be but to the 
 half of his receipts ; and if he think to wax rich, 
 but to the third part. 
 
 It is no baseness for the greatest/to descend and 
 look into their own estate. Some forbear it, not 
 upon negligence alone, but doubting^ to bring 
 themselves into melancholy, in respect they shall 
 find it broken. But wounds cannot be cured 
 without searching. He that cannot look into his 
 own estate at all had need both choose well those 
 whom he employeth, and change them often ; for 
 
 1 Poverty (Latin translation). - Fearing. 
 
54 
 
 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 new are more timorous and less subtle. He that 
 can look into his estate but seldom, it behoveth 
 him to turn all to certainties.^ 
 
 A man had need, if he be plentiful in some kind 
 of expense, to be as saving again in some other : 
 as if he be plentiful in diet, to be saving in ap- 
 parel ; if he be plentiful in the hall, to be saving in 
 the stable ; and the like. For he that is plentiful 
 in expenses of all kinds will hardly be preserved 
 from decay. 
 
 In clearing of a man's estate, he may as well 
 hurt himself in being too sudden, as in letting it run 
 on too long ; for hasty selhng is commonly as dis- 
 advantageable 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 gain- 
 eth as well upon his mind as upon his estate. 
 Certainly, who hath a state to repair may not de- 
 spise small things ; and commonly it is less dishon- 
 orable to abridge petty charges than to stoop to 
 petty gettings. A man ought warily to begin 
 charges which, once begun, will continue ; but 
 in matters that return not, he may be more 
 magnificent. 
 
 1 Fixed revenues and disbursements (Latin translation). 
 
OF THE GREATNESS OF STATES. 155 
 
 XXIX. — OF THE TRUE GREATNESS OF 
 KINGDOMS AND ESTATES. ^ 
 
 (1612; rewritten, and enlarged about'fourfold, 1625.) 
 
 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, applied at large to others. Desired 
 at a feast to touch a lute, he said he could not 
 fiddle, but yet he could make a small town a great 
 city. These words, holpen a little with a meta- 
 phor, may express two differing abilities in those 
 that deal in business of estate. For if a true sur- 
 vey 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 favor 
 
 1 There are traces in this essay of the liberal use of 
 Machiavelli's "Discourses," especially I. and II. The 
 passages in question are cited in Dr. Abbott's edition of 
 the Essays. 
 
l^e BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 with their masters and estimation with the vulgar, 
 deserve no better name than fiddling ; being things 
 rather pleasing for the time, and graceful to them- 
 selves only, than tending to the weal and advance- 
 ment of the state which they serve. There are, 
 also, no doubt-, counsellors and governors which 
 may be held sufficient, negotiis pa?'es, able to man- 
 age affairs, and to keep them from precipices and 
 manifest inconveniences ; which, nevertheless, are 
 far from the ability to raise and amplify an estate 
 in power, means, and fortune. But be the work- 
 men 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-measuring 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 concerning the power 
 and forces of an estate. The kingdom of heaven 
 
 1 Charts. 
 
OP THE GREATNESS OF STATES. 157 
 
 is compared, not to any great kernel or nut, but to 
 a grain of mustard-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 diaiension of 
 stem, and yet apt to be the foundations of great 
 monarchies. 
 
 Walled towns, stored arsenals and armories, 
 goodly races of horse, chariots of war, elephants, 
 ordnance, artillery, and the like : all this is but a 
 sheep in a lion's skin, except the breed and dispo- 
 sition of the people be stout and warlike. Nay, 
 number itself, in armies, importeth not much where 
 the people is of weak courage ; for, as Virgil saith, 
 it never troubles a wolf how many the sheep be. 
 The army of the Persians, in the plains of Arbela, 
 was such a vast sea of people as it did somewhat 
 astonish the commanders in Alexander's army ; 
 who came to him, therefore, and wished him to set 
 upon them by night ; but he answered, he would 
 not pilfer the victory ; and the defeat was easy. 
 When Tigranes, the Armenian, being encamped 
 upon a hill with four hundred thousand men, dis- 
 covered the army of the Romans, being not above 
 fourteen thousand, marching towards him, he made 
 himself merry with it, and said, " Yonder men are 
 too many for an ambassage, and too few for a 
 fight." But before the sun set he found them 
 enough to give him the chase with infinite slaugh- 
 
158 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 ter. 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 ostentation he showed 
 him his gold : " Sir, if any other come that hath 
 better iron than you, he will be master of all this 
 gold." 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 subjects 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 examples show that whatsoever estate or prince 
 doth rest upon them, he may spread his feathers 
 for a time, but he will mew ^ them soon after.^ 
 
 The blessing of Judah and Issachar will never 
 meet, that the same people or nation 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 
 
 1 Moult (Latin mutare). 
 
 ^ The substance of this paragraph is from Machiavelli. 
 
OP THE GREATNESS OP STATES. 159 
 
 notably in the excises 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 cour- 
 age. 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 common subject grow to be 
 a peasant and base swain, driven out of heart, 
 and in effect but the gentleman's laborer. Even 
 as you may see in coppice woods, if you leave 
 your staddles ^ too thick you shall never have 
 clean underwood, but shrubs and bushes. So in 
 countries, if the gentlemen be too many the 
 commons will be base ; and you will bring it to 
 that, that not the hundred '^ poll will be fit for 
 an helmet ; especially as to the infantry, which is 
 the nerve of an army : and so there will be great 
 population, and little strength. This which I 
 speak of hath been nowhere better seen than by 
 comparing of England and France : whereof Eng- 
 land, though far less in territory and population, 
 hath been, nevertheless, an overmatch ; in regard 
 the middle people of England make good soldiers, 
 
 1 Young trees left standing after the removal of the 
 underwood. 
 
 2 " Hundreth," in the text of 161 2. 
 
l6o BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 which the peasants of France do not. And 
 herein the device of King Henry VII. (whereof 
 I have spoken largely in the history 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 : 
 
 " Terra potens armis, atque ubere glebae." ^ 
 
 Neither is that state (which, for anything I know, 
 is almost peculiar to England, and hardly to be 
 found anywhere else, except it be, perhaps, in 
 Poland) to be passed over : I mean the state of 
 free servants and attendants upon noblemen and 
 gentlemen ; which are noways inferior unto the 
 yeomanry for arms. And therefore, out of all 
 question, the splendor and magnificence, and 
 great retinues, and hospitality of noblemen and 
 gentlemen, received into custom, doth much con- 
 duce unto martial greatness ; whereas, contrariwise, 
 the close and reserved living of noblemen and gen- 
 tlemen causeth a penury of military forces. 
 
 By all means it is to be procured that the trunk 
 of Nebuchadnezzar's tree of monarchy be great 
 
 "^ A land mighty in war, and rich in the fruits of the 
 soil. 
 
OF THE GRE WITNESS OF STATES. i6l 
 
 enough to bear tlie branches and the boughs ; 
 that is, that the natural subjects of the crown or 
 state bear a sufficient proportion to the stranger 
 subjects that they govern. Therefore all states 
 that are liberal of naturalization towards strangers 
 are fit for empire. For to think that an handful 
 of people can, with the greatest courage and 
 pohcy 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 : whereby, while they 
 kept their compass, they stood firm ; but when 
 they did spread, and their boughs were becomen 
 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 Ro- 
 mans; 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 hereditatis," but also "jus sufifragii," 
 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 
 
 1 Scrupulous, Here, exclusive. 
 
 2 This paragraph is, in substance, from Machiavelli. 
 
 2 The rights of commerce, of marriage, of inheritance, 
 of voting, and of holding office. 
 II 
 
1 62 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 their custom of plantation of colonies, whereby 
 the Roman plant was removed into the soil of 
 other nations ; and putting both constitutions 
 together, you will say that it was not the Romans 
 that spread upon the world, but it was the world 
 that spread upon the Romans ; and that was the 
 sure way of greatness. I have marvelled some- 
 times at Spain, how they clasp and contain so 
 large dominions, 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 
 at the first. And, besides, though they have not 
 had that usage to naturalize 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 tlie 
 Pragmatical Sanction, now published, appeareth.^ 
 
 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 con- 
 trariety to a military disposition. And generally 
 all warlike people are a litde idle, and love danger 
 better than travail ; neither must they be too 
 much broken of it, if they shall be preserved in 
 vigor. Therefore it was great advantage in the 
 
 1 A royal decree of 1622 giving certain privileges to 
 persons who married, and further immunities to those who 
 had six children. 
 
OF THE GREATNESS OF STATES. 163 
 
 ancient states of Sparta, Athens, Rome, and others, 
 that they had the use of slaves, which commonly 
 did rid those manufactures ; but that is abolished, 
 in greatest part, by the Christian law. That 
 which Cometh nearest to it, is to leave those arts 
 chiefly to strangers (which for that purpose are 
 the more easily to be received), and to contain 
 the principal bulk of the vulgar natives within 
 those three kinds : tillers of the ground, free ser- 
 vants, and handicraftsmen of strong and manly 
 arts, as smiths, masons, carpenters, etc. ; not 
 reckoning professed soldiers. 
 
 But above all, for empire and greatness, it 
 importeth most that a nation do profess arms as 
 their principal honor, study, and occupation. 
 For the things which we formerly have spoken of 
 are but habilitations towards arms, and what is 
 habilitation without intention and act? Romulus, 
 after his death, as they report or feign, sent a 
 present ^ to the Romans, that above all they 
 should intend ^ arms ; and then they should 
 prove the greatest empire of the world. The 
 fabric of the state of Sparta was wholly, though 
 not wisely, framed and composed to that scope 
 and end. The Persians and Macedonians had it 
 for a flash. The Gauls, Germans, Goths, Saxons, 
 Normans, and others, had it for a time. The 
 Turks have it at this day, though in great declina- 
 
 i Compare the expression " by these presents." 
 2 Attend to, profess. 
 
164 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 lion. Of Christian Europe, they that have it are 
 in effect only the Spaniards. But it is so plain 
 that every man profiteth in that he most intend- 
 eth, 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 great- 
 ness fall into their mouths. And on the other 
 side, it is a most certain oracle of time that those 
 states that continue long in that profession, as the 
 Romans and Turks principally have done, do 
 wonders ; and those that have professed arms but 
 for an age have, notwithstanding, commonly at- 
 tained that greatness in that age, which main- 
 tained 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 which may reach forth unto them 
 just occasions, as may be pretended, of war ; for 
 there is that justice imprinted in the nature of men 
 thatii they enter not upon wars, whereof so many 
 calamities do ensue, but upon some, at the least 
 specious, grounds and quarrels. The Turk hath at 
 hand, for cause of war, the propagation of his law 
 or sect, — a quarrel that he may always command. 
 The Romans, though they esteemed the extending 
 the limits of their empire to be great honor 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 bor- 
 
derers, merchants, or politic ministers ; and that 
 they sit not too long upon a provocation. Sec- 
 ondly, let them be prest ^ and ready to give aids 
 and succors to their confederates, as it ever was 
 with the Romans ; insomuch as, if the confederate 
 had leagues defensive with divers other states, and 
 upon invasion offered did implore their aids sever- 
 ally, yet the Romans would ever be the foremost, 
 and leave it to none other to have the honor. As 
 for the wars which were anciently made on the 
 behalf of a kind of party, or tacit conformity of 
 estate, I do not see how they may be well justified : 
 as when the Romans made a war for the liberty of 
 Graecia ; or when the Lacedaemonians and Athe- 
 nians made wars to set up or pull down democ- 
 racies and oligarchies ; or when wars were made 
 by foreigners, under the pretence of justice or pro- 
 tection, to deliver the subjects of others from 
 tyranny and oppression; 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 certainly, to 
 a kingdom or estate, a just and honorable war is 
 the true exercise. A civil war, indeed, is like the 
 heat of a fever ; but a foreign war is like the heat 
 of exercise, and serveth to keep the body in health ; 
 for in a slothful peace both courages will effemi- 
 
 ^ Prompt. 
 
1 66 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 nate and manners corrupt. But howsoever it be 
 for happiness, without all question for greatness, it 
 maketh to be still for the most part in arms : and 
 the strength of a veteran array (though it be a 
 chargeable business) always on foot, is that which 
 commonly giveth the law, or at least the reputation 
 amongst all neighbor states ; as may well be 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 Themistocleum est ; putat enim, 
 qui mari potitur, eum rerum potiri." ^ And with- 
 out 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 bat- 
 tle of Lepanto ^ arrested the 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 batUes. 
 But thus much is certain, that he that commands 
 
 1 Pompey's plan is quite Themistoclean ; for he thinks 
 that he who commands the sea, is master, 
 
 2 A.D. 1571. Cervantes lost his left arm there. Bacon 
 was then ten years of age. 
 
 8 Risked everything. A metaphor from the game of 
 primero. " To set up one's rest " meant " to stand upon 
 one's cards." 
 
OF THE GREATNESS OF STATES. 167 
 
 the sea is at great liberty, and may take as much 
 and as little of the war as he will ; whereas those 
 that be strongest by land are many times, never- 
 theless, 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 
 because the wealth of both Indies seems, in great 
 part, but an accessary to the command of the 
 seas. 
 
 The wars of latter ages seem to be made in the 
 dark in respect of the glory and honor which re- 
 flected upon men from the wars in ancient time. 
 There be now for martial encouragement some 
 degrees and orders of chivalry, which, neverthe- 
 less, are conferred promiscuously upon soldiers 
 and no soldiers ; and some remembrance per- 
 haps upon the scutcheon ; 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 laudativcs and monu- 
 ments for those that died in the wars ; the crowns 
 and garlands personal ; the style of emperor, 
 which the great kings of the world after bor- 
 rowed ; the triumphs of the generals upon their 
 return ; the great donatives and largesses upon the 
 disbanding of the armies, — were things able to 
 
1 68 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 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 con- 
 tained three things : honor to the general, riches 
 to the treasury out of the spoils, and donatives 
 to the army. But that honor, perhaps, were not 
 fit for monarchies, except it be in the person 
 of the monarch himself, or his sons ; as it came 
 to pass in the times of the Roman 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 garments and ensigns 
 to the general. 
 
 To conclude : no man can by care -taking, as 
 the Scripture saith, add a cubit to his stature in 
 this litde model of a man's body ; but in the great 
 frame of kingdoms and commonwealths, it is in 
 the power of princes or estates to add amplitude 
 and greatness to their kingdoms ; for by introduc- 
 ing such ordinances, constitutions, and customs 
 as we have now touched, they may sow greatness 
 to their posterity and succession. But these 
 things are commonly not observed, but left to 
 take their chance. 
 
OF HEALTH. 169 
 
 XXX. — OF REGIMENT 1 OF HEALTH. 
 
 (1597 ; one paragraph added, 161 2; further enlarged, 
 1625.) 
 
 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 con- 
 clusion 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 nature 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, exer- 
 cise, apparel, and the like, and try in anything 
 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 it 
 
 ' Reczimen. 
 
170 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 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 of sleep and of exercise, is one 
 of the best precepts of long lasting. As for the 
 passions and studies of the mind, avoid envy, 
 anxious fears, anger fretting inwards, subtile and 
 knotty inquisitions, joys and exhilarations in excess, 
 sadness not communicated. Entertain hopes ; 
 mirth rather than joy, variety of delights rather 
 than surfeit of them ; wonder and admiration, and 
 therefore novelties ; 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 extra- 
 ordinary effect when sickness cometh. I com- 
 mend rather some diet for certain seasons, than 
 frequent use of physic, except it be grown into a 
 custom ; for those diets alter the body more and 
 trouble it less. Despise no new accident in your 
 body, but ask opinion of it. In sickness respect 
 health principally, and in health action ; for those 
 that put their bodies to endure in health may, in 
 most sicknesses which are not very sharp, be 
 cured only with diet and tendering.^ 
 1 Nursing. 
 
OF SUSPICION. 171 
 
 Celsus could never have spoken it as a physi- 
 cian had he not been a wise man withal, when 
 he giveth it for one of the great precepts of health 
 and lasting that a man do vary and interchange 
 contraries ; but with an inclination to the more 
 benign extreme. Use fasting and full eating, but 
 rather full eating ; watching 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 humor 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 suffi- 
 ciently 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. 
 
 XXXI. — OF SUSPICION. 
 
 (1625.) 
 
 Suspicioxs amongst thoughts are like bats 
 amongst birds, — they ever fly by twilight. Cer- 
 tainly they are to be repressed, or, at the least, 
 
 1 The foregoing paragraph was added in 1612. 
 
172 
 
 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 well guarded ; for they cloud the mind, they lose 
 friends, and they check ^ with business, whereby 
 business cannot go on currendy and constandy ; 
 they dispose kings to tyranny, husbands to 
 jealousy, wise men to irresolution and melan- 
 choly. They are defects not in the heart,^ but 
 in the brain, for they take place in the stoutest 
 natures ; as in the example of Henry VII. of 
 England, — there was not a more suspicious man 
 nor a more stout. And in such a composition 
 they do small hurt, for commonly they are not 
 admitted but with examination, whether they be 
 likely or no ; but in fearful natures they gain 
 ground too fast. 
 
 There is nothing makes a man suspect much, 
 more than to know little ; and, therefore, men 
 should remedy suspicion by procuring to know 
 more and not to keep their suspicions in smother. 
 What would men have? Do they think those 
 they employ and deal with are saints t 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 bridle them as false ; for so far a man ought 
 to make use of suspicions, as to provide as if that 
 should be true that he suspects, yet it may do him 
 no hurt. 
 
 1 Interfere. 
 
 2 Courage. Compare dishearten (discourage). 
 
OF DISCOURSE. 1 73 
 
 Suspicions that the mind of itself gathers are but 
 buzzes ; but suspicions that are artificially nour- 
 ished, and put into men's heads by the tales and 
 whisperings of others, have stings. Certainly, the 
 best mean to clear the way in this same wood of 
 suspicions, 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 
 circumspect not to give further cause of suspicion. 
 But this would ^ not be done to men of base 
 natures ; for they, if they find themselves once 
 suspected, will never be true. The Italian says, 
 " Sospetto licentia fede," as if suspicion did give 
 a passport to faith ; but it ought rather to kindle 
 it to discharge itself. 
 
 XXXII. — OF DISCOURSE. 
 
 (1597; somewhat enlarged, 1612 ; considerably en- 
 larged, 1625.) 
 
 Some in their discourse desire rather commen- 
 dation 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 
 commonplaces and themes wherein they are good, 
 and want variety ; which kind of poverty is for the 
 1 Should. See note i, Essay xxii. page 128. 
 
174 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 most part tedious, and, when it is once perceived, 
 ridiculous. 
 
 The honorablest part of talk is to give the 
 occasion, and again to moderate, and pass to 
 somewhat else ; for then a man leads the dance. 
 It is good in discourse and speech of conversation 
 to vary and intermingle speech of the present 
 occasion with arguments, tales with reasons, ask- 
 ing of questions with teUing of opinions, and jest 
 with earnest ; for it is a dull thing to tire, and, as 
 we say now, to jade anything too far. As for jest, 
 there be certain things which ought to be privi- 
 leged from it ; namely, religion, matters of state, 
 great persons, any man's present business of im- 
 portance, and any case that deserveth pity. Yet 
 there be some that think their wits have been 
 asleep, except they dart out somewhat that is piqu- 
 ant and to the quick. That is a vein which 
 would ^ be bridled : 
 
 "Parce, puer, stimulis, et fortius utere loris."^ 
 
 And generally men ought to find the difference 
 between saltness and bitterness. Certainly, he 
 that hath a satirical vein, as he maketh others 
 afraid of his wit, so he had need be afraid of 
 others' memory. 
 
 He that questioneth much shall learn much and 
 content much ; but especially if he apply his ques- 
 
 ^ Requires to. See note i, Essay xxii. page 128. 
 2 Spare the whip, boy, and tug harder at the reins. 
 
OF DISCOURSE. 1 75 
 
 tions to the skill of the persons whom he asketh, 
 for he shall give them occasion to please them- 
 selves in speaking, and himself 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 ought 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 himself." And there is but one case 
 wherein a man may commend himself with good 
 grace, and that is in commending virtue in an- 
 other, especially if it be such a virtue whereunto 
 himself pretendeth. 
 
 Speech of touch ^ towards others should be spar- 
 ingly used ; for discourse ought to be as a field, 
 without coming home to any man. I knew two 
 noblemen of the west part of England, whereof 
 the one was given to scoff, but kept ever royal 
 
 1 An examiner, who apposes, or poses questions. Still 
 so used at Eton and Winchester. 
 
 2 A lively French dance for two persons only. 
 
 3 Of personal reference. 
 
176 BA CON ' S ESS A VS. 
 
 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, without 
 a good speech of interlocution, shows slowness ; 
 and a good reply, or second speech, without 
 a good settled speech, showeth shallowness and 
 weakness. As we see in beasts, that those that 
 are weakest in the course are yet nimblest in the 
 turn, as it is betwixt the greyhound and the hare. 
 To use too many circumstances ere one come to 
 the matter, is wearisome ; to use none at all, 
 is blunt.- 
 
 XXXIII. — OF PLANTATIONS. 
 
 (1625.) 
 
 Plantations are amongst ancient, primitive, and 
 heroical works. When the world was young it 
 begat more children, but now it is old it begets 
 
 1 " Fitly and suitably" (Latin translation). 
 ■■^ This last thought is expanded in Essay xxv. para- 
 graph 4, page 139. 
 
OF PLANTATIONS. I 77 
 
 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 extirpa- 
 tion 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 plan- 
 tations 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 may stand with the 
 good of the plantation, but no further. 
 
 It is a shameful and unblessed thing to take the 
 scum of people, and wicked condemned men, to be 
 the people with whom you plant ; and not only so, 
 but it spoileth the plantation : for they will ever 
 live like rogues, and not fall to work, but be lazy, 
 and do mischief, and spend victuals, and be quick- 
 ly weary, and then certify over to their country 
 to the discredit of the plantation. The people 
 wherewith you plant ought to be gardeners, 
 ploughmen, laborers, smiths, carpenters, joiners, 
 fishermen, fowlers, with some few apothecaries, 
 surgeons, cooks, and bakers. 
 
 In a country of plantation, first look about what 
 kind of victual the country yields of itself to hand : 
 as chestnuts, walnuts, pine-apples, olives, dates, 
 plums, cherries, wild honey, and the like; and 
 
178 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 make use of them. Then consider what victual 
 or esculent things there are, which grow speedily 
 and within the year : as parsnips, carrots, turnips, 
 onions, radish, artichokes of Jerusalem, maize, and 
 the like. For wheat, barley, and oats, they ask 
 too much labor; but with pease and beans you 
 may begin, both because they ask less labor, 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, turkeys, geese, house-doves, 
 and the like. 
 
 The victual in plantations ought to be expended 
 almost as in a besieged town, — that is, with certain ^ 
 allowance. And let the main part of the ground 
 employed to gardens or corn be to a common 
 stock, and to be laid in and stored up, and then 
 delivered out in proportion ; besides some spots 
 of ground that any particular person will manure 
 for his own private.^ 
 
 Consider likewise what commodities the soil 
 where the plantation is doth naturally yield, that 
 
 1 Fixed. 
 
 2 Compare " Twelfth Night," iii. 4. 
 
 " Let me enjoy my private." 
 
OF PLANTATIONS. 179 
 
 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 com- 
 modity 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 un- 
 certain, and useth to make the planters lazy in 
 other things. 
 
 For government, let it be in the hands of one, 
 assisted with some counsel; and let them have 
 commission to exercise martial laws, with some 
 limitation. And above all, let men make that 
 profit of being in the wilderness, as they have God 
 always and his service before their eyes. Let not 
 the government of the plantation depend upon too 
 many counsellors and undertakers in the country 
 that planteth, but upon a temperate number ; and 
 let those be rather noblemen and gentlemen than 
 
 1 Should. But see note i, Essay xxii. page 128. 
 
l8o BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 merchants ; for they look ever to the present gain. 
 Let there be freedoms from custom till the planta- 
 tion be of strength ; and not only freedom from 
 custom, but freedom to carry their commodities 
 where they may make their best of them, except 
 there be some special cause of caution. Cram 
 not in people by sending too fast company after 
 company, but rather hearken how they waste, and 
 send supphes 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 along the 
 sea and rivers, in marish and unwholesome grounds. 
 Therefore, though you begin there to avoid car- 
 riage and other like discommodities, yet build still 
 rather upwards from the streams than along. It 
 concerneth likewise the health of the plantation 
 that they have good store of salt with them, that 
 they may use it in their victuals when it shall be 
 necessary. 
 
 If you plant where savages are, do not only en- 
 tertain them with trifles and gingles,i but use them 
 justly and graciously, with sufficient guard, never- 
 theless ; and do not win their favor by helping 
 them to invade their enemies, but for their defence 
 it is not amiss. And send oft of them over to 
 the country that plants, that they may see a better 
 
 1 Jingles, little bells, etc. 
 
OF RICHES. l8l 
 
 condition than their own, and commend it when 
 they return. 
 
 When the plantation grows to strength, then it 
 is time to plant with women as well as with men, 
 that the plantation may spread into generations, 
 and not be ever pieced from without. It is the 
 sinfullest thing in the world to forsake or des- 
 titute ^ a plantation once in forwardness ; for, 
 besides the dishonor, it is the guiltiness of blood 
 of many commiserable persons. 
 
 XXXIV. — OF RICHES. 
 
 (1612; greatly enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 I CANNOT call riches better than the baggage of 
 virtue. The Roman word is better, " impedi- 
 menta," for as the baggage is to an army so is 
 riches to virtue. It cannot be spared, nor left 
 behind, but it hindereth the march ; yea, and the 
 care of it sometimes loseth or disturbeth the 
 victory. 
 
 Of great riches there is no real use, except it be 
 in the distribution ; the rest is but conceit.- So 
 saith Solomon, " Where much is, there are many 
 to consume it ; and what hath the owner but the 
 sight of it with his eyes?" The personal fruition 
 
 1 Neglect, abandon. ^ Illusion. 
 
1 82 BACON S ESSAYS. 
 
 in any man cannot reach to feel great riches ; there 
 is a custody of them, or a power of dole and dona- 
 tive of them, or a fame of them, but no solid use to 
 the owner. Do you not see what feigned prices 
 are set upon Httle stones and rarities ? And what 
 works of ostentation 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 stronghold in the imagina- 
 tion of the rich man." But this is excellently ex- 
 pressed, that it is in imagination, and not always 
 in fact. For certainly 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 nor fri- 
 arly contempt of them ; but distinguish, as Cicero 
 saith well of Rabirius Posthumas, " in studio rei 
 amplificandse apparebat, non avaritiae prsedam, sed 
 instrumentum bonitati quseri."^^ Hearken also to 
 Solomon, and beware of hasty gathering of riches : 
 " Qui festinat ad divitias, non erit insons." ^ The 
 poets feign that when Plutus, which is riches, is 
 
 1 In order that. 
 
 2 In the endeavor to increase his estate, it was evident 
 that he sought not a prey for avarice, but an instrument of 
 beneficence. 
 
 3 He that makcth haste to be rich, shall not be inno- 
 cent. 
 
OF RICHES. 183 
 
 sent from Jupiter, he limps, and goes slowly, but 
 when he is sent from Pluto, he runs, and is swift 
 of foot ; meaning, that riches gotten by good 
 means and just labor pace slowly, but when they 
 come by the death of others, as by the course of 
 inheritance, testaments, and the like, they come 
 tumbling upon a man. But it mought be applied 
 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.^ 
 
 Tlie ways to enrich are many, and most of 
 them foul. Parsimony is one of the best, and 
 yet is not innocent, for it withholdeth men from 
 works of liberality and charity. The improvement 
 of the ground is the most natural obtaining of 
 riches, for it is our great mother's blessing, the 
 earth's; but it is slow. And yet, where men of 
 great wealth do stoop to husbandry, it multiplieth 
 riches exceedingly. I knew a nobleman in Eng- 
 land that had the greatest audits of any man in my 
 time : a great grazier, a great sheep-master, a 
 great timber-man, a great collier, a great corn- 
 
 1 Compare Webster's " Duchess of Malfi," ill. 2 ; — 
 
 " Pluto, the god of riches, 
 When he 's sent by Jupiter to any man, 
 He goes Hmping, to signify that wealth 
 
 That comes on God's name comes slowly : but when he 's sent 
 On the devil's errand, he rides post and comes in by scuttles." 
 
 See note, Essay v. page 56. 
 
184 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 master, a great lead-man, and so of iron, and a 
 number of the like points of husbandry ; so as the 
 earth seemed a sea to him, in respect of the per- 
 petual importation. It was truly observed by one, 
 that himself came very hardly to a litde riches, and 
 very easily to great riches. For when a man's 
 stock is come to that, that he can expect the prime 
 of markets, and overcome ^ those bargains which, 
 for their greatness, are few men's money, and be 
 partner in the industries of younger men, he cannot 
 but increase mainly.^ 
 
 The gains of ordinary trades and vocations are 
 honest, and furthered by two things chiefly, by 
 diligence, and by a good name for good and fair 
 dealing. But the gains of bargains are of a more 
 doubtful nature, when men shall wait upon others' 
 necessity ; broke ^ by servants and instruments to 
 draw them on ; put off others cunningly that would 
 be better chapmen ; "* and the like practices, which 
 are crafty and naught. As for the chopping ^ of 
 bargains, — when a man buys, not to hold, but to 
 sell over again, — that commonly grindeth double, 
 both upon the seller and upon the buyer.^ Shar- 
 ings do greatly enrich, if the hands be well chosen 
 that are trusted. Usury is the certainest means of 
 gain, though one of the worst, as that whereby a 
 
 1 Master, command. 
 
 2 Greatly. ^ Negotiate. 
 * Buyers. ^ Bartering. 
 
 ** The regrator gets the advantage of both. 
 
OP RICHES. 185 
 
 man doth eat his bread " in sudore vultus aUeni," ^ 
 and besides, doth plough upon Sundays. But yet, 
 certain though it be, it hath flaws ; for that the 
 scriveners and brokers do value '-^ unsound men, to 
 serve their own turn. 
 
 The fortune in being the first in an invention, or 
 in a privilege, doth cause sometimes a wonderful 
 overgrowth in riches, as it was with the first sugar- 
 man in the Canaries. Therefore, if a man can 
 play the true logician, to have as well judgment as 
 invention, he may do great matters, especially if 
 the times be fit. He that resteth upon gains cer- 
 tain, shall hardly grow to great riches ; and he 
 that puts all upon adventures, doth oftentimes 
 break, and come to poverty : it is good therefore 
 to guard adventures with certainties that may up- 
 hold losses. MonopoHes, and coemption of wares 
 for resale, where they are not restrained, are great 
 means to enrich ; especially if the party have intel- 
 ligence what things are like to come into request, 
 and to store himself beforehand. Riches gotten 
 by service, though it be of the best rise, yet when 
 they are gotten by flattery, feeding humors, and 
 other servile conditions, they may be placed 
 amongst the worst. As for fishing for testaments 
 and executorships (as Tacitus saith of Seneca, 
 "Testamenta et orbos tanquam indagine capi"^), 
 
 1 In the sweat of another man's face. See Essay " Of 
 Usury," page 205. 
 
 2 Represent as trustworthy. 
 
 8 He hauled in wills and wardships as with a net. 
 
1 86 BACON'S ESSAYS, 
 
 it is yet worse ; by how much men submit them- 
 selves to meaner persons than in service. 
 
 Believe not much them that seem to despise 
 riches, for they despise them that despair of them ; 
 and none worse when they come to them. Be 
 not penny-wise ; riches have wings, and sometimes 
 they fly away of themselves, sometimes they must 
 be set flying to bring in more. 
 
 Men leave their riches either to their kindred, or 
 to the public ; and moderate portions prosper best 
 in both. A great estate left to an heir is as a lure 
 to all the birds of prey round about to seize on 
 him, if he be not the better stablished in years and 
 judgment. Likewise glorious ^ gifts and founda- 
 tions are like sacrifices without salt ; and but the 
 painted sepulchres of alms, which soon will putrefy 
 and corrupt inwardly. Therefore measure not 
 thine advancements ^ by quantity, but frame them 
 by measure. And defer not charities till death ; for 
 certainly, if a man weigh it rightly, he that doth so, 
 is rather liberal of another man's than of his own. 
 
 XXXV. — OF PROPHECIES. 
 (1625.) 
 
 I MEAN not to speak of divine prophecies, nor of 
 heathen oracles, nor of natural predictions, but 
 only of prophecies that have been of certain mem- 
 1 Vain-glorious. '■^ Gifts. 
 
OF PROPHECIES. 187 
 
 ory and from hidden causes. Saith the Pythonissa 
 to Saul, "To-morrow thou and thy son shall be 
 with me." Homer hath these verses : 
 
 "At domus iEneae cunctis dominabitur oris, 
 Et nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis : " ^ 
 
 a prophecy, as it seems, of the Roman Empire. 
 Seneca, the tragedian, hath these verses : 
 
 " Venient annis 
 Secula seris, quibus oceanus 
 Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens 
 Pateat tellus, Tiphysque novos 
 Detegat orbes ; nee sit terris 
 Ultima Thule:"=2 
 
 a prophecy of the discovery of America. The 
 daughter of Polycrates dreamed that Jupiter 
 bathed her father, and Apollo anointed him : and 
 it came to pass that he was crucified in an open 
 place, where the sun made his body run with 
 sweat, and the rain washed it. Philip of Macedon 
 dreamed he sealed up his wife's belly, whereby he 
 did expound it that his wife should be barren ; but 
 
 1 Over every shore shall reign the house of ^Eneas, 
 And his children's children, and their descendants forever. 
 
 The verses are adapted by Virgil from Homer (/Encid, 
 iii. 97 ; Iliad, xx. 307). 
 
 2 " Ocean in years to come shall loose her bands, 
 The vast earth be disclosed, and Tiphys show 
 New worlds, nor Thule be the farthest bound." 
 
x88 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 Aristander the soothsayer told him his wife was 
 with child, because men do not use to seal vessels 
 that are empty. A phantasm that appeared to M. 
 Brutus, in his tent, said to him, '' Philippis iterum 
 me videbis."^ Tiberius said to Galba, " Tu quo- 
 que, Galba, degustabis imperium." ^ In Vespa- 
 sian's time there went a prophecy in the East« that 
 those that should come forth of Judea should 
 reign over the world ; which, though it may be was 
 meant of our Saviour, yet Tacitus expounds it of 
 Vespasian. Domitian dreamed, the night before 
 he was slain, that a golden head was growing out 
 of the nape of his neck ; and indeed the succession 
 that followed him for many years made golden times. 
 Henry VI. of England said of Henry VII., when 
 he was a lad, and gave him water, " This is the lad 
 that shall enjoy the crown for which we strive." 
 When I was in France, I heard from one Dr. Pena 
 that the queen-mother, who was given to curious 
 arts, caused the king her husband's nativity to be 
 calculated under a false name, and the astrologer 
 gave a judgment that he should be killed in a 
 duel; at which the queen laughed, thinking her 
 husband to be above challenges and duels ; but he 
 was slain upon a course at tilt, the splinters of the 
 staff of Montgomery going in at his beaver. The 
 trivial prophecy which I heard when I was a child, 
 
 1 Thou shalt see me again at Phllippi. 
 
 2 Thou likewise, Galba, shalt taste of empire. 
 
OF PROPHECIES. 189 
 
 and Queen Elizabeth was in the flower of her 
 years, was : 
 
 " When Hempe is sponne, 
 England's done ; " 
 
 whereby it was generally conceived that, after the 
 princes had reigned which had the principal letters 
 of that word hempe (which were Henry, Edward, 
 Mary, Philip, and Elizabeth), England should 
 come to utter confusion ; which, thanks be to God, 
 is verified only in the change of the name, for that 
 the king's style is now no more of England, but of 
 Britain. There was also another prophecy before 
 the year of eighty-eight, which I do not well 
 understand : 
 
 " There shall be seen upon a day, 
 Between the Baugh and the May,i 
 The black fleet of Norway. 
 When that is come and gone, 
 England, build houses of lime and stone, 
 For after wars shall you have none." 
 
 It was generally conceived to be meant of the 
 Spanish fleet that came in eighty-eight; for that 
 the King of Spain's surname, as they say, is Nor- 
 way. The prediction of Regiomontanus, 
 
 " Octogesimus octavus mirabilis annus," '^ 
 
 was thought likewise accomplished in the sending 
 of that great fleet, being the greatest in strength, 
 
 1 The Bass rock and the Isle of May in the Frith of 
 Forth. 
 
 2 Eighty-eight, a year of wonders. 
 
IQO 
 
 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 though not in number, of all that ever swam upon 
 the sea. As for Cleon's dream, I think it was a 
 jest : it was that he was devoured of a long dragon ; 
 and it was expounded of a maker of sausages, that 
 troubled him exceedingly. There are numbers of 
 the like kind, especially if you include dreams and 
 predictions of astrology. But I have set down 
 these few only, of certain credit, for example. 
 
 My judgment is that they ought all to be de- 
 spised, and ought to serve but for winter talk by the 
 fireside. Though when I say despised, I mean it 
 as for belief ; for otherwise the spreading or pub- 
 lishing of them is in no sort to be despised, for 
 they have done much mischief, and I see many 
 severe laws made to suppress them. That that 
 hath given them grace, and some credit, consisteth 
 in three tilings. First, that men mark when they 
 hit, and never mark when they miss, as they do 
 generally also of dreams. The second is, that 
 probable conjectures, or obscure traditions, many 
 times turn themselves into prophecies ; while the 
 nature of man, which coveteth divination, thinks it 
 no peril to foretell that which indeed they do but 
 collect ; as that of Seneca's verse. For so much 
 was then subject to demonstration, that the globe 
 of the earth had great parts beyond the Atlantic, 
 which mought be probably conceived not to be all 
 sea; and adding thereto the tradition in Plato's 
 Timaius and his Atlanticus, it mought encourage 
 one to turn it to a prediction. The third and last, 
 
OF AMBITION. 191 
 
 which is the great one, is that almost all of them, 
 being infinite in number, have been impostures, 
 and by idle and crafty brains merely contrived and 
 feigned after the event past. 
 
 XXXVI. — OF AMBITION. 
 
 (1612 ; much enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 Ambition is like choler ; which is an humor that 
 maketh men active, earnest, full of alacrity, and 
 stirring, if it be not stopped. But if it be stopped, 
 and cannot have his way, it becometh adust,^ and 
 thereby malign and venomous. So ambitious men, 
 if they find the way open for their rising, and still 
 get forward, they are rather busy than dangerous ; 
 but if they be checked in their desires they become 
 secretly discontent, and look upon men and mat- 
 ters with an evil eye, and are best pleased when 
 things go backward ; which is the worst property 
 in a servant of a prince or state. Therefore it is 
 good for princes, if they use ambitious men, to 
 handle it so as they be still progressive and not 
 retrograde ; which, because it cannot be without 
 inconvenience, it is good not to use such natures 
 at all. For if they rise not with their service they 
 will take order to make their service fall with 
 them. 
 
 ^ Inflamed. An old medical term (Latin adustus). 
 
192 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 But since we have said it were good not to use 
 men of ambitious natures, except it be upon ne- 
 cessity, it is fit we speak in what cases they are of 
 necessity. Good commanders in the wars must 
 be taken, be they never so ambitious ; for the use 
 of their service dispenseth with ^ the rest ; and to 
 take a soldier without ambition is to pull off his 
 spurs. There is also great use of ambitious men 
 in being screens to princes in matters of danger 
 and envy ; for no man will take that part except 
 he be like a seeled ^ dove, that mounts and mounts, 
 because he cannot see about him. There is use 
 also of ambitious men in pulling down the great- 
 ness of any subject that overtops ; as Tiberius used 
 Macro in the pulling down of Sejanus. 
 
 Since, therefore, they must be used in such 
 cases, there resteth to speak how they are to be 
 bridled, that they may be less dangerous. There 
 is less danger of them if they be of mean birth, 
 than if they be noble ; and if they be rather harsh 
 of nature, than gracious and popular ; and if they 
 be rather new raised, than grown cunning and 
 fortified in their greatness. It is counted by some 
 a weakness in princes to have favorites ; but it is, 
 of all others, the best remedy against ambitious 
 great ones. For when the way of pleasuring and 
 displeasuring lieth by the favorite, it is impossible 
 
 1 The value of their service makes amends for. 
 
 2 Seel : to blind by closing the eyelids with a fine 
 thread. 
 
OP AMBITIOM. 193 
 
 any other should be over-great. Another means 
 to curb them is to balance them by others as proud 
 as they. But then there must be some middle 
 counsellors to keep things steady ; for without that 
 ballast the ship will roll too much. At the least a 
 prince may animate and inure some meaner per- 
 sons to be, as it were, scourges to ambitious men. 
 As for the having of them obnoxious ^ to ruin, if 
 they be of fearful natures it may do well ; but if 
 they be stout and daring, it may precipitate their 
 designs and prove dangerous. As for the pulling 
 of them down, if the affairs require it, and that it 
 may not be done with safety suddenly, the only way 
 is the interchange continually of favors and dis- 
 graces ; whereby they may not know what to ex- 
 pect, and be as it were in a wood. 
 
 Of ambitions, it is less harmful the ambition to 
 prevail in great things, than that other to appear 
 in everything ; for that breeds confusion, and mars 
 business. But yet it is less danger to have an 
 ambitious man stirring in business, than great in 
 dependances.^ He that seeketh to be eminent 
 amongst able men hath a great task ; but that is 
 ever good for the public. But he that plots to be 
 the only figure amongst ciphers, is the decay of an 
 whole age. 
 
 Honor hath three things in it : the vantage 
 ground to do good ; the approach to kings and 
 
 1 Liable. 
 
 2 Dependants collectively ; following. 
 
94 
 
 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 principal persons ; and the raising of a man's own 
 fortunes. He that hath the best of these inten- 
 tions when he aspireth, is an honest man ; and that 
 prince that can discern of these intentions in an- 
 other that aspireth, is a wise prince. Generally, 
 let princes and states choose such ministers as are 
 more sensible of duty than of rising ; and such as 
 love business rather upon conscience than upon 
 bravery ; and let them discern a busy nature from 
 a willing mind. 
 
 XXXVII. — OF MASQUES AND TRIUMPHS. 
 
 (1625.) 
 
 These things are but toys to come amongst such 
 serious observations. But yet, since princes will 
 have such things, it is better they should be graced 
 with elegancy than daubed with cost. 
 
 Dancing to song is a thing of great state and 
 pleasure. I understand it that the song be in 
 quire, placed aloft, and accompanied with some 
 broken music ; and the ditty fitted to the device. 
 Acting in song, especially in dialogues, hath an 
 extreme good grace : I say acting, not dancing 
 (for that is a mean and vulgar thing) ; and the 
 voices of the dialogue would ^ be strong and manly 
 
 1 Should. See note i, Essay xxii. page 128. 
 
OF MASQUES AND TRIUMPHS. 195 
 
 (a bass and a tenor, no treble) ; and the ditty 
 high and tragical, not nice or dainty. Several 
 quires placed one over against another, and taking 
 the voice by catches, anthem-wise, give great 
 pleasure. Turning dances into figure is a childish 
 curiosity. And generally let it be noted that those 
 things which I here set down are such as do natu- 
 rally take the sense, and not respect petty wonder- 
 ments. It is true the alterations of scenes, so it 
 be quietly and without noise, are things of great 
 beauty and pleasure ; for they feed and relieve the 
 eye before it be full of the same object. Let the 
 scenes abound with light, specially colored and 
 varied ; and let the masquers, or any other that are 
 to come down from the scene, have some motions 
 upon the scene itself before their coming down ; for 
 it draws the eye strangely, and makes it with great 
 pleasure to desire to see that it cannot perfecdy 
 discern. Let the songs be loud and cheerful, and 
 not chirpings or pulings. Let the music likewise 
 be sharp and loud, and well placed. The colors 
 that show best by candle-light are white, carnation, 
 and a kind of sea-water green ; and oes, or spangs, 
 as they are of no great cost, so they are of most 
 glory. As for rich embroidery, it is lost and not 
 discerned. Let the suits of the masquers be 
 graceful and such as become the person when the 
 vizars are off; not after examples of known attires 
 — Turks, soldiers, mariners, and the like. Let 
 anti-masques not be long ; they have been com- 
 
196 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 monly of fools, satyrs, baboons, wild men, an- 
 tiques/ beasts, sprites, witches, Ethiopes, pigmies, 
 turquets,^ nymphs, rustics, Cupids, statuas moving, 
 and the like. As for angels, it is not comical 
 enough to put them in anti-masques ; and any- 
 thing that is hideous, as devils, giants, is on the 
 other side as unfit. But, chiefly, let the music of 
 them be recreative, and with some strange changes. 
 Some sweet odors suddenly coming forth, without 
 any drops falling, are in such a company as there 
 is steam and heat, things of great pleasure and 
 refreshment. Double masques, one of men, an- 
 other of ladies, addeth state and variety. But all 
 is nothing except the room be kept clear and 
 neat. 
 
 For jousts, and tourneys, and barriers, the glories 
 of them are chiefly in the chariots wherein the chal- 
 lengers make their entry; especially if they be 
 drawn with strange beasts, as lions, bears, camels, 
 and the like ; or in the devices of their entrance ; 
 or in the bravery of their liveries ; or in the goodly 
 furniture of their horses and armor. But enough 
 of these toys. 
 
 1 Antics, i. e. grotesque or clownish figures. 
 
 2 Turkish dwarfs ? 
 
OP NATURE IN MEN. 197 
 
 XXXVIII. — OF NATURE L\ MEN. 
 
 (1612; enlarged and altered, 1625.) 
 
 Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, 
 seldom extinguished. Force maketh nature more 
 violent in the return ; doctrine and discourse mak- 
 eth nature less importune ; but custom only doth 
 alter and subdue nature. He that seeketh victory 
 over his nature let him not set himself too great 
 nor too small tasks; for the first will make him 
 dejected by often failings ; and the second will 
 make him a small proceeder, though by often pre- 
 vaiUngs And at the first let him practise with 
 helps, as swimmers do with bladders or rushes ; 
 but after a time let him practise with disadvan- 
 tages, as dancers do with thick shoes. For it 
 breeds great perfection, if the practice be harder 
 than the use. Where nature is mighty, and there- 
 fore the victory hard, the degrees had need be, 
 first to stay and arrest nature in time, — like to him 
 that would say over the four-and-twenty letters 
 when he was angry ; then to go less in quantity, — 
 as if one should, in forbearing wine, come from 
 drinking healths to a draught at a meal ; and, lastly, 
 to discontinue altogether. But if a man have the 
 
198 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 fortitude and resolution to enfranchise himself at 
 once, that is the best : 
 
 •' Optimus ille animi vindex, laedentia pectus 
 Vincula qui rupit, dedoluitque semel."i 
 
 Neither is the ancient rule amiss, to bend nature 
 as a wand to a contrary extreme, whereby to set it 
 right ; understanding it, where the contrary ex- 
 treme is no vice. 
 
 Let not a man force a habit upon himself with 
 a perpetual continuance, but with some intermis- 
 sion. For both the pause reinforceth the new 
 onset ; and if a man that is not perfect be ever 
 in practice, he shall as well practise his errors as 
 his abilities, and induce one habit of both ; and 
 there is no means to help this but by seasonable 
 intermissions. But let not a man trust his victory 
 over his nature too far ; for nature will lay ^ buried 
 a great time, and yet revive upon the occasion or 
 temptation. Like as it was with y^sop's damsel, 
 turned from a cat to a woman, who sat very de- 
 murely at the board's end till a mouse ran before 
 her. Therefore let a man either avoid the occasion 
 altogether, or put himself often to it, that he may 
 be httle moved with it. 
 
 1 " Wouldst thou be free ? The chains that gall thy breast 
 With one strong effort burst, and be at rest." 
 
 Ovid (the translation from Spedding). 
 
 2 So in the original. 
 
OF CUSTOM AND EDUCATION. 199 
 
 A man's nature is best perceived in privateness, 
 for there is no affectation ; in passion, for that 
 putteth a man out of his precepts ; and in a new 
 case or experiment, for there custom leaveth 
 him. 
 
 They are happy men whose natures sort with 
 their vocations ; otherwise they may say, " Multum 
 incola fuit anima mea," ^ when they converse in 
 those things they do not affect.^ In studies, what- 
 soever a man commandeth upon himself, let him 
 set hours for it ; but whatsoever is agreeable to his 
 nature, let him take no care for any set times ; for 
 his thoughts will fly to it of themselves, so as the 
 spaces of other business or studies will suffice. A 
 man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds ; there- 
 fore let him seasonably water the one, and destroy 
 the other. 
 
 XXXIX. — OF CUSTOM AND EDUCATION. 
 
 (1612; enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 Men's thoughts are much according to their 
 inclination ; their discourse and speeches accord- 
 ing to their learning and infused opinions ; but 
 their deeds are after as they have been accus- 
 
 1 My soul hath been long a sojourner (Vulgate). 
 
 2 When they are engaged in pursuits foreign to their 
 tastes. 
 
2 00 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 tomed. And therefore, as Machiavel well noteth, 
 though in an evil-favored instance, there is no 
 trusting to the force of nature, nor to the bravery ^ 
 of words, except it be corroborate by custom. His 
 instance is, that for the achieving of a desperate 
 conspiracy a man should not rest upon the fierce- 
 ness of any man's nature, or his resolute under- 
 takings, but take such an one as hath had his 
 hands formerly in blood. But Machiavel knew 
 not of a friar Clement, nor a Ravaillac, nor a 
 Jaureguy, nor a Baltazar Gerard ; ^ yet his rule 
 holdeth still, that nature, nor the engagement of 
 words, are not so forcible as custom. Only super- 
 stition is now so well advanced that men of the 
 first blood ^ are as firm as butchers by occupation ; 
 and votary * resolution is made equipollent to cus- 
 tom, even in matter of blood. In other things the 
 predominancy of custom is everywhere visible ; 
 insomuch as a man would wonder to hear men 
 profess, protest, engage, give great words, and 
 then do just as they have done before ; as if they 
 were dead images, and engines moved only by 
 the wheels of custom. 
 
 We see also the reign or tyranny of custom, 
 what it is. The Indians, I mean the sect of their 
 
 1 Boastfulness. 
 
 2 These four political assassins were all of Bacon's 
 time. 
 
 3 Men who are committing murder for the first time. 
 
 4 Confirmed by a vow. 
 
OF CUSTOM AND EDUCATION. 20 1 
 
 wise men,^ lay themselves quietly upon a stack of 
 wood, and so sacrifice themselves by fire. Nay, 
 the wives strive to be burned with the corpses of 
 their husbands. The lads of Sparta, of ancient 
 time, were wont to be scourged upon the altar of 
 Diana without so much as queching.^ I remem- 
 ber in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's time 
 of England, an Irish rebel, condemned, put up a 
 petition to the deputy that he might be hanged in 
 a with, and not in an halter, because it had been 
 so used with former rebels. There be monks in 
 Russia, for penance, that will sit a whole night in a 
 vessel of water, till they be engaged with hard ice. 
 Many examples may be put of the force of cus- 
 tom, both upon mind and body. Therefore, since 
 custom is the principal magistrate of man's life, 
 let men by all means endeavor to obtain good 
 customs. Certainly custom is most perfect when 
 it beginneth in young years ; this we call educa- 
 tion, which is, in effect, but an early custom. So 
 we see, in languages the tongue is more pliant to 
 all expressions and sounds, the joints are more 
 supple to all feats of activity and motions, in youth 
 than afterwards. For it is true that late learners 
 cannot so well take the ply ; except it be in some 
 minds that have not suffered themselves to fix, but 
 have kept themselves open and prepared to receive 
 continual amendment, which is exceeding rare. 
 
 1 The Gymnosophists. 
 
 2 Flinching (from quick, alive). 
 
202 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 But if the force of custom simple and separate, 
 be great, the force of custom copulate and con- 
 joined and collegiate, is far greater. For there 
 example teacheth, company comforteth, emulation 
 quickeneth, glory raiseth ; so as in such places 
 the force of custom is in his exaltation.^ Certainly 
 the great multiplication of virtues upon human 
 nature resteth upon societies well ordained and 
 disciplined ; for commonwealths and good govern- 
 ments do nourish virtue grown, but do not much 
 mend the seeds. But the misery is, that the most 
 effectual means are now applied to the ends least 
 to be desired. 
 
 XL. — OF FORTUNE. 
 
 (1612; slightly enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 It cannot be denied but outward accidents con- 
 duce much to fortune : favor, opportunity, death 
 of others, occasion fitting virtue. But chiefly the 
 mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands. 
 " Faber quisque fortunse suoe," - saith the poet. 
 And the most frequent of external causes is, that 
 the folly of one man is the fortune of another ; 
 for no man prospers so suddenly as by others* 
 
 1 The word zenith renders the meaning. But exaltation 
 is here used in the astrological sense. 
 
 '■^ Every man the architect of his own fortune. 
 
OF FORTUNE. 203 
 
 errors. ''Serpens nisi serpentem comederit non 
 fit draco." ^ Overt and apparent virtues bring forth 
 praise, but there be secret and hidden virtues that 
 bring forth fortune ; certain dehveries of a man's 
 self which have no name. The Spanish name, 
 desetJiboltura^'^ partly expresseth them : when there 
 be not stonds^ nor restiveness in a man's nature, 
 but that the wheels of his mind keep way with the 
 wheels of his fortune. For so Livy, after he had 
 described Cato Major in these words, '^ In illo viro, 
 tantum robur corporis et animi fuit, ut quocunque 
 loco natus esset, fortunam sibi facturus videretur," ^ 
 falleth upon that, that he had versatile mgefiium.^ 
 Therefore, if a man look sharply and attentively, 
 he shall see fortune ; for though she be blind, yet 
 she is not invisible. The way of fortune is like 
 the milken way in the sky, which is a meeting or 
 knot of a number of small stars, not seen asunder, 
 but giving light together. So are there a number 
 of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather 
 faculties and customs, that make men fortunate. 
 The Italians note some of them, such as a man 
 would little think. When they speak of one that 
 
 i A serpent becomes a dragon only by devouring a 
 serpent. 
 
 2 Literally, a turning of one's self inside out (Abbott). 
 
 3 Stands (checks). Explained by resttveness. 
 
 * In that great man there was such strength of body 
 and of mind that no matter where he had been born, he 
 could doubtless have made his fortune. 
 
 S A versatile nature. 
 
204 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 cannot do amiss, they will throw in into his other 
 conditions, that he hath '' poco di matto." ^ And, 
 certainly, there be not two more fortunate proper- 
 ties than to have a little of the fool, and not too 
 much of the honest. Therefore extreme lovers of 
 their country or masters were never fortunate, 
 neither can they be ; for when a man placeth his 
 thoughts without himself, he goeth not his own 
 way. 
 
 An hasty fortune maketh an enterpriser and re- 
 mover (the French hath it better, entreprenant, or 
 remnant) ; but the exercised fortune maketh the 
 able man. Fortune is to be honored and re- 
 spected, and it be but for her daughters, Confi- 
 dence and Reputation. For those two felicity 
 breedeth ; the first within a man's self, the latter 
 in others towards him. 
 
 All wise men, to decline the envy of their own 
 virtues, use to ascribe them to Providence and 
 Fortune ; for so they may the better assume them, 
 and besides it is greatness in a man to be the care 
 of the higher powers. So Caesar said to the pilot 
 in the tempest, " Csesarem portas, et fortunam 
 ejus."^ So Sylla chose the name oi felix^ and 
 not of magnus ; ^ and it hath been noted that 
 those that ascribe openly too much to their own 
 wisdom and policy, end infortunate. It is written 
 
 1 A little of the fool. 
 
 2 You carry Ccesar and his fortune. 
 
 3 Fortunate. "* Great. 
 
OF USURY. 205 
 
 that Timotheus, the Athenian, after he had, in the 
 account he gave to the state of his government, 
 often interlaced this speech, " And in this fortune 
 had no part," never prospered in anything he 
 undertook afterwards. 
 
 Certainly there be whose fortunes are like Ho- 
 mer's verses, that have a slide and easiness more 
 than the verses of other poets ; as Plutarch saith 
 of Timoleon's fortune, in respect of that of Agesi- 
 laus or Epaminondas. And that this should be, 
 no doubt it is much in a man's self. 
 
 XLL — OF USURY. 
 
 (1625) 
 
 Many have made witty invectives against usury. 
 They say that it is pity the devil should have 
 God's part, which is the tithe ; that the usurer is 
 the greatest Sabbath-breaker, because his plough 
 goeth every Sunday ; that the usurer is the drone 
 that Virgil speaketh of: 
 
 " Ignavum fucos pecus a praesepibus arcent ; " ^ 
 
 that the usurer breaketh the first law that was made 
 for mankind after the fall, which was " In sudore 
 vultus tui comedes panem tuum," not " In sudore 
 
 1 They drive away the drones, an idle herd, from the 
 hives. 
 
2o6 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 vultus alieni ; " ^ that usurers should have orange- 
 tawny bonnets,^ because they do judaize ; that it 
 is against nature for money to beget money ; and 
 the like. I say this only, that usury is a " conces- 
 sum propter duritiem cordis ; " ^ for since there 
 must be borrowing and lending, and men are so 
 hard of heart as they will not lend freely, usury 
 must be permitted. Some others have made 
 suspicious and cunning propositions of banks, dis- 
 covery of men's estates, and other inventions. But 
 few have spoken of usury usefully. It is good to 
 set before us the incommodities and commodities ^ 
 of usury, that the good may be either weighed out 
 or culled out ; and warily to provide that, while we 
 make forth to that which is better, we meet not 
 with that which is worse. 
 
 The discommodities of usury are : — First, that 
 it makes fewer merchants. For were it not for 
 this lazy trade of usury, money would not lie still, 
 but would in great part be employed upon mer- 
 chandising, which is the vena porta ^ of wealth in 
 a state. The second, that it makes poor mer- 
 chants. For as a farmer cannot husband his 
 
 1 " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread," not 
 " In the sweat of another's face." See Essay " Of Riches," 
 page 185. 
 
 2 " Yellow bonnets " were assigned by law to the Jews. 
 
 3 A thing allowed by reason of the hardness of men's 
 hearts. 
 
 * Cofnmodity means advantage. 
 
 6 The gate-vein. See note, Essay xix. page 117. 
 
OP USURY. 207 
 
 ground so well if he sit at a great rent, so the 
 merchant cannot drive his trade so well if he sit at 
 great usury. The third is incident to the other 
 two ; and that is the decay of customs of kings or 
 states, which ebb or flow with merchandising. 
 The fourth, that it bringeth the treasure of a realm 
 or state into a few hands. For the usurer being at 
 certainties, and others at uncertainties, at the end 
 of the game most of the money will be in the 
 box ; and ever a state flourisheth when wealth is 
 more equally spread. The fifth, that it beats down 
 the price of land ; for the employment of money 
 is chiefly either merchandising or purchasing, 
 and usury waylays both. The sixth, that it doth 
 dull and damp all industries, improvements, and 
 new inventions, wherein money would be stirring, 
 if it were not for this slug. The last, that it is the 
 canker and ruin of many men's estates ; which in 
 process of time breeds a public poverty. 
 
 On the other side, the commodities of usury 
 are : — First, that howsoever usury in some re- 
 spect hindereth merchandising, yet in some other 
 it advanceth it ; for it is certain that the greatest 
 part of trade is driven by young merchants, upon 
 borrowing at interest ; so as if the usurer either 
 call in or keep back his money, there will ensue 
 presently a great stand of trade. The second is, 
 that were it not for this easy borrowing upon in- 
 terest, men's necessities would draw upon them a 
 most sudden undoing, in that they would be forced 
 
2o8 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 to sell their means, be it lands or goods, far under 
 foot ; and so, whereas usury doth but gnaw upon 
 them, bad markets would swallow them quite up. 
 As for mortgaging or pawning, it will little mend 
 the matter; for either men will not take pawns 
 without use, or if they do, they will look pre- 
 cisely for the forfeiture. I remember a cruel 
 moneyed man in the country that would say, 
 " The devil take this usury, it keeps us from for- 
 feitures of mortgages and bonds." The third and 
 last is, that it is a vanity to conceive that there 
 would be ordinary borrowing without profit ; and 
 it is impossible to conceive the number of incon- 
 venitxices that will ensue, if borrowing be cramped. 
 Therefore to speak of the abolishing of usury is 
 idle ; all states have ever had it in one kind or 
 rate, or other. So as that opinion must be sent 
 to Utopia. 
 
 To speak now of the reformation and reglement 
 of usury, how the discommodities of it may be best 
 avoided and the commodities retained : it appears 
 by the balance of commodities and discommodi- 
 ties of usury, two things are to be reconciled. The 
 one, that the tooth of usury be grinded that it bite 
 not too much ; the other, that there be left open 
 a means to invite moneyed men to lend to the 
 merchants, for the continuing and quickening of 
 trade. This cannot be done except you introduce 
 two several sorts of usury, a less and a greater. 
 For if you reduce usury to one low rate, it will 
 
OF USURY, 209 
 
 ease the common borrower, but the merchant will 
 be to seek for money. And it is to be noted that 
 the trade of merchandise, being the most lucrative, 
 may bear usury at a good rate ; other contracts 
 not so. 
 
 To serve both intentions, the way would be briefly 
 thus : that there be two rates of usury, the one free 
 and general for all ; the other under license only 
 to certain persons, and in certain places of mer- 
 chandising. First, therefore, let usury in general 
 be reduced to five in the hundred ; and let that 
 rate be proclaimed to be free and current ; and 
 let the state shut itself out to take any penalty for 
 the same. This will preserve borrowing from any 
 general stop or dryness j this will ease infinite bor- 
 rowers in the country j this will in good part raise 
 the price of land, because land purchased at six- 
 teen years' purchase will yield six in the hundred, 
 and somewhat more, whereas this rate of interest 
 yields but five ; this, by like reason, will encourage 
 and edge industrious and profitable improvements, 
 because many will rather venture in that kind than 
 take five in the hundred, especially having been 
 used to greater profit. Secondly, let there be cer- 
 tain persons licensed to lend to known merchants 
 upon usury at a higher rate, and let it be with the 
 cautions following. Let the rate be, even with the 
 merchant himself, somewhat more easy than that 
 he used formerly to pay; for by that means all 
 borrowers shall have some ease by this reforma- 
 14 
 
2IO BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 tion, be he merchant or whosoever. Let it be no 
 bank, or common stock, but every man be master 
 of his own money. Not that I altogether misHke 
 banks, but they will hardly be brooked in regard of 
 certain suspicions. Let the state be answered-^ 
 some small matter for the license, and the rest 
 left to the lender; for if the abatement be but 
 small, it will no whit discourage the lender. For 
 he, for example, that took before ten or nine in 
 the hundred, will sooner descend to eight in the 
 hundred than give over his trade of usury, and go 
 from certain gains to gains of hazard. Let these 
 licensed lenders be in number indefinite, but re- 
 strained to certain principal cities and towns of 
 merchandising ; for then they will be hardly able 
 to color ^ other men's moneys in the country ; so 
 as the license of nine will not suck away the cur- 
 rent rate of five. For no man will send his moneys 
 far off, nor put them into unknown hands. 
 
 If it be objected that this doth in a sort author- 
 ize usury, which before was in some places but 
 permissive ; the answer is, that it is better to miti- 
 gate usury by declaration than to suffer it to rage 
 by connivance. 
 
 1 Paid. 
 
 2 Borrow to lend again in one's own name. To color, 
 is to give a false appearance to. 
 
OF YOUTH AND AGE. 211 
 
 XLIL — OF YOUTH AND AGE. 
 
 (1612; somewhat enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 A MAN that is young in years may be old in 
 hours, if he have lost no time. But that happen- 
 eth rarely. Generally youth is like the first cogi- 
 tations, not so wise as the second. For there is 
 a youth in thoughts as well as in ages. And yet 
 the invention of young men is more lively than 
 that of old ; and imaginations stream into their 
 minds better, and, as it were, more divinely. 
 
 Natures that have much heat, and great and 
 violent desires and perturbations, are not ripe for 
 action till they have passed the meridian of their 
 years ; as it was with Julius Caesar and Septim- 
 ius Severus, of the latter of whom it is said, 
 "Juventutem egit erroribus, "Tmo furoribus, plF- 
 nam." ^ And yet he was the ablest emperor, 
 almost, of all the list. But reposed natures may 
 do well in youth, as it is seen in Augustus Ccesar, 
 Cosmus Duke of Florence, Gaston de Fois, and 
 others. On the other side, heat and vivacity in 
 age is an excellent composition for business. 
 
 Young men are fitter to invent than to judge, 
 fitter for execution than for counsel, and fitter for 
 
 1 Full of errors, nay, of frantic passions, was his youth. 
 
212 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 new projects than for settled business. For the 
 experience of age, in things that fall within the 
 compass of it, directeth them, but in new things 
 abuseth them. The errors of young men are the 
 ruin of business ; but the errors of aged men 
 amount but to this, — that more might have been 
 done, or sooner. Young men, in the conduct and 
 manage of actions, embrace more than they can 
 hold ; stir more than they can quiet ; fly to the 
 end, without consideration of the means and de- 
 grees ; pursue some few principles, which they 
 have chanced upon, absurdly ; care ^ not to in- 
 novate, which draws unknown inconveniences ; 
 use extreme remedies at first; and, that which 
 doubleth all errors, will not acknowledge or re- 
 tract them ; like an unready horse, that will nei- 
 ther stop nor turn. Men of age object too much, 
 consult too long, adventure too little, repent too 
 soon, and seldom drive business home to the full 
 period, but content themselves with a mediocrity 
 of success. 
 
 Certainly it is good to compound employments 
 of both : for that will be good for the present, be- 
 cause the virtues of either age may correct the 
 defects of both ; and good for succession,^ that 
 young men may be learners, while men in age are 
 actors ; and, lastly, good for extern accidents, be- 
 cause authority foUoweth old men, and favor and 
 
 1 Hesitate. 
 
 - The future (Latin translation). 
 
OF YOUTH AND AGE. 213 
 
 popularity, youth. But for the moral part per- 
 haps youth will have the pre-eminence, as age hath 
 for the politic. A certain Rabbin upon the text, 
 *' Your young men shall see visions, and your old 
 men shall dream dreams," inferreth that young 
 men are admitted nearer to God than old, because 
 vision is a clearer revelation than a dream. And 
 certainly the more a man drinketh of the world, 
 the more it intoxicateth ; and age doth profit 
 rather in the powers of understanding, than in the 
 virtues of the will and affections. 
 
 There be some have an over-early ripeness in 
 their years, which fadeth betimes. These are, 
 first, such as have brittle wits, the edge whereof 
 is soon turned ; such as was Hermogenes, the 
 rhetorician, whose books are exceeding subtile, 
 who afterwards waxed stupid. A second sort is 
 of those that have some natural dispositions which 
 have better grace in youth than in age ; such as is 
 a fluent and luxuriant speech, which becomes youth 
 well, but not age. So Tully saith of Hortensius, 
 "Idem manebat, neque idem decebat."^ The 
 third is of such as take too high a strain at the 
 first, and are magnanimous more than tract of 
 years can uphold ; as was Scipio Africanus, of 
 whom Livy saith in effect, " Ultima primis ce- 
 debant." ^ 
 
 1 He remained the same, but it did not equally become 
 him. 
 
 2 The end did not match the beginning. 
 
214 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 XLIII. — OF BEAUTY. 
 (1612; slightly enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set ; and 
 surely virtue is best in a body that is comely, though 
 not of delicate features, and that hath rather dig- 
 nity of presence than beauty of aspect. Neither 
 is it almost ^ seen that very beautiful persons are 
 otherwise of great virtue; as if Nature were 
 rather busy not to err, than in labor to produce 
 excellency. And therefore they prove accom- 
 plished, but not of great spirit, and study rather 
 behavior than virtue. But this holds not always : 
 for Augustus Caesar, Titus Vespasianus, Philip le 
 Bel of France, Edward IV. of England, Alcibi- 
 ades of Athens, Ismael the Sophy of Persia, were 
 all high and great spirits, and yet the most beauti- 
 ful men of their times. 
 
 In beauty, that of favor ^ is more than that of 
 color; and that of decent and gracious motion, 
 more than that of favor. That is the best part 
 of beauty which a picture cannot express, — no, 
 nor the first sight of the life. There is no excel 
 lent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the 
 proportion. A man cannot tell whether Apelles^ 
 
 1 For the most part. ^ Feature. 
 
 8 Not Apellcs, but Zeuxis. 
 
OF BEAUTY 215 
 
 or Albert Diirer were the more trifler ; whereof the 
 one would make a personage by geometrical pro- 
 portions ; the other, by taking the best parts out 
 of divers faces to make one excellent. Such per- 
 sonages, I think, would please nobody but the 
 painter that made them. Not but I think a 
 painter may make a better face than ever was; 
 but he must do it by a kind of felicity, as a musi- 
 cian that maketh an excellent air in music, and 
 not by rule. A man shall see faces that, if you 
 examine them part by part, you shall find never 
 a good, and yet altogether dC) well. 
 
 If it be true that the principal part of beauty is 
 in decent motion, certainly it is no marvel though 
 persons in years seem many times more amiable : 
 " Pulchrorum autumnus pulcher ; " ^ for no youth 
 can be comely but by pardon, and considering 
 the youth as to make up the comeliness. Beauty 
 is as summer fruits, which are easy to corrupt and 
 cannot last ; and, for the most part, it makes a dis- 
 solute youth, and an age a little out of counte- 
 nance ; but yet certainly, again, if it light well, it 
 maketh virtues shine and vices blush. 
 
 1 Beautiful is the autumn of beauty. 
 
2l6 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 XLIV.— OF DEFORMITY. 
 (1612; last sentence altered, 1625.) 
 
 Deformed persons are commonly even with 
 Nature ; for as Nature hath done ill by them, so 
 do they by Nature, being for the most part, as the 
 Scripture saith, " void of natural affection ; " and 
 so they have their revenge of Nature. Certainly 
 there is a consent between the body and the 
 mind, and where Nature erreth in the one she 
 ventureth in the other : " Ubi peccat in uno, peri- 
 clitatur in altero." But because there is in man 
 an election touching the frame of his mind, and 
 a necessity in the frame of his body, the stars of 
 natural inclination are sometimes obscured by the 
 sun of discipline and virtue. Therefore it is good 
 to consider of deformity, not as a sign, which is 
 more deceivable ; but as a cause which seldom 
 faileth of the effect. 
 
 Whosoever hath anything fixed in his person 
 that doth induce contempt, hath also a perpetual 
 spur in himself to rescue and deliver himself from 
 scorn. Therefore all deformed persons are extreme 
 bold : first, as in their own defence, as being ex- 
 posed to scorn ; but in process of time, by a gen- 
 eral habit. Also it stirreth in them industry, and 
 especially of this kind, to watch and observe the 
 
OF DEFORMITY. 217 
 
 weakness of others, that they may have somewhat 
 to repay. Again, in their superiors it quencheth 
 jealousy towards them, as persons that they think 
 they may at pleasure despise ; and it layeth their 
 competitors and emulators asleep, as never believ- 
 ing they should be in possibility of advancement, 
 till they see them in possession. So that, upon 
 the matter,^ in a great wit deformity is an advan- 
 tage to rising. 
 
 Kings in ancient times, and at this present in 
 some countries, were wont to put great trust in 
 eunuchs ; because they that are envious towards 
 all, are more obnoxious^ and officious towards 
 one. But yet their trust towards them hath 
 rather been as to good spials and good whisper- 
 ers than good magistrates and officers. And much 
 like is the reason of deformed persons. Still the 
 ground is, they will, if they be of spirit, seek to 
 free themselves from scorn ; which must be either 
 by virtue or malice. And, therefore, let it not be 
 marvelled if sometimes they prove excellent per- 
 sons, as was Agesilaus, Zanger the son of Solyman, 
 ^sop, Gasca President of Peru; and Socrates 
 may go likewise amongst them, with others.^ 
 
 1 On the whole (in ed. 1612: "upon the whole mat- 
 ter *'). 
 
 2 Compliant. See note i, Essay xx. page 123. 
 
 8 In the edition of 1612, this sentence was a clause, as 
 follows : " and therefore they prove cither the best of 
 men, or the worst, or strangely mixed." 
 
2i8 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 XLV. — OF BUILDING. 
 
 (1625.) 
 
 Houses are built to live in, and not to look on ; 
 therefore let use be preferred before uniformity, 
 except where both may be had. Leave the goodly 
 fabrics of houses for beauty only, to the enchanted 
 palaces of the poets, who build them with small 
 cost. He that builds a fair house upon an ill seat, 
 committeth himself to prison. Neither do I reckon 
 it an ill seat only where the air is unwholesome, 
 but likewise where the air is unequal ; as you shall 
 see many fine seats, set upon a knap ^ of ground, 
 environed with higher hills round about it ; whereby 
 the heat of the sun is pent in, and the wind gath- 
 ereth as in troughs, so as you shall have, and that 
 suddenly, as great diversity of heat and cold as if 
 you dwelt in several places. Neither is it ill air 
 only that maketh an ill seat, but ill ways, ill 
 markets, and, if you will consult with Momus,^ 
 ill neighbors. I speak not of many more : want 
 of water ; want of wood, shade, and shelter ; want 
 of fruitfulness, and mixture of grounds of several 
 natures ; want of prospect ; want of level grounds ; 
 
 1 Knob, knoll. 
 
 2 Who thought a house should be built upon wheels to 
 remove it from ill neighbors. 
 
OF BUILDING. 219 
 
 want of places at some near distance for sports of 
 hunting, hawking, and races ; too near the sea, 
 too remote ; having no commodity ^ of navigable 
 rivers, or the discommodity of their overflowing ; 
 too far off from great cities, which may hinder 
 business ; or too near them, which lurcheth ^ all 
 provisions, and maketh everything dear ; where a 
 man hath a great living laid together, and where 
 he is scanted; — all which, as it is impossible, 
 perhaps, to find together, so it is good to know 
 them, and think of them, that a man may take as 
 many as he can ; and if he have several dwellings, 
 that he sort them so, that what he w^anteth in the 
 one he may find in the other. LucuUus answered 
 Pompey well, who, when he saw his stately galleries, 
 and rooms so large and lightsome, in one of his 
 houses, said, " Surely an excellent place for sum- 
 mer, but how do you in winter?" Lucullus an- 
 swered, " Why, do you not think me as wise as 
 some fowl are, that ever change their abode towards 
 the winter? " 
 
 To pass from the seat to the house itself, we will 
 do as Cicero doth in the orator's art, who writes 
 books " De Oratore," and a book he entitles 
 '' Orator : " whereof the former dehvers the pre- 
 cepts of the art, and the latter the perfection. We 
 will therefore describe a princely palace, making a 
 
 1 Advantage. Latin, nulla commoditas. All the Eng- 
 lish editions misprint, and make nonsense of, this passage. 
 '•^ Snaps up, consumes. 
 
2 20 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 brief model thereof. For it is strange to see, now 
 in Europe, such huge buildings as the Vatican 
 and Escurial and some others be, and yet scarce 
 a very fair room in them. 
 
 First, therefore, I say, you cannot have a perfect 
 palace, except you have two several sides : a side 
 for the banquet, as is spoken of in the book of 
 Hester ; and a side for the household, — the one for 
 feasts and triumphs, and the other for dwelling. I 
 understand both these sides to be not only returns,^ 
 but parts of the front ; and to be uniform without, 
 though severally partitioned within ; and to be on 
 both sides of a great and stately tower, in the 
 midst of the front, that as it were joineth them 
 together on either hand. I would have on the 
 side of the banquet, in front, one only goodly room 
 above stairs, of some forty foot high ; and under it 
 a room for a dressing or preparing place, at times 
 of triumphs. On the other side, which is the 
 household side, I wish it divided at the first into a 
 hall and a chapel, with a partition between, both 
 of good state and bigness ; and those not to go all 
 the length, but to have at the farther end a winter 
 and a summer parlor, both fair. And under these 
 rooms a fair and large cellar sunk under ground ; 
 and likewise some privy kitchens, with butteries 
 and pantries, and the like. As for the tower, I 
 would have it two stories of eighteen foot high 
 
 1 Sides of the court. 
 
OF BUILDING. 221 
 
 apiece, above the two wings ; and a goodly leads 
 upon the top, railed, with statuas interposed ; and 
 the same tower to be divided into rooms, as shall 
 be thought fit. The stairs likewise to the upper 
 rooms, let them be upon a fair open newel,^ and 
 finely railed in with images of wood cast into a 
 brass color ; and a very fair landing-place at the 
 top. But this to be, if you do not point any of 
 the lower rooms for a dining-place of servants ; for 
 otherwise you shall have the servants' dinner after 
 your own, for the steam of it will come up as in a 
 tunnel. And so much for the front. Only I un- 
 derstand the height of the first stairs to be sixteen 
 foot, which is the height of the lower room. 
 
 Beyond this front is there to be a fair court, but 
 three sides of it of a far lower building than the 
 front. And in all the four corners of that court, 
 fair staircases cast into turrets on the outside, and 
 not within the row of buildings themselves ; but 
 those towers are not to be of the height of the 
 front, but rather proportionable to the lower build- 
 ing. Let the court not be paved, for that striketh 
 up a great heat in summer, and much cold in win- 
 ter ; but only some side alleys, with a cross, and 
 the quarters to graze,^ being kept shorn, but not 
 too near shorn. The row of return on the ban- 
 quet side, let it be all stately galleries ; in which 
 
 1 The hollow column around which winds a spiral 
 staircase. 
 
 2 To be turfed. 
 
2 22 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 galleries let there be three, or five, fine cupolas in 
 the length of it, placed at equal distance, and fine 
 colored windows of several works. On the house- 
 hold side, chambers of presence and ordinary en- 
 tertainments, with some bed-chambers ; and let all 
 three sides be a double house, without through 
 lights on the sides, that you may have rooms from 
 the sun, both for forenoon and afternoon. Cast it 
 also that you may have rooms both for summer 
 and winter ; shady for summer, and warm for win- 
 ter. You shall have sometimes fair houses so full 
 of glass, that one cannot tell where to become ^ to 
 be out of the sun or cold. For imbowed windows 
 I hold them of good use (in cities, indeed, upright 
 do better, in respect of the uniformity towards the 
 street), for they be pretty retiring places for confer- 
 ence ; and besides, they keep both the wind and 
 sun off, for that which would strike almost through 
 the room doth scarce pass the window. But let 
 them be but few, four in the court, on the sides only. 
 Beyond this court let there be an inward court, 
 of the same square and height, which is to be 
 environed with the garden on all sides ; and in the 
 inside cloistered on all sides upon decent and 
 beautiful arches, as high as the first story. On 
 the under story, towards the garden,^ let it be 
 turned to a grotto, or place of shade or estivation, 
 
 1 To betake one's self. 
 
 2 " So far as concerns the two sides " (supplied in the 
 Latin translation). 
 
OF BUILDING. 223 
 
 and only have opening and windows towards the 
 garden ; and be level upon the floor, no whit sunk 
 under ground, to avoid all dampishness. And let 
 there be a fountain, or some fair work of statuas, 
 in the midst of this court, and to be paved as the 
 other court was. These buildings to be for privy 
 lodgings on both sides, and the end for privy gal- 
 leries ; whereof you must foresee, that one of them 
 be for an infirmary, if the prince or any special 
 person should be sick, with chambers, bed-cham- 
 ber, antecamera, and recamera,^ joining to it. 
 This upon the second story. Upon the ground- 
 story,^ a fair gallery, open, upon pillars ; and upon 
 the third story,^ likewise, an open gallery upon pil- 
 lars, to take the prospect and freshness of the gar- 
 den. At both corners of the further side,^ by way 
 of return,^ let there be two delicate or rich cabinets, 
 daintily paved, richly hanged, glazed with crystal- 
 line glass, and a rich cupola in the midst ; and all 
 other elegancy that may be thought upon. In the 
 upper gallery, too, I wish that there may be, if the 
 place will yield it, some fountains running in di- 
 vers places from the wall, with some fine avoid- 
 ances.<^ And thus much for the model of the 
 palace, save that you must have, before you come 
 
 1 Retiring chamber. 
 
 2 "At the end" (Latin translation). 
 8 " On all three sides" (id.)- 
 
 * " On the second story " (id.). 
 
 6 See note, page 220. ^ Outlets. 
 
2 24 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 to the front, three courts : a green court plain, 
 with a wall about it ; a second court of the same,^ 
 but more garnished, with little turrets, or rather 
 embellishments, upon the wall ; and a third court, 
 to make a square with the front, but not to be 
 built, nor yet enclosed with a naked wall, but en- 
 closed with terraces, leaded aloft, and fairly gar- 
 nished, on the three sides ; and cloistered on the 
 inside with pillars, and not with arches below. As 
 for offices, let them stand at distance, with some 
 low galleries to pass from them to the palace itself. 
 
 XLVL — OF GARDENS. 
 
 (1625.) 
 
 God Almighty first planted a garden ; and, in- 
 deed, it is the purest of human pleasures. It is 
 the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man, 
 without which buildings and palaces are but gross 
 handiworks ; and a man shall ever see that when 
 ages grow to civility and elegancy, men come to 
 build stately sooner than to garden finely, as 
 if gardening were the greater perfection. I do 
 hold it, in the royal ordering of gardens, there 
 ought to be gardens for all the months in the year ; 
 in which, severally, things of beauty may be then 
 
 1 " Same size " (Latin translation). 
 
OF GARDENS. 225 
 
 in season. For December and January, and the 
 latter part of November, you must take such things 
 as are green all winter : holly, ivy, bays, juniper, 
 cypress-trees, yew, pine-apple trees,^ fir-trees, rose- 
 mary, lavender, periwinkle (the white, the purple, 
 and the blue), germander, flags, orange-trees, lem- 
 on-trees, and myrtles (if they be stoved '^), and 
 sweet marjoram, warm set. There followeth for the 
 latter part of January and February, the mezerion- 
 tree, which then blossoms ; crocus vernus, both 
 the yellow and the gray ; primroses, anemones, the 
 early tulip, hyacinthus orientalis, chamairis, fritel- 
 laria. For March, there come violets, specially 
 the single blue, which are the earliest ; the yellow 
 daffodil, the daisy, the almond-tree in blossom, the 
 peach-tree in blossom, the cornelian-tree in blos- 
 som, sweet-briar. In April follow the double 
 white violet, the wallflower, the stock-gilliflower, 
 the cowslip, flower-de-luces and lilies of all natures, 
 rosemary-flowers, the tulip, the double peony, the 
 pale daffodil, the French honeysuckle, the cherry- 
 tree in blossom, the damascene and plum-trees in 
 blossom, the whitethorn in leaf, the lilac-tree. In 
 May and June come pinks of all sorts, specially 
 the blush pink ; roses of all kinds except the musk, 
 which comes later ; honeysuckles, strawberries, 
 bugloss, columbine, the French marigold, flos Afri- 
 canus, cherry-tree in fruit, ribes,' figs in fruit, rasps, 
 
 1 Pines. 2 Kept warm. 
 
 8 Red currants {Rites rubriim). 
 15 
 
2 26 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 vine-flowers, lavender in flowers, the sweet satyr- 
 ian ^ with the white flower, herba muscaria, lilium 
 convallium, the apple-tree in blossom. In July- 
 come gilliflowers of all varieties, musk-roses, the 
 lime-tree in blossom, early pears and plums in 
 fruit, jennetings, codlings. In August come plums 
 of all sorts in fruit, pears, apricocks, barberries, fil- 
 berds, musk-melons, monkshoods of all colors. In 
 September come grapes, apples, poppies of all col- 
 ors, peaches, melocotones,^ nectarines, cornelians, 
 wardens, quinces. In October, and the beginning 
 of November, come services, medlars, bullaces, 
 roses cut or removed to come late, hollyhocks, and 
 such like. These particulars are for the climate of 
 London ; but my meaning is perceived, that you 
 may have ver perpetuum as the place affords.^ 
 
 And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter 
 in the air (where it comes and goes like the war- 
 bling of music) than in the hand, therefore nothing 
 is more fit for that delight than to know what be 
 the flowers and plants that do best perfume the 
 air. Roses, damask and red, are fast flowers of 
 their smells, so that you may walk by a whole row 
 of them, and find nothing of their sweetness ; yea, 
 though it be in a morning's dew. Bays likewise 
 
 1 Orchis. 
 
 2 A variety of large peach. 
 
 3 In some copies of the original edition this sentence 
 reads : " Thus, if you will, you may have the Golden Age 
 again, and a spring all the year long." 
 
OF GARDENS. 227 
 
 yield no smell as they grow; rosemary little, nor 
 sweet marjoram. That which, above all others, 
 yields the sweetest smell in the air is the vio- 
 let, specially the white double violet, which comes 
 twice a year, about the middle of April, and about 
 Bartholomew-tide. Next to that is the musk-rose ; 
 then the strawberry leaves dying, with ^ a most ex- 
 cellent cordial smell ; then the flower of the vines, 
 — it is a little dust, like the dust of a bent,^ which 
 grows upon the cluster in the first coming forth ; 
 then sweet-briar ; then wallflowers, which are very 
 delightful to be set under a parlor or lower cham- 
 ber window ; then pinks and gilliflowers, specially 
 the matted pink and clove-gilliflower ; then the 
 flowers of the lime-tree; then the honeysuckles, 
 so they be somewhat afar ofi". Of bean-flowers I 
 speak not, because they are field flowers. But those 
 which perfume the air most delightfully, not passed 
 by as the rest, but being trodden upon and crushed, 
 are three : that is, burnet, wild thyme, and water- 
 mints ; therefore you are to set whole alleys of 
 them, to have the pleasure when you walk or tread. 
 For gardens (speaking of those which are in- 
 deed prince-like, as we have done of buildings), 
 the contents ought not well to be under thirty 
 acres of ground, and to be divided into three 
 parts : a green in the entrance, a heath or desert 
 
 ^ In original -which. Corrected to with in edition of 
 1639. 
 2 Plantain-stalk. 
 
2 28 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 in the going forth, and the main garden in the 
 midst, besides alleys on both sides. And I hke 
 well that four acres of ground be assigned to the 
 green, six to the heath, four and four to either 
 side, and twelve to the main garden. The green 
 hath two pleasures : the one, because nothing is 
 more pleasant to the eye than green grass kept 
 finely shorn ; the other, because it will give you a 
 fair alley in the midst, by which you may go in 
 front upon a stately hedge, which is to enclose the 
 garden. But because the alley will be long, and, 
 in great heat of the year or day, you ought not to 
 buy the shade in the garden by going in the sun 
 through the green, therefore you are, of either side 
 the green, to plant a covert alley upon carpenter's 
 work, about twelve foot in height, by which you 
 may go in shade into the garden. As for the mak- 
 ing of knots or figures with divers colored earths, 
 that they may lie under the windows of the house 
 on that side which the garden stands, they be but 
 toys: you may see as good sights many times in 
 tarts. The garden is best to be square, encom- 
 passed on all the four sides with a stately arched 
 hedge ; the arches to be upon pillars of carpenter's 
 work of some ten foot high, and six foot broad, 
 and the spaces between of the same dimension 
 with the breadth of the arch. Over the arches let 
 there be an entire hedge of some four foot high, 
 framed also upon carpenter's work ; and upon the 
 upper hedge, over every arch, a little turret with a 
 
OF GARDENS. 229 
 
 belly, enough to receive a cage of birds ; and over 
 every space between the arches some other little 
 figure, with broad plates of round colored glass, gilt 
 for the sun to play upon. But this hedge I intend 
 to be raised upon a bank, not steep but gently 
 slope, of some six foot, set all with flowers. Also, 
 I understand that this square of the garden should 
 not be the whole breadth of the ground, but to 
 leave on either side ground enough for diversity 
 of side alleys, unto which the two covert alleys 
 of the green may deliver you. But there must be 
 no alleys with hedges at either end of this great 
 enclosure : not at the hither end, for letting ^ your 
 prospect upon this fair hedge from the green ; nor 
 at the further end, for letting your prospect from 
 the hedge, through the arches, upon the heath. 
 
 For the ordering of the ground within the great 
 hedge, I leave it to variety of device ; advising, 
 nevertheless, that whatsoever form you cast it into, 
 first it be not too busy^ or full of work. Wherein 
 I, for my part, do not like images cut out in juni- 
 per or other garden stuff, — they be for children. 
 Little low hedges round like welts,* with some 
 pretty pyramids, I like well ; and in some places, 
 fair columns upon frames of carpenter's work. I 
 would also have the alleys spacious and foir. You 
 may have closer alleys upon the side grounds, but 
 none in the main garden. I wish also, in the very 
 
 1 p'or fear of intercepting. 2 Curious, fussy. 
 
 3 Borders, edging. 
 
230 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 middle, a fair mount, with three ascents and alleys, 
 enough for four to walk abreast ; which I would 
 have to be perfect circles without any bulwarks or 
 embossments ; and the whole mount to be thirty foot 
 high ; and some fine banqueting house, with some 
 chimneys ^ neatly cast, and without too much glass. 
 For fountains, they are a great beauty and 
 refreshment; but pools mar all, and make the 
 garden unwholesome, and full of flies and frogs. 
 Fountains I intend to be of two natures : the one 
 that sprinkleth or spouteth water ; the other a fair 
 receipt of water of some thirty or forty foot square, 
 but without fish, or slime, or mud. For the first, 
 the ornaments of images gilt, or of marble, which 
 are in use, do well ; but the main matter is so to 
 convey the water as it never stay either in the 
 bowls or in the cistern, that the water be never by 
 rest discolored green or red, or the like, or gather 
 any mossiness or putrefaction. Besides that, it is 
 to be cleansed every day by the hand. Also some 
 steps up to it, and some fine pavement about it, 
 doth well. As for the other kind of fountain, 
 which we may call a bathing pool, it may admit 
 much curiosity and beauty, wherewith we will not 
 trouble ourselves : as that the bottom be finely 
 paved, and with images ; the sides likewise ; and 
 withal embellished with colored glass, and such 
 things of histre ; encompassed also with fine rails 
 
 1 Fireplaces. 
 
OF GARDENS. 23 1 
 
 of low statuas. But the main point is the same 
 which we mentioned in the former kind of fountain : 
 which is, that the water be in perpetual motion, 
 fed by a water higher than the pool, and delivered 
 into it by fair spouts, and then discharged away 
 underground by some equality of bores ^ that it 
 stay little. And for fine devices of arching water 
 without spilHng, and making it rise in several 
 forms (of feathers, drinking glasses, canopies, and 
 the like), they be pretty things to look on, but 
 nothing to health and sweetness. 
 
 For the heath, which was the third part of our 
 plot, I wish it to be framed, as much as may be, 
 to a natural wildness. Trees, I would have none 
 in it, but some thickets made only of sweet-briar 
 and honeysuckle, and some wild vine amongst ; 
 and the ground set with violets, strawberries, and 
 primroses, for these are sweet and prosper in the 
 shade ; and these to be in the heath here and 
 there, not in any order. I like also little heaps in 
 the nature of mole-hills, such as are in wild heaths, 
 to be set, some with wild thyme, some with pinks, 
 some with germander, that gives a good flower to 
 the eye, some with periwinkle, some with violets, 
 some with strawberries, some with cowslips, some 
 with daisies, some with red roses, some with lilium 
 convallium, some with sweet williams red, some 
 with bear's foot, and the like low flowers, being 
 
 1 Tubes equal in bore to the " fair spouts." 
 
232 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 withal sweet and sightly. Part of which heaps 
 to be with standards of little bushes pricked ^ upon 
 their top, and part without. The standards to be 
 roses, juniper, holly, barberries (but here and there, 
 because of the smell of their blossom), red cur- 
 rants, gooseberries, rosemary, bays, sweet-briar, and 
 such like ; but these standards to be kept with 
 cutting that they grow not out of course. 
 
 For the side grounds, you are to fill them with 
 variety of alleys private, to give a full shade, some 
 of them, wheresoever the sun be. You are to 
 frame some of them likewise for shelter, that when 
 the wind blows sharp you may walk as in a gal- 
 lery. And those alleys must be likewise hedged 
 at both ends to keep out the wind, and these 
 closer alleys must be ever finely gravelled, and no 
 grass, because of going wet. In many of these 
 alleys, likewise, you are to set fruit trees of all sorts, 
 as well upon the walls as in ranges. And this 
 would ^ be generally observed, that the borders 
 wherein you plant your fruit trees be fair and large, 
 and low, and not steep ; and set with fine flowers, 
 but thin and sparingly, lest they deceive ^ the trees. 
 At the end of both the side grounds I would have 
 a mount of some pretty height ; leaving the wall 
 of the enclosure breast high, to look abroad into 
 the fields. 
 
 1 Set, planted. 
 
 2 Requires to. See note i, Essay xxii. page 128. 
 ^ Defraud. 
 
OF GARDENS. 233 
 
 For the main garden, I do not deny but there 
 should be some fair alleys, ranged on both sides 
 with fruit trees, and some pretty tufts of fruit trees, 
 and arbors with seats set in some decent order ; 
 but these to be by no means set too thick, but to 
 leave the main garden so as it be not close, but 
 the air open and free. For as for shade, I would 
 have you rest ^ upon the alleys of the side grounds, 
 there to walk, if you be disposed, in the heat of 
 the year or day; but to make account that the 
 main garden is for the more temperate parts of 
 the year, and in the heat of summer for the morn- 
 ing and the evening, or overcast days. 
 
 For aviaries, I like them not, except they be of 
 that largeness as they may be turfed, and have liv- 
 ing plants and bushes set in them, that the birds 
 may have more scope and natural nestling, and 
 that no foulness appear in the floor of the aviary. 
 
 So I have made a platform of a princely garden, 
 partly by precept, partly by drawing, not a model, 
 but some general lines of it ; and in this I have 
 spared for no cost. But it is nothing for great 
 princes, that for the most part taking advice with 
 workmen, with no less cost set their things to- 
 gether ; and sometimes add statuas and such things 
 for state and magnificence, but nothing to the true 
 pleasure of a garden. 
 
 1 Depend. 
 
234 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 XLVIL — OF NEGOTIATING.^ 
 
 (1597; enlarged, 1612; again, 1625.) 
 
 It is generally better to deal by speech than by 
 letter, and by the mediation of a third than by a 
 man's self. Letters are good when a man would 
 draw an answer by letter back again j or when it 
 may serve for a man's justification afterwards to 
 produce his own letter ; or where it may be danger 
 to be interrupted or heard by pieces. To deal in 
 person is good when a man's face breedeth regard, 
 as commonly with inferiors ; or in tender cases, 
 where a man's eye upon the countenance of him 
 with whom he speaketh may give him a direction 
 how far to go ; and generally where a man will 
 reserve to himself liberty, either to disavow or to 
 expound. 
 
 In choice of instruments it is better to choose 
 men of a plainer sort, that are like to do that that 
 is committed to them, and to report back again 
 faithfully the success,^ than those that are cunning 
 to contrive out of other men's business somewhat 
 to grace themselves, and will help the matter in 
 report for satisfaction sake.* Use also such per- 
 
 1 See note on "practice," page 235. 2 Result. 
 
 8 " Smooth their news with fair w^ords to give the more 
 satisfaction " (Latin translation). 
 
OF NEGOTIATING. 235 
 
 sons as affect ^ the business wherein they are em- 
 ployed, for that quickeneth much; and such as 
 are fit for the matter : as bold men for expostula- 
 tion, fair-spoken men for persuasion, crafty men 
 for inquiry and observation, froward and absurd 
 men for business that doth not well bear out itself.^ 
 Use also such as have been lucky and prevailed 
 before in things wherein you have employed them ; 
 for that breeds confidence, and they will strive to 
 maintain their prescription. 
 
 It is better to sound a person with whom one 
 deals, afar off, than to fall upon the point at first ; 
 except you mean to surprise him by some short 
 question. It is better dealing with men in appetite, 
 than with those that are where they would be. If 
 a man deal with another upon conditions, the start 
 or first performance is all ; which a man cannot 
 reasonably demand, except either the nature of the 
 thing be such which must go before ; or else a 
 man can persuade the other party that he shall 
 still need him in some other thing ; or else that 
 he be counted the honester man.^ 
 
 All practice^ is to discover or to work. Men 
 discover themselves in trust, in passion, at un- 
 
 1 Like. See note i, Essay i. page 39. 
 
 2 " That has any unfairness in it " (Latin translation). 
 8 " Or, again, if A has the reputation of being superior 
 
 to B in honesty, A may fairly ask B to undertake the ' first 
 performance ' " (Abbott). 
 
 4 Artful dealing. This essay might almost have been 
 entitled, " Of Practice." 
 
236 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 awares ; and of necessity, when they would have 
 somewhat done, and cannot find an apt pretext. 
 If you would work any man, you must either know 
 his nature and fashions, and so lead him ; or his 
 ends, and so persuade him ; or his weakness and 
 disadvantages, and so awe him ; or those that have 
 interest in him, and so govern him. In dealing 
 with cunning persons, we must ever consider their 
 ends to interpret their speeches ; and it is good to 
 say little to them, and that which they least look 
 for. In all negotiations of difficulty a man may 
 not look to sow and reap at once, but must pre- 
 pare business, and so ripen it by degrees. 
 
 XLVIli. — OF FOLLOWERS AND 
 FRIENDS. 
 
 (1597; slightly enlarged, 1612; still more, 1625.) 
 
 Costly followers are not to be liked ; lest while 
 a man maketh his train longer he maketh his wings 
 shorter. I reckon to be costly not them alone which 
 charge the purse, but which are wearisome and 
 importune in suits. Ordinary followers ought to 
 challenge no higher conditions than countenance, 
 recommendation, and protection from wrongs. 
 Factious followers are worse to be liked, which 
 follow not upon affection to him with whom they 
 range themselves, but upon discontentment con- 
 
OF FOLLOWERS AND FRIENDS. 237 
 
 ceived against some other ; whereupon commonly 
 ensueth that ill intelligence that we may many 
 times see between great personages. Likewise 
 glorious^ followers, who make themselves as trum- 
 pets of the commendation of those they follow, 
 are full of inconvenience ; for they taint business 
 through want of secrecy, and they export honor 
 from a man, and make him a return in envy. 
 There is a kind of followers likewise which are 
 dangerous, being indeed espials, which inquire the 
 secrets of the house, and bear tales of them to 
 others. Yet such men many times are in great 
 favor, for they are officious, and commonly ex- 
 change tales. 
 
 The following by certain estates of men answer- 
 able to that which a great person himself professeth 
 (as of soldiers to him that hath been employed in 
 the wars, and the like) hath ever been a thing civil, 
 and well taken even in monarchies, so it be with- 
 out too much pomp or popularity. But the most 
 honorable kind of following is, to be followed as 
 one that apprehendeth to advance virtue and 
 desert in all sorts of persons. And yet where there 
 is no eminent odds in sufficiency, it is better to 
 take with the more passable ^ than with the more 
 
 ^ Vain-glorious. See Essay liv. passim. 
 
 2 To take (up) with "the more commonplace man" 
 (Latin translation). V>w\. passable probably means accepta- 
 ble or suitable ; the one who h^'&i passes muster in practice. 
 See note, Essay li. page 245. 
 
238 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 able. And besides, to speak truth, in base times 
 active men are of more use than virtuous.-^ It is 
 true that in government it is good to use men of 
 one rank equally : for to countenance some extra- 
 ordinarily is to make them insolent and the rest 
 discontent, because they may claim a due. But 
 contrariwise, in favor, to use men with much differ- 
 ence and election is good : for it maketh the per- 
 sons preferred more thankful, and the rest more 
 officious ; because all is of favor. 
 
 It is good discretion not to make too much of 
 any man at the first, because one cannot hold out 
 that proportion. To be governed, as we call it, by 
 one is not safe, for it shows softness, and gives a 
 freedom to scandal and disreputation ; for those 
 that would not censure or speak ill of a man im- 
 mediately, will talk more boldly of those that are 
 so great with them,^ and thereby wound their '^ 
 honor. Yet to be distracted with many is worse, 
 for it makes men to be of the last impression and 
 full of change. To take advice of some few friends 
 is ever honorable, " for lookers-on many times see 
 more than gamesters, and the vale best discovereth 
 the hill." There is little friendship in the world, 
 and least of all between equals, which was wont to 
 be magnified. That that is, is between superior 
 and inferior, whose fortunes may comprehend the 
 one the other. 
 
 1 Able. See note 2, Essay xiv. page 89. 
 
 2 T/ievi . . . their, refer to a viaii. 
 
OF SUITORS, 239 
 
 XLTX. — OF SUITORS. 
 
 (1597; enlarged, 1612; again, 1625.) 
 
 Many ill matters and projects are undertaken, 
 and private suits do putrefy the public good. 
 Many good matters are undertaken with bad 
 minds : I mean not only corrupt minds, but crafty 
 minds, that intend not performance. Some em- 
 brace suits, which never mean to deal effectually in 
 them ; but if they see there may be life in the 
 matter by some other mean, they will be content 
 to win a thank or take a second reward, or at least 
 to make use in the mean time of the suitor's hopes. 
 Some take hold of suits only for an occasion to 
 cross some other ; or to make an information 
 whereof they could not otherwise have apt pre- 
 text, without care what become of the suit when 
 that turn is served ; or, generally, to make other 
 men's business a kind of entertainment ^ to bring 
 in their own. Nay, some undertake suits with a 
 full purpose to let them fall, to the end to gratify 
 the adverse party or competitor. 
 
 Surely there is in some sort a right in every suit : 
 either a right of equity, if it be a suit of contro- 
 versy ; or a right of desert, if it be a suit of peti- 
 
 1 Diversion. 
 
 r- 
 
240 
 
 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 tion. If affection lead a man to favor the wrong 
 side in justice, let him rather use his countenance 
 to compound the matter than to carry it. If affec- 
 tion lead a man to favor the less worthy in desert, 
 let him do it without depraving ^ or disabling the 
 better deserver. In suits which a man doth not 
 well understand, it is good to refer them to some 
 friend of trust and judgment, that may report 
 whether he may deal in them with honor ; but let 
 him choose well his referendaries,^ for else he 
 may be led by the nose. 
 
 Suitors are so distasted with delays and abuses, 
 that plain dealing in denying to deal in suits at 
 first and reporting the success" barely, and in 
 challenging no more thanks than one hath de- 
 served, is grown not only honorable, but also gra- 
 cious. In suits of favor the first coming ought to 
 take little place ; so far forth consideration may be 
 had of his trust,^ that if intelligence of the matter 
 could not otherwise have been had but by him, 
 advantage be not taken of the note/ but the party 
 left to his other means, and in some sort recom- 
 pensed for his discovery.® To be ignorant of the 
 value of a suit is simplicity, as well as to be igno- 
 rant of the right thereof is want of conscience. 
 
 Secrecy in suits is a great mean of obtaining; 
 for voicing them to be in forwardness may discour- 
 
 1 Disparaging. * The first suitor's trust in you. 
 
 2 Referees. * Information. 
 8 Outcome. ^ Disclosure. 
 
OF SUITORS. 241 
 
 age some kind of suitors, but doth quicken and 
 awake others. But timing of the suit is the princi- 
 pal. Timing, I say, not only in respect of the 
 person that should grant it, but in respect of those 
 which are like to cross it. Let a man, in the 
 choice of his mean, rather choose the fittest mean 
 than the greatest mean ; and rather them that lead 
 in certain things than those that are general. ^ 
 
 The reparation of a denial is sometimes equal to 
 the first grant, if a man show himself neither de- 
 jected nor discontented. " Iniquum petas, ut 
 aequum feras " ^ is a good rule where a man hath 
 strength of favor ; but otherwise a man were better 
 rise in his suit, for he that would have ventured at 
 first to have lost the suitor, will not, in the conclu- 
 sion, lose both the suitor and his own former 
 favor. 
 
 Nothing is thought so easy a request to a great 
 person as his letter ; and yet if it be not in a good 
 cause, it is so much out of his reputation. 
 
 There are no worse instruments than these gen- 
 eral contrivers of suits : for they are but a kind of 
 poison and infection to public proceedings. 
 
 1 Specialists rather than Jacks of all trades. 
 
 2 Ask for more than is just, in order that you may get 
 as much as is just. 
 
 16 
 
242 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 L. — OF STUDIES. 
 (1597; enlarged, 1612; again, 1625.) 
 
 Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for 
 ability. Their chief use for delight is in private- 
 ness and retiring; for ornament is in discourse, 
 and for ability is in the judgment and disposition 
 of business. For expert men can execute, and 
 perhaps judge of particulars, one by one ; but the 
 general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of 
 affairs, come best from those that are learned. To 
 spend too much time in studies is sloth, to use 
 them too much for ornament is affectation, to 
 make judgment only by their rules is the humor of 
 a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected 
 by experience. For natural abilities are like natu- 
 ral plants, that need pruning by study ; and studies 
 themselves do give forth directions too much at 
 large, except they be bounded in by experience. 
 Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire 
 them, and wise men use them ; for they teach not 
 their own use, but that is a wisdom without them 
 and above them, won by observation. 
 
 Read not to contradict and confute, nor to be- 
 lieve and take for granted, nor to find talk and 
 discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books 
 are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some 
 
OF STUDIES. 
 
 243 
 
 few to be chewed and digested : that is, some 
 books are to be read only in parts ; others to be 
 read, but not curiously ; and some few to be read 
 wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some 
 books also may be read by deputy, and extracts 
 made of them by others ; but that would be only 
 in the less important arguments and the meaner 
 sort of books ; else distilled books are like com- 
 mon distilled waters, flashy^ things. Reading 
 maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and 
 writing an exact man. And therefore if a man 
 write little, he had need have a great memory ; if 
 he confer little, he had need have a present wit ; 
 and if he read little, he had need have much cun- 
 ning to seem to know that he doth not. 
 
 Histories make men wise, poets witty, the math- 
 ematics subtile, natural philosophy deep, moral 
 grave, logic and rhetoric able to contend. " Abe- 
 unt studia in mores." ^ Nay, there is no stond * 
 or impediment in the wit but may be wrought 
 out by fit studies, like as diseases of the body may 
 have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for 
 the stone and reins, shooting for the lungs and 
 breast, gentle walking for the stomach, riding for 
 
 1 Insipid. 
 
 2 Bacon elsewhere paraphrases this : " Studies have an 
 influence and operation upon the manners of those that 
 are conversant in them." 
 
 3 Stand. Explained by the next word. See note 3, 
 Essay xl. page 203. 
 
244 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 the head, and the Hke. So if a man's wit be wan- 
 dering, let him study the mathematics ; for in de- 
 monstrations, if his wit be called away never so 
 little, he must begin again. If his wit be not apt 
 to distinguish or find differences, let him study the 
 schoolmen, for they are cy?7ii?ii sectores} If he be 
 not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one 
 thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study 
 the lawyers' cases. So every defect of the mind 
 may have a special receipt. 
 
 LI. — OF FACTION. 
 
 (1597; slightly enlarged, 161 2; considerably, 1625.) 
 
 Many have an opinion not wise, that for a 
 prince to govern his estate, or for a great person 
 to govern his proceedings, according to the respect 
 of factions, is a principal part of policy; whereas, 
 contrariwise, the chiefest wisdom is, either in or- 
 dering those things which are general, and where- 
 in men of several factions do nevertheless agi-ee ; 
 or in dealing with correspondence to particular 
 persons, one by one. But I say not that the con- 
 sideration of factions is to be neglected. 
 
 Mean men, in their rising, must adhere ; " but 
 great men, that have strength in themselves, were 
 
 1 Splitters of cumin-seeds. 
 
 2 Stick by. 
 
OF FACTION. 245 
 
 better to maintain themselves indifferent and neu- 
 tral. Yet even in beginners, to adhere so moder- 
 ately, as he be a man of the one faction which is 
 most passable with the other, commonly giveth 
 best way.'^ The lower and weaker faction is the 
 firmer in conjunction ; and it is often seen that a 
 few that are stiff do tire out a greater number that 
 are more moderate. 
 
 When one of the factions is extinguished, the 
 remaining subdivideth : as the faction between 
 Lucullus and the rest of the nobles of the Senate 
 (which they called Optimates) held out awhile 
 against the faction of Pompey and Caesar ; but 
 when the Senate's authority was pulled down, Caesar 
 and Pompey soon after brake. The faction or party 
 of Antonius and Octavianus Caesar, against Brutus 
 and Cassius, held out likewise for a time; but when 
 Brutus and Cassius were overthrown, then soon 
 after Antonius and Octavianus brake and subdi- 
 vided. These examples are of wars, but the same 
 holdeth in private factions. And therefore those 
 that are seconds in factions, do many times, when 
 the faction subdivideth, prove principals ; but many 
 times also they prove ciphers and cashiered ; for 
 many a man's strength is in opposition, and when 
 that faileth he groweth out of use. 
 
 It is commonly seen that men once placed, take 
 
 1 You will best make your way by being, in your party, 
 the man most acceptable to the opposite party. ¥ ox passa- 
 ble compare note 2, Essay xlviii. page 237. 
 
246 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 in with ^ the contrary faction to that by which they 
 enter : thinking belike that they have the first sure, 
 and now are ready for a new purchase. The traitor 
 in faction hghtly goeth away with it : for when 
 matters have stuck long in balancing, the winning 
 of some one man casteth them, and he getteth all 
 the thanks.^ The even carriage between two fac- 
 tions proceedeth not always of moderation, but of 
 a trueness to a man's self,^ with end to make use 
 of both. Certainly in Italy they hold it a little 
 suspect in popes, when they have often in their 
 mouth " Padre commune," '* and take it to be a 
 sign of one that meaneth to refer all to the great- 
 ness of his own house. 
 
 Kings had need beware how they side them- 
 selves,^ and make themselves as of a faction or 
 party ; for leagues within the state are ever per- 
 nicious to monarchies : for they raise an obligation 
 paramount to obligation of sovereignty, and make 
 the king " tanquam unus ex nobis," ^ as was to be 
 seen in the league of France. When factions are 
 carried too high and too violently, it is a sign of 
 weakness in princes, and much to the prejudice 
 both of their authority and business. The motions 
 
 1 Compare our take 7ip with. 
 
 2 The trimmer gives the casting vote. 
 
 3 " He 's ben true to one party, — an' thet is himself." 
 — Hosea Biglovv. 
 
 * The common father. 
 
 s Take sides. Compare " adhere," note 2, page 244. 
 
 ^ As one of us. 
 
OF CEREMONIES AND RESPECTS. 247 
 
 of factions under kings ought to be like the motions 
 (as the astronomers speak) of the inferior orbs ; 
 which may have their proper motions, but yet still 
 are quietly carried by the higher motion oiprimiwi 
 mobile} 
 
 LIL— OF CEREMONIES AND RESPECTS. 
 (1597; enlarged, 1612; again, 1625.) 
 
 He that is only real had need have exceeding 
 great parts of virtue, as the stone had need to be 
 rich that is set without foil. But if a man mark it 
 well, it is in praise and commendation of men, as 
 it is in gettings and gains. For the proverb is 
 true, that '* light gains make heavy purses ; " for 
 light gains come thick, whereas great come but 
 now and then. So it is true, that small matters 
 win great commendation, because they are con- 
 tinually in use and in note ; whereas the occasion 
 of any great virtue cometh but on festivals. There- 
 fore it doth much add to a man's reputation, and 
 is, as Queen Isabella said, " like perpetual letters 
 commendatory," to have good forms. 
 
 To attain them, it almost sufficeth not to despise 
 them : for so shall a man observe them in others ; 
 and let him trust himself with the rest. For if he 
 labor too much to express them, he shall lose their 
 
 1 The Prime Orb. See note i. Essay xv. page 93. 
 
248 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 grace, which is to be natural and unaffected. Some 
 men's behavior is like a verse, wherein every syl- 
 lable is measured. How can a man comprehend 
 great matters that breaketh his mind too much to 
 small observations? 
 
 Not to use ceremonies at all, is to teach others 
 not to use them again, and so diminisheth respect 
 to himself; especially they be not to be omitted 
 to strangers and formal natures : but the dwelling 
 upon them, and exalting them above the moon, is 
 not only tedious, but doth diminish the faith and 
 credit of him that speaks. And certainly there is a 
 kind of conveying of effectual and imprinting pas- 
 sages amongst compliments, which is of singular 
 use, if a man can hit upon it. 
 
 Amongst a man's peers, a man shall be sure of 
 familiarity ; and therefore it is good a little to 
 keep state. Amongst a man's inferiors one shall 
 be sure of reverence ; and therefore it is good a 
 little to be familiar. He that is too much in any- 
 thing, so that he giveth another occasion of satiety, 
 maketh himself cheap. To apply one's self to 
 others is good ; so it be with demonstration that a 
 man doth it upon regard, and not upon facility.^ 
 It is a good precept, generally, in seconding an- 
 other, yet to add somewhat of one's own : as, if 
 you will grant his opinion, let it be with some dis- 
 tinction ; if you will follow his motion, let it be 
 
 1 Over-anxiety to please. Compare " facility or soft- 
 ness," note, Essay xiii. page 85. 
 
OF PRAISE, 249 
 
 with condition ; if you allow his counsel, let it be 
 with alleging further reason. 
 
 Men had need beware how they be too perfect 
 in compliments ; for be they never so sufficient oth- 
 erwise, their enviers will be sure to give them that 
 attribute, to the disadvantage of their greater vir- 
 tues. It is loss also in business to be too full of 
 respects, or to be too curious in observing times 
 and opportunities. Solomon saith, " He that con- 
 sidereth the wind shall not sow ; and he that look- 
 eth to the clouds shall not reap." A wise man 
 will make more opportunities than he finds. Men's 
 behavior should be like their apparel : not too 
 strait or point device/ but free for exercise or 
 motion. 
 
 LIII. — OF PRAISE. 
 
 (1612; enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 Praise is the reflection of virtue : but it is as 
 the glass or body which giveth the reflection. If 
 it be from the common people it is commonly 
 false and naught, and rather follovveth vain persons 
 than virtuous : for the common people understand 
 not many excellent virtues. The lowest virtues 
 draw praise from them ; the middle virtues work 
 in them astonishment or admiration ; but of the 
 
 1 Precise. 
 
250 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 highest virtues they have no sense or perceiving at 
 all : but shows and species virtutibus similes ^ serve 
 best with them. Certainly fame is like a river 
 that beareth up things light and swollen, and 
 drowns things weighty and solid. But if persons of 
 quality and judgment concur, then it is, as the 
 Scripture saith, "■ Nomen bonum instar unguenti 
 fragrantis." ^ It filleth all round about and will 
 not easily away : for the odors of ointments are 
 more durable than those of flowers. 
 
 There be so many false points of praise, that a 
 man may justly hold it a suspect.^ Some praises 
 proceed merely of flattery : and if he be an ordi- 
 nary flatterer he will have certain common attri- 
 butes which may serve every man ; if he be a 
 cunning flatterer he will follow the arch- flatterer, 
 which is a man's self, and wherein a man think- 
 eth best of himself therein the flatterer will uphold 
 him most ; but if he be an impudent flatterer, look 
 wherein a man is conscious to himself that he is 
 most defective, and is most out of countenance in 
 himself, that will the flatterer entitle him to per- 
 force, spreta consdentia} Some praises come of 
 good wishes and respects, which is a form due in 
 civility to kings and great persons, laudando prce- 
 
 1 Appearances resembling virtues. 
 
 2 A good name like unto a sweet ointment. 
 
 ^ Suspected thing. Compare note, Essay xxiv. page 
 137- 
 
 ^ Despite a man's consciousness. 
 
OP PRAISE. 251 
 
 cipere^ when, by telling men what they are, they 
 represent to them what they should be. Some 
 men are praised maHciously to their hurt, thereby 
 to stir envy and jealousy towards them : pessimum 
 genus inwiicorum laudatitiimi ; ^ insomuch as it was 
 a proverb amongst the Grecians that " he that was 
 praised to his hurt should have a push rise upon 
 his nose ; " as we say that a blister will rise upon 
 one's tongue that tells a lie. Certainly moderate 
 praise, used with opportunity, and not vulgar, is 
 that which doth the good. Solomon saith, " He 
 that praiseth his friend aloud, rising early, it shall 
 be to him no better than a curse." Too much 
 magnifying of man or matter doth irritate con- 
 tradiction, and procure envy and scorn. 
 
 To praise a man's self cannot be decent, except 
 it be in rare cases ; but to praise a man's office or 
 profession, he may do it with good grace, and 
 with a kind of magnanimity. The cardinals of 
 Rome, which are theologues and friars and school- 
 men, have a phrase of notable contempt and 
 scorn towards civil business ; for they call all tem- 
 poral business of wars, embassages, judicature, and 
 other employments, sbirrerie^ which is " under- 
 sheriffries," as if they were but matters for un- 
 der-sheriffs and catchpolls ; though many times 
 those under-sheriffries do more good than their 
 
 1 To teach by praising. 
 
 2 The worst kind of enemies, — those who praise. 
 ^ From Italian sbirro, " bailiff." 
 
252 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 high speculations. St. Paul, when he boasts of 
 himself, he doth oft interlace, " I speak like a 
 fool ; " but speaking of his calHng he saith, 
 " Magnificabo apostolatum meum. 
 
 M 1 
 
 LIV. — OF VAIN-GLORY. 
 
 (i6i2; enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 It was prettily devised of ^sop : *' The fly sat 
 upon the axle-tree of the chariot-wheel, and said, 
 ' What a dust do I raise ! ' " So are there some 
 vain persons that, whatsoever goeth alone, or mov- 
 eth upon greater means, if they have never so 
 little hand in it, they think it is they that carry it. 
 They that are glorious must needs be factious ; for 
 all bravery "^ stands upon comparisons. They must 
 needs be violent to make good their own vaunts. 
 Neither can they be secret, and, therefore, not 
 effectual ; ^ but, according to the French proverb, 
 '' Beaucoup de bruit, peu de fruit " ; Much bruit, 
 little fruit. 
 
 Yet, certainly, there is use of this quality in civil 
 affairs : where there is an opinion and fame to be 
 created, either of virtue or greatness, these men 
 are good trumpeters. Again, as Titus Livius not- 
 eth in the case of Antiochus and the ^tolians, 
 
 1 I will magnify mine office. 
 - Bragging, swagger, bravado. 
 
 3 They cannot be effective. " They taint business 
 through want of secrecy." — Essay xlviii. page 237. 
 
OF VAIN-GLORY. 253 
 
 there are sometimes great effects of cross lies : as 
 if a man that negotiates between two princes, to 
 draw them to join in a war against the third, doth ex- 
 tol the forces of either of them above measure, the 
 one to the other. And sometimes he that deals 
 between man and man raiseth his own credit with 
 both, by pretending greater interest than he hath 
 in either. And in these and the like kinds it often 
 falls out that somewhat is produced of nothing ; 
 for lies are sufficient to breed opinion, and opin- 
 ion brings on substance. 
 
 In military commanders and soldiers vain-glory 
 is an essential point ; for as iron sharpens iron, so 
 by glory one courage sharpeneth another. In cases 
 of great enterprise upon charge and adventure, a 
 composition of glorious natures doth put life into 
 business; and those that are of, solid and sober 
 natures have more of the ballast than of the sail. 
 In fame of learning the flight will be slow, without 
 some feathers of ostentation. " Qui de contem- 
 nenda gloria libros scribunt, nomen suum inscri- 
 bunt." ^ Socrates, Aristotle, Galen, were men full 
 of ostentation. Certainly vain-glory helpeth to 
 perpetuate a man's memory ; and virtue was never 
 so beholding ^ to human nature as it received his 
 ^due at the second hand. Neither had the fame of 
 Cicero, Seneca, Plinius Secundus, borne her age 
 
 1 Those who write books about despising glory, put 
 their names upon the titlepages. 
 
 2 Beholden. 
 
2 54 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 SO well, if it had not been joined with some van- 
 ity in themselves, — like unto varnish, that makes 
 ceilings not only shine, but last. 
 
 But all this while, when I speak of vain-glory, I 
 mean not of that property that Tacitus doth attri- 
 bute to Mucianus, " Omnium, quae dixerat, fecerat- 
 que, arte quadam ostentator : " ^ for that proceeds 
 not of vanity, but of natural magnanimity and dis- 
 cretion, and in some persons is not only comely, 
 but gracious. For excusations, cessions,- modesty 
 itself well governed, are but arts of ostentation. 
 And amongst those arts there is none better than 
 that which Plinius Secundus speaketh of: which 
 is, to be liberal of praise and commendation to 
 others in that wherein a man's self hath any per- 
 fection. For, saith Pliny, very wittily, ''in com- 
 mending another, you do yourself right ; for he 
 that you commend is either superior to you in that 
 you commend, or inferior. If he be inferior, if he 
 be to be commended, you much more. If he be 
 superior, if he be not to be commended, you much 
 less." 
 
 Glorious men are the scorn of wise men ; the 
 admiration of fools ; the idols of parasites ; and 
 the slaves of their own vaunts. 
 
 1 " In all that he did and said he had the art of dis- 
 playing himself to advantage " (Bacon's translation in the 
 "Advancement of Learning "). 
 
 2 Concessions. 
 
OF HONOR AND REPUTATION. 255 
 
 LV. — OF HONOR AND REPUTATION. 
 
 (1597; re-written and enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 The winning of honor is but the revealing of 
 a man's virtue and worth without disadvantage. 
 For some in their actions do woo and affect^ 
 honor and reputation ; which sort of men are com- 
 monly much talked of, but inwardly little admired. 
 And some, contrariwise, darken their virtue in the 
 show of it, so as they be undervalued in opinion. 
 
 If a man perform that which hath not been at- 
 tempted before ; or attempted and given over ; or 
 hath been achieved, but not with so good circum- 
 stance ; he shall purchase more honor than by 
 effecting a matter of greater difficulty or virtue, 
 wherein he is but a follower. If a man so temper 
 his actions, as in some one of them he doth con- 
 tent every faction or combination of people, the 
 music will be the fuller. A man is an ill husband 
 of his honor that entereth into any action, the fail- 
 ing wherein may disgrace him more than the car- 
 rying of it through can honor him. Honor that is 
 gained and broken upon another hath the quickest 
 reflection, like diamonds cut with facets. And, 
 therefore, let a man contend to excel any com- 
 petitors of his in honor, in outshooting them if 
 
 ^ Aim at. Note i, Essay i. page 39. 
 
256 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 he can, in their own bow. Discreet followers and 
 servants help much to reputation : " Omnis fama 
 a domesticis emanat." ^ Envy, which is the canker 
 of honor, is best extinguished by declaring a man's 
 self in his ends rather to seek merit than fame ; 
 and by attributing a man's successes rather to 
 divine providence and felicity, than to his own 
 virtue or policy. 
 
 The true marshalling of the degrees of sovereign 
 honor are these : — In the first place are co?idi- 
 tores inipej-ioriim, founders of states and common- 
 wealths ; such as were Romulus, Cyrus, Caesar, 
 Ottoman, Ismael. In the second place are legis- 
 lato?'es, lawgivers, which are also called second 
 iounders, or perpetui pri7idpes, because they govern 
 by their ordinances after they are gone. Such 
 were Lycurgus, Solon, Justinian, Eadgar, Alphonsus 
 of Castile, the Wise, that made the Siete Farfidas.^ 
 In the third place are liber at ores, or salvatores^ such 
 as compound the long miseries of civil wars, or de- 
 liver their countries from servitude of strangers or 
 tyrants; as Augustus Caesar, Vespasianus, Aureli- 
 anus, Theodoricus, King Henry the Seventh of 
 England, King Henry the Fourth of France. In 
 the fourth place vlxq propagatorcs, ox propiignatores 
 wiperii,'' such as in honorable wars enlarge their 
 
 1 All fame proceeds from servants. 
 
 2 " The Seven Parts," a digest of the laws of Spain. 
 ^ Liberators or saviours. 
 
 * Extenders or defenders of empire. 
 
OF HONOR AND REPUTATION. 257 
 
 territories, or make noble defence against im-aders. 
 And in the last place are patres patrice^ which 
 reign justly and make the times good wherein they 
 live. Both which last kinds need no examples, 
 they are in such number. 
 
 Degrees of honor in subjects are : — First, par- 
 ticipes airarum,'^ those upon whom princes do dis- 
 charge the greatest weight of their affairs ; their 
 right hands, as we call them. The next are duces 
 belli, great leaders ; such as are princes' lieuten- 
 ants, and do them notable services in the wars. 
 The third are gratiosi, favorites ; such as exceed 
 not this scantling, to be solace to the sovereign 
 and harmless to the people. And the fourth, tie- 
 gotiis pares ;^ such as have great places under 
 princes, and execute their places with sufficiency. 
 There is an honor, likewise, which may be ranked 
 amongst the greatest, which happeneth rarely : 
 that is of such as sacrifice themselves to death 
 or danger for the good of their country ; as was 
 M. Regulus and the two Decii. 
 
 ^ Fathers of their country. 
 
 2 Partners in cares. 
 
 3 Men capable in affairs. 
 
 17 
 
2$ 8 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 LVI.— OF JUDICATURE. 
 
 (1612; re-written and enlarged, 1625.) 
 
 Judges ought to remember that their office is 
 jus dicere and not jus dare : to interpret law, and 
 not to make law or give law. Else will it be like 
 the authority claimed by the Church of Rome, 
 which, under pretext of exposition of Scripture, 
 doth not stick to add and alter ; and to pronounce 
 that which they do not find ; and by show of an- 
 tiquity to introduce novelty. Judges ought to be 
 more learned than witty, more reverend than plau- 
 sible, and more advised than confident. Above 
 all things, integrity is their portion and proper 
 virtue. " Cursed," saith the law, " is he that re- 
 moveth the landmark." The mislayer of a mere- 
 stone ^ is to blame ; but it is the unjust judge that 
 is the capital remover of landmarks, when he de- 
 fineth amiss of lands and property. One foul sen- 
 tence doth more hurt than many foul examples ; 
 for these do but corrupt the stream, the other cor- 
 rupteth the fountain. So saith Solomon, " Fons 
 turbatus, et vena corrupta, est Justus cadens in 
 causa sua coram adversario." "^ 
 
 1 Boundary stone. 
 
 2 A just man falling down before the wicked, is as a 
 fountain troubled with the foot, and a corrupted spring 
 (Vulgate). 
 
OF JUDICATURE. 259 
 
 The office of judges may have reference unto 
 the parties that sue ; unto the advocates that plead ; 
 unto the clerks and ministers of justice underneath 
 them ; and to the sovereign or state above them. 
 
 First, for the causes or parties that sue. " There 
 be," saith the Scripture, " that turn judgment into 
 wormwood ; " and surely there be also that turn 
 it into vinegar ; for injustice maketh it bitter, and 
 delays make it sour. The principal duty of a judge 
 is to suppress force and fraud, whereof force is the 
 more pernicious when it is open, and fraud when 
 it is close and disguised. Add thereto contentious 
 suits, which ought to be spewed out as the surfeit 
 of courts. A judge ought to prepare his way to a 
 just sentence, as God useth to prepare his way, by 
 raising valleys and taking down hills : so when 
 there appeareth on either side an high hand, vio- 
 lent prosecution, cunning advantages taken, com- 
 bination, power, great counsel, then is the virtue 
 of a judge seen, to make inequality equal ; that he 
 may plant his judgment as upon an even ground. 
 " Qui fortiter emungit, elicit sanguinem ; " ^ and 
 where the wine-press is hard wrought, it yields a 
 harsh wine that tastes of the grape-stone. Judges 
 must beware of hard constructions and strained in- 
 ferences, for there is no worse torture than the tor- 
 ture of laws. Specially in case of laws penal, they 
 ought to have care that that which was meant for 
 
 1 He that violently blovveth his nose, bringeth out 
 blood (Vulgate). 
 
26o BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 terror be not turned into rigor, and that they bring 
 not upon the people that shower whereof the Scrip- 
 ture speaketh, '' Pluet super eos laqueos ; " ^ for 
 penal laws pressed are a shower of snares upon 
 the people. Therefore let penal laws, if they have 
 been sleepers of long, or if they be grown unfit for 
 the present time, be by wise judges confined in the 
 execution : " Judicis officium est, ut res, ita tem- 
 pora rerum," "-^ etc. In causes of life and death, 
 judges ought, as far as the law permitteth, in jus- 
 tice to remember mercy ; and to cast a severe eye 
 upon the example, but a merciful eye upon the 
 person. 
 
 Secondly, for the advocates and counsel that 
 plead, patience and gravity of hearing is an essen- 
 tial part of justice ; and an over-speaking judge is 
 no " well-tuned cymbal." It is no grace to a judge 
 first to find that which he might have heard in due 
 time from the bar ; or to show quickness of con- 
 ceit ^ in cutting off evidence or counsel too short ; 
 or to prevent ^ information by questions, though 
 pertinent. The parts of a judge in hearing are 
 four : to direct the evidence ; to moderate length, 
 repetition, or impertinency of speech ; to recapit- 
 ulate, select, and collate the material points of 
 
 1 He shall rain snares upon them. 
 
 2 It is a judge's duty to consider the circumstances as 
 well as the fact. 
 
 3 Quickness of wit (that is, apprehension). 
 
 4 Anticipate. 
 
OF JUDICATURE. 26 1 
 
 that which hath been said ; and to give the rule 
 or sentence. Whatsoever is above these is too 
 much, and proceedeth either of glory and willing- 
 ness to speak, or of impatience to hear, or of short- 
 ness of memory, or of want of a staid and equal 
 attention. It is a strange thing to see that the 
 boldness of advocates should prevail with judges ; 
 whereas they should imitate God, in whose seat 
 they sit, who " represseth the presumptuous and 
 giveth grace to the modest." But it is more 
 strange that judges should have noted favorites, 
 which cannot but cause multiplication of fees and 
 suspicion of by-ways. There is due from the 
 judge to the advocate some commendation and 
 gracing, where causes are well handled and fair 
 pleaded, especially towards the side which obtain- 
 eth not ; for that upholds in the client the reputa- 
 tion of his counsel, and beats down in him the 
 conceit of his cause. There is likewise due to the 
 public a civil reprehension of advocates, where there 
 appeareth cunning counsel, gross neglect, slight in- 
 formation, indiscreet pressing, or an over-bold de- 
 fence. And let not the counsel at the bar chop ^ 
 with the judge, nor wind himself into the handhng 
 of the cause anew, after the judge hath declared 
 his sentence ; but, on the other side, let not the 
 judge meet the cause half way, nor give occasion 
 
 1 Bandy words, higgle. See note 5, Essay xxxiv. page 
 [84. 
 
262 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 to the party to say his counsel or proofs were not 
 heard. 
 
 Thirdly, for that that concerns clerks and minis- 
 ters.-^ The place of justice is an hallowed place, 
 and, therefore, not only the bench, but the foot- 
 pace ^ and precincts and purprise ^ thereof, ought 
 to be preserved without scandal and corruption. 
 For certainly " grapes," as the Scripture saith, 
 " will not be gathered of thorns or thistles," neither 
 can justice yield her fruit with sweetness amongst 
 the briars and brambles of catching and polling 
 clerks and ministers. The attendance of courts is 
 subject to four bad instruments : — First, certain 
 persons that are sowers of suits, which make the 
 court swell and the country pine. The second 
 sort is of those that engage courts in quarrels of 
 jurisdiction, and are not truly amici ciwice^ h\itj>ar- 
 asiti curicB,"^ in puffing a court up beyond her 
 bounds for their own scraps and advantage. The 
 third sort is of those that may be accounted the 
 left hands of courts : persons that are full of nimble 
 and sinister tricks and shifts, whereby they pervert 
 the plain and direct courses of courts, and bring 
 justice into oblique lines and labyrinths. And the 
 fourth is the poller and exacter of fees ; which 
 justifies the common resemblance of the courts of 
 justice to the bush, whereunto while the sheep 
 flies for defence in weather, he is sure to lose part 
 
 1 Attendants. ^ Dais. * Enclosure. 
 
 4 Not friends, but parasites of the court. 
 
OF JUDICATURE. 263 
 
 of his fleece. On the other side, an ancient clerk, 
 skilful in precedents, wary in proceeding, and un- 
 derstanding in the business of the court, is an ex- 
 cellent finger of a court, and doth many times 
 point the way to the judge himself. 
 
 Fourthly, for that which may concern the sov- 
 ereign and estate. Judges ought above all to 
 remember the conclusion of the Roman twelve 
 tables, "Salus populi suprema lex;"^ and to 
 know that laws, except they be in order to that 
 end, are but things captious and oracles not well 
 inspired. Therefore it is an happy thing in a state 
 when kings and states do often consult with judges, 
 and again, when judges do often consult with 
 the king and state : the one when there is matter 
 of law intervenient in business of state, the other 
 when there is some consideration of state inter- 
 venient in matter of law. For many times the 
 things deduced to judgment may be metwi and 
 tincm, when the reason and consequence thereof 
 may trench to point of estate. I call matter of 
 estate not only the parts of sovereignty, but what- 
 soever introduceth any great alteration, or danger- 
 ous precedent, or concerneth manifestly any great 
 portion of people. And let no man weakly con- 
 ceive that just laws and true policy have any an- 
 tipathy, for they are like the spirits and sinews, 
 that one moves with the other. Let judges also 
 
 1 The weal of the people is the supreme law. 
 
264 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 remember that Solomon's throne was supported 
 by lions on both sides : let them be lions, but yet 
 lions under the throne, being circumspect that 
 they do not check or oppose any points of sover- 
 eignty. Let not judges also be so ignorant of 
 their own right, as to think there is not left to 
 them, as a principal part of their office, a wise use 
 and apphcation of laws. For they may remember 
 what the Apostle saith of a greater law than theirs : 
 " Nos scimus quia lex bona est, modo quis ea 
 utatur legitime."^ 
 
 LVII. — OF ANGER. 
 
 (1625.) 
 
 To seek to extinguish anger utterly is but a 
 bravery ^ of the Stoics. We have better oracles : 
 " Be angry, but sin not ; let not the sun go down 
 upon your anger." Anger must be limited and 
 confined, both in race ^ and in time. We will first 
 speak how the natural inclination and habit to be 
 angry may be attempered and calmed ; secondly, 
 how the particular motions of anger may be re- 
 pressed, or, at least, refrained from doing mis- 
 
 1 We know that the law is good, if a man use it 
 lawfully. 
 
 2 Bravado, boast. 
 8 Course, scope. 
 
OF ANGER. 265 
 
 chief; thirdly, how to raise anger, or appease 
 anger, in another. 
 
 For the first, there is no other way but to medi- 
 tate and ruminate well upon the effects of anger, 
 how it troubles man's life. And the best time to 
 do this, is to look back upon anger when the fit is 
 thoroughly over. Seneca saith well, that " Anger 
 is like ruin, which breaks itself upon that it falls." 
 The Scripture exhorteth us " to possess our souls 
 in patience." Whosoever is out of patience is 
 out of possession of his soul. Men must not turn 
 
 bees, 
 
 " — Animasque in vulnere ponunt."i 
 
 Anger is certainly a kind of baseness, as it 
 appears well in the weakness of those subjects in 
 whom it reigns : children, women, old folks, sick 
 folks. Only men must beware that they carry 
 their anger rather with scorn than with fear, so 
 they may seem rather to be above the injury than 
 below it ; which is a thing easily done if a man 
 will give law to himself in it. 
 
 For the second point, the causes and motives of 
 anger are chiefly three. First, to be too sensible 
 of hurt, for no man is angry that feels not himself 
 hurt; and therefore tender and delicate persons 
 must needs be oft angry, they have so many 
 things to trouble them which more robust natures 
 have Httle sense of. The next is, the apprehen- 
 
 1 And spend their lives in a wound. 
 
266 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 sion and construction of the injury offered to 
 be, in the circumstances thereof, full of contempt. 
 For contempt is that which putteth an edge upon 
 anger as much or more than the hurt itself; and, 
 therefore, when men are ingenious in picking out 
 circumstances of contempt, they do kindle their 
 anger much. Lastly, opinion of the touch of a 
 man's reputation doth multiply and sharpen anger ; 
 wherein the remedy is that a man should have, as 
 Consalvo was wont to say, " telam honoris cras- 
 siorem." ^ But in all refrainings of anger it is the 
 best remedy to win time, and to make a man's 
 self believe that the opportunity of his revenge 
 is not yet come, but that he foresees a time for 
 it j and so to still himself in the mean time and 
 reserve it. 
 
 To contain anger from mischief, though it take 
 hold of a man, there be two things whereof you 
 must have special caution. The one, of extreme 
 bitterness of words, especially if they be aculeate 
 and proper,^ for communia 7naledicta ^ are nothing 
 so much ; and again, that in anger a man reveal 
 no secrets, for that makes him not fit for society. 
 The other, that you do not peremptorily break off 
 in any business in a fit of anger ; but howsoever 
 
 1 " A Grentleman's honor should be, dc tela crassiore, of 
 a good strong warp or web" (Bacon's speech against 
 Duels). 
 
 2 Having the sting of appropriateness. 
 8 Common revilings. 
 
OF VICISSITUDE OF THINGS. 267 
 
 you show bitterness, do not act anything that is 
 not revocable. 
 
 For raising and appeasing anger in another, it is 
 done chiefly by choosing of times when men are 
 frowardest and worst disposed, to incense them. 
 Again, by gathering, as was touched before, all 
 that you can find out to aggravate the contempt. 
 And the two remedies are by the contraries : the 
 former, to take good times, when first to relate to 
 a man an angry business, for the first impression is 
 much ; and the other is to sever, as much as may 
 be, the construction of the injury from the point of 
 contempt, imputing it to misunderstanding, fear, 
 passion, or what you will. 
 
 LVIIL — OF VICISSITUDE OF THINGS. 
 
 (1625.) 
 
 Solomon saith, *' There is no new thing upon 
 the earth ; " so that, as Plato had an imagination 
 that all knowledge was but remembrance, so Solo- 
 mon giveth his sentence, " that all novelty is but 
 oblivion." Whereby you may see that the river of 
 Lethe runneth as well above ground as below. 
 There is an abstruse astrologer that saith : " If it 
 were not for two things that are constant (the one 
 is that the fixed stars ever stand at like distance 
 one from another, and never come nearer together 
 nor go further asunder j the other, that the diurnal 
 
2 68 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 motion perpetually keepeth time), no individual 
 would last one moment." Certain it is that the 
 matter is in a perpetual flux, and never at a stay. 
 The great winding-sheets that bury all things in 
 obHvion are two, — deluges and earthquakes. As 
 for conflagrations and great droughts, they do not 
 merely 1 dispeople and destroy. Phaeton's car 
 went but a day. And the three years' drought in 
 the time of Elias was but particular,^ and left peo- 
 ple alive. As for the great burnings by lightnings, 
 which are often in the West Indies, they are but 
 narrow. But in the other two destructions, by 
 deluge and earthquake, it is further to be noted 
 that the remnant of people which hap to be re- 
 served are commonly ignorant and mountainous 
 people, that can give no account of the time past ; 
 so that the oblivion is all one, as if none had been 
 left. If you consider well of the people of the 
 West Indies, it is very probable that they are a 
 newer or a younger people than the people of the 
 old world ; and it is much more likely that the de- 
 struction that hath heretofore been there was not 
 by earthquakes (as the Egyptian priest told Solon 
 concerning the island of Atlantis, that it was swal- 
 lowed by an earthquake), but rather that it was 
 desolated by a particular ^ deluge. For earthquakes 
 are seldom in those parts ; but, on the other side, 
 they have such pouring rivers, as the rivers of Asia 
 
 1 Utterly. See note 2, Essay xxvii. page 143. 
 
 2 Partial, local. 
 
OP VICISSITUDE OF THINGS. 269 
 
 and Afric and Europe are but brooks to them. 
 Their Andes likewise, or mountains, are far higher 
 than those with us ; whereby it seems that the 
 remnants of generation of men were in such a par- 
 ticular deluge saved. As for the observation that 
 Machiavel hath, that the jealousy of sects doth 
 much extinguish the memory of things, — traduc- 
 ing Gregory the Great, that he did what in him lay 
 to extinguish all heathen antiquities, — I do not 
 find that those zeals do any great effects nor last 
 long ; as it appeared in the succession of Sabinian, 
 who did revive the former antiquities. 
 
 The vicissitude or mutations in the superior 
 globe ^ are no fit matter for this present argument. 
 It may be, Plato's great year, if the world should 
 last so long, would have some effect, not in renew- 
 ing the state of like individuals (for that is the 
 fume of those that conceive the celestial bodies 
 have more accurate influences upon these things 
 below than indeed they have), but in gross. Com- 
 ets, out of question, have likewise power and effect 
 over the gross and mass of things ; but they are 
 rather gazed upon, and waited upon in their jour- 
 ney, than wisely observed in their effects, specially 
 in their respective effects : that is, what kind of 
 comet for magnitude, color, version ^ of the beams, 
 placing in the region of heaven, or lasting, pro- 
 duceth what kind of effects. 
 
 1 The starry heavens. ^ Direction. 
 
270 
 
 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 There is a toy which I have heard, and I would 
 not have it given over, but waited upon a little. 
 They say it is observed in the Low Countries, I 
 know not in what part, that every five-and-thirty 
 years the same kind and suit of years and weathers 
 comes about again : as great frosts, great wet, great 
 droughts, warm winters, summers with little heat, 
 and the like, — and they call it the prime. It is a 
 thing I do the rather mention, because, computing 
 backwards, I have found some concurrence. 
 
 But to leave these points of nature, and to come 
 to men. The greatest vicissitude of things amongst 
 men is the vicissitude of sects and religions ; for 
 those orbs ^ rule in men's minds most. The true 
 religion is "built upon the rock;" the rest are 
 tossed upon the waves of time. To speak, therefore, 
 of the causes of new sects, and to give some counsel 
 concerning them, as far as the weakness of human 
 judgment can give stay to so great revolutions. 
 
 When the religion formerly received is rent by 
 discords, and when the holiness of the professors 
 of religion is decayed and full of scandal, and 
 withal the times be stupid, ignorant, and barba- 
 rous, you may doubt ^ the springing up of a new 
 sect, if then also there should arise any extrava- 
 gant and strange spirit to make himself author 
 thereof All which points held when Mahomet 
 published his law. If a new sect have not two 
 
 1 Motives ; a metaphor from the old astronomy. 
 
 2 Fear. See note 3, Essay xxii. page 128. 
 
OF VICISSITUDE OF THINGS. 271 
 
 properties, fear it not, for it will not spread. The 
 one is the supplanting or the opposing of authority 
 established ; for nothing is more popular than that. 
 The other is the giving license to pleasures and a 
 voluptuous life. For as for speculative heresies, 
 such as were in ancient times the Arians, and now 
 the Arminians, though they work mightily upon 
 men's wits, yet they do not produce any great al- 
 terations in states ; except it be by the help of 
 civil occasions. There be three manner of planta- 
 tions of new sects : by the power of signs and mir- 
 acles ; by the eloquence and wisdom of speech 
 and persuasion ; and by the sword. For martyr- 
 doms, I reckon them amongst miracles, because 
 they seem to exceed the strength of human nature ; 
 and I may do the like of superlative and admirable 
 holiness of life. Surely there is no better way to 
 stop the rising of new sects and schisms than to 
 reform abuses ; to compound the smaller differ- 
 ences ; to proceed mildly, and not with sanguinary 
 persecutions ; and rather to take off the principal 
 authors by winning and advancing them, than to 
 enrage them by violence and bitterness. 
 
 The changes and vicissitudes in wars are many, 
 but chiefly in three things : in the seats or stages 
 of the war, in the weapons, and in the manner of 
 the conduct. Wars in ancient time seemed more 
 to move from east to west ; for the Persians, Assyr- 
 ians, Arabians, Tartars, which were the invaders, 
 were all eastern people. It is true the Gauls were 
 
272 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 western ; but we read but of two incursions of 
 theirs, — the one to Gallo-Graecia, the other to 
 Rome. But East and West have no certain points 
 of heaven ; and no more have the wars, either 
 from the East or West, any certainty of observa- 
 tion. But Nohh and South are fixed ; and it hath 
 seldom or never been seen that the far southern 
 people have invaded the northern, but contrariwise. 
 Whereby it is manifest that the northern tract of 
 the world is in nature the more martial region : 
 be it in respect of the stars of that hemisphere ; or 
 of the great continents that are upon the North, 
 whereas the south part, for aught that is known, 
 is almost all sea ; or (which is most apparent) of 
 the cold of the northern parts, which is that which, 
 without aid of discipline, doth make the bodies 
 hardest and the courages warmest. 
 
 Upon the breaking and shivering of a great state 
 and empire you may be sure to have wars. For 
 great empires, while they stand, do enervate and 
 destroy the forces of the natives which they have 
 subdued, resting upon their own protecting forces ; 
 and then when they fail also, all goes to ruin, and 
 they become a prey. So was it in the decay of 
 the Roman empire ; and likewise in the empire of 
 Almaigne after Charles the Great, every bird tak- 
 ing a feather; and were not unlike to befall to 
 Spain, if it should break. The great accessions 
 and unions of kingdoms do likewise stir up wars. 
 For when a state grows to an over-power, it is like 
 
OF VICISSITUDE OF THINGS. 273 
 
 a great flood that will be sure to overflow ; as it 
 hath been seen in the states of Rome, Turkey, 
 Spain, and others. Look when the world hath 
 fewest barbarous peoples, but such as commonly 
 will not marry or generate except they know means 
 to live (as it is almost everywhere at this day, ex- 
 cept Tartary), there is no danger of inundations of 
 people ; but when there be great shoals of people, 
 which go on to populate, without foreseeing means 
 of life and sustentation, it is of necessity that once 
 in an age or two they discharge a portion of 
 their people upon other nations, — which the 
 ancient northern people were wont to do by lot, 
 casting lots what part should stay at home and 
 what should seek their fortunes. When a warlike 
 state grows soft and effeminate, they may be sure 
 of a war. For commonly such states are grown 
 rich in the time of their degenerating ; and so the 
 prey inviteth, and their decay in valor encourageth 
 a war. 
 
 As for the weapons, it hardly falleth under rule 
 and observation ; yet we see even they have re- 
 turns and vicissitudes. For certain it is that ord- 
 nance was known in the city of the Oxidrakes in 
 India, and was that which the Macedonians called 
 thunder and Hghtning and magic.^ And it is well 
 known that the use of ordnance hath been in China 
 above two thousand years. The conditions of 
 
 1 No authority for this statement has been found. 
 18 
 
2 74 BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 weapons and their improvement are : First, the 
 fetching ^ afar off, for that outruns the danger, as 
 it is seen in ordnance and muskets. Secondly, the 
 strength of the percussion, wherein hkewise ord- 
 nance do exceed all arietations ^ and ancient in- 
 ventions. The third is the commodious use of 
 them, as, that they may serve in all weathers, that 
 the carriage may be light and manageable, and the 
 like. 
 
 For the conduct of the war : at the first men 
 rested extremely upon number ; they did put the 
 wars likewise upon main force and valor, pointing 
 days for pitched fields, and so trying it out upon 
 an even match ; and they were more ignorant in 
 ranging and arraying their battles.^ After,^ they 
 grew to rest upon number rather competent than 
 vast ; they grew to advantages of place, cunning 
 diversions, and the like ; and they grew more skil- 
 ful in the ordering of their battles. 
 
 In the youth of a state, arms do flourish ; in the 
 middle age of a state, learning ; and then both of 
 them together for a time ; in the declining age of 
 a state, mechanical arts and merchandise. Learn- 
 ing hath his infancy, when it is but beginning and 
 almost childish ; then his youth, when it is luxuri- 
 ant and juvenile ; then his strength of years, when 
 
 ^ Fetchi7t<^ seems to be used for carrying. 
 
 2 Assaults with battering-rams. 
 
 3 Battalions. 
 
 * Afterwards. 
 
OF VICISSITUDE OF THINGS. 275 
 
 it is solid and reduced ; and lastly, his old age, 
 when it waxeth dry and exhaust. But it is not 
 good to look too long upon these turning wheels 
 of vicissitude, lest we become giddy. As for the 
 philology ^ of them, that is but a circle of tales, and 
 therefore not fit for this writing. 
 
 1 The explanation or interpretation. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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