It doth much add to a man's reputation, and is (as queen Isabella said) 'like perpetual letters commendatory to have good forms;' to obtain them it almost sufficeth not to despise them, for so shall a man observe them in others; and let him trust himself with the rest. For if he labour too much to express them, he shall lose their grace, which is to be natural and unaffected. Some men's behaviour is like a verse wherein every syllable is measured. How can a man comprehend great matters, that breaketh his mind too much to small observations? It is a good precept generally in seconding another, yet to add somewhat of one's own; as if you would grant his opinion, let it be with some distinction; if you will follow his motion, let it be with condition; if you allow his counsel, let it be with alleging further reason. .

...

The Fifty-third Essay, entitled "Of Praise," was first published in 1612, and commences thus :

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 followeth 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 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.

Of the Fifty-fourth, entitled " Of Vain-Glory," which is also in the edition of 1612, the latter part is as follows:

In fame of learning the flight will be slow, without some feathers of ostentation. Qui de contemnendâ gloriâ libros scribunt, nomen suum inscribunt.† Socrates, Aristotle, Galen, were men full of ostentation. Certainly vain-glory helpeth to perpetuate a man's memory; and virtue was never so beholden to human nature, as it received his due at the second hand. Neither had the fame of Cicero, Seneca, Plinius Secundus, borne her age so well if it had not been joined with some

*Appearances like to virtues.

Those who write books on despising glory put their names in the title-page.

vanity in themselves; like unto varnish, that makes ceilings not only shine, but last. . . . . . 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 perfection. For, saith Pliny, very wittily, 'In commending another you do yourself right, for he that you commend 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.

The Fifty-fifth, "Of Honour and Reputation," is one of the original Ten published in 1597. This is one of its

sections:

The true marshalling of the degrees of sovereign_honour are these in the first place are conditores imperiorum, founders of states and commonwealths, such as were Romulus, Cyrus, Cæsar, Ottoman, Ismael. In the second place are legislatores, lawgivers, which are also called second founders, or perpetui principes, because they govern by their ordinances after they are gone; such were Lycurgus, Solon, Justinian, Edgar, Alphonsus of Castile, the Wise, that made the Siete Patridas. In the third place are liberatores,† or salvatores; such as compound the long miseries of civil wars, or deliver their countries from servitude of strangers or tyrants; as Augustus Cæsar, Vespasianus, Aurelianus, Theodoricus, King Henry the Seventh of England, King Henry the Fourth of France. In the fourth place are propagatores, or propugnatores imperii,§ such as in honourable wars enlarge their territories or make noble defence against invaders. And in the last place are patres patriæ,|| which reign justly and make the times good wherein they live. Both which last kinds need no examples, they are in such number.

The Fifty-sixth, which was first published in 1612, is entitled "Of Judicature." The following are extracts :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

*Perpetual sovereigns.

+ Deliverers. + Saviours. § Extenders or defenders of the state. Fathers of their country.

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 antiquity to introduce novelty. Judges ought to be more learned than witty, more reverend than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things integrity is their portion and proper virtue; 'Cursed' (saith the law) is he, that removeth the landmark.' The mislayer of a mere stone is to blame, but it is the unjust judge that is the capital remover of land-marks, when he defineth amiss of lands and property. One foul sentence doth more hurt than many foul examples; for these do but corrupt the stream, the other corrupteth the fountain. 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, violent prosecution, cunning advantages taken, combination, power, great counsel, then is the virtue of a judge seen, to make inequality equal, that he may plant his judgment as upon an even ground. Qui 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 inferences, for there is no worse torture than the torture of laws, especially in case of laws penal; they ought to have care, that that which was meant for terror be not turned into rigour, and that they bring not upon the people that shower whereof the Scripture speaketh, Pluet super eos laqueos;t 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 tempora rerum, &c.‡ In causes of life and death, judges ought (as far as the law permitteth) in justice to remember mercy; and to cast a severe eye upon the example, but a merciful eye upon the person.

The parts of a judge in hearing are four: to direct the evidence; to moderate length, repetition, or impertinency of speech; to recapitulate, select, and collate the material points of that which hath been said; and to give the rule or sentence. Whatsoever is above these is too much, and proceedeth either of glory and willingness to speak, or of impatience to hear, or of

*Wringing the nose brings blood.

† He will rain snares upon them.

It is the office of a judge to consider not only the facts but the times and circumstances of the facts.

shortness 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 favourites, 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 obtaineth not; for that upholds in the client the reputation of his counsel, and beats down in him the conceit of his cause. There is likewise due to the public a civil reprehension of advocates, where there appeareth cunning counsel, gross neglect, slight information, indiscreet pressing, or an over bold defence. And let not the counsel at the bar chop with the judge, nor wind himself into the handling 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 to the party to say, his counsel or proofs were not heard....

From the Fifty-seventh, "Of Anger," which first appeared in 1625, we extract a single paragraph :—

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 that 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.....

The Fifty-eighth, "Of the Vicissitude of Things," was another of those added by the author to his last edition. It begins thus:

:

Solomon saith, There is no new thing upon the earth." So that as Plato had an imagination, "That all knowledge was but remembrance;' so Solomon giveth his sentence, "That all novelty is but oblivion.**

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*A little lower down comes a sentence which in Mr. Montagu's and most of the common editions stands:-"As for conflagrations and great droughts, they do not merely dispeople, but destroy." In the edition of Bacon's works in 2 vols. 8vo., Lond. 1843, it is given:-" As for conflagrations and great droughts, they do merely dispeople and destroy." Both these

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. Learning hath its infancy when it is but beginning, and almost childish; then its youth, when it is luxuriant and juvenile ; then its strength of years, when it is solid and reduced; and lastly its 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.

Two Essays are commonly added in the modern impressions; the one entitled "A Fragment of an Essay on Fame;" the other, "Of a King." The Fragment on Fame was first published in 1657 by Dr. Rawley in the first edition of the Resuscitatio; and there can be no doubt of its authenticity. The following is the latter part of it, being about the half of what we have :

Fame is of that force, as there is scarcely any great action wherein it hath not a great part, especially in the war. Mucianus undid Vitellius, by a fame that he scattered, that Vitellius had in purpose to remove the legions of Syria into Germany, and the legions of Germany into Syria; whereupon the legions of Syria were infinitely inflamed. Julius Cæsar took Pompey unprovided, and laid asleep his industry and preparations, by a fame that he cunningly gave out, how Caesar's own soldiers loved him not; and being wearied with the wars, and laden with the spoils of Gaul, would forsake him as soon as he came into Italy. Livia settled all things for the succession of her son Tiberius, by continual giving out that her husband Augustus was upon recovery and amendment. And it is a usual thing with the bashaws, to conceal the death of the Great Turk from the janizaries and men of war, to save the sacking of Constantinople and other towns, as their manner is. Themistocles made Xerxes, king of Persia, post apace out of Grecia, by giving out that the Grecians had a purpose to break his

readings are equally inconsistent with the context. The true reading may be gathered from the Latin:-Illae populum penitus non absorbent aut destruunt; that is, "they do not merely [for altogether, completely] dispeople or destroy."