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 schoolmen, have a phrase of notable contempt and scorn towards civil business: for they call all temporal business of wars, embassages, judicature, and other employments, sbirrerie, which is under-sheriffries; as if they were but matters for under-sheriffs and catch-poles : though many times those under-sheriffries do more good than their high speculations. St. Paul, when he boasts of himself, he doth oft interlace, I speak like a fool; but speaking of his calling, he saith, magnificabo apostolatum meum: [I will magnify my mission.]

LIV. OF VAIN-GLORY.

It was prettily devised of Æsop; 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 moveth upon greater means 2, 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.3 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 noteth in the case of Antiochus and the Etolians, There are sometimes great effects of cross lies; as if a man that negociates between two princes, to draw them to join in a war against the third, doth extol the forces of either of them above measure, the one to the other: and sometimes he that deals between man and man, raiseth his

1 ac si artes illæ memoratæ magis ejusmodi homines, quam in fastigio Cardinalatús positos, decerent: et tamen (si res rite penderetur) speculativa cum civilibus non male miscentur.

2 cum aliquid vel sponte procedit, vel manu potentiore cietur.

3 nulla ostentatio sine comparatione sui est.

⚫ ideoque opere ut plurimum destituuntur. 5 hujusmodi ingeniis.

6 mendacia reciproca, et ex utrâque parte.

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 opinion brings on substance. In militar1 commanders and soldiers, vain-glory is an essential point2; 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 contemnendâ gloriâ libros scribunt, nomen suum inscribunt. [They that write books on the worthlessness of glory, take care to put their names on the title page.] 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 so well, if it had not been joined with some vanity 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 attribute to Mucianus; Omnium, quæ dixerat feceratque, arte quâdam ostentator: [A man that had a kind of art of setting forth to advantage all that he had said or done:] for that proceeds not of vanity, but of natural magnanimity and discretion; 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 perfection. For saith Pliny very wittily, In commending another you do yourself right; for he that you commend is either superior to you in that you commend,

1 So in the original. It is the form of the word which Bacon always (I believe)

uses.

5

2 non inutile est.

3 que sumptibus et periculo privatorum suscipiuntur.

4 (magna nomina) ingenio jactabundo erant.

Neque virtus ipsa tantum humanæ naturæ debet propter nominis sui celebrationem quam sibi ipsi.

6 ad hunc usque diem vix durasset, aut saltem non tam vegela.

7 vanitate et jactantiâ.

8 ex arte et prudentiâ, cum magnanimitate quâdam conjunctâ.

in aliquibus hominibus qui naturâ veluti comparati ad eam sunt.

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

LV. OF HONOUR AND REPUTATION.

THE winning of Honour is but the revealing of a man's virtue and worth without disadvantage. For some in their actions do woo and affect honour and reputation; which sort of men are commonly much talked of, but inwardly little admired. And some, contrariwise, darken their virtue in the shew of it; so as they be undervalued in opinion. If a man perform that which hath not been attempted before; or attempted and given over; or hath been achieved, but not with so good circumstance; he shall purchase more honour, 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 content every faction or combination of people, the music will be the fuller. A man is an ill husband of his honour, that entereth into any action, the failing wherein may disgrace him more than the carrying of it through can honour him. Honour that is gained and broken upon another 3 hath the quickest reflexion, like diamonds cut with fascets. And therefore let a man contend to excel any competitors of his in honour, in outshooting them, if he can, in their own bow. Discreet followers and servants help much to reputation. Omnis fama a domesticis emanat. Envy, which is the canker of honour, is best 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 honour are these. In the first place are conditores imperiorum, founders of states and commonwealths; such as

' parisitis prædæ et escæ; sibique ipsis et gloriæ vana mancipia.

2 Honoris et existimationis vera et jure optimo acquisitio ea est, ut quis, &c. Harl. MS. 5106. (for an account of which see Appendix No. II.) has "The true winning of honour" which is probably the true reading.

3 qui comparativus est et alium prægravat.

A maxime vividam.

Ita Q. Cicero.

Б cum angulis multiplicibus.

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, Eadgar, Alphonsus of Castile, the wise, that made the Siete partidas. In the third place are liberatores, or salvatores1, 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, [fathers of their country;] which reign justly, and make the times good wherein they live. Both which last kinds need no examples, they are in such number. Degrees of honour in subjects are, first participes curarum, those upon whom princes do discharge the greatest weight of their affairs; their right hands, as we call them. The next are duces belli, great leaders; such as are princes' lieutenants, and do them notable services in the wars. The third are gratiosi, favourites; such as exceed not this scantling, to be solace to the sovereign, and harmless to the people. And the fourth, negotiis pares; such as have great places under princes, and execute their places with sufficiency. There is an honour, 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.

LVI. OF JUDICATURE.

JUDGES ought to remember that their office is jus dicere, and not jus dare; to interpret law, and not to make law, or give law. Else will it be like the authority claimed by the church of 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 shew of antiquity to introduce novelty. Judges ought to be more learned than witty, more reverend than plausible, and more advised than confident.

1 sive servatores patriarum suarum,

Add

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 landmarks, 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. So saith Salomon, Fons turbatus, et vena corrupta, est justus cadens in causâ suâ coram adversario: [A righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled fountain or a corrupt spring.] 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. 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, violent prosecution, cunning advantages taken, combination, power, great counsel', then is the virtue of a judge seen, to make inequality equal2; that he may plant his judgment as upon an even ground. Qui fortiter emungit, elicit sanguinem; [Violent blowing makes the nose bleed ;] 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. Specially 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; 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

1 manum elatam, veluti in prosecutione importunâ, captionibus malitiosis, combinationibus, patrocinio potentum, advocatorum disparitate, et similibus.

2 in æquandis iis quæ sunt inæqualia.