thinks of nothing ?" Sir Edward, who had not had the effect of some of the queen's grants so soon as he hoped and desired, paused a little; and then made answer, "Madam, he thinks of a woman's promise." The queen shrunk in her head; but was heard to say, "Well, Sir Edward, I must not confute you." Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor. 5. When any great officer, ecclesiastical or civil, was to be made, the queen would inquire after the piety, integrity, and learning of the man. And when she was satisfied in these qualifications, she would consider of his personage. And upon such an occasion she pleased once to say to me, "Bacon, how can the magistrate maintain his authority when the man is despised ?" 6. In eighty-eight, when the queen went from Temple-bar along Fleet-street, the lawyers were ranked on one side, and the companies of the city on the other said Mr. Bacon to a lawyer who stood next to him, "Do but observe the courtiers; if they bow first to the citizens, they are in debt; if first to us, they are in law." : 7. King James was wont to be very earnest with the country gentlemen to go from London to their country houses. And sometimes he would say thus to them, "Gentlemen, at London you are like ships at sea, which show like nothing; but in your country villages you are like ships in a river, which look like great things." 8. Soon after the death of a great officer, who was judged no advancer of the king's matters, the king said to his solicitor Bacon, who was his kinsman, "Now tell me truly, what say you of your cousin that is gone?" Mr. Bacon answered, "Sir, since your majesty doth charge me, I'll e'en deal plainly with you, and give you such a character of him, as if I were to write his story. I do think he was no fit counsellor to make your affairs better; but yet he was fit to have kept them from growing worse." The king said, "On my so'l, man, in the first thou speakest like a true man, and in the latter, like a kinsman." 9. King James, as he was a prince of great judgment, so he was a prince of a marvellous pleasant humour; and there now come into my mind two instances of it. As he was going through Lusen, by Greenwich, he asked what town it was? They said, Lusen. He asked a good while after, "What town is this we are now in ?" They said still, 'twas Lusen. "On my so'l," said the king, "I will be king of Lusen.” 10. In some other of his progresses, he asked how far it was to a town whose name I have forgotten. They said, Six miles. Half an hour after, he asked again. One said, Six miles and a half. The king alighted out of his coach, and crept under the shoulder of his led horse. And when some asked his majesty what he meant? "I must stalk," said he, "for yonder town is shy, and flies me." 11. Count Gondomar sent a compliment to my lord St. Alban, wishing him a good Easter. My lord thanked the messenger, and said, "He could not at present requite the count better than in returning him the like; that he wished his lordship a good Passover." 12. My lord chancellor Elsemere, when he had read a petition which he disliked, would say, "What, you would have my hand to this now ?" And the party answering, "Yes," he would say farther, "Well, so you shall: nay, you shall have both my hands to it." And so would, with both his hands, tear it in pieces. 13. Sir Francis Bacon was wont to say of an angry man who suppressed his passion, "That he thought worse than he spake;" and of an angry man that would chide, "That he spoke worse than he thought." 14. He wont also to say, "That power in an ill man was like the power of a black witch; he could do hurt, but no good with it." And he would add, "That the magicians could turn water into blood, but could not turn the blood again to water." 15. When Mr. Attorney Coke, in the exchequer, gave high words to Sir Francis Bacon, and stood much upon his higher place; Sir Francis said to him, "Mr. Attorney, the less you speak of your own greatness, the more I shall think of it: and the more, the less." 16. Sir Francis Bacon coming into the earl of Arundel's garden, where there were a great number of ancient statues of naked men and women, made a stand, and, as astonished, cried out, "The resurrection!" 17. Sir Francis Bacon, who was always for moderate counsels, when one was speaking of such a reformation of the church of England, as would in effect make it no church; said thus to him, "Sir, the subject we talk of is the eye of England; and if there be a speck or two in the eye, we endeavour to take them off; but he were a strange oculist who would pull out the eye." 18. The same Sir Francis Bacon was wont to say, "That those who left useful studies for useless scholastic speculations, were like the Olympic gamesters, who abstained from necessary labours, that they might be fit for such as were not so." 19. He likewise often used this comparison: "The empirical philosophers are like to pismires; they only lay up and use their store. The rationalists are like the spiders; they spin all out of their own bowels. But give me a philosopher, who like the bee hath a middle faculty, gathering from abroad, but digesting that which is gathered by his own virtue." 20. The lord St. Alban, who was not over-hasty to raise theories, but proceeded slowly by experiments, was wont to say to some philosophers, who would not go his pace, "Gentlemen, nature is a labyrinth, in which the very haste you move with, will make you lose your way." 21. The same lord, when he spoke of the Dutchmen, used to say, "That he could not abandon them for our safety, nor keep them for our profit." And sometimes he would express the same sense in this manner; "We hold the Belgic lion by the ears." 22. The same lord, when a gentleman seemed not much to approve of his liberality to his retinue, said to him, "Sir, I am all of a piece; if the head be lifted up, the inferior parts of the body must too." 23. The lord Bacon was wont to commend See the supstance of this in Novum Organum; and Cogitata et Visa. the advice of the plain old man at Buxton, that sold besoms: a proud lazy young fellow came to him for a besom upon trust; to whom the old man said, "Friend, hast thou no money? borrow of thy back, and borrow of thy belly, they'll ne'er ask thee again, I shall be dunning thee every day." 24. Jack Weeks said of a great man, just then dead, who pretended to some religion, but was none of the best livers, "Well, I hope he is in heaven. Every man thinks as he wishes; but if he be in heaven, 'twere pity it were known." ORNAMENTA RATIONALIA: OR, ELEGANT SENTENCES, SOME MADE, OTHERS COLLECTED BY THE LORD BACON; AND BY HIM PUT UNDER THE ABOVESAID TITLE. COLLECTED OUT OF THE MIMI OF PUBLIUS, AND PUBLISHED IN THE REMAINS 1. ALEATOR, quanto in arte est melior, tanto est nequior." A gamester, the greater master he is in his art, the worse man he is. 2. "Arcum intensio frangit; animum, remissio." Much bending breaks the bow; much unbending, the mind. 3. "Bis vincit, qui se vincit in victoria," He conquers twice, who upon victory overcomes himself. 4. "Cum vitia prosint, peccat, qui recte facit." If vices were upon the whole matter profitable, the virtuous man would be the sinner. 5. "Bene dormit, qui non sentit quod male dormiat." He sleeps well, who feels not that he sleeps ill. 6. "Deliberare utilia, mora est tutissima." To deliberate about useful things, is the safest delay. 7. "Dolor decrescit, ubi quo crescat non habet." The flood of grief decreaseth, when it can swell no higher. 8. "Etiam innocentes cogit mentiri dolor." Pain makes even the innocent man a liar. 9. "Etiam celeritas in desiderio, mora est." In desire, swiftness itself is delay. 10. "Etiam capillus unus habet umbram suam." The smallest hair casts a shadow. 11. "Fidem qui perdit, quo se servat in reliquum ?" He that has lost his faith, what has he left to live on? 12. "Formosa facies muta commendatio est." A beautiful face is a silent commendation. 13. "Fortuna nimium quem fovet, stultum facit." Fortune makes him a fool, whom she makes her darling. "Improbe Neptunum accusat, qui iterum naufragium facit." He accuseth Neptune unjustly, who makes shipwreck a second time. 25. "Multis minatur, qui uni facit injuriam." He that injures one, threatens a hundred. 26. "Mora omnis ingrata est, sed facit sapientiam." All delay is ungrateful, but we are not wise without it. 27. He of whom many are afraid, ought himself to fear many. "Nulla tam bona est fortuna, de qua nil possis queri." There is no fortune so good, but it bates an ace. 'Pars beneficii est, quod petitur si bene neges.' It is part of the gift, if you deny genteelly what is asked of you. "Timidus vocat se cautum, parcum sordidus." The coward calls himself a wary man; and the miser says he is frugal. "O vita! misero longa, felici brevis." O life! an age to him that is in misery; and to him that is happy, a moment. A COLLECTION OF SENTENCES OUT OF SOME OF THE WRITINGS OF THE LORD BACON. 1. Ir is a strange desire which men have, to seek power, and lose liberty. 15. The lovers of great place are impatient of privateness, even in age, which requires the shadow: 2. Children increase the cares of life; but they like old townsmen, that will be still sitting at their mitigate the remembrance of death. 3. Round dealing is the honour of man's nature; and a mixture of falsehood is like alloy in gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it. 4. Death openeth the gate to good fame, and extinguisheth envy. 5. Schism in the spiritual body of the church is a greater scandal than a corruption of manners: as, in the natural body, a wound or solution of continuity is worse than a corrupt humour. 6. Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out. 7. He that studieth revenge, keepeth his own wounds green. 8. Revengeful persons live and die like witches: their life is mischievous, and their end is unfortunate. 9. 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 which belong to adversity, are to be admired. 10. He that cannot see well, let him go softly. 11. If a man be thought secret, it inviteth discovery; as the more close air sucketh in the more open. 12. Keep your authority wholly from your children, not so your purse. 13. Men of noble birth are noted to be envious towards new men when they rise; for the distance is altered; and it is like a deceit of the eye, that when others come on, they think themselves go back. 14. That envy is most malignant which is like Cain's, who envied his brother, because his sacrifice was better accepted, when there was nobody but God to look on. street door, though there they offer age to scorn. 16. In evil, the best condition is, not to will: the next, not to can. 17. In great place, ask counsel of both times: of the ancient time, what is best; and of the latter time, what is fittest. 18. As in nature things move more violently to their place, and calmly in their place: so virtue in ambition is violent; in authority, settled and calm. 19. Boldness in civil business is like pronunciation in the orator of Demosthenes; the first, second, and third thing. 20. Boldness is blind wherefore it is ill in counsel, but good in execution. For in counsel it is good to see dangers; in execution, not to see them, except they be very great. 21. Without good-nature, man is but a better kind of vermin. 22. God never wrought miracle to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it. 23. The great atheists indeed are hypocrites, who are always handling holy things, but without feeling; so as they must needs be cauterized in the end. 24. The master of superstition is the people. And in all superstition, wise men follow fools. 25. In removing superstitions, care would be had that, as it fareth in ill purgings, the good be not taken away with the bad: which commonly is done when the people is the physician. 26. He that goeth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel. 27. It is a miserable state of mind, and yet it is commonly the case of kings, to have few things to desire and many things to fear. 28. Depression of the nobility may make a king more absolute, but less safe. 29. All precepts concerning kings are, in effect, comprehended in these remembrances: remember thou art a man; remember thou art God's vicegerent: the one bridleth their power, and the other their will. 30. Things will have their first or second agitation: if they be not tossed upon the arguments of counsel, they will be tossed upon the waves of fortune. 31. The true composition of a counsellor is, rather to be skilled in his master's business than his nature; for then he is like to advise him, and not to feed his humour. 32. Private opinion is more free, but opinion before others is more reverent. 33. Fortune is like a market, where many times if you stay a little the price will fall. 34. Fortune sometimes turneth the handle of the bottle, which is easy to be taken hold of; and after, the belly, which is hard to grasp. 35. Generally it is good to commit the beginning of all great actions to Argus with a hundred eyes; and the ends of them to Briareus with a hundred hands; first to watch, and then to speed. 36. There is great difference betwixt a cunning man and a wise man. There be that can pack the cards, who yet cannot play well; they are good in canvasses and factions, and yet otherwise mean men. 37. Extreme self-lovers will set a man's house on fire, though it were but to roast their eggs. 38. New things, like strangers, are more admired, and less favoured. 39. It were good that men, in their innovations, would follow the example of time itself, which indeed innovateth greatly, but quietly, and by degrees scarce to be perceived. 40. They that reverence too much old time, are but a scorn to the new. 41. The Spaniards and Spartans have been noted to be of small despatch. "Mi venga la muerte de Spagna;" Let my death come from Spain, for then it will be sure to be long a coming. 42. You had better take for business a man somewhat absurd, than over-formal. 43. Those who want friends to whom to open their griefs, are cannibals of their own hearts. 44. Number itself importeth not much in armies, where the people are of weak courage; for, as Virgil says, it never troubles a wolf how many the sheep be. 45. Let states that aim at greatness, take heed how their nobility and gentry multiply too fast. In coppice woods, if you leave your staddles too thick, you shall never have clean underwood, but shrubs and bushes. 46. A civil war 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. 47. Suspicions among thoughts, are like bats among birds, they ever fly by twilight. 48. Base natures, if they find themselves once suspected, will never be true. 49. Men ought to find the difference between salt | ness 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. : 50. Discretion in speech is more than eloquence. 51. Men seem neither well to understand their riches, nor their strength of the former they believe greater things than they should, and of the latter much less. And from hence certain fatal pillars have bounded the progress of learning. 52. Riches are the baggage of virtue; they cannot be spared, nor left behind; but they hinder the march. 53. Great riches have sold more men than ever they have bought out. 54. Riches have wings, and sometimes they fly away of themselves, and sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more. 55. He that defers his charity until he is dead, is, if a man weighs it rightly, rather liberal of another man's than of his own. 56. Ambition is like choler; if it can move, it makes men active; if it be stopped, it becomes adust, and makes men melancholy. 57. To take a soldier without ambition, is to pull off his spurs. 58. Some ambitious men seem as skreens to princes in matters of danger and envy. For no man will take such parts, except he be like the seel'd dove, that mounts and mounts, because he cannot see about him. 59. Princes and states should choose such ministers as are more sensible of duty than rising; and should discern a busy nature from a willing mind. 60. A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds; therefore let him seasonably water the one, and destroy the other. 61. If a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see fortune; for though she be blind, she is not invisible. 62. Usury bringeth the treasury of a realm or state into 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. 63. Virtue is best in a body that hath rather dignity of presence, than beauty of aspect. The beautiful prove accomplished, but not of great spirit; and study, for the most part, rather behaviour than virtue. 64. The best part of beauty is that which a picture cannot express. 65. He who builds a fair house upon an ill seat, commits himself to prison. 66. If you will work on any man, you must either know his nature and fashions, and so lead him; or his ends, and so persuade him; or his weaknesses and disadvantages, and so awe him; or those that have interest in him, and so govern him. 67. Costly followers, among whom we may reckon those who are importunate in suits, are not to be liked; lest, while a man maketh his train longer, he make his wings shorter. 68. Fame is like a river that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid. 69. Seneca saith well, that anger is like rain, which breaks itself upon that it falls. 72. The best governments are always subject to be like the fairest crystals, wherein every icicle or 70. Excusations, cessions, modesty itself well grain is seen, which in a fouler stone is never governed, are but arts of ostentation. 71. High treason is not written in ice; that when the body relenteth, the impression should go away. perceived. 73. Hollow church papists are like the roots of nettles, which themselves sting not; but yet they bear all the stinging leaves. SHORT NOTES FOR CIVIL CONVERSATION. 1. To deceive men's expectations generally, which cautel, argueth a staid mind, and unexpected constancy viz. in matters of fear, anger, sudden joy or grief, and all things which may affect or alter the mind in public or sudden accidents, or such like. 2. It is necessary to use a stedfast countenance, not wavering with action, as in moving the head or hand too much, which showeth a fantastical, light, and fickle operation of the spirit, and consequently like mind as gesture: only it is sufficient, with leisure, to use a modest action in either. 3. In all kinds of speech, either pleasant, grave, severe, or ordinary, it is convenient to speak leisurely, and rather drawingly, than hastily: because hasty speech confounds the memory, and oftentimes, besides unseemliness, drives a man either to a nonplus or unseemly stammering, harping upon that which should follow; whereas a slow speech confirmeth the memory, addeth a conceit of wisdom to the hearers, besides a seemliness of speech and countenance. 4. To desire in discourse to hold all arguments, is ridiculous, wanting true judgment; for in all things no man can be exquisite. 5, 6. To have common places to discourse, and to want variety, is both tedious to the hearers, and shows a shallowness of conceit; therefore it is good to vary, and suit speeches with the present occasions; and to have a moderation in all our speeches, especially in jesting, of religion, state, great persons, weighty and important business, poverty, or any thing deserving pity. 7. A long continued speech, without a good speech of interlocution, showeth slowness: and a good reply, without a good set speech, showeth shallowness and weakness. 8. To use circumstances, ere you come to the matter, is wearisome; and to use none at all, is but blunt. 9. Bashfulness is a great hinderance to a man, both of uttering his conceit, and understanding what is propounded unto him: wherefore it is good to press himself forwards with discretion, both in speech, and company of the better sort. "Usus promptos facit." AN ESSAY ON DEATH. 1. I HAVE often thought upon death, and I find it the least of all evils. All that which is past is as a dream; and he that hopes or depends upon time coming, dreams waking. So much of our life as we have discovered is already dead; and all those hours which we share, even from the breasts of our mother, until we return to our grandmother the earth, are part of our dying days; whereof even this is one, and those that succeed are of the same nature, for we die daily; and as others have given place to us, so we must in the end give way to others. 2. Physicians, in the name of death, include all sorrow, anguish, disease, calamity, or whatsoever can fall in the life of man, either grievous or unwelcome but these things are familiar unto us, and we suffer them every hour; therefore we die daily, and I am older since I affirmed it. 3. I know many wise men, that fear to die; for the change is bitter, and flesh would refuse to prove it: besides, the expectation brings terror, and that exceeds the evil. But I do not believe, that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death: and such are my hopes, that if Heaven be pleased, and nature renew but my lease for twenty-one years more, without asking longer days, I shall be strong enough to acknowledge without mourning that I was begotten mortal. Virtue walks not in the highway, though she go per alta; this is strength and the blood to virtue, to contemn things that be desired, and to neglect that which is feared. 4. Why should man be in love with his fetters, though of gold? Art thou drowned in security? Then I say thou art perfectly dead. For though thou movest, yet thy soul is buried within thee, and thy good angel either forsakes his guard or sleeps. |