book i. “He who is unable to mingle in society, or who requires
nothing, by reason of sufficing for himself, is no part of the state,
so that he is either a wild beast or a divinity.”
[304] Epimenides, a poet of Crete (of which Candia is the modern name),
is said by Pliny to have fallen into a sleep which lasted 57 years.
He was also said to have lived 299 years. Numa pretended that he was
instructed in the art of legislation by the divine nymph Egeria, who
dwelt in the Arician grove. Empedocles, the Sicilian philosopher,
declared himself to be immortal, and to be able to cure all evils.
He is said by some to have retired from society that his death might
not be known, and to have thrown himself into the crater of Mount
Ætna. Apollonius of Tyana, the Pythagorean philosopher, pretended to
miraculous powers, and after his death a temple was erected to him at
that place. His life is recorded by Philostratus; and some persons,
among whom are Hierocles, Dr. More, in his Mystery of Godliness, and
recently Strauss, have not hesitated to compare his miracles with those
of our Saviour.
[305] “A great city, a great desert.”
[306] Sarsaparilla.
[307] A liquid matter of a pungent smell, extracted from a portion of
the body of the beaver.
[308] “Partakers of cares.”
[309] Plutarch (_Vit. Pomp._ 19) relates that Pompey said this upon
Sylla’s refusal to give him a triumph.
[310] Plut. Vit. J. Cæs. 64.
[311] Cic. Philip. xiii. 11.
[312] “These things, by reason of our friendship, I have not concealed
_from you_.”—Vide _Tac. Ann._ iv. 40.
[313] Dio Cass. lxxv.
[314] Such infamous men as Tiberius and Sejanus hardly deserve this
commendation.
[315] Philip de Comines.
[316] Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, the valiant antagonist of
Louis XI. of France. De Comines spent his early years at his court,
but afterwards passed into the service of Louis XI. This monarch was
notorious for his cruelty, treachery, and dissimulation, and had all
the bad qualities of his contemporary, Edward IV. of England, without
any of his redeeming virtues.
[317] Pythagoras went still further than this, as he forbade his
disciples to eat flesh of any kind whatever. See the interesting
speech which Ovid attributes to him in the fifteenth book of the
Metamorphoses. Sir Thomas Browne, in his Pseudoxia (_Browne’s Works_,
Bohn’s Antiq. ed. vol. i. p. 27, _et seq._), gives some curious
explanations of the doctrines of this philosopher.—_Plut. de Educat.
Puer._ 17.
[318] Tapestry. Speaking hypercritically, Lord Bacon commits an
anachronism here, as Arras did not manufacture tapestry till the middle
ages.
[319] Plut. Vit. Themist. 28.
[320] Ap. Stob. Serm. v. 120.
[321] James i. 23.
[322] He alludes to the recommendation which moralists have often
given, that a person in anger should go through the alphabet to
himself, before he allows himself to speak.
[323] In his day, the musket was fixed upon a stand, called the “rest,”
much as the gingals or matchlocks are used in the East at the present
day.
[324] From debts and incumbrances.
[325] Plut. Vit. Themist. ad init.
[326] “Equal to business.”
[327] He alludes to the following passage, St. Matthew xiii. 31:
“Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven
is like to a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took and sowed in his
field; which indeed is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown, it
is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of
the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.”
[328] Virg. Ecl. vii. 51.
[329] Vide. _A. L._ i. vii. 11.
[330] He was vanquished by Lucullus, and finally submitted to
Pompey.—_Plut. Vit. Lucull._ 27.
[331] He alludes to the prophetic words of Jacob on his death-bed,
Gen. xlix. 9, 14, 15: “Judah is a lion’s whelp; ... he stooped down,
he couched as a lion, and as an old lion.... Issachar is a strong ass
couching down between two burdens: And he saw that rest was good, and
the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and
became a servant unto tribute.”
[332] Sums of money voluntarily contributed by the people for the use
of the sovereign.
[333] Young trees.
[334] “A land strong in arms and in the richness of the soil.”—_Virg.
Æn._ i. 535.
[335] He alludes to the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, which is mentioned
Daniel iv. 10; “I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and
the height thereof was great. The tree grew, and was strong, and the
height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end
of all the earth: the leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof
much, and in it was meat for all; the beasts of the field had shadow
under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and
all flesh was fed of it.”
[336] “Right of citizenship.”
[337] “Right of trading.”
[338] “Right of intermarriage.”
[339] “Right of inheritance.”
[340] “Right of suffrage.”
[341] “Right of honors.”
[342] Long since the time of Lord Bacon, as soon as these colonies
had arrived at a certain state of maturity, they at different periods
revolted from the mother country.
[343] The laws and ordinances promulgated by the sovereigns of Spain
were so called. The term was derived from the Byzantine empire.
[344] Qualifications.
[345] Attend to.
[346] For a short or transitory period.
[347] Be in a hurry.
[348] It was its immense armaments that in a great measure consumed the
vitals of Spain.
[349] “Pompey’s plan is clearly that of Themistocles; for he believes
that whoever is master of the sea will obtain the supreme power.”—_Ad
Att._ x. 8.
[350] Encomiums.
[351] St. Matthew vi. 27; St. Luke xii. 25.
[352] The effects of which must be felt in old age.
[353] Of benefit in your individual case.
[354] Any striking change in the constitution.
[355] Take medical advice.
[356] Incline rather to fully satisfying your hunger.
[357] Celsus _de Med._ i. 1.
[358] To hope the best, but be fully prepared for the worst.
[359] “Suspicion is the passport to faith.”
[360] A censure of this nature has been applied by some to Dr. Johnson,
and possibly with some reason.
[361] To start the subject.
[362] Requires to be bridled.
[363] He quotes here from Ovid: “Boy, spare the whip, and tightly grasp
the reins.”—_Met._ ii. 127.
[364] One who tests or examines.
[365] The galliard was a light active dance, much in fashion in the
time of Queen Elizabeth.
[366] Hits at, or remarks intended to be applied to, particular
individuals.
[367] A slight or insult.
[368] A sarcastic remark.
[369] The old term for colonies.
[370] He perhaps alludes covertly to the conduct of the Spaniards in
extirpating the aboriginal inhabitants of the West India Islands,
against which the venerable Las Casas so eloquently but vainly
protested.
[371] Of course, this censure would not apply to what is primarily
and essentially a convict colony; the object of which is to drain the
mother country of its impure superfluities.
[372] Times have much changed since this was penned, tobacco is now the
staple commodity, and the source of “the main business” of Virginia.
[373] To labor hard.
[374] Marshy; from the French _marais_, a marsh.
[375] Gewgaws, or spangles.
[376] He alludes to Ecclesiastes v. 11, the words of which are somewhat
varied in our version: “When goods increase, they are increased that
eat them; and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the
beholding of them with their eyes?”
[377] “The rich man’s wealth is his strong city.”—_Proverbs_ x. 15;
xviii. 11.
[378] “In his anxiety to increase his fortune, it was evident that not
the gratification of avarice was sought, but the means of doing good.”
[379] “He who hastens to riches will not be without guilt.” In our
version the words are: “He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be
innocent.”—_Proverbs_ xxviii. 22.
[380] Pluto being the king of the infernal regions, or place of
departed spirits.
[381] Rent-roll, or account taken of income.
[382] Wait till prices have risen.
[383] “In the sweat of another’s brow.” He alludes to the words of
Genesis iii. 19: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.”
[384] Planter of sugar-canes.
[385] “Wills and childless persons were caught _by him_, as though with
a hunting-net.”—_Tacit. Ann._ xiii. 42.
[386] “Pythoness,” used in the sense of witch. He alludes to the witch
of Endor, and the words in Samuel xxviii. 19. He is, however, mistaken
in attributing these words to the witch: it was the spirit of Samuel
that said, “To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me.”
[387] “But the house of Æneas shall reign over every shore, both his
children’s children, and those who shall spring from them.”—_Æn._ iii.
97.
[388] “After the lapse of years, ages will come in which Ocean shall
relax his chains around the world, and a vast continent shall appear,
and Tiphys shall explore new regions, and Thule shall be no longer the
utmost verge of earth.”—_Sen. Med._ ii. 375.
[389] He was king of Samos, and was treacherously put to death by
Orœtes, the governor of Magnesia, in Asia Minor. His daughter, in
consequence of her dream, attempted to dissuade him from visiting
Orœtes, but in vain.—_Herod._ iii. 124.
[390] Plut. Vit. Alex. 2.
[391] “Thou shalt see me again at Philippi.”—_Appian Bell. Civ._ iv.
134.
[392] “Thou, also, Galba, shalt taste of empire.”—_Suet. Vit. Gall._ 4.
[393] Hist. v. 13.
[394] Suet. vit. Domit. 23.
[395] Catherine de Medicis, the wife of Henry II. of France, who died
from a wound accidentally received in a tournament.
[396] James I. being the first monarch of Great Britain.
[397] “The eighty-eighth will be a wondrous year.”
[398] “Aristophanes, in his Comedy of the Knights, satirizes Cleon, the
Athenian demagogue. He introduces a declaration of the oracle, that
the Eagle of hides (by whom Cleon was meant, his father having been a
tanner), should be conquered by a serpent, which Demosthenes, one of
the characters in the play, expounds as meaning a maker of sausages.
How Lord Bacon could for a moment doubt that this was a mere jest, it
is difficult to conjecture. The following is a literal translation of a
portion of the passage from The Knights (l. 197): “But when a leather
eagle with crooked talons shall have seized with its jaws a serpent,
a stupid creature, a drinker of blood, then the tan-pickle of the
Paphlagonians is destroyed; but upon the sellers of sausages the deity
bestows great glory, unless they choose rather to sell sausages.”
[399] This is a very just remark. So-called strange coincidences, and
wonderful dreams that are verified, when the point is considered, are
really not at all marvellous. We never hear of the 999 dreams that are
not verified, but the thousandth that happens to precede its fulfilment
is blazoned by unthinking people as a marvel. It would be a much more
wonderful thing if dreams were not occasionally verified.
[400] Under this name he alludes to the Critias of Plato, in which an
imaginary “terra incognita” is discoursed of under the name of the “New
Atlantis.” It has been conjectured from this by some, that Plato really
did believe in the existence of a continent on the other side of the
globe.
[401] Hot and fiery.
[402] With the eyes closed or blindfolded.
[403] He was a favorite of Tiberius, to whose murder by Nero he was
said to have been an accessary. He afterwards prostituted his own wife
to Caligula, by whom he was eventually put to death.
[404] Liable to.
[405] Chirpings like the noise of young birds.
[406] Jewels or necklaces.
[407] Spangles, or O’s of gold or silver. Beckmann says that these were
invented in the beginning of the seventeenth century. See Beckmann’s
Hist. of Inventions (Bohn’s Stand. Lib.), vol. i. p. 424.
[408] Or antic-masques. These were ridiculous interludes dividing the
acts of the more serious masque. These were performed by hired actors,
while the masque was played by ladies and gentlemen. The rule was,
the characters were to be neither serious nor hideous. The “Comus” of
Milton is an admirable specimen of a masque.
[409] Turks.
[410] “He is the best asserter _of the liberty_ of his mind, who bursts
the chains that gall his breast, and at the same moment ceases to
grieve.”—This quotation is from _Ovid’s Remedy of Love_, 293.
[411] “My soul has long been a sojourner.”
[412] “The wish is father to the thought,” is a proverbial saying of
similar meaning.
[413] _Vide_ Disc. Sop. Liv. iii. 6.
[414] Jacques Clement, a Dominican friar, who assassinated Henry III.
of France, in 1589. The sombre fanatic was but twenty-five year of
age; and he had announced the intention of killing with his own hands
the great enemy of his faith. He was instigated by the Leaguers, and
particularly by the Duchess of Montpensier, the sister of the Duke of
Guise.
[415] He murdered Henry IV. of France, in 1610.
[416] Philip II. of Spain having, in 1582, set a price upon the head
of William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, the leader of the Protestants,
Jaureguy attempted to assassinate him, and severely wounded him.
[417] He assassinated William of Nassau, in 1584. It is supposed that
this fanatic meditated the crime for six years.
[418] A resolution prompted by a vow of devotion to a particular
principle or creed.
[419] He alludes to the Hindoos, and the ceremony of Suttee, encouraged
by the Brahmins.
[420] Flinching.—_Vide_ Cic. Tuscul. Disp. ii. 14.
[421] “Every man is the architect of his own fortune.” Sallust, in his
letters “De Republicâ Ordinandâ,” attributes these words to Appius
Claudius Cæcus, a Roman poet whose works are now lost. Lord Bacon,
in the Latin translation of his Essays, which was made under his
supervision, rendered the word “poet” “comicus;” by whom he probably
meant Plautus, who has this line in his “Trinummus” (Act ii, sc. 2):
“Nam sapiens quidem pol ipsus fingit fortunam sibi,” which has the same
meaning, though in somewhat different terms.
[422] “A serpent, unless it has devoured a serpent, does not become a
dragon.”
[423] Or “desenvoltura,” implying readiness to adapt one’s self to
circumstances.
[424] Impediments, causes for hesitation.
[425] “In that man there was such great strength of body and mind,
that, in whatever station he had been born, he seemed as though he
should make his fortune.”
[426] “A versatile genius.”
[427] “A little of the fool.”
[428] “Thou carriest Cæsar and his fortunes.”—_Plut. Vit. Cæls._ 38.
[429] “The Fortunate.” He attributed his success to the intervention of
Hercules, to whom he paid especial veneration.
[430] “The Great.”—_Plut. Syll._ 34.
[431] A successful Athenian general, the son of Conon, and the friend
of Plato.
[432] Fluency, or smoothness.
[433] Lord Bacon seems to use the word in the general sense of “lending
money upon interest.”
[434] “Drive from their hives the drones, a lazy race.”—_Georgics_, b.
iv. 168.
[435] “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread.”—_Gen._ iii.
19.
[436] “In the sweat of the face of another.”
[437] In the middle ages the Jews were compelled, by legal enactment,
to wear peculiar dresses and colors; one of these was orange.
[438] “A concession by reason of hardness of heart.” He alludes to the
words in St. Matthew xix. 8.
[439] See note to Essay xix.
[440] Hold.
[441] The imaginary country described in Sir Thomas More’s political
romance of that name.
[442] Regulation.
[443] Be paid.
[444] Our author was one of the earliest writers who treated the
question of the interest of money with the enlightened views of a
statesman and an economist. The taking of interest was considered, in
his time, immoral.
Laws on this matter are extremely ancient. Moses forbids the Jews to
require interest of each other. “Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy
brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is
lent upon usury:
“Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou
shalt not lend upon usury.”—_Deut._ xxiii. 19, 20.
Among the Greeks, the rate of interest was settled by agreement between
the borrower and the lender, without any interference of the law. The
customary rate varied from ten to thirty-three and one third per cent.
The Romans enacted laws against usurious interest; but their legal
interest, admitted by the law of the Twelve Tables, was, according to
some, twelve per cent., or, to others, one twelfth of the capital, i. e.
eight and one third per cent. Justinian reduced it to six per cent.
In England, the legal rate of interest was, in Henry the Eighth’s
reign, ten per cent. It was reduced, in 1624, to eight per cent. It
was further diminished, in 1672, to six per cent. And definitively, in
1713, fixed at five per cent., the ordinary rate of interest throughout
Europe. In France, the rates of interest have been nearly similar at
the same periods.
[445] “He passed his youth full of errors, of madness even.”—_Spartian.
Vit. Sev._
[446] He was nephew of Louis the Twelfth of France, and commanded the
French armies in Italy against the Spaniards. After a brilliant career,
he was killed at the battle of Ravenna, in 1512.
[447] Joel ii. 28, quoted Acts ii. 17.
[448] He lived in the second century after Christ, and is said to have
lost his memory at the age of twenty-five.
[449] “He remained the same, but _with the advance of years_ was not so
becoming.”—_Cic. Brut._ 95.
[450] “The close was unequal to the beginning.” This quotation is not
correct; the words are: “Memorabilior prima pars vitæ quam postrema
fuit,”—“The first part of his life was more distinguished than the
latter.”—_Livy_ xxxviii. ch. 53.
[451] By the context, he would seem to consider “great spirit” and
“virtue” as convertible terms. Edward IV., however, has no claim to be
considered as a virtuous or magnanimous man, though he possessed great
physical courage.
[452] Features.
[453] “The autumn of the beautiful is beautiful.”
[454] By making allowances.
[455] Rom. i. 31; 2 Tim. iii. 3.
[456] “Where she errs in the one, she ventures in the other.”
[457] Spies.
[458] Solyman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Turks.
[459] Site.
[460] Knoll.
[461] Have a liking for cheerful society. Momus being the god of mirth.
[462] Eats up.
[463] Plut. Vit. Lucull. 39.
[464] A vast edifice, about twenty miles from Madrid, founded by Philip
II.
[465] Esth. i. 5; “The King made a feast unto all the people that were
present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small, seven days,
in the court of the garden of the king’s palace.”
[466] The cylinder formed by the small end of the steps of winding
stairs.
[467] The funnel of a chimney.
[468] Where to go.
[469] Bow, or bay, windows.
[470] Flush with the wall.
[471] Antechamber.
[472] Withdrawing-room.
[473] Watercourses.
[474] Pine trees.
[475] Kept warm in a greenhouse.
[476] The damson, or plum of Damascus.
[477] Currants.
[478] An apple that is gathered very early.
[479] A kind of quince, so called from “cotoneum,” or “cydonium,” the
Latin name of the quince.
[480] The fruit of the cornel-tree.
[481] The warden was a large pear, so called from its keeping well.
Warden-pie was formerly much esteemed in this country.
[482] Perpetual spring.
[483] Flowers that do not send forth their smell at any distance.
[484] A species of grass of the genus argostis.
[485] The blossoms of the bean.
[486] Bring or lead you.
[487] Impeding.
[488] Causing the water to fall in a perfect arch, without any spray
escaping from the jet.
[489] Lilies of the valley.
[490] In rows.
[491] Insidiously subtract nourishment from.
[492] To consider or expect.
[493] Love, are pleased with.
[494] It is more advantageous to deal with men whose desires are not
yet satisfied, than with those who have gained all they have wished
for, and are likely to be proof against inducements.
[495] In the sense of the Latin “gloriosus,” “boastful,” “bragging.”
[496] Professions or classes.
[497] Weakness, or indecision of character.
[498] He probably alludes to the ancient stories of the friendship
of Orestes and Pylades, Theseus and Pirithoüs, Damon and Pythias,
and others, and the maxims of the ancient philosophers. Aristotle
considers that equality in circumstances and station is one requisite
of friendship. Seneca and Quintus Curtius express the same opinion.
It seems hardly probable that Lord Bacon reflected deeply when
he penned this passage, for between equals, jealousy, the most
insidious of all the enemies of friendship, has the least chance of
originating. Dr. Johnson says: “Friendship is seldom lasting but
between equals, or where the superiority on one side is reduced by some
equivalent advantage on the other. Benefits which cannot be repaid,
and obligations which cannot be discharged, are not commonly found
to increase affection; they excite gratitude indeed, and heighten
veneration, but commonly take away that easy freedom and familiarity of
intercourse, without which, though there may be fidelity, and zeal, and
admiration, there cannot be friendship.”—_The Rambler_, No. 64.
[499] In such a case, gratitude and admiration exist on the one hand,
esteem and confidence on the other.
[500] Lowering, or humiliating.
[501] Referees.
[502] Disgusted.
[503] Giving no false color to the degree of success which has attended
the prosecution of the suit.
[504] To have little effect.
[505] To this extent.
[506] Of the information.
[507] “Ask what is exorbitant, that you may obtain what is moderate.”
[508] This formed the first essay in the earliest edition of the work.
[509] Attentively.
[510] Vapid: without taste or spirit.
[511] “Studies become habits.”
[512] “Splitters of cummin-seeds;” or, as we now say, “splitters of
straws,” or “hairs.” Butler says of Hudibras:—
“He could distinguish and divide
A hair ’twixt south and southwest side.”
[513] Causes one side to preponderate.
[514] “The common father.”
[515] “As one of us.” Henry the Third of France, favoring the league
formed by the Duke of Guise and Cardinal De Lorraine against the
Protestants, soon found that, through the adoption of that policy, he
had forfeited the respect of his subjects.
[516] See a note to Essay 15.
[517] Of Castile. She was the wife of Ferdinand of Arragon, and was the
patroness of Columbus.
[518] The words in our version are: “He that observeth the
wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not
reap.—_Ecclesiastes_ xi. 1.
[519] Exact in the extreme. Point-de-vice was originally the name of a
kind of lace of very fine pattern.
[520] “Appearances resembling virtues.”
[521] “A good name is like sweet-smelling ointment.” The words
in our version are, “A good name is better than precious
ointment.—_Ecclesiastes_ vii. 1.
[522] “Disregarding _his own_ conscience.”
[523] “To instruct under the form of praise.”
[524] “The worst kind of enemies are those who flatter.”
[525] A pimple filled with “pus,” or “purulent matter.” The word is
still used in the east of England.
[526] The words in our version are: “He that blesseth his friend with a
loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to
him.”—_Proverbs_ xxvii. 14.
[527] In other words, to show what we call an _esprit de corps_.
[528] Theologians.
[529] 2 Cor. xi. 23.
[530] “I will magnify my apostleship.” He alludes to the words in
Romans xi. 13: “Inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify
mine office.”
[531] Vaunting, or boasting.
[532] Noise. We have a corresponding proverb: “Great cry and little
wool.”
[533] A high or good opinion.
[534] _Vide_ Liv. xxxvii. 48.
[535] By express command.
[536] “Those who write books on despising glory, set their names in
the title-page.” He quotes from Cicero’s “Tusculanæ Disputationes,”
b. i. c. 15, whose words are; “Quid nostri philosophi? Nonne in
his libris ipsis, quos scribunt de contemnendâ gloriâ, sua nomina
inscribunt.”—“What do our philosophers do? Do they not, in those very
books which they write on despising glory, set their names in the
title-page?”
[537] Pliny the Younger, the nephew of the elder Pliny, the naturalist.
[538] “One who set off every thing he said and did with a certain
skill.” Mucianus was an intriguing general in the times of Otho and
Vitellius.—_Hist._ xi. 80.
[539] Namely, the property of which he was speaking, and not that
mentioned by Tacitus.
[540] Apologies.
[541] Concessions.
[542] Plin. Epist. vi. 17.
[543] Boastful.
[544] “All fame emanates from servants.”—_Q. Cic. de Petit. Consul._ v.
17.
[545] “Founders of empires.”
[546] He alludes to Ottoman, or Othman I., the founder of the dynasty
now reigning at Constantinople. From him, the Turkish empire received
the appellation of “Othoman,” or “Ottoman” Porte.
[547] “Perpetual rulers.”
[548] Surnamed the Peaceful, who ascended the throne of England A. D.
959. He was eminent as a legislator, and a rigid assertor of justice.
Hume considers his reign “one of the most fortunate that we meet with
in the ancient English history.”
[549] These were a general collection of the Spanish laws, made by
Alphonso X. of Castile, arranged under their proper titles. The work
was commenced by Don Ferdinand his father, to put an end to the
contradictory decisions in the Castilian courts of justice. It was
divided into seven parts, whence its name “Siete Partidas.” It did not,
however, become the law of Castile till nearly eighty years after.
[550] “Deliverers,” or “preservers.”
[551] “Extenders,” or “defenders of the empire.”
[552] “Fathers of their country.”
[553] “Participators in cares.”
[554] “Leaders in war.”
[555] Proportion, dimensions.
[556] “Equal to their duties.”
[557] “To expound the law.”
[558] “To make the law.”
[559] The Mosaic law. He alludes to Deuteronomy xxvii. 17. “Cursed be
he that removeth his neighbor’s landmark.”
[560] “A righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled
fountain and a corrupt spring.”—_Proverbs_ xxv. 26.
[561] “Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in
the earth.”—_Amos_ v. 7.
[562] “He who wrings the nose strongly brings blood.” _Proverbs_ xxx.
33: “Surely, the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the
wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood; so the forcing of wrath
bringeth forth strife.”
[563] “He will rain snares upon them.” Psalm xi. 6: “Upon the wicked he
shall rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and an horrible tempest.”
[564] Strained.
[565] “It is the duty of a judge to consider not only the facts, but
the circumstances of the case.”—_Ovid. Trist._ I. i. 37.
[566] Pliny the Younger, Ep. B. 6, E. 2, has the observation:
“Patientiam ... quæ pars magna justitiæ est;” “Patience, which is a
great part of justice.”
[567] Is not successful.
[568] Makes him to feel less confident of the goodness of his cause.
[569] Altercate, or bandy words with the judge.
[570] “Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles!”—_St.
Matthew_ vii. 16.
[571] Plundering.
[572] “Friends of the court.”
[573] “Parasites,” or “flatterers of the court.”
[574] Which were compiled by the decemvirs.
[575] “The safety of the people is the supreme law.”
[576] “Mine.”
[577] “Yours.”
[578] He alludes to 1 Kings x. 19, 30: “The throne had six steps, and
the top of the throne was round behind; and there were stays on either
side on the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the stays.
And twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other upon the
six steps.” The same verses are repeated in 1 Chronicles ix. 18, 19.
[579] “We know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully.”—1
_Timothy_ i. 8.
[580] A boast.
[581] In our version it is thus rendered: “Be ye angry, and sin not;
let not the sun go down upon your wrath.”—_Ephesians_ iv. 26.
[582] Sen. De Ira i. 1.
[583] “In your patience possess ye your souls.”—_Luke_ xvi. 19.
[584] “And leave their lives in the wound.” The quotation is from
Virgil’s Georgics, iv. 238.
[585] Susceptibility upon.
[586] “A thicker covering for his honor.”
[587] Pointed and peculiarly appropriate to the party attacked.
[588] “Ordinary abuse.”
[589] “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and
that which is done, is that which shall be done; and there is no
new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said,
See, this is new? It hath been already of old time, which was before
us.”—_Ecclesiastes_ i. 9, 10.
[590] In his Phædo.
[591] “There is no remembrance of former things: neither shall there be
any remembrance of things that are to come, with those that shall come
hereafter.”—_Ecclesiastes_ i. 11.
[592] “And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead,
said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand,
there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my
word.”—1 _Kings_ xvii. 1. “And it came to pass after many days, that
the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show
thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.”—1 _Kings_
xviii. 1.
[593] Confined to a limited space.
[594] The whole of the continent of America then discovered is included
under this name.
[595] Limited.
[596] _Vide_ Plat. Tim. iii. 24, seq.
[597] Mach. Disc. Sop. Liv. ii. 2.
[598] Sabinianus of Volaterra was elected Bishop of Rome on the death
of Gregory the Great, A. D. 604. He was of an avaricious disposition,
and thereby incurred the popular hatred. He died in eighteen months
after his election.
[599] This Cicero speaks of as “the great year of the mathematicians.”
“On the Nature of the Gods,” B. 4, ch. 20. By some it was supposed to
occur after a period of 12,954 years, while, according to others, it
was of 25,920 years’ duration.—_Plat. Tim._ iii. 38, seq.
[600] Conceit.
[601] Observed.
[602] A curious fancy or odd conceit.
[603] The followers of Arminius, or James Harmensen, a celebrated
divine of the 16th and 17th centuries. Though called a heresy by Bacon,
his opinions have been for two centuries, and still are, held by a
large portion of the Church of England.
[604] A belief in astrology, or at least the influence of the stars was
almost universal in the time of Bacon.
[605] Germany.
[606] Charlemagne.
[607] When led thither by Alexander the Great.
[608] Striking.
[609] Application of the “aries,” or battering-ram.
[610] This fragment was found among Lord Bacon’s papers, and published
by Dr. Rawley in his Resuscitatio.
[611] Tac. Hist. ii. 80.
[612] Cæs. de Bell. Civ. i. 6.
[613] Tac. Ann. i. 5.
[614] _Vide_ Herod. viii. 108, 109.
[615] Varro distributes the ages of the world into three periods; viz:
the unknown, the fabulous, and the historical. Of the former, we have
no accounts but in Scripture; for the second, we must consult the
ancient poets, such as Hesiod, Homer, or those who wrote still earlier,
and then again come back to Ovid, who, in his Metamorphoses, seems,
in imitation perhaps of some ancient Greek poet, to have intended a
complete collection, or a kind of continued and connected history of
the fabulous age, especially with regard to changes, revolutions, or
transformations.
[616] Most of these fables are contained in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and
Fasti, and are fully explained in Bohn’s Classical Library translation.
[617] Homer’s Hymn to Pan.
[618] Cicero, Epistle to Atticus, 5.
[619] Ovid, Metamorphoses, b. ii.
[620] This refers to the confused mixture of things, as sung by Virgil:—
“Namque canebat uti magnum per inane coacta
Semina terrarumque animæque marisque fuissent;
Et liquidi simul ignis; ut his exordia primis
Omnia, et ipse tener mundi concreverit orbis.”—
_Ecl._ vi. 81.
[621] This is always supposed to be the case in vision, the
mathematical demonstrations in optics proceeding invariably upon the
assumption of this phenomenon.
[622]
“Torva leæna lupum sequitur, lupus ipse capellam:
Florentem cytisum sequitur lasciva capella.”
_Virgil_, _Ecl._ ii. 63.
[623] Ovid, Rem. Amoris, v. 343. Mart. Epist.
[624] Psalm xix. 1.
[625] Syrinx, signifying a reed, or the ancient pen.
[626] Ovid, Metam. b. iv.
[627] Thus it is the excellence of a general, early to discover what
turn the battle is likely to take; and looking prudently behind, as
well as before, to pursue a victory so as not to be unprovided for a
retreat.
[628] It may be remembered that the Athenian peasant voted for the
banishment of Aristides, because he was called the Just. Shakspeare
forcibly expresses the same thought:—
“Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o’ nights:
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.”
If Bacon had completed his intended work upon “Sympathy and Antipathy,”
the constant hatred evinced by ignorance of intellectual superiority,
originating sometimes in the painful feeling of inferiority, sometimes
in the fear of worldly injury would not have escaped his notice.
[629] Thus we see that Orpheus denotes learning; Eurydice, things,
or the subject of learning; Bacchus, and the Thracian women, men’s
ungoverned passions and appetites, &c. And in the same manner all the
ancient fables might be familiarly illustrated, and brought down to the
capacities of children.
[630]
“Quod procul a nobis flectat Fortuna gubernans;
Et ratio potius quam res persuadeat ipsa.”
[631] Proteus properly signifies primary, oldest, or first.
[632] Bacon nowhere speaks with such freedom and perspicuity as under
the pretext of explaining these ancient fables; for which reason they
deserve to be the more read by such as desire to understand the rest of
his works.
[633] As she also brought the author himself.
[634]
“—————cadit Ripheus, justissimus unus,
Qui fuit ex Teucris, et servantissimus æqui:
Diis aliter visum.”—_Æneid_, lib. ii.
[635] Te autem mi Brute sicut debeo, amo, quod istud quicquid est
nugarum me scire voluisti.
[636]
“Regina in mediis patrio vocat agmina sistro;
Necdum etiam geminos a tergo respicit angues.”
_Æneid_, viii. 696.
[637] Ovid’s Metamorphoses, b. iii., iv., and vi.; and Fasti, iii. 767.
[638] “Declinat cursus, aurumque volubile tollit.”
[639] The author, in all his physical works, proceeds upon this
foundation, that it is possible, and practicable, for art to obtain the
victory over nature; that is, for human industry and power to procure,
by the means of proper knowledge, such things as are necessary to
render life as happy and commodious as its mortal state will allow. For
instance, that it is possible to lengthen the present period of human
life; bring the winds under command: and every way extend and enlarge
the dominion or empire of man over the works of nature.
[640] “All-gift.”
[641] Viz: that by Pandora.
[642]
“Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas,
Quique metus omnes et inexorabile fatum
Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari.”
_Georg._ ii. 490.
[643] _De Augmentis Scientiarum_, sec. xxviii. and supplem. xv.
[644] An allusion which, in Plato’s writings, is applied to the
rapid succession of generations, through which the continuity of
human life is maintained from age to age; and which are perpetually
transferring from hand to hand the concerns and duties of this fleeting
scene. Γεννῶντες τε καὶ ἐκτρέφοντες παῖδας, κάθαπερ λαμπάδα τὸν βίον
παραδιδόντες ἄλλοις ἐξ ἄλλων—Plato, Leg. b. vi. Lucretius also has the
same metaphor:—
“Et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt.”
[645] Eccles. xii. 11.
[646] This is what the author so frequently inculcates in the _Novum
Organum_, viz: that knowledge and power are reciprocal; so that to
improve in knowledge is to improve in the power of commanding nature,
by introducing new arts, and producing works and effects.
[647]
“Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento:
Hæ tibi erunt artes.”
_Æneid_, vi. 851.
[648]
“Sive recens tellus, seductaque nuper ab alta
Æthere, cognati retinebat semina cœli.”—_Metam._ i. 80.
[649] Many philosophers have certain speculations to this purpose.
Sir Isaac Newton, in particular, suspects that the earth receives its
vivifying spirit from the comets. And the philosophical chemists and
astrologers have spun the thought into many fantastical distinctions
and varieties.—See Newton, _Princip._ lib. iii. p. 473, &c.
[650] This policy strikingly characterized the conduct of Louis XIV.,
who placed his generals under a particular injunction, to advertise
him of the success of any siege likely to be crowned with an immediate
triumph, that he might attend in person and appear to take the town by
a _coup de main_.
[651] The one denoted by the river Achelous, and the other by
Terpsichore, the muse that invented the cithara and delighted in
dancing.
[652]
“Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus;
Rumoresque senum severiorum
Omnes unius estimemus assis.”—_Catull. Eleg._ v.
And again—
“Jura senes norint, et quod sit fasque nefasque
Inquirant tristes; legumque examina servent.”
_Metam._ ix. 550.