Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients
It is a trivial grammar-school text, but yet worthy a wise man’s
consideration. Question was asked of Demosthenes, what was the chief
part of an orator? He answered, Action. What next?—Action. What next
again?—Action.[139] 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 shallow in judgment or weak in courage, which are the greatest
part, yea, and prevaileth with wise man 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 entrance of bold persons
into action than soon after; for boldness is an ill keeper of
promise. Surely, as there are mountebanks for the natural body, so
are there mountebanks for the politic body; men that undertake great
cures, and perhaps 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 many times do Mahomet’s miracle. Mahomet made
the people believe that he would call a 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 persons 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 absurdity; 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 serious 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 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.
XIII.—OF GOODNESS, AND GOODNESS OF NATURE.
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. Goodness 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, mischievous, 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;[140] 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 creatures; 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[141] reporteth,
a Christian boy in Constantinople had like to have been stoned for
gagging in a waggishness a long-billed fowl.[142] 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,[143] 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;”[144] 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 a 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 Æsop’s cock a gem, who would
be better pleased and happier if he had had a barley-corn. The example
of God teacheth the lesson truly: “He sendeth his rain, and maketh his
sun to shine upon the just and the unjust;”[145] but he doth not rain
wealth, nor shine honor and virtues upon men equally; common benefits
are to be communicate 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;”[146] but sell not all thou hast, except thou
come and follow me; that is, except thou have a vocation wherein thou
mayest 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 Lazarus’s sores,[147]
but like flies that are still buzzing upon any thing that is raw;
misanthropi, 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[148]
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,[149] 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 compassionate towards the afflictions of others, it shows that his
heart is like the noble tree that is wounded itself when it gives the
balm;[150] if he easily pardons 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 shows that he weighs men’s minds,
and not their trash; but, above all, if he have St. Paul’s perfection,
that he would wish to be an anathema[151] from Christ for the salvation
of his brethren, it shows much of a divine nature, and a kind of
conformity with Christ himself.
XIV.—OF NOBILITY.
We will speak of nobility, first, as a portion of an estate, then 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 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 diversity of religion and of
cantons; for utility is their bond, and not respects.[152] The United
Provinces of the Low Countries[153] in their government excel; for
where there is an equality the consultations are more indifferent, and
the payments and tributes more cheerful. A great and potent nobility
addeth majesty to a monarch, but diminisheth 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 reverend 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 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,[154] but less innocent than their descendants; for there is
rarely any rising but 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; besides,
noble persons cannot go much higher; and he that standeth at a stay
when others rise, can hardly avoid motions of envy.[155] 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.
Shepherds of people had need know the calendars of tempests in state,
which are commonly greatest when things grow to equality; as natural
tempests are greatest about the equinoctia,[156] and as there are
certain hollow blasts of wind and secret swellings of seas before a
tempest, so are there in states:—
“Ille etiam cæcos instare tumultus
Sæpe monet, fraudesque et operta tumescere bella.”[157]
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 embraced, are
amongst the signs of troubles. Virgil, giving the pedigree of Fame,
saith she was sister to the giants:—
“Illam Terra parens, irâ irritata Deorum,
Extremam (ut perhibent) Cœo Enceladoque sororem
Progenuit.”[158]
As if fames were the relics of seditions past; but they are no less