Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients
up in the communicating and discoursing with another; he tosseth his
thoughts more easily; he marshalleth them more orderly; he seeth how
they look when they are turned into words; finally, he waxeth wiser
than himself; and that more by an hour’s discourse than by a day’s
meditation. It was well said by Themistocles to the king of Persia:
“That speech was like cloth of Arras,[318] opened and put abroad,
whereby the imagery doth appear in figure; whereas in thoughts they lie
but as in packs.”[319] Neither is this second fruit of friendship, in
opening the understanding, restrained only to such friends as are able
to give a man counsel (they indeed are best), but even without that a
man learneth of himself, and bringeth his own thoughts to light, and
whetteth his wits as against a stone, which itself cuts not. In a word,
a man were better relate himself to a statue or picture, than to suffer
his thoughts to pass in smother.
Add now, to make this second fruit of friendship complete, that other
point which lieth more open, and falleth within vulgar observation;
which is faithful counsel from a friend. Heraclitus saith well, in
one of his enigmas, “Dry light is ever the best;”[320] and certain it
is, that the light that a man receiveth by counsel from another, is
drier and purer than that which cometh from his own understanding and
judgment, which is ever infused and drenched in his affections and
customs. So, as there is as much difference between the counsel that a
friend giveth, and that a man giveth himself, as there is between the
counsel of a friend and of a flatterer; for there is no such flatterer
as is a man’s self, and there is no such remedy against flattery of a
man’s self, as the liberty of a friend. Counsel is of two sorts,—the
one concerning manners, the other concerning business; for the first,
the best preservative to keep the mind in health, is the faithful
admonition of a friend. The calling of a man’s self to a strict account
is a medicine sometimes too piercing and corrosive; reading good books
of morality is a little flat and dead; observing our faults in others
is sometimes improper for our case; but the best receipt (best, I say,
to work, and best to take), is the admonition of a friend. It is a
strange thing to behold what gross errors and extreme absurdities many
(especially of the greater sort) do commit for want of a friend to
tell them of them, to the great damage both of their fame and fortune;
for, as St. James saith, they are as men “that look sometimes into a
glass, and presently forget their own shape and favor.”[321] As for
business, a man may think, if he will, that two eyes see no more than
one; or, that a gamester seeth always more than a looker-on; or, that
a man in anger is as wise as he that has said over the four and twenty
letters;[322] or, that a musket may be shot off as well upon the arm as
upon a rest;[323] and such other fond and high imaginations, to think
himself all in all; but when all is done, the help of good counsel is
that which setteth business straight. And if any man think that he
will take counsel, but it shall be by pieces, asking counsel in one
business of one man, and in another business of another man; it is well
(that is to say, better, perhaps, than if he asked none at all); but he
runneth two dangers,—one, that he shall not be faithfully counselled;
for it is a rare thing, except it be from a perfect and entire friend,
to have counsel given, but such as shall be bowed and crooked to some
ends which he hath that giveth it; the other, that he shall have
counsel given, hurtful and unsafe (though with good meaning), and
mixed partly of mischief, and partly of remedy; even as if you would
call a physician, that is thought good for the cure of the disease you
complain of, but is unacquainted with your body; and, therefore, may
put you in a way for a present cure, but overthroweth your health in
some other kind, and so cure the disease and kill the patient.
But a friend, that is wholly acquainted with a man’s estate, will
beware, by furthering any present business, how he dasheth upon other
inconvenience; and, therefore, rest not upon scattered counsels; they
will rather distract and mislead, than settle and direct.
After these two noble fruits of friendship (peace in the affections,
and support of the judgment), followeth the last fruit, which is like
the pomegranate, full of many kernels; I mean aid, and bearing a part
in all actions and occasions. Here the best way to represent to life
the manifold use of friendship, is to cast and see how many things
there are which a man cannot do himself; and then it will appear that
it was a sparing speech of the ancients to say, “that a friend is
another himself,” for that a friend is far more than himself. Men have
their time, and die many times in desire of some things which they
principally take to heart; the bestowing of a child, the finishing of
a work, or the like. If a man have a true friend, he may rest almost
secure that the care of those things will continue after him; so that
a man hath, as it were, two lives in his desires. A man hath a body,
and that body is confined to a place; but where friendship is, all
offices of life are, as it were, granted to him and his deputy, for he
may exercise them by his friend. How many things are there, which a
man cannot, with any face or comeliness, say or do himself? A man can
scarce allege his own merits with modesty, much less extol them; a
man cannot sometimes brook to supplicate, or beg, and a number of the
like; but all these things are graceful in a friend’s mouth, which are
blushing in a man’s own. So, again, a man’s person hath many proper
relations which he cannot put off. A man cannot speak to his son but as
a father; to his wife but as a husband; to his enemy but upon terms;
whereas, a friend may speak as the case requires, and not as it sorteth
with the person. But to enumerate these things were endless; I have
given the rule, where a man cannot fitly play his own part. If he have
not a friend, he may quit the stage.
XXVIII.—OF EXPENSE.
Riches are for spending, and spending for honor and good actions;
therefore, extraordinary expense must be limited by the worth of the
occasion; for voluntary undoing may be as well for a man’s country as
for the kingdom of heaven; but ordinary expense ought to be limited
by a man’s estate, and governed with such regard, as it be within his
compass, and not subject to deceit and abuse of servants, and ordered
to the best show, that the bills may be less than the estimation
abroad. Certainly, if a man will keep but of even hand, his ordinary
expenses ought to be but to the half of his receipts; and, if he think
to wax rich, but to the third part. It is no baseness for the greatest
to descend and look into their own estate. Some forbear it, not upon
negligence alone, but doubting to bring themselves into melancholy, in
respect they shall find it broken; but wounds cannot be cured without
searching. He that cannot look into his own estate at all, had need
both choose well those whom he employeth, and change them often; for
new are more timorous, and less subtle. He that can look into his
estate but seldom, it behooveth him to turn all to certainties. A man
had need, if he be plentiful in some kind of expense, to be as saving
again in some other: as, if he be plentiful in diet, to be saving in
apparel; if he be plentiful in the hall, to be saving in the stable;
and the like. For he that is plentiful in expenses of all kinds, will
hardly be preserved from decay. In clearing[324] of a man’s estate,
he may as well hurt himself in being too sudden, as in letting it run
on too long; for hasty selling is commonly as disadvantageable as
interest. Besides, he that clears at once will relapse; for, finding
himself out of straits, he will revert to his customs; but he that
cleareth by degrees induceth a habit of frugality, and gaineth as
well upon his mind as upon his estate. Certainly, who hath a state
to repair, may not despise small things; and, commonly, it is less
dishonorable to abridge petty charges, than to stoop to petty
gettings. A man ought warily to begin charges, which once begun will
continue; but in matters that return not, he may be more magnificent.
XXIX.—OF THE TRUE GREATNESS OF KINGDOMS AND ESTATES.
The speech of Themistocles, the Athenian, which was haughty and
arrogant, in taking so much to himself, had been a grave and wise
observation and censure, applied at large to others. Desired at a feast
to touch a lute, he said, “He could not fiddle, but yet he could make
a small town a great city.”[325] These words (holpen a little with a
metaphor) may express two different abilities in those that deal in
business of estate; for if a true survey be taken of counsellors and
statesmen, there may be found (though rarely) those which can make a
small state great, and yet cannot fiddle: as, on the other side there
will be found a great many that can fiddle very cunningly, but yet
are so far from being able to make a small state great, as their gift
lieth the other way,—to bring a great and flourishing estate to ruin
and decay. And certainly, those degenerate arts and shifts, whereby
many counsellors and governors gain both favor with their masters and
estimation with the vulgar, deserve no better name than fiddling;
being things rather pleasing for the time, and graceful to themselves
only, than tending to the weal and advancement of the state which they
serve. There are also (no doubt) counsellors and governors which may
be held sufficient, “negotiis pares,”[326] able to manage affairs,
and to keep them from precipices and manifest inconveniences; which,
nevertheless, are far from the ability to raise and amplify an estate
in power, means, and fortune. But be the workmen what they may be,
let us speak of the work; that is, the true greatness of kingdoms
and estates, and the means thereof. An argument fit for great and
mighty princes to have in their hand; to the end, that neither by
overmeasuring their forces, they lose themselves in vain enterprises:
nor, on the other side, by undervaluing them, they descend to fearful
and pusillanimous counsels.
The greatness of an estate, in bulk and territory, doth fall under
measure; and the greatness of finances and revenue doth fall under
computation. The population may appear by musters, and the number and
greatness of cities and towns by cards and maps; but yet there is not
anything amongst civil affairs more subject to error than the right
valuation and true judgment concerning the power and forces of an
estate. The kingdom of heaven is compared, not to any great kernel, or
nut, but to a grain of mustard-seed;[327] which is one of the least
grains, but hath in it a property and spirit hastily to get up and
spread. So are there states great in territory, and yet not apt to
enlarge or command; and some that have but a small dimension of stem,
and yet apt to be the foundations of great monarchies.
Walled towns, stored arsenals and armories, goodly races of horse,
chariots of war, elephants, ordnance, artillery, and the like; all this
is but a sheep in a lion’s skin, except the breed and disposition of
the people be stout and warlike. Nay, number itself in armies importeth
not much, where the people is of weak courage; for, as Virgil saith,
“It never troubles a wolf how many the sheep be.”[328] The army of
the Persians in the plains of Arbela was such a vast sea of people,
as it did somewhat astonish the commanders in Alexander’s army, who
came to him, therefore, and wished him to set upon them by night; but
he answered, “He would not pilfer the victory;” and the defeat was
easy.[329]—When Tigranes,[330] the Armenian, being encamped upon