Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients
therefore agreeable to my Affection, and Obligation to your
Grace, to prefix your Name before them, both in English and in
Latine. For I doe conceiue, that the Latine Volume of them (being
in the vniuersal language) may last as long as Bookes last. My
Instauration I dedicated to the King: my Historie of Henry the
Seventh (which I haue now also translated into Latine), and my
Portions of Naturall History, to the Prince: and these I dedicate
to your Grace: being of the best Fruits, that by the good
encrease which God gives to my pen and labours, I could yeeld.
God leade your Grace by the Hand. Your Graces most obliged and
faithfull Seruant.
FR. ST. ALBAN.
Of this edition, Lord Bacon sent a copy to the Marquis Fiat, with the
following letter:[2]—
“MONSIEUR L’AMBASSADEUR MON FILZ: Voyant que vostre Excellence
faict et traite Mariages, non seulement entre les Princes
d’Angleterre et de France, mais aussi entre les langues (puis
que faictes traduire mon Liure de l’Advancement des Sciences en
Francois) i’ai bien voulu vous envoyer mon Liure dernierement
imprimé que i’avois pourveu pour vous, mais i’estois en doubte,
de le vous envoyer, pour ce qu’il estoit escrit en Anglois. Mais
a’ cest’heure pour la raison susdicte ie le vous envoye. C’est un
Recompilement de mes Essays Morales et Civiles; mais tellement
enlargiés et enrichiés, tant de nombre que de poix, que c’est de
fait un ouvre nouveau. Ie vous baise les mains, et reste vostre
tres affectionée Ami, et tres humble Serviteur.
THE SAME IN ENGLISH.
MY LORD AMBASSADOR, MY SON: Seeing that your Excellency makes and
treats of Marriages, not only betwixt the Princes of France and
England, but also betwixt their languages (for you have caused
my book of the Advancement of Learning to be translated into
French), I was much inclined to make you a present of the last
book which I published, and which I had in readiness for you. I
was sometimes in doubt whether I ought to have sent it to you,
because it was written in the English tongue. But now, for that
very reason, I send it to you. It is a recompilement of my Essays
Moral and Civil; but in such manner enlarged and enriched both in
number and weight, that it is in effect a new work. I kiss your
hands, and remain your most affectionate friend and most humble
servant, &c.
Of the translation of the Essays into Latin, Bacon speaks in the
following letter:—
“TO MR. TOBIE MATHEW: It is true my labors are now most set to
have those works which I had formerly published, as that of
Advancement of Learning, that of Henry VII., that of the Essays,
being retractate and made more perfect, well translated into
Latin by the help of some good pens which forsake me not. For
these modern languages will, at one time or other, play the
bankrupt with books; and since I have lost much time with this
age, I would be glad, as God shall give me leave, to recover it
with posterity. For the Essay of Friendship, while I took your
speech of it for a cursory request, I took my promise for a
compliment. But since you call for it, I shall perform it.”
In his letter to Father Fulgentio, giving some account of his writings,
he says:—
“The _Novum Organum_ should immediately follow; but my moral and
political writings step in between as being more finished. These
are, the History of King Henry VII., and the small book, which,
in your language, you have called _Saggi Morali_, but I give it a
graver title, that of _Sermones Fideles_, or _Interiora Rerum_,
and these Essays will not only be enlarged in number, but still
more in substance.”
The nature of the Latin edition, and of the Essays in general, is thus
stated by Archbishop Tenison:—
“The Essays, or Counsels Civil and Moral, though a by-work
also, do yet make up a book of greater weight by far than the
Apothegms; and coming home to men’s business and bosoms, his
lordship entertained this persuasion concerning them, that
the Latin volume might last as long as books should last. His
lordship wrote them in the English tongue, and enlarged them as
occasion served, and at last added to them the Colors of Good and
Evil, which are likewise found in his book _De Augmentis_. The
Latin translation of them was a work performed by divers hands:
by those of Dr. Hacket (late Bishop of Lichfield), Mr. Benjamin
Jonson (the learned and judicious poet,) and some others, whose
names I once heard from Dr. Rawley, but I cannot now recall them.
To this Latin edition he gave the title of _Sermones Fideles_,
after the manner of the Jews, who called the words Adagies, or
Observations of the Wise, Faithful Sayings; that is, credible
propositions worthy of firm assent and ready acceptance. And
(as I think), he alluded more particularly, in this title, to
a passage in _Ecclesiastes_, where the preacher saith, that he
sought to find out _Verba Delectabilia_ (as Tremellius rendereth
the Hebrew), pleasant words; (that is, perhaps, his Book of
Canticles;) and _Verba Fidelia_ (as the same Tremellius),
Faithful Sayings; meaning, it may be, his collection of Proverbs.
In the next verse, he calls them Words of the Wise, and so many
goads and nails given _ab eodem pastore_, from the same shepherd
[of the flock of Israel”].
In the year 1638, Rawley published, in folio, a volume containing,
amongst other works, _Sermones Fideles, ab ipso Honoratissimo Auctore,
præterquam in paucis, Latinitate donati_. In his address to the reader,
he says:—
_Accedunt, quas priùs_ Delibationes Civiles _et_ Morales
_inscripserat; Quas etiam in Linguas plurimas Modernas translatas
esse novit; sed eas posteà, et Numero, et Pondere, auxit; In
tantum, ut veluti Opus Novum videri possint; Quas mutato Titulo_,
Sermones Fideles, _sive_ Interiora Rerum, _inscribi placuit_. The
title-page and dedication are annexed: _Sermones Fideles sive
Interiora Rerum. Per Franciscum Baconum Baronem de Vervlamio,
Vice-Comitem Sancti Albani. Londini Excusum typis Edwardi
Griffin. Prostant ad Insignia Regia in Cœmeterio D. Pauli,
apud Richardum Whitakerum_, 1638.
Illustri et Excellenti Domino _Georgio_ Duci _Buckinghamiæ_,
Summo _Angliæ_ Admirallio.
_Honoratissime Domine_, _Salomon_ inquit, _Nomen bonum est
instar Vnguenti fragrantis et pretiosi_; Neque dubito,
quin tale futurum sit _Nomen_ tuum apud Posteros. Etenim
et Fortuna, et Merita tua, præcelluerunt. Et videris ea
plantasse, quæ sint duratura. In lucem jam edere mihi visum
est _Delibationes meas_, quæ ex omnibus meis Operibus fuerunt
acceptissimæ: Quia forsitan videntur, præ cæteris, _Hominum_
Negotia stringere, et in sinus fluere. Eas autem auxi, et
Numero, et Pondere; In tantum, ut planè Opus Novum sint.
Consentaneum igitur duxi, Affectui, et Obligationi meæ, erga
_Illustrissimam Dominationem_ tuam, ut _Nomen_ tuum illis
præfigam, tam in _Editione Anglicâ_, quam _Latinâ_. Etenim, in
bonâ spe sum, Volumen earum in _Latinam_ (_Linguam_ scilicet
universalem), versum, posse durare, quamdiù _Libri_ et _Literæ_
durent. _Instaurationem_ meam _Regi_ dicavi: _Historiam
Regni Henrici Septimi_ (quam etiam in _Latinum_ verti et
Portiones meas _Naturalis Historiæ_, _Principi_): Has autem
_Delibationes Illustrissimæ Dominationi_ tuæ dico, Cùm sint,
ex Fructibus optimis, quos Gratia divinâ Calami mei laboribus
indulgente, exhibere potui. _Deus illustrissimam Dominationem_
tuam manu ducat. _Illustrissimæ Dominationis_ tuæ Servus
Devinctissimus et Fidelis.
FR. S. ALBAN.
In the year 1618, the Essays, together with the Wisdom of the Ancients,
was translated into Italian, and dedicated to _Cosmo de Medici_, by
Tobie Mathew; and in the following year the Essays were translated into
French by Sir Arthur Gorges, and printed in London.
WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS.
In the year 1609, as a relaxation from abstruse speculations, he
published in Latin his interesting little work, _De Sapientia Veterum_.
This tract seems, in former times, to have been much valued. The
fables, abounding with a union of deep thought and poetic beauty, are
thirty-one in number, of which a part of The Sirens, or Pleasures, may
be selected as a specimen.
In this fable he explains the common but erroneous supposition that
knowledge and the conformity of the will, knowing and acting, are
convertible terms. Of this error, he, in his essay of Custom and
Education, admonishes his readers, by saying: “Men’s thoughts are much
according to their inclination; their discourse and speeches according
to their learning and infused opinions, but their deeds are after as
they have been accustomed; Æsop’s Damsel, transformed from a cat to
a woman, sat very demurely at the board-end till a mouse ran before
her.” In the fable of the Sirens he exhibits the same truth, saying:
“The habitation of the Sirens was in certain pleasant islands, from
whence, as soon as out of their watchtower they discovered any ships
approaching, with their sweet tunes they would first entice and stay
them, and, having them in their power, would destroy them; and, so
great were the mischiefs they did, that these isles of the Sirens,
even as far off as man can ken them, appeared all over white with the
bones of unburied carcasses; by which it is signified that albeit the
examples of afflictions be manifest and eminent, yet they do not
sufficiently deter us from the wicked enticements of pleasure.”
The following is the account of the different editions of this work:
The first was published in 1609. In February 27, 1610, Lord Bacon wrote
to Mr. Mathew, upon sending his book _De Sapientia Veterum_:—
“MR. MATHEW: I do very heartily thank you for your letter of the
24th of August, from Salamanca; and in recompense therefore I
send you a little work of mine that hath begun to pass the world.
They tell me my Latin is turned into silver, and become current:
had you been here, you should have been my inquisitor before it
came forth; but, I think, the greatest inquisitor in Spain will
allow it. But one thing you must pardon me if I make no haste to
believe, that the world should be grown to such an ecstasy as
to reject truth in philosophy, because the author dissenteth in
religion; no more than they do by Aristotle or Averroes. My great
work goeth forward; and after my manner, I alter even when I add;
so that nothing is finished till all be finished. This I have
written in the midst of a term and parliament; thinking no time
so possessed, but that I should talk of these matters with so
good and dear a friend. And so with my wonted wishes I leave you
to God’s goodness.
“From Gray’s Inn, Feb. 27, 1610.”
And in his letter to Father Fulgentio, giving some account of his
writings, he says: “My Essays will not only be enlarged in number, but
still more in substance. Along with them goes the little piece _De
Sapientia Veterum_.”
In the Advancement of Learning he says:—
“There remaineth yet another use of poesy parabolical, opposite
to that which we last mentioned; for that tendeth to demonstrate
and illustrate that which is taught or delivered, and this other
to retire and obscure it; that is, when the secrets and mysteries
of religion, policy, or philosophy are involved in fables or
parables. Of this in divine poesy we see the use is authorized.
In heathen poesy we see the exposition of fables doth fall out
sometimes with great felicity; as in the fable that the giants
being overthrown in their war against the gods, the earth, their
mother, in revenge thereof brought forth Fame,—
_Illam Terra parens, irâ irritata Deorum,_