Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients
may be turfed, and have living plants and bushes set in them; that the
birds may have more scope and natural nestling, and that no foulness
appear in the floor of the aviary. So I have made a platform of a
princely garden, partly by precept, partly by drawing; not a model,
but some general lines of it; and in this I have spared for no cost.
But it is nothing for great princes, that, for the most part, taking
advice with workmen, with no less cost set their things together, and
sometimes add statues and such things for state and magnificence, but
nothing to the true pleasure of a garden.
XLVII.—OF NEGOTIATING.
It is generally better to deal by speech than by letter; and by the
mediation of a third, than by a man’s self. Letters are good, when a
man would draw an answer by letter back again; or when it may serve
for a man’s justification afterwards to produce his own letter, or
where it may be danger to be interrupted or heard by pieces. To deal
in person is good, when a man’s face breedeth regard, as commonly with
inferiors; or in tender cases, where a man’s eye upon the countenance
of him with whom he speaketh, may give him a direction how far to go;
and, generally, where a man will reserve to himself liberty, either to
disavow or to expound. In choice of instruments, it is better to choose
men of a plainer sort, that are like to do that that is committed to
them, and to report back again faithfully the success, than those that
are cunning to contrive out of other men’s business somewhat to grace
themselves, and will help the matter in report, for satisfaction
sake. Use also such persons as affect[493] the business wherein they
are employed, for that quickeneth much; and such as are fit for the
matter, as bold men for expostulation, fairspoken men for persuasion,
crafty men for inquiry and observation, froward and absurd men for
business that doth not well bear out itself. Use also such as have
been lucky and prevailed before in things wherein you have employed
them; for that breeds confidence, and they will strive to maintain
their prescription. It is better to sound a person with whom one deals
afar off, than to fall upon the point at first, except you mean to
surprise him by some short question. It is better dealing with men in
appetite,[494] than with those that are where they would be. If a man
deal with another upon conditions, the start of first performance is
all; which a man cannot reasonably demand, except either the nature of
the thing be such, which must go before; or else a man can persuade the
other party, that he shall still need him in some other thing; or else
that he be counted the honester man. All practice is to discover, or to
work. Men discover themselves in trust, in passion, at unawares; and,
of necessity, when they would have somewhat done, and cannot find an
apt pretext. If you would work any man, you must either know his nature
and fashions, and so lead him; or his ends, and so persuade him; or his
weakness and disadvantages, and so awe him; or those that have interest
in him, and so govern him. In dealing with cunning persons, we must
ever consider their ends, to interpret their speeches; and it is good
to say little to them, and that which they least look for. In all
negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once;
but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees.
XLVIII.—OF FOLLOWERS AND FRIENDS.
Costly followers are not to be liked, lest, while a man maketh his
train longer, he make his wings shorter. I reckon to be costly,
not them alone which charge the purse, but which are wearisome and
importune in suits. Ordinary followers ought to challenge no higher
conditions than countenance, recommendation, and protection from
wrongs. Factious followers are worse to be liked, which follow not
upon affection to him with whom they range themselves, but upon
discontentment conceived against some other; whereupon commonly ensueth
that ill intelligence, that we many times see between great personages.
Likewise glorious[495] followers, who make themselves as trumpets of
the commendations of those they follow, are full of inconvenience,
for they taint business through want of secrecy; and they export
honor from a man, and make him a return in envy. There is a kind of
followers, likewise, which are dangerous, being indeed espials; which
inquire the secrets of the house, and bear tales of them to others;
yet such men, many times, are in great favor, for they are officious,
and commonly exchange tales. The following, by certain estates[496] of
men, answerable to that which a great person himself professeth (as of
soldiers to him that hath been employed in the wars, and the like),
hath ever been a thing civil and well taken even in monarchies, so it
be without too much pomp or popularity. But the most honorable kind of
following, is to be followed as one that apprehendeth to advance virtue
and desert in all sorts of persons; and yet, where there is no eminent
odds in sufficiency, it is better to take with the more passable, than
with the more able; and, besides, to speak truth in base times, active
men are of more use than virtuous. It is true, that, in government,
it is good to use men of one rank equally; for to countenance some
extraordinarily, is to make them insolent, and the rest discontent,
because they may claim a due: but, contrariwise, in favor, to use men
with much difference and election is good: for it maketh the persons
preferred more thankful, and the rest more officious, because all is
of favor. It is good discretion not to make too much of any man at the
first, because one cannot hold out that proportion. To be governed,
as we call it, by one, is not safe, for it shows softness,[497] and
gives a freedom to scandal and disreputation; for those that would not
censure, or speak ill of a man immediately, will talk more boldly of
those that are so great with them, and thereby wound their honor; yet
to be distracted with many is worse, for it makes men to be of the last
impression, and full of change. To take advice of some few friends is
ever honorable; for lookers-on many times see more than gamesters,
and the vale best discovereth the hill. There is little friendship in
the world, and least of all between equals, which was wont[498] to be
magnified. That that is, is between superior and inferior,[499] whose
fortunes may comprehend the one the other.
XLIX.—OF SUITORS.
Many ill matters and projects are undertaken; and private suits do
putrefy the public good. Many good matters are undertaken with bad
minds; I mean not only corrupt minds, but crafty minds, that intend not
performance. Some embrace suits, which never mean to deal effectually
in them; but if they see there may be life in the matter, by some other
mean they will be content to win a thank, or take a second reward, or,
at least, to make use, in the mean time, of the suitor’s hopes. Some
take hold of suits only for an occasion to cross some other, or to make
an information, whereof they could not otherwise have apt pretext,
without care what become of the suit when that turn is served; or,
generally, to make other men’s business a kind of entertainment to
bring in their own: nay, some undertake suits with a full purpose to
let them fall, to the end to gratify the adverse party, or competitor.
Surely, there is in some sort a right in every suit; either a right of
equity, if it be a suit of controversy, or a right of desert, if it be
a suit of petition. If affection lead a man to favor the wrong side
in justice, let him rather use his countenance to compound the matter
than to carry it. If affection lead a man to favor the less worthy in
desert, let him do it without depraving[500] or disabling the better
deserver. In suits which a man doth not well understand, it is good
to refer them to some friend of trust and judgment, that may report
whether he may deal in them with honor; but let him choose well his
referendaries,[501] for else he may be led by the nose. Suitors are so
distasted[502] with delays and abuses, that plain dealing in denying to
deal in suits at first, and reporting the success barely,[503] and in
challenging no more thanks than one hath deserved, is grown not only
honorable, but also gracious. In suits of favor, the first coming ought
to take little place;[504] so far forth[505] consideration may be had
of his trust, that if intelligence of the matter could not otherwise
have been had but by him, advantage be not taken of the note,[506] but
the party left to his other means, and in some sort recompensed for his
discovery. To be ignorant of the value of a suit is simplicity; as well
as to be ignorant of the right thereof, is want of conscience. Secrecy
in suits is a great mean of obtaining; for voicing them to be in
forwardness may discourage some kind of suitors, but doth quicken and
awake others. But timing of the suit is the principal; timing, I say,
not only in respect of the person that should grant it, but in respect
of those which are like to cross it. Let a man, in the choice of his
mean, rather choose the fittest mean, than the greatest mean; and
rather them that deal in certain things, than those that are general.
The reparation of a denial is sometimes equal to the first grant, if
a man show himself neither dejected nor discontented. “Iniquum petas,
ut æquum feras,”[507] is a good rule, where a man hath strength of
favor; but otherwise a man were better rise in his suit; for he that
would have ventured at first to have lost the suitor, will not, in the
conclusion, lose both the suitor and his own former favor. Nothing is
thought so easy a request to a great person as his letter: and yet if
it be not in a good cause, it is so much out of his reputation. There
are no worse instruments than these general contrivers of suits; for
they are but a kind of poison and infection to public proceedings.
L.—OF STUDIES.[508]
Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief
use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is
in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of
business; for expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars
one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling
of affairs, come best from those that are learned. To spend too much
time in studies, is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is
affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of
a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience; for
natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study;
and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large,
except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies,
simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not
their own use; but that is a wisdom without them and above them, won
by observation. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and
take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and
consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some
few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only
in parts; others to be read, but not curiously;[509] and some few to be
read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be
read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be
only in the less important arguments and the meaner sort of books; else
distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy[510] things.
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact
man; and, therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great
memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if