Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients
Indeed, Lord Bacon seems to have misunderstood the saying of Epicurus,
who did not mean to recommend man as the sole object of the bodily
vision, but as the proper theme for mental contemplation.
[127] Amare et sapere vix Deo conceditur.—_Pub. Syr. Sent._ 15. (A. L.
ii. proœ. 10.)
[128] He refers here to the judgment of Paris, mentioned by Ovid in his
Epistles, of the Heroines.
[129] Montaigne has treated this subject before Bacon, under the title
of _De l’incommodité de la Grandeur_. (B. iii. ch. vii.)
[130] “Since you are not what you were, there is no reason why you
should wish to live.”
[131] “Death presses heavily upon him, who, well known to all others,
dies unknown to himself.”—_Sen. Thyest._ ii. 401.
[132] “And God turned to behold the works which his hands had made, and
he saw that everything was very good.”—See _Gen._ i. 31.
[133] “As a matter of course.”
[134] Too great easiness of access.
[135] Predilections that are undeserved.
[136] Proverbs xxviii. 21. The whole passage stands thus in our
version: “He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. To
have respect of persons is not good; for, for a piece of bread, that
man will transgress.”
[137] “By the consent of all he was fit to govern, if he had not
governed.”
[138] “Of the emperors, Vespasian alone changed for the better _after
his accession_.”—_Tac. Hist._ i. 49, 50 (A. L. ii. xxii. 5).
[139] Plut. vit. Demosth. 17, 18.
[140] It is not improbable that this passage suggested Pope’s beautiful
lines in the _Essay on Man_, Ep. i. 125-28.
“Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes,
Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell,
Aspiring to be angels, men rebel.”
[141] Auger Gislen Busbec, or Busbequius, a learned traveller, born at
Comines, in Flanders, in 1522. He was employed by the Emperor Ferdinand
as ambassador to the Sultan Solyman II. He was afterwards ambassador to
France, where he died, in 1592. His “Letters” relative to his travels
in the East, which are written in Latin, contain much interesting
information. They were the pocket companion of Gibbon, and are highly
praised by him.
[142] In this instance the stork or crane was probably protected, not
on the abstract grounds mentioned in the text, but for reasons of state
policy and gratitude combined. In Eastern climates the cranes and dogs
are far more efficacious than human agency in removing filth and offal,
and thereby diminishing the chances of pestilence. Superstition, also,
may have formed another motive, as we learn from a letter written from
Adrianople, by Lady Montagu, in 1718, that storks were “held there in
a sort of religious reverence, because they are supposed to make every
winter the pilgrimage to Mecca. To say truth, they are the happiest
subjects under the Turkish government, and are so sensible of their
privileges, that they walk the streets without fear, and generally
build their nests in the lower parts of the houses. Happy are those
whose houses are so distinguished, as the vulgar Turks are perfectly
persuaded that they will not be that year attacked either by fire or
pestilence.” Storks are still protected, by municipal law, in Holland,
and roam unmolested about the market-places.
[143] Nicolo Machiavelli, a Florentine statesman. He wrote “Discourses
on the first Decade of Livy,” which were conspicuous for their
liberality of sentiment, and just and profound reflections. This work
was succeeded by his famous treatise, “Il Principe,” “The Prince;”
his patron, Cæsar Borgia, being the model of the perfect prince there
described by him. The whole scope of this work is directed to one
object—the maintenance of power, however acquired. Though its precepts
are no doubt based upon the actual practice of the Italian politicians
of that day, it has been suggested by some writers that the work was
a covert exposure of the deformity of the shocking maxims that it
professes to inculcate. The question of his motives has been much
discussed, and is still considered open. The word “Machiavellism” has,
however, been adopted to denote all that is deformed, insincere, and
perfidious in politics. He died in great poverty, in the year 1527.
[144] _Vide_ Disc. Sop. Liv. ii. 2.
[145] St. Matthew v. 45. “For he maketh his sun rise on the evil and on
the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”
[146] This is a portion of our Saviour’s reply to the rich man who
asked him what he should do to inherit eternal life: “Then Jesus
beholding him, loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest:
go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou
shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow
me.”—_St. Mark_ x. 21.
[147] See St. Luke xvi. 21.
[148] Timon of Athens, as he is generally called (being so styled by
Shakspeare in the play which he has founded on his story), was surnamed
the “Misanthrope,” from the hatred which he bore to his fellow-men.
He was attached to Apemantus, another Athenian of similar character
to himself, and he professed to esteem Alcibiades, because he foresaw
that he would one day bring ruin on his country. Going to the public
assembly on one occasion, he mounted the rostrum, and stated that he
had a fig-tree, on which many worthy citizens had ended their days
by the halter; that he was going to cut it down for the purpose of
building on the spot, and therefore recommended all such as were
inclined, to avail themselves of it before it was too late.
[149] A piece of timber that has grown crooked, and has been so cut
that the trunk and branch form an angle.
[150] He probably here refers to the myrrh-tree. Incision is the method
usually adopted for extracting the resinous juices of trees; as in the
India-rubber and gutta-percha trees.
[151] “A votive,” and, in the present instance, a “vicarious offering.”
He alludes to the words of St. Paul in his Second Epistle to Timothy
ii. 10: “Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sake, that they
may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal
glory.”
[152] Consideration of, or predilection for, particular persons.
[153] The Low Countries had then recently emancipated themselves from
the galling yoke of Spain. They were called the Seven United Provinces
of the Netherlands.
[154] This passage may at first sight appear somewhat contradictory;
but he means to say, that those who are first ennobled will commonly be
found more conspicuous for the prominence of their qualities, both good
and bad.
[155] Consistent with reason and justice.
[156] The periods of the Equinoxes.
[157] “He often warns, too, that secret revolt is impending, that
treachery and open warfare are ready to burst forth.”—_Virg. Georg._ i.
465.
[158] “Mother Earth, exasperated at the wrath of the Deities, produced
her, as they tell, a last birth, a sister to the giants Cœus, and
Enceladus.”—_Virg. Æn._ iv. 179.
[159] “Great public odium once excited, his deeds, whether good or
whether bad, cause his downfall.” Bacon has here quoted incorrectly,
probably from memory. The words of Tacitus are (_Hist._ B. i. C. 7):
“Inviso semel principe, seu bene, seu male, facta premunt,”—“The ruler
once detested, his actions, whether good or whether bad, cause his
downfall.”
[160] “They attended to their duties; but still, as preferring rather
to discuss the commands of their rulers, than to obey them.”—_Tac.
Hist._ ii. 39.
[161] He alludes to the bad policy of Henry the Third of France, who
espoused the part of “The League,” which was formed by the Duke of
Guise and other Catholics for the extirpation of the Protestant faith.
When too late he discovered his error, and finding his own authority
entirely superseded, he caused the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal De
Lorraine, his brother, to be assassinated.
[162] “The primary motive power.” He alludes to an imaginary centre of
gravitation, or central body, which was supposed to set all the other
heavenly bodies in motion.
[163] “Too freely to remember their own rulers.”
[164] “I will unloose the girdles of kings.” He probably alludes here
to the first verse of the 45th chapter of Isaiah: “Thus saith the Lord
to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue
nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before
him the two-leaved gates.”
[165] “Hence devouring usury, and interest accumulating in lapse
of time; hence shaken credit, and warfare, profitable to the
many.”—_Lucan. Phars._ i. 181.
[166] “Warfare profitable to the many.”
[167] “To grief there is a limit, not so to fear.”
[168] “Check,” or “daunt.”
[169] This is similar to the proverb now in common use: “’Tis the last
feather that breaks the back of the camel.”
[170] The state.
[171] Though sumptuary laws are probably just in theory, they have been
found impracticable in any other than infant states. Their principle,
however, is certainly recognized in such countries as by statutory
enactment discountenance gaming. Those who are opposed to such laws
upon principle, would do well to look into Bernard Mandeville’s
“Fable of the Bees,” or “Private Vices Public Benefits.” The Romans
had numerous sumptuary laws, and in the Middle Ages there were many
enactments in this country against excess of expenditure upon wearing
apparel and the pleasures of the table.
[172] He means that they do not add to the capital of the country.
[173] At the expense of foreign countries.
[174] “The workmanship will surpass the material.”—_Ovid, Met._ B. ii.
l. 5.
[175] He alludes to the manufactures of the Low Countries.
[176] Like manure.
[177] Sometimes printed _engrossing, great pasturages_. By
_engrossing_, is meant the trade of _engrossers_—men who buy up all
that can be got of a particular commodity, then raise the price. By
_great pasturages_ is meant turning corn land into pasture. Of this
practice great complaints had been made for near a century before
Bacon’s time, and a law passed to prevent it.—See _Lord Herbert of
Cherbury’s History of Henry VIII._
[178] The myth of Pandora’s box, which is here referred to, is related
in the _Works and Days_ of Hesiod. Epimetheus was the personification
of “Afterthought,” while his brother Prometheus represented
“Forethought,” or prudence. It was not Epimetheus that opened the box,
but Pandora—“All-gift,” whom, contrary to the advice of his brother, he
had received at the hands of Mercury, and had made his wife. In their
house stood a closed jar, which they were forbidden to open. Till her
arrival, this had been kept untouched; but her curiosity prompting her
to open the lid, all the evils hitherto unknown to man flew out and
spread over the earth, and she only shut it down in time to prevent the
escape of Hope.
[179] “Sylla did not know his letters, _and so_ he could not dictate.”
This saying is attributed by Suetonius to Julius Cæsar. It is a play
on the Latin verb _dictare_, which means either “to dictate,” or “to
act the part of Dictator,” according to the context. As this saying was
presumed to be a reflection on Sylla’s ignorance, and to imply that by
reason thereof he was unable to maintain his power, it was concluded
by the Roman people that Cæsar, who was an elegant scholar, feeling
himself subject to no such inability, did not intend speedily to yield
the reins of power.—_Suet. Vit. C. Jul. Cæs._ 77, i. and _Cf._ _A. L._
i. vii. 12.
[180] “That soldiers were levied by him, not bought.”—_Tac. Hist._ i. 5.
[181] “If I live, there shall no longer be need of soldiers in the
Roman empire.”—_Flav. Vop. Vit. Prob._ 20.
[182] “And such was the state of feeling, that a few dared to