Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients
children’s children, and those who shall spring from them.”—_Æn._ iii.
97.
[388] “After the lapse of years, ages will come in which Ocean shall
relax his chains around the world, and a vast continent shall appear,
and Tiphys shall explore new regions, and Thule shall be no longer the
utmost verge of earth.”—_Sen. Med._ ii. 375.
[389] He was king of Samos, and was treacherously put to death by
Orœtes, the governor of Magnesia, in Asia Minor. His daughter, in
consequence of her dream, attempted to dissuade him from visiting
Orœtes, but in vain.—_Herod._ iii. 124.
[390] Plut. Vit. Alex. 2.
[391] “Thou shalt see me again at Philippi.”—_Appian Bell. Civ._ iv.
134.
[392] “Thou, also, Galba, shalt taste of empire.”—_Suet. Vit. Gall._ 4.
[393] Hist. v. 13.
[394] Suet. vit. Domit. 23.
[395] Catherine de Medicis, the wife of Henry II. of France, who died
from a wound accidentally received in a tournament.
[396] James I. being the first monarch of Great Britain.
[397] “The eighty-eighth will be a wondrous year.”
[398] “Aristophanes, in his Comedy of the Knights, satirizes Cleon, the
Athenian demagogue. He introduces a declaration of the oracle, that
the Eagle of hides (by whom Cleon was meant, his father having been a
tanner), should be conquered by a serpent, which Demosthenes, one of
the characters in the play, expounds as meaning a maker of sausages.
How Lord Bacon could for a moment doubt that this was a mere jest, it
is difficult to conjecture. The following is a literal translation of a
portion of the passage from The Knights (l. 197): “But when a leather
eagle with crooked talons shall have seized with its jaws a serpent,
a stupid creature, a drinker of blood, then the tan-pickle of the
Paphlagonians is destroyed; but upon the sellers of sausages the deity
bestows great glory, unless they choose rather to sell sausages.”
[399] This is a very just remark. So-called strange coincidences, and
wonderful dreams that are verified, when the point is considered, are
really not at all marvellous. We never hear of the 999 dreams that are
not verified, but the thousandth that happens to precede its fulfilment
is blazoned by unthinking people as a marvel. It would be a much more
wonderful thing if dreams were not occasionally verified.
[400] Under this name he alludes to the Critias of Plato, in which an
imaginary “terra incognita” is discoursed of under the name of the “New
Atlantis.” It has been conjectured from this by some, that Plato really
did believe in the existence of a continent on the other side of the
globe.
[401] Hot and fiery.
[402] With the eyes closed or blindfolded.
[403] He was a favorite of Tiberius, to whose murder by Nero he was
said to have been an accessary. He afterwards prostituted his own wife
to Caligula, by whom he was eventually put to death.
[404] Liable to.
[405] Chirpings like the noise of young birds.
[406] Jewels or necklaces.
[407] Spangles, or O’s of gold or silver. Beckmann says that these were
invented in the beginning of the seventeenth century. See Beckmann’s
Hist. of Inventions (Bohn’s Stand. Lib.), vol. i. p. 424.
[408] Or antic-masques. These were ridiculous interludes dividing the
acts of the more serious masque. These were performed by hired actors,
while the masque was played by ladies and gentlemen. The rule was,
the characters were to be neither serious nor hideous. The “Comus” of
Milton is an admirable specimen of a masque.
[409] Turks.
[410] “He is the best asserter _of the liberty_ of his mind, who bursts
the chains that gall his breast, and at the same moment ceases to
grieve.”—This quotation is from _Ovid’s Remedy of Love_, 293.
[411] “My soul has long been a sojourner.”
[412] “The wish is father to the thought,” is a proverbial saying of
similar meaning.
[413] _Vide_ Disc. Sop. Liv. iii. 6.
[414] Jacques Clement, a Dominican friar, who assassinated Henry III.
of France, in 1589. The sombre fanatic was but twenty-five year of
age; and he had announced the intention of killing with his own hands
the great enemy of his faith. He was instigated by the Leaguers, and
particularly by the Duchess of Montpensier, the sister of the Duke of
Guise.
[415] He murdered Henry IV. of France, in 1610.
[416] Philip II. of Spain having, in 1582, set a price upon the head
of William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, the leader of the Protestants,
Jaureguy attempted to assassinate him, and severely wounded him.
[417] He assassinated William of Nassau, in 1584. It is supposed that
this fanatic meditated the crime for six years.
[418] A resolution prompted by a vow of devotion to a particular
principle or creed.
[419] He alludes to the Hindoos, and the ceremony of Suttee, encouraged
by the Brahmins.
[420] Flinching.—_Vide_ Cic. Tuscul. Disp. ii. 14.
[421] “Every man is the architect of his own fortune.” Sallust, in his
letters “De Republicâ Ordinandâ,” attributes these words to Appius
Claudius Cæcus, a Roman poet whose works are now lost. Lord Bacon,
in the Latin translation of his Essays, which was made under his
supervision, rendered the word “poet” “comicus;” by whom he probably
meant Plautus, who has this line in his “Trinummus” (Act ii, sc. 2):
“Nam sapiens quidem pol ipsus fingit fortunam sibi,” which has the same
meaning, though in somewhat different terms.
[422] “A serpent, unless it has devoured a serpent, does not become a
dragon.”
[423] Or “desenvoltura,” implying readiness to adapt one’s self to
circumstances.
[424] Impediments, causes for hesitation.
[425] “In that man there was such great strength of body and mind,
that, in whatever station he had been born, he seemed as though he
should make his fortune.”
[426] “A versatile genius.”
[427] “A little of the fool.”
[428] “Thou carriest Cæsar and his fortunes.”—_Plut. Vit. Cæls._ 38.
[429] “The Fortunate.” He attributed his success to the intervention of
Hercules, to whom he paid especial veneration.
[430] “The Great.”—_Plut. Syll._ 34.
[431] A successful Athenian general, the son of Conon, and the friend
of Plato.
[432] Fluency, or smoothness.
[433] Lord Bacon seems to use the word in the general sense of “lending
money upon interest.”
[434] “Drive from their hives the drones, a lazy race.”—_Georgics_, b.
iv. 168.
[435] “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread.”—_Gen._ iii.
19.
[436] “In the sweat of the face of another.”
[437] In the middle ages the Jews were compelled, by legal enactment,
to wear peculiar dresses and colors; one of these was orange.
[438] “A concession by reason of hardness of heart.” He alludes to the
words in St. Matthew xix. 8.
[439] See note to Essay xix.
[440] Hold.
[441] The imaginary country described in Sir Thomas More’s political
romance of that name.
[442] Regulation.
[443] Be paid.
[444] Our author was one of the earliest writers who treated the
question of the interest of money with the enlightened views of a
statesman and an economist. The taking of interest was considered, in
his time, immoral.
Laws on this matter are extremely ancient. Moses forbids the Jews to
require interest of each other. “Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy
brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is
lent upon usury:
“Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou
shalt not lend upon usury.”—_Deut._ xxiii. 19, 20.
Among the Greeks, the rate of interest was settled by agreement between
the borrower and the lender, without any interference of the law. The
customary rate varied from ten to thirty-three and one third per cent.
The Romans enacted laws against usurious interest; but their legal
interest, admitted by the law of the Twelve Tables, was, according to
some, twelve per cent., or, to others, one twelfth of the capital, i. e.
eight and one third per cent. Justinian reduced it to six per cent.
In England, the legal rate of interest was, in Henry the Eighth’s
reign, ten per cent. It was reduced, in 1624, to eight per cent. It
was further diminished, in 1672, to six per cent. And definitively, in
1713, fixed at five per cent., the ordinary rate of interest throughout
Europe. In France, the rates of interest have been nearly similar at
the same periods.
[445] “He passed his youth full of errors, of madness even.”—_Spartian.
Vit. Sev._
[446] He was nephew of Louis the Twelfth of France, and commanded the
French armies in Italy against the Spaniards. After a brilliant career,
he was killed at the battle of Ravenna, in 1512.
[447] Joel ii. 28, quoted Acts ii. 17.
[448] He lived in the second century after Christ, and is said to have
lost his memory at the age of twenty-five.
[449] “He remained the same, but _with the advance of years_ was not so
becoming.”—_Cic. Brut._ 95.
[450] “The close was unequal to the beginning.” This quotation is not
correct; the words are: “Memorabilior prima pars vitæ quam postrema
fuit,”—“The first part of his life was more distinguished than the
latter.”—_Livy_ xxxviii. ch. 53.
[451] By the context, he would seem to consider “great spirit” and
“virtue” as convertible terms. Edward IV., however, has no claim to be
considered as a virtuous or magnanimous man, though he possessed great
physical courage.
[452] Features.
[453] “The autumn of the beautiful is beautiful.”
[454] By making allowances.
[455] Rom. i. 31; 2 Tim. iii. 3.
[456] “Where she errs in the one, she ventures in the other.”
[457] Spies.
[458] Solyman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Turks.
[459] Site.
[460] Knoll.
[461] Have a liking for cheerful society. Momus being the god of mirth.
[462] Eats up.
[463] Plut. Vit. Lucull. 39.
[464] A vast edifice, about twenty miles from Madrid, founded by Philip
II.
[465] Esth. i. 5; “The King made a feast unto all the people that were
present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small, seven days,
in the court of the garden of the king’s palace.”
[466] The cylinder formed by the small end of the steps of winding
stairs.
[467] The funnel of a chimney.
[468] Where to go.
[469] Bow, or bay, windows.
[470] Flush with the wall.
[471] Antechamber.
[472] Withdrawing-room.
[473] Watercourses.
[474] Pine trees.
[475] Kept warm in a greenhouse.
[476] The damson, or plum of Damascus.
[477] Currants.
[478] An apple that is gathered very early.
[479] A kind of quince, so called from “cotoneum,” or “cydonium,” the
Latin name of the quince.
[480] The fruit of the cornel-tree.
[481] The warden was a large pear, so called from its keeping well.
Warden-pie was formerly much esteemed in this country.
[482] Perpetual spring.
[483] Flowers that do not send forth their smell at any distance.
[484] A species of grass of the genus argostis.
[485] The blossoms of the bean.
[486] Bring or lead you.
[487] Impeding.
[488] Causing the water to fall in a perfect arch, without any spray
escaping from the jet.
[489] Lilies of the valley.
[490] In rows.
[491] Insidiously subtract nourishment from.
[492] To consider or expect.
[493] Love, are pleased with.
[494] It is more advantageous to deal with men whose desires are not
yet satisfied, than with those who have gained all they have wished
for, and are likely to be proof against inducements.
[495] In the sense of the Latin “gloriosus,” “boastful,” “bragging.”
[496] Professions or classes.
[497] Weakness, or indecision of character.
[498] He probably alludes to the ancient stories of the friendship
of Orestes and Pylades, Theseus and Pirithoüs, Damon and Pythias,
and others, and the maxims of the ancient philosophers. Aristotle
considers that equality in circumstances and station is one requisite