Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients

Florentem cytisum sequitur lasciva capella.” _Virgil_, _Ecl._ ii. 63. [623] Ovid, Rem. Amoris, v. 343. Mart. Epist. [624] Psalm xix. 1. [625] Syrinx, signifying a reed, or the ancient pen. [626] Ovid, Metam. b. iv. [627] Thus it is the excellence of a general, early to discover what turn the battle is likely to take; and looking prudently behind, as well as before, to pursue a victory so as not to be unprovided for a retreat. [628] It may be remembered that the Athenian peasant voted for the banishment of Aristides, because he was called the Just. Shakspeare forcibly expresses the same thought:— “Let me have men about me that are fat; Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o’ nights: Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.” If Bacon had completed his intended work upon “Sympathy and Antipathy,” the constant hatred evinced by ignorance of intellectual superiority, originating sometimes in the painful feeling of inferiority, sometimes in the fear of worldly injury would not have escaped his notice. [629] Thus we see that Orpheus denotes learning; Eurydice, things, or the subject of learning; Bacchus, and the Thracian women, men’s ungoverned passions and appetites, &c. And in the same manner all the ancient fables might be familiarly illustrated, and brought down to the capacities of children. [630] “Quod procul a nobis flectat Fortuna gubernans; Et ratio potius quam res persuadeat ipsa.” [631] Proteus properly signifies primary, oldest, or first. [632] Bacon nowhere speaks with such freedom and perspicuity as under the pretext of explaining these ancient fables; for which reason they deserve to be the more read by such as desire to understand the rest of his works. [633] As she also brought the author himself. [634] “—————cadit Ripheus, justissimus unus, Qui fuit ex Teucris, et servantissimus æqui: Diis aliter visum.”—_Æneid_, lib. ii. [635] Te autem mi Brute sicut debeo, amo, quod istud quicquid est nugarum me scire voluisti. [636] “Regina in mediis patrio vocat agmina sistro; Necdum etiam geminos a tergo respicit angues.” _Æneid_, viii. 696. [637] Ovid’s Metamorphoses, b. iii., iv., and vi.; and Fasti, iii. 767. [638] “Declinat cursus, aurumque volubile tollit.” [639] The author, in all his physical works, proceeds upon this foundation, that it is possible, and practicable, for art to obtain the victory over nature; that is, for human industry and power to procure, by the means of proper knowledge, such things as are necessary to render life as happy and commodious as its mortal state will allow. For instance, that it is possible to lengthen the present period of human life; bring the winds under command: and every way extend and enlarge the dominion or empire of man over the works of nature. [640] “All-gift.” [641] Viz: that by Pandora. [642] “Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, Quique metus omnes et inexorabile fatum Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari.” _Georg._ ii. 490. [643] _De Augmentis Scientiarum_, sec. xxviii. and supplem. xv. [644] An allusion which, in Plato’s writings, is applied to the rapid succession of generations, through which the continuity of human life is maintained from age to age; and which are perpetually transferring from hand to hand the concerns and duties of this fleeting scene. Γεννῶντες τε καὶ ἐκτρέφοντες παῖδας, κάθαπερ λαμπάδα τὸν βίον παραδιδόντες ἄλλοις ἐξ ἄλλων—Plato, Leg. b. vi. Lucretius also has the same metaphor:— “Et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt.” [645] Eccles. xii. 11. [646] This is what the author so frequently inculcates in the _Novum Organum_, viz: that knowledge and power are reciprocal; so that to improve in knowledge is to improve in the power of commanding nature, by introducing new arts, and producing works and effects. [647] “Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento: Hæ tibi erunt artes.” _Æneid_, vi. 851. [648] “Sive recens tellus, seductaque nuper ab alta Æthere, cognati retinebat semina cœli.”—_Metam._ i. 80. [649] Many philosophers have certain speculations to this purpose. Sir Isaac Newton, in particular, suspects that the earth receives its vivifying spirit from the comets. And the philosophical chemists and astrologers have spun the thought into many fantastical distinctions and varieties.—See Newton, _Princip._ lib. iii. p. 473, &c. [650] This policy strikingly characterized the conduct of Louis XIV., who placed his generals under a particular injunction, to advertise him of the success of any siege likely to be crowned with an immediate triumph, that he might attend in person and appear to take the town by a _coup de main_. [651] The one denoted by the river Achelous, and the other by Terpsichore, the muse that invented the cithara and delighted in dancing. [652] “Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus; Rumoresque senum severiorum Omnes unius estimemus assis.”—_Catull. Eleg._ v. And again— “Jura senes norint, et quod sit fasque nefasque Inquirant tristes; legumque examina servent.” _Metam._ ix. 550.