The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral
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THE ESSAYS OR COUNSELS, CIVIL AND MORAL,
OF FRANCIS Ld. VERULAM VISCOUNT ST. ALBANS
By Francis Bacon
THE ESSAYS
Of Truth
Of Death
Of Unity in Religion
Of Revenge
Of Adversity
Of Simulation and Dissimulation
Of Parents and Children
Of Marriage and Single Life
Of Envy
Of Love
Of Great Place
Of Boldness
Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature
Of Nobility
Of Seditions and Troubles
Of Atheism
Of Superstition
Of Travel
Of Empire
Of Counsel
Of Delays
Of Cunning
Of Wisdom for a Man's Self
Of Innovations
Of Dispatch
Of Seeming Wise
Of Friendship
Of Expense
Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates
Of Regiment of Health
Of Suspicion
Of Discourse
Of Plantations
Of Riches
Of Prophecies
Of Ambition
Of Masques and Triumphs
Of Nature in Men
Of Custom and Education
Of Fortune
Of Usury
Of Youth and Age
Of Beauty
Of Deformity
Of Building
Of Gardens
Of Negotiating
Of Followers and Friends
Of Suitors
Of Studies
Of Faction
Of Ceremonies and Respects
Of Praise
Of Vain-glory
Of Honor and Reputation
Of Judicature
Of Anger
Of Vicissitude of Things
Of Fame
TO
THE RIGHT HONORABLE
MY VERY GOOD LORD
THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM
HIS GRACE, LORD
HIGH ADMIRAL OF ENGLAND
EXCELLENT LORD:
SALOMON saies; A good Name is as a precious oyntment; And I assure my
selfe, such wil your Graces Name bee, with Posteritie. For your Fortune,
and Merit both, have been Eminent. And you have planted Things, that
are like to last. I doe now publish my Essayes; which, of all my other
workes, have beene most Currant: For that, as it seemes, they come home,
to Mens Businesse, and Bosomes. I have enlarged them, both in Number,
and Weight; So that they are indeed a New Worke. I thought it 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 conceive,
that the Latine Volume of them, (being in the Universall Language) may
last, as long as Bookes last. My Instauration, I dedicated to the King:
My Historie of Henry the Seventh, (which I have 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
Servant,
FR. ST. ALBAN
Of Truth
WHAT is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.
Certainly there be, that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to
fix a belief; affecting free-will in thinking, as well as in acting. And
though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain
certain discoursing wits, which are of the same veins, though there be
not so much blood in them, as was in those of the ancients. But it is
not only the difficulty and labor, which men take in finding out
of truth, nor again, that when it is found, it imposeth upon men's
thoughts, that doth bring lies in favor; but a natural, though corrupt
love, of the lie itself. One of the later school of the Grecians,
examineth the matter, and is at a stand, to think what should be in it,
that men should love lies; where neither they make for pleasure, as with
poets, nor for advantage, as with the merchant; but for the lie's sake.
But I cannot tell; this same truth, is a naked, and open day-light, that
doth not show the masks, and mummeries, and triumphs, of the world, half
so stately and daintily as candle-lights. Truth may perhaps come to the
price of a pearl, that showeth best by day; but it will not rise to the
price of a diamond, or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights.
A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt, that if
there were taken out of men's minds, vain opinions, flattering hopes,
false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would
leave the minds, of a number of men, poor shrunken things, full of
melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves?
One of the fathers, in great severity, called poesy vinum daemonum,
because it fireth the imagination; and yet, it is but with the shadow of
a lie. But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the
lie that sinketh in, and settleth in it, that doth the hurt; such as we
spake of before. But howsoever these things are thus in men's depraved
judgments, and affections, yet truth, which only doth judge itself,
teacheth that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or wooing
of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the
belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of
human nature. The first creature of God, in the works of the days,
was the light of the sense; the last, was the light of reason; and his
sabbath work ever since, is the illumination of his Spirit. First he
breathed light, upon the face of the matter or chaos; then he breathed
light, into the face of man; and still he breatheth and inspireth light,
into the face of his chosen. The poet, that beautified the sect, that
was otherwise inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well: It is a
pleasure, to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tossed upon the sea;
a pleasure, to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle,
and the adventures thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to the
standing upon the vantage ground of truth (a hill not to be commanded,
and where the air is always clear and serene), and to see the errors,
and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below; so always
that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling, or pride.
Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in
charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.
To pass from theological, and philosophical truth, to the truth of civil
business; it will be acknowledged, even by those that practise it not,
that clear, and round dealing, is the honor of man's nature; and that
mixture of falsehoods, is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which
may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it. For these
winding, and crooked courses, are the goings of the serpent; which goeth
basely upon the belly, and not upon the feet. There is no vice, that
doth so cover a man with shame, as to be found false and perfidious. And
therefore Montaigne saith prettily, when he inquired the reason, why the
word of the lie should be such a disgrace, and such an odious charge?
Saith he, If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much to
say, as that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men. For a
lie faces God, and shrinks from man. Surely the wickedness of falsehood,
and breach of faith, cannot possibly be so highly expressed, as in
that it shall be the last peal, to call the judgments of God upon the
generations of men; it being foretold, that when Christ cometh, he shall
not find faith upon the earth.
Of Death
MEN fear death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural
fear in children, is increased with tales, so is the other. Certainly,
the contemplation of death, as the wages of sin, and passage to another
world, is holy and religious; but the fear of it, as a tribute due
unto nature, is weak. Yet in religious meditations, there is sometimes
mixture of vanity, and of superstition. You shall read, in some of the
friars' books of mortification, that a man should think with himself,
what the pain is, if he have but his finger's end pressed, or tortured,
and thereby imagine, what the pains of death are, when the whole body is
corrupted, and dissolved; when many times death passeth, with less
pain than the torture of a limb; for the most vital parts, are not the
quickest of sense. And by him that spake only as a philosopher, and
natural man, it was well said, Pompa mortis magis terret, quam mors
ipsa. Groans, and convulsions, and a discolored face, and friends
weeping, and blacks, and obsequies, and the like, show death terrible.
It is worthy the observing, that there is no passion in the mind of man,
so weak, but it mates, and masters, the fear of death; and therefore,
death is no such terrible enemy, when a man hath so many attendants
about him, that can win the combat of him. Revenge triumphs over
death; love slights it; honor aspireth to it; grief flieth to it;
fear preoccupateth it; nay, we read, after Otho the emperor had slain
himself, pity (which is the tenderest of affections) provoked many to
die, out of mere compassion to their sovereign, and as the truest sort
of followers. Nay, Seneca adds niceness and satiety: Cogita quamdiu
eadem feceris; mori velle, non tantum fortis aut miser, sed etiam
fastidiosus potest. A man would die, though he were neither valiant, nor
miserable, only upon a weariness to do the same thing so oft, over and
over. It is no less worthy, to observe, how little alteration in good
spirits, the approaches of death make; for they appear to be the same
men, till the last instant. Augustus Caesar died in a compliment; Livia,
conjugii nostri memor, vive et vale. Tiberius in dissimulation; as
Tacitus saith of him, Jam Tiberium vires et corpus, non dissimulatio,
deserebant. Vespasian in a jest, sitting upon the stool; Ut puto deus
fio. Galba with a sentence; Feri, si ex re sit populi Romani; holding
forth his neck. Septimius Severus in despatch; Adeste si quid mihi
restat agendum. And the like. Certainly the Stoics bestowed too much
cost upon death, and by their great preparations, made it appear more
fearful. Better saith he, qui finem vitae extremum inter munera ponat
naturae. It is as natural to die, as to be born; and to a little infant,
perhaps, the one is as painful, as the other. He that dies in an earnest
pursuit, is like one that is wounded in hot blood; who, for the time,
scarce feels the hurt; and therefore a mind fixed, and bent upon
somewhat that is good, doth avert the dolors of death. But, above all,
believe it, the sweetest canticle is', Nunc dimittis; when a man hath
obtained worthy ends, and expectations. Death hath this also; that
it openeth the gate to good fame, and extinguisheth envy.--Extinctus
amabitur idem.
Of Unity In Religion
RELIGION being the chief band of human society, it is a happy thing,
when itself is well contained within the true band of unity. The
quarrels, and divisions about religion, were evils unknown to the
heathen. The reason was, because the religion of the heathen, consisted
rather in rites and ceremonies, than in any constant belief. For you
may imagine, what kind of faith theirs was, when the chief doctors,
and fathers of their church, were the poets. But the true God hath this
attribute, that he is a jealous God; and therefore, his worship and
religion, will endure no mixture, nor partner. We shall therefore speak
a few words, concerning the unity of the church; what are the fruits
thereof; what the bounds; and what the means.
The fruits of unity (next unto the well pleasing of God, which is all
in all) are two: the one, towards those that are without the church,
the other, towards those that are within. For the former; it is certain,
that heresies, and schisms, are of all others the greatest scandals;
yea, more than corruption of manners. For as in the natural body, a
wound, or solution of continuity, is worse than a corrupt humor; so in
the spiritual. So that nothing, doth so much keep men out of the church,