The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral
will beware, by furthering any present business, how he dasheth upon
other inconvenience. And therefore rest not upon scattered counsels;
they will rather distract and mislead, than settle and direct.
After these two noble fruits of friendship (peace in the affections, and
support of the judgment), followeth the last fruit; which is like the
pomegranate, full of many kernels; I mean aid, and bearing a part, in
all actions and occasions. Here the best way to represent to life the
manifold use of friendship, is to cast and see how many things there
are, which a man cannot do himself; and then it will appear, that it
was a sparing speech of the ancients, to say, that a friend is another
himself; for that a friend is far more than himself. Men have
their time, and die many times, in desire of some things which they
principally take to heart; the bestowing of a child, the finishing of
a work, or the like. If a man have a true friend, he may rest almost
secure that the care of those things will continue after him. So that a
man hath, as it were, two lives in his desires. A man hath a body, and
that body is confined to a place; but where friendship is, all offices
of life are as it were granted to him, and his deputy. For he may
exercise them by his friend. How many things are there which a man
cannot, with any face or comeliness, say or do himself? A man can scarce
allege his own merits with modesty, much less extol them; a man cannot
sometimes brook to supplicate or beg; and a number of the like. But all
these things are graceful, in a friend's mouth, which are blushing in a
man's own. So again, a man's person hath many proper relations, which
he cannot put off. A man cannot speak to his son but as a father; to his
wife but as a husband; to his enemy but upon terms: whereas a friend may
speak as the case requires, and not as it sorteth with the person. But
to enumerate these things were endless; I have given the rule, where a
man cannot fitly play his own part; if he have not a friend, he may quit
the stage.
Of Expense
RICHES are for spending, and spending for honor and good actions.
Therefore extraordinary expense must be limited by the worth of the
occasion; for voluntary undoing, may be as well for a man's country, as
for the kingdom of heaven. But ordinary expense, ought to be limited
by a man's estate; and governed with such regard, as it be within his
compass; and not subject to deceit and abuse of servants; and ordered
to the best show, that the bills may be less than the estimation abroad.
Certainly, if a man will keep but of even hand, his ordinary expenses
ought to be but to the half of his receipts; and if he think to wax
rich, but to the third part. It is no baseness, for the greatest to
descend and look into their own estate. Some forbear it, not upon
negligence alone, but doubting to bring themselves into melancholy, in
respect they shall find it broken. But wounds cannot be cured without
searching. He that cannot look into his own estate at all, had need both
choose well those whom he employeth, and change them often; for new
are more timorous and less subtle. He that can look into his estate but
seldom, it behooveth him to turn all to certainties. A man had need, if
he be plentiful in some kind of expense, to be as saving again in some
other. As if he be plentiful in diet, to be saving in apparel; if he be
plentiful in the hall, to be saving in the stable; and the like. For
he that is plentiful in expenses of all kinds, will hardly be preserved
from decay. In clearing of a man's estate, he may as well hurt himself
in being too sudden, as in letting it run on too long. For hasty
selling, is commonly as disadvantageable as interest. Besides, he that
clears at once will relapse; for finding himself out of straits, he will
revert to his custom: but he that cleareth by degrees, induceth a habit
of frugality, and gaineth as well upon his mind, as upon his estate.
Certainly, who hath a state to repair, may not despise small things;
and commonly it is less dishonorable, to abridge petty charges, than to
stoop to petty gettings. A man ought warily to begin charges which once
begun will continue; but in matters that return not, he may be more
magnificent.
Of the True Greatness Of Kingdoms And Estates
THE speech of Themistocles the Athenian, which was haughty and arrogant,
in taking so much to himself, had been a grave and wise observation and
censure, applied at large to others. Desired at a feast to touch a lute,
he said, He could not fiddle, but yet he could make a small town, a
great city. These words (holpen a little with a metaphor) may express
two differing abilities, in those that deal in business of estate. For
if a true survey be taken of counsellors and statesmen, there may be
found (though rarely) those which can make a small state great, and yet
cannot fiddle; as on the other side, there will be found a great many,
that can fiddle very cunningly, but yet are so far from being able to
make a small state great, as their gift lieth the other way; to bring
a great and flourishing estate, to ruin and decay. And certainly whose
degenerate arts and shifts, whereby many counsellors and governors gain
both favor with their masters, and estimation with the vulgar, deserve
no better name than fiddling; being things rather pleasing for the
time, and graceful to themselves only, than tending to the weal and
advancement of the state which they serve. There are also (no doubt)
counsellors and governors which may be held sufficient (negotiis pares),
able to manage affairs, and to keep them from precipices and manifest
inconveniences; which nevertheless are far from the ability to raise and
amplify an estate in power, means, and fortune. But be the workmen what
they may be, let us speak of the work; that is, the true greatness of
kingdoms and estates, and the means thereof. An argument fit for great
and mighty princes to have in their hand; to the end that neither by
over-measuring their forces, they leese themselves in vain enterprises;
nor on the other side, by undervaluing them, they descend to fearful and
pusillanimous counsels.
The greatness of an estate, in bulk and territory, doth fall under
measure; and the greatness of finances and revenue, doth fall under
computation. The population may appear by musters; and the number and
greatness of cities and towns by cards and maps. But yet there is not
any thing amongst civil affairs more subject to error, than the right
valuation and true judgment concerning the power and forces of an
estate. The kingdom of heaven is compared, not to any great kernel or
nut, but to a grain of mustard-seed: which is one of the least grains,
but hath in it a property and spirit hastily to get up and spread. So
are there states, great in territory, and yet not apt to enlarge or
command; and some that have but a small dimension of stem, and yet apt
to be the foundations of great monarchies.
Walled towns, stored arsenals and armories, goodly races of horse,
chariots of war, elephants, ordnance, artillery, and the like; all this
is but a sheep in a lion's skin, except the breed and disposition of the
people, be stout and warlike. Nay, number (itself) in armies importeth
not much, where the people is of weak courage; for (as Virgil saith) It
never troubles a wolf, how many the sheep be. The army of the Persians,
in the plains of Arbela, was such a vast sea of people, as it did
somewhat astonish the commanders in Alexander's army; who came to him
therefore, and wished him to set upon them by night; and he answered, He
would not pilfer the victory. And the defeat was easy. When Tigranes
the Armenian, being encamped upon a hill with four hundred thousand men,
discovered the army of the Romans, being not above fourteen thousand,
marching towards him, he made himself merry with it, and said, Yonder
men are too many for an embassage, and too few for a fight. But before
the sun set, he found them enow to give him the chase with infinite
slaughter. Many are the examples of the great odds, between number and
courage; so that a man may truly make a judgment, that the principal
point of greatness in any state, is to have a race of military men.
Neither is money the sinews of war (as it is trivially said), where the
sinews of men's arms, in base and effeminate people, are failing. For
Solon said well to Croesus (when in ostentation he showed him his gold),
Sir, if any other come, that hath better iron, than you, he will be
master of all this gold. Therefore let any prince or state think solely
of his forces, except his militia of natives be of good and valiant
soldiers. And let princes, on the other side, that have subjects of
martial disposition, know their own strength; unless they be otherwise
wanting unto themselves. As for mercenary forces (which is the help in
this case), all examples show, that whatsoever estate or prince doth
rest upon them, he may spread his feathers for a time, but he will mew
them soon after.
The blessing of Judah and Issachar will never meet; that the same
people, or nation, should be both the lion's whelp and the ass between
burthens; neither will it be, that a people overlaid with taxes, should
ever become valiant and martial. It is true that taxes levied by
consent of the estate, do abate men's courage less: as it hath been seen
notably, in the excises of the Low Countries; and, in some degree, in
the subsidies of England. For you must note, that we speak now of the
heart, and not of the purse. So that although the same tribute and tax,
laid by consent or by imposing, be all one to the purse, yet it works
diversely upon the courage. So that you may conclude, that no people
overcharged with tribute, is fit for empire.
Let states that aim at greatness, take heed how their nobility and
gentlemen do multiply too fast. For that maketh the common subject, grow
to be a peasant and base swain, driven out of heart, and in effect but
the gentleman's laborer. Even as you may see in coppice woods; if you
leave your staddles too thick, you shall never have clean underwood, but
shrubs and bushes. So in countries, if the gentlemen be too many,
the commons will be base; and you will bring it to that, that not the
hundred poll, will be fit for an helmet; especially as to the infantry,
which is the nerve of an army; and so there will be great population,
and little strength. This which I speak of, hath been nowhere better
seen, than by comparing of England and France; whereof England, though
far less in territory and population, hath been (nevertheless) an
overmatch; in regard the middle people of England make good soldiers,
which the peasants of France do not. And herein the device of king Henry
the Seventh (whereof I have spoken largely in the History of his Life)
was profound and admirable; in making farms and houses of husbandry of a
standard; that is, maintained with such a proportion of land unto them,
as may breed a subject to live in convenient plenty and no servile
condition; and to keep the plough in the hands of the owners, and not
mere hirelings. And thus indeed you shall attain to Virgil's character
which he gives to ancient Italy:
Terra potens armis atque ubere glebae.
Neither is that state (which, for any thing I know, is almost peculiar
to England, and hardly to be found anywhere else, except it be perhaps
in Poland) to be passed over; I mean the state of free servants, and
attendants upon noblemen and gentlemen; which are no ways inferior unto
the yeomanry for arms. And therefore out of all questions, the splendor
and magnificence, and great retinues and hospitality, of noblemen
and gentlemen, received into custom, doth much conduce unto martial
greatness. Whereas, contrariwise, the close and reserved living of