The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral
to sever, as much as may be, the construction of the injury from the
point of contempt; imputing it to misunderstanding, fear, passion, or
what you will.
Of Vicissitude Of Things
SOLOMON saith, There is no new thing upon the earth. So that as Plato
had an imagination, That all knowledge was but remembrance; so Solomon
giveth his sentence, That all novelty is but oblivion. Whereby you may
see, that the river of Lethe runneth as well above ground as below.
There is an abstruse astrologer that saith, If it were not for two
things that are constant (the one is, that the fixed stars ever stand a
like distance one from another, and never come nearer together, nor go
further asunder; the other, that the diurnal motion perpetually keepeth
time), no individual would last one moment. Certain it is, that
the matter is in a perpetual flux, and never at a stay. The great
winding-sheets, that bury all things in oblivion, are two; deluges
and earthquakes. As for conflagrations and great droughts, they do not
merely dispeople and destroy. Phaeton's car went but a day. And the
three years' drought in the time of Elias, was but particular, and left
people alive. As for the great burnings by lightnings, which are
often in the West Indies, they are but narrow. But in the other two
destructions, by deluge and earthquake, it is further to be noted, that
the remnant of people which hap to be reserved, are commonly ignorant
and mountainous people, that can give no account of the time past; so
that the oblivion is all one, as if none had been left. If you consider
well of the people of the West Indies, it is very probable that they are
a newer or a younger people, than the people of the Old World. And it is
much more likely, that the destruction that hath heretofore been there,
was not by earthquakes (as the Egyptian priest told Solon concerning the
island of Atlantis, that it was swallowed by an earthquake), but rather
that it was desolated by a particular deluge. For earthquakes are seldom
in those parts. But on the other side, they have such pouring rivers, as
the rivers of Asia and Africk and Europe, are but brooks to them.
Their Andes, likewise, or mountains, are far higher than those with us;
whereby it seems, that the remnants of generation of men, were in such
a particular deluge saved. As for the observation that Machiavel hath,
that the jealousy of sects, doth much extinguish the memory of things;
traducing Gregory the Great, that he did what in him lay, to extinguish
all heathen antiquities; I do not find that those zeals do any great
effects, nor last long; as it appeared in the succession of Sabinian,
who did revive the former antiquities.
The vicissitude of mutations in the superior globe, are no fit matter
for this present argument. It may be, Plato's great year, if the world
should last so long, would have some effect; not in renewing the state
of like individuals (for that is the fume of those, that conceive the
celestial bodies have more accurate influences upon these things below,
than indeed they have), but in gross. Comets, out of question, have
likewise power and effect, over the gross and mass of things; but they
are rather gazed upon, and waited upon in their journey, than wisely
observed in their effects; specially in, their respective effects; that
is, what kind of comet, for magnitude, color, version of the beams,
placing in the reign of heaven, or lasting, produceth what kind of
effects.
There is a toy which I have heard, and I would not have it given over,
but waited upon a little. They say it is observed in the Low Countries
(I know not in what part) that every five and thirty years, the same
kind and suit of years and weathers come about again; as great frosts,
great wet, great droughts, warm winters, summers with little heat, and
the like; and they call it the Prime. It is a thing I do the rather
mention, because, computing backwards, I have found some concurrence.
But to leave these points of nature, and to come to men. The greatest
vicissitude of things amongst men, is the vicissitude of sects and
religions. For those orbs rule in men's minds most. The true religion
is built upon the rock; the rest are tossed, upon the waves of time. To
speak, therefore, of the causes of new sects; and to give some counsel
concerning them, as far as the weakness of human judgment can give stay,
to so great revolutions. When the religion formerly received, is rent
by discords; and when the holiness of the professors of religion, is
decayed and full of scandal; and withal the times be stupid, ignorant,
and barbarous; you may doubt the springing up of a new sect; if then
also, there should arise any extravagant and strange spirit, to make
himself author thereof. All which points held, when Mahomet published
his law. If a new sect have not two properties, fear it not; for it will
not spread. The one is the supplanting, or the opposing, of authority
established; for nothing is more popular than that. The other is
the giving license to pleasures, and a voluptuous life. For as for
speculative heresies (such as were in ancient times the Arians, and now
the Arminians), though they work mightily upon men's wits, yet they do
not produce any great alterations in states; except it be by the help of
civil occasions. There be three manner of plantations of new sects. By
the power of signs and miracles; by the eloquence, and wisdom, of speech
and persuasion; and by the sword. For martyrdoms, I reckon them amongst
miracles; because they seem to exceed the strength of human nature: and
I may do the like, of superlative and admirable holiness of life. Surely
there is no better way, to stop the rising of new sects and schisms,
than to reform abuses; to compound the smaller differences; to proceed
mildly, and not with sanguinary persecutions; and rather to take off the
principal authors by winning and advancing them, than to enrage them by
violence and bitterness.
The changes and vicissitude in wars are many; but chiefly in three
things; in the seats or stages of the war; in the weapons; and in the
manner of the conduct. Wars, in ancient time, seemed more to move from
east to west; for the Persians, Assyrians, Arabians, Tartars (which
were the invaders) were all eastern people. It is true, the Gauls
were western; but we read but of two incursions of theirs: the one
to Gallo-Grecia, the other to Rome. But east and west have no certain
points of heaven; and no more have the wars, either from the east or
west, any certainty of observation. But north and south are fixed; and
it hath seldom or never been seen that the far southern people have
invaded the northern, but contrariwise. Whereby it is manifest that the
northern tract of the world, is in nature the more martial region: be it
in respect of the stars of that hemisphere; or of the great continents
that are upon the north, whereas the south part, for aught that is
known, is almost all sea; or (which is most apparent) of the cold of
the northern parts, which is that which, without aid of discipline, doth
make the bodies hardest, and the courages warmest.
Upon the breaking and shivering of a great state and empire, you may be
sure to have wars. For great empires, while they stand, do enervate and
destroy the forces of the natives which they have subdued, resting upon
their own protecting forces; and then when they fail also, all goes
to ruin, and they become a prey. So was it in the decay of the Roman
empire; and likewise in the empire of Almaigne, after Charles the Great,
every bird taking a feather; and were not unlike to befall to Spain,
if it should break. The great accessions and unions of kingdoms, do
likewise stir up wars; for when a state grows to an over-power, it is
like a great flood, that will be sure to overflow. As it hath been seen
in the states of Rome, Turkey, Spain, and others. Look when the world
hath fewest barbarous peoples, but such as commonly will not marry or
generate, except they know means to live (as it is almost everywhere at
this day, except Tartary), there is no danger of inundations of people;
but when there be great shoals of people, which go on to populate,
without foreseeing means of life and sustentation, it is of necessity
that once in an age or two, they discharge a portion of their people
upon other nations; which the ancient northern people were wont to do
by lot; casting lots what part should stay at home, and what should seek
their fortunes. When a warlike state grows soft and effeminate, they may
be sure of a war. For commonly such states are grown rich in the time
of their degenerating; and so the prey inviteth, and their decay in
valor, encourageth a war.
As for the weapons, it hardly falleth under rule and observation: yet
we see even they, have returns and vicissitudes. For certain it is, that
ordnance was known in the city of the Oxidrakes in India; and was that,
which the Macedonians called thunder and lightning, and magic. And it
is well known that the use of ordnance, hath been in China above two
thousand years. The conditions of weapons, and their improvement, are;
First, the fetching afar off; for that outruns the danger; as it is
seen in ordnance and muskets. Secondly, the strength of the percussion;
wherein likewise ordnance do exceed all arietations and ancient
inventions. The third is, the commodious use of them; as that they may
serve in all weathers; that the carriage may be light and manageable;
and the like.
For the conduct of the war: at the first, men rested extremely upon
number: they did put the wars likewise upon main force and valor;
pointing days for pitched fields, and so trying it out upon an even
match and they were more ignorant in ranging and arraying their battles.
After, they grew to rest upon number rather competent, than vast; they
grew to advantages of place, cunning diversions, and the like: and they
grew more skilful in the ordering of their battles.
In the youth of a state, arms do flourish; in the middle age of a state,
learning; and then both of them together for a time; in the declining
age of a state, mechanical arts and merchandize. Learning hath his
infancy, when it is but beginning and almost childish; then his youth,
when it is luxuriant and juvenile; then his strength of years, when it
is solid and reduced; and lastly, his old age, when it waxeth dry and
exhaust. But it is not good to look too long upon these turning wheels
of vicissitude, lest we become giddy. As for the philology of them, that
is but a circle of tales, and therefore not fit for this writing.
Of Fame
THE poets make Fame a monster. They describe her in part finely and
elegantly, and in part gravely and sententiously. They say, look how
many feathers she hath, so many eyes she hath underneath; so many
tongues; so many voices; she pricks up so many ears.
This is a flourish. There follow excellent parables; as that, she
gathereth strength in going; that she goeth upon the ground, and yet
hideth her head in the clouds; that in the daytime she sitteth in a
watch tower, and flieth most by night; that she mingleth things done,
with things not done; and that she is a terror to great cities. But that
which passeth all the rest is: They do recount that the Earth, mother
of the giants that made war against Jupiter, and were by him destroyed,
thereupon in an anger brought forth Fame. For certain it is, that
rebels, figured by the giants, and seditious fames and libels, are but
brothers and sisters, masculine and feminine. But now, if a man can tame
this monster, and bring her to feed at the hand, and govern her, and
with her fly other ravening fowl and kill them, it is somewhat worth.
But we are infected with the style of the poets. To speak now in a sad