 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Essays of Francis Bacon Essay 33 of Plantations Plantations are amongst ancient primitive and heroical works. When the world was young it begett more children, but now it is old it begets fewer. For I may justly account new plantations to be the children of former kingdoms. I like a plantation in a pure soil, that is, where people are not displanted to the end to plant in others. For else it is rather an extirpation than a plantation. Planting of countries is like planting of woods, for you must make account to lease almost twenty years profit and expect your recompense in the end. For the principal thing that hath been the destruction of most plantations, hath been the base and hasty drawing of a profit in the first years. It is true speedy profit is not to be neglected as far as may stand with the good of the plantation, but no further. It is a shameful and unblessed thing to take the scum of people and wicked condemned men to be the people with whom you plant, and not only so, but it spoileth the plantation. For they will ever live like rogues, and not fall to work but be lazy, and do mischief, and spin vitals, and be quickly weary, and then certify over to their country to the discredit of the plantation. The people where with you plant ought to be gardeners, ploughmen, laborers, smiths, carpenters, joiners, fishermen, fowlers, and some few apothecaries, surgeons, cooks, and bakers. In a country of plantation first look about what kind of vitil the country yields of itself to hand, as chestnut, walnuts, pineapples, olives, dates, plums, cherries, wild honey, and the like, and make use of them. Then consider what vitil or esculent things there are which grow speedily and within the year, as parsnips, carrots, turnips, onions, radish, artichokes of Jerusalem, maize, and the like. For wheat, barley, and oats they ask too much labor. But with peas and beans you may begin both because they ask less labor and because they serve for meat as well as for bread. And of rice likewise cometh a great increase and it is a kind of meat. Above all there ought to be brought store of biscuit, oatmeal, flour, meal, and the like in the beginning till bread may be had. For beasts or birds take chiefly such as are least subject to diseases and multiply fastest, as swine, goats, cocks, hens, turkeys, geese, house doves, and the like. The vitil in plantations ought to be expended almost as in a besieged town, that is with certain allowance, and let the main part of the ground employed to gardens or corn be to a common stock, and to be laid in and stored up and then delivered out in proportion, besides some spots of ground that any particular person will manure for his own private. Consider likewise what commodities the soil where the plantation is doth naturally yield that they may some way help to defray the charge of the plantation so it be not as was said to the untimely prejudice of the main business as it have fared with tobacco in Virginia. Wood commonly aboundeth but too much, and therefore timber is fit to be one. If there be iron ore and streams where upon to set the mills iron is a brave commodity where wood aboundeth. Making of bay salt, if the climate be proper for it, would be put in experience. Growing silk likewise, if any be, is a likely commodity. Pitch and tar, where store of furs and pines are, will not fail. So drugs and sweet woods where they are cannot but yield great profit. Soap ashes likewise and other things that may be thought of. But moil not too much underground, for the hope of mines is very uncertain and use it to make the planters lazy and other things. For government, let it be in the hands of one assisted with some council and let them have commission to exercise martial laws with some limitation. And above all, let men make that profit of being in the wilderness as they have God always and His service before their eyes. Let not the government of the plantation depend upon too many counsellors and undertakers in that country that planteth, but upon a temperate number. And let those be rather noblemen and gentlemen than merchants, for they look ever to the present gain. Let there be freedom from custom till the plantation be of strength. And not only freedom from custom, but freedom to carry their commodities where they may make their best of them, except there be some special cause of caution. Cram not in people by sending too fast company after company, but rather harken how they waste and send supplies proportionably. But so as the number may live well in the plantation and not by surcharge be in pinnury. It hath been a great endangering to the health of some plantations that they have built along the sea and rivers in marish and unwholesome grounds. Therefore, though you begin there, to avoid carriage and like disc commodities, yet build still rather upwards from the streams than along. It concerneth likewise the health of the plantation that they have good store of salt with them, that they may use it in their vitals when it shall be necessary. If you plant where savages are, do not only entertain them with trifles and gingles, but use them justly and graciously with sufficient guard nevertheless. And do not win their favor by helping them to invade their enemies, but for their defense it is not amiss. And send oft of them over to the country that plants that they may see a better condition than their own and commend it when they return. When the plantation grows to strength, then it is time to plant with women, as well as with men, that the plantation may spread into generations and not be ever pieced from without. It is the sinfulest thing in the world to forsake or destitute a plantation once in forwardness. For besides the dishonor, it is the guiltiness of blood of many commiserable persons. Essay 34 of Riches I cannot call riches better than the baggage of virtue. The Roman word is better, impedimenta. For as the baggage is to an army, so is riches to virtue. It cannot be spared nor left behind, but it hindereth the march. Yea, and the care of it sometimes looseth or disturbeth the victory. Of great riches there is no real use, except it be in the distribution. The rest is but conceit. So sayeth Solomon where much is there are many to consume it and what hath the owner but the sight of it with his eyes. The personal fruition in any man cannot reach to feel great riches. There is a custody of them or a power of dole and donative of them or a fame of them, but no solid use to the owner. Do you not see what feigned princes are set upon little stones and rarities? And what works of ostentation are undertaken because there might seem to be some use of great riches? But then you will say, they may be of use to buy men out of dangers or troubles. As Solomon sayeth, riches are as a stronghold in the imagination of the rich man. But this is excellently expressed that it is in the imagination and not always in fact. For certainly great riches have sold more men than they have bought out. Seek not proud riches but such as thou mayest get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly. Yet have no abstract nor friarly contempt of them, but distinguish as Cicero sayeth well of riberous posthumous, in Studio Re'ai, Amplificandae, Aparabat, non avaritiai, Praetum, said instrumentum bonnetati query. Harken also to Solomon and beware of hasty gathering of riches. Qui festinot ad divitias non erit insons. The poets feign that when Plutus, which is riches, is sent from Jupiter, he limps and goes slowly, but when he is sent from Pluto, he runs and is swift afoot, meaning that riches gotten by good means and just labor pace slowly, but when they come by the death of others, as by the course of inheritance, testaments, and the like, they come tumbling upon a man. But it might be applied likewise to Pluto, taking him for the devil, for when riches come from the devil as by fraud and oppression and unjust means, they come upon speed. The ways to enrich are many, and most of them fowl. Parsimony is one of the best, and yet is not innocent, for it withholdeth men from works of liberality and charity. The improvement of the ground is the most natural obtaining of riches, for it is our great mother's blessing, the earth, but it is slow. And yet, where men of great wealth do stoop to husbandry, it multipleth riches exceedingly. I knew a nobleman in England that had the greatest audits of any man in my time, a great Grazier, a great Sheepmaster, a great Timberman, a great Collier, a great Cornmaster, a great Leadman, and so of Iron, like points of husbandry. So as the earth seemed to see to him in respect of the perpetual importation, it was truly observed by one that himself came very hardly to a little riches and very easily to great riches. For when a man's stock has come to that, that he can expect the prime of markets and overcome those bargains which for their greatness are few men's money, and be in partner in the industries of younger men, he cannot but increase mainly. The gains of ordinary trades and vocations are honest, and furthered by two things chiefly, by diligence and by a good name, for good and fair dealing. But the gains of bargains are of a more doubtful nature. When men shall wait upon others' necessity, broke by servants and instruments to draw them on, put off others cunningly, that would be better Chapman than the like practices which are crafty and not. As for the chopping of bargains, when a man buys not to hold but to sell over again, that commonly grindeth double both upon the seller and upon the buyer. Sharings do greatly enrich if the hands be well chosen that are trusted. Usury is the certainness means of gain, though one of the worst, as that whereby a man doth eat his bread in sudore, vultus, alieni. And besides, doth plow upon Sundays. And yet certain though it be, it hath flaws, for that the scriveners and brokers do value unsound men to serve their own turn. The fortune in being the first in an invention or in a privilege doth cause sometimes a wonderful overgrowth in riches, as it was with the first sugar man in the canaries. And therefore if a man can play the true logician to have as well judgment as invention, he may do great matters, especially if the times be fit. He that resteth upon gains certain shall hardly grow to great riches, and he that puts all upon adventures doth off times break and come to poverty. It is good therefore to guard adventures with certainties that may uphold losses. The monopolies and coimption of wares for resale where they are not restrained are great means to enrich, especially if the party have intelligence what things are like to come into request and so store himself beforehand. Riches gotten by service, though it be of the best rise, yet when they are gotten by flattery, feeding humours and other servile conditions, they may be placed amongst the worst. For fishing for testaments and executorships, as Tasethith sayeth of Seneca, testamentah et Orbus tamquam in dagine capi, it is yet worse by how much men submit themselves to meaner persons than in service. Believe not much them that seem to despise riches, for they despise them that despair of them, and none worse when they come to them. Be not pennywise, riches have wings and sometimes they fly away of themselves, sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more. Men leave their riches either to their kindred or to the public, and moderate portions prosper best in both. A great state left to an heir is as a lure to all the birds of prey round about to seize on him if he be not the better established in years and judgment. Likewise, glorious gifts and foundations are like sacrifices without salt, and but the painted sepulchres of alms, which soon will putrify and corrupt inwardly. Therefore measure not thine advancements by quantity, but frame them by measure, and defer not charities till death, for certainly if a man weigh it rightly, he that death so is rather liberal of another man's than of his own. Essay 35 Of Prophecies I mean not to speak of divine prophecies, nor of heathen oracles, nor of natural predictions, but only of prophecies that have been of certain memory and from hidden causes. Sayeth the Pithanisa to Saul, Tomorrow thou and thy son shall be with me. Homer hath these verses At Domus ania cunctus Domabitur oris At Natinatorum At Quinescentur ab illus A prophecy as it seems of the Roman Empire. Seneca the Tragedian hath these verses Veniant anus Secula seris Quibus oceanus Vincula rerum laxate Et ingens patiat telus Tifesque novus Derigat orbus Neck cit teres ultima ful A prophecy of the discovery of America. The daughter of Pelicrates dreamed that Jupiter bathed her father and Apollo anointed him, and it came to pass that he was crucified in an open place where the son made his body run with sweat and the rain washed him. Philip of Macedon dreamed he sealed up his wife's belly whereby he did expound it that his wife should be barren. But Aristander the Soothsayer told him his wife was with child because men do not use to seal vessels that are empty. A phantasm that appeared to Im Brutus in his tent said to him Philippus aiterum me vitibus. Tiberius said to Galba, Tu coque Galba de gustabis imperium. In Vespasian's time there went a prophecy in the east that those that should come forth of Judea should reign over the world, which though it may be was meant of our savior, yet Tacitus expounds it of Vespasian. Domitian dreamed the night before he was slain that a golden head was growing out of the nape of his neck and indeed the succession that followed him for many years made golden times. Henry VI of England said of Henry VII when he was a lad and gave him water this is the lad that shall enjoy the crown for which we strive. When I was in France I heard from one doctor Pina that the queen mother who was given to curious arts caused the king her husband's nativity to be calculated under a false name and the astrologer gave a judgment that he should be killed in a duel at which the queen laughed thinking her husband to be above challenges and duels but he was slain upon a course at tilt the splinters of the staff of Montgomery going in at his beaver. The trivial prophecy which I heard when I was a child and Queen Elizabeth was in the flower of her years was when hemp is spun England's done whereby it was generally conceived that after the princes had reigned which had the principal letters of that word hemp which were Henry, Edward, Mary, Philip and Elizabeth England should come to utter confusion which thanks be to God is only verified in the change of the name for that the king's style is now no more of England but of Britain. There was also another prophecy before the year of 88 which I do not well understand there shall be seen upon a day between the Baugh and the May the black fleet of Norway when that that is come and gone England build houses of lime and stone for after wars shall you have none it was generally conceived to be meant of the Spanish fleet that came in 88 for that the king of Spain's surname as they say is Norway the prediction of Reggio Montanus Octogesimus Octavus Mirabilis Annus was thought likewise accomplished in the sending of that great fleet being the greatest in strength though not a number of all that ever swam upon the sea as for Cleon's dream I think it was a jest it was that he was devoured of a long dragon and it was expounded of a maker of sausages that troubled him exceedingly there are numbers of the like kind especially if you include dreams and predictions of astrology but I have set down these few only of certain credit for example my judgment is that they ought all to be despised and ought to serve but for winter talk by the fireside though when I say despised I mean it as for belief otherwise the spreading or publishing of them is in no sort to be despised for they have done much mischief and I see many severe laws made to suppress them that that have given them grace and some credit consisteth in three things first that men mark when they hit and never mark when they miss as they do generally also of dreams the second is that probable conjectures obscure traditions many times turn themselves into prophecies while the nature of man which coveteth divination thinks it no peril to foretell that which indeed they do but collect as that of Seneca's verse for so much was then subject to demonstration that the globe of the earth had great parts beyond the Atlantic which might be probably conceived not to be all sea and adding there to the tradition in Plato's Timaeus and his Atlanticus it might encourage one to turn it to a prediction the third and last which is the great one is that almost all of them being infinite in number have been imposters and by idle and crafty brains merely contrived and feigned after the event passed essay 36 of ambition ambition is like coaler which is in humor that maketh men active, earnest full of alacrity and stirring if it be not stopped but if it be stopped and cannot have his way it becomeeth a dust and thereby malign and venomous so ambitious men if they find the way open for their rising and still get forward they are rather busy than dangerous but if they be checked in their desires they become secretly discontent and look upon men in matters with an evil eye and are best pleased when things go backward which is the worst property in a servant of a prince or state therefore it is good for princes if they use ambitious men to handle it so as they be still progressive and not retrograde which because it cannot be without inconvenience it is good not to use such natures at all for if they rise not with their service they will take order to make their service fall with them but since we have said it were good not to use men of ambitious natures except be upon necessity it is fit we speak in what cases they are of necessity good commanders in the wars must be taken be they never so ambitious for the use of their service dispenseth with the rest and to take a soldier without ambition is to pull off his spurs there is also great use of ambitious men in being screens to princes in matters of danger and envy for no man will take that part except he be like a sealed dove that mounts and mounts because he cannot see about him there is use also of ambitious men in pulling down the greatness of any subject that overtops as Tiberius used Marco in the pulling down of Seginus since therefore they must be used in such cases there resteth to speak how they are to be bridled that they may be less dangerous there is less danger of them if they be of mean birth than if they be noble and if they be rather harsh of nature than gracious and popular and if they be rather new raised than grown cunning and fortified in their greatness it is counted by some a weakness in princes to have favorites it is of all others the best remedy against ambitious great ones for when the way of pleasuring and displeasuring lyeth by the favorite it is impossible any other should be over great another means to curb them is to balance them by others as proud as they but then there must be some middle counselors to keep things steady for without that ballast the ship will roll too much at the least a prince may animate and endure some meaner persons to be as it were scourges to ambitious men as for the having of them obnoxious to ruin if they be of fearful natures it may do well but if they be stout and daring it may precipitate their designs and prove dangerous as for the pulling of them down if the affairs require it and that it may not be done with safety suddenly the only way is the interchange continually of favors and disgraces whereby they may not know what to expect and be as it were in a wood of ambitions it is less harmful the ambition to prevail in great things than that other to appear in everything for that breeds confusion in Mars business but yet it is less danger to have an ambitious man stirring in business than great independences he that seeketh to be imminent amongst able man hath a great task but that is ever good for the public but he that plots to be the only figure amongst ciphers is the decay of a whole age honor hath three things in it the vantage ground to do good the approach to kings and principal persons and the raising of a man's own fortunes he that hath the best of these intentions when he aspireth is an honest man and that prince that can discern of these intentions in another that aspireth is a wise prince generally let princes and states choose such ministers as are more sensible of duty than of using and such as love business rather upon conscience than upon bravery and let them discern a busy nature from a willing mind end of the essays of Francis Bacon essays thirty-three thirty-four thirty-five and thirty-six this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the essays of Francis Bacon essay thirty-seven of masks and triumphs these things are but toys to come against such serious observations but yet since princes will have such things it is better they should be graced with elegancy than dobb'd with cost dancing to song is a thing of great state and pleasure I understand it that the song be inquire placed aloft and accompanied with some broken music and the diddy fitted to the device acting in song especially in dialogues have an extreme good grace I say acting not dancing for that is a mean and vulgar thing and the voices of the dialogue would be strong and manly a base and a tenor no treble and the diddy high and tragical not nice or dainty several choirs placed one over against another and taking the voice by catches anthem wise give great pleasure turning dances into figure is a childish curiosity and generally let it be noted that those things which I hear set down are such as do naturally take the sense and not respect petty wonderments it is true the alterations of scenes so it be quietly and without noise things of great beauty and pleasure for they feed and relieve the eye before it be full of the same object let the scenes abound with light specially colored and varied and let the maskers or any other that are come down from the scene have some motions upon the scene itself before they're coming down for it draws the eye strangely and makes it with great pleasure to desire to see that it cannot perfectly discern let the songs be loud and cheerful and not chirpings or peelings let the music likewise be sharp and loud and well placed the colors that show best by candlelight are white, carnation and a kind of sea water green and o's or spangs as they are of no great cost so they are of most glory as for rich embroidery it is lost and not discerned let the suits of the maskers be graceful and such has become the person when the visors are off not after examples of known attires Turk, soldiers, mariners and the like let anti-masks not belong they have been commonly of fools satyrs, baboons, wild men antics, beasts, sprites, witches ethiopes, pygmies, turquettes nymphs, rustics, cupids statues moving and the like as for angels it is not comical enough to put them in anti-masks and anything that is hideous as devil's giants is on the other side as unfit but chiefly let the music of them be recreative and with some strange changes some sweet odors suddenly coming forth without any drops falling are in such a company as there is steam and heat things of great pleasure and refreshment double masks, one of men, another of ladies add a state and variety but all is nothing except the room be kept clear and neat for just's and turnies and barriers the glories of them are chiefly in the chariots wherein the challengers make their entry especially if they be drawn with strange beasts as lions, bears, camels and the like or in the devices of their entrance or in the bravery of their liveries or in the goodly furniture of their horses and armor but enough of these toys Essay 38 of nature in men nature is often hidden sometimes overcome seldom extinguished force maketh nature more violent in the return doctrine and discourse maketh nature less importune but custom only doth alter and subdue nature he that seeketh victory over his nature let him not set himself too great nor too small tasks for the first will make him dejected by often failings and the second will make him a small procedure though by often prevailings and at the first let him practice with helps as swimmers do with bladders or rushes but after a time let him practice with disadvantages as dancers do with thick shoes for it breeds great perfection if the practice be harder than the use where nature is mighty and therefore the victory hard the degrees had need be first to stay and arrest nature in time like to him that would say over the four and twenty letters when he was angry then to go less in quantity as if one should in forbearing wine come from drinking healths to a draft at a meal and lastly to discontinue altogether but if a man have the fortitude and resolution that is the best neither is the ancient rule a miss to bend nature as a wand to a contrary extreme whereby to set it right understanding it where the contrary extreme is no vice let not a man force a habit upon himself a perpetual continuance but with some intermission for both the pause reinforces the new onset and if a man that is not perfect be ever in practice he shall as well practice his errors as his abilities and induce one habit of both and there is no means to help this but by seasonable intermissions but let not a man trust his victory over his nature too far for nature will lay buried a great time alive upon the occasion or temptation like as it was with Aesop's damsel turned from a cat to a woman who sat very demurely at the board's end till a mouse ran before her therefore let a man either avoid the occasion altogether or put himself often to it that he may be little moved with it a man's nature is best perceived in privateness for there is no effectation in passion for that putteth a man out of his precepts and in a new case or experiment for there custom leave with him they are happy men whose natures sort with their vocations otherwise they may say multum incola fuit anima mia when they converse in those things they do not effect in studies whatsoever a man commandeth upon himself let him set hours for it whatsoever is agreeable to his nature let him take no care for any set times for his thoughts will fly to it of themselves so as the spaces of other business or studies will suffice a man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds therefore let him seasonably water the one and destroy the other Essay 39 of custom and education men's thoughts are much according to their inclination their discourse and speeches according to their learning and infused opinions but their deeds are after as they have been accustomed and therefore as Machiavell well-noteth though in an evil favored instance there is no trusting to the force of nature nor to the bravery of words except it be corroborate by custom his instance is that for the achieving of a desperate conspiracy a man should not rest upon the fierceness of any man's nature or his resolute undertakings but take such in one as hath had his hands formerly in blood but Machiavell knew not of Friar Clement nor a Ravik nor a Jargai nor a Baltazar Gerard yet his rule holdeth still that nature nor the engagement of words are not so forcible as custom only superstition is now so well advanced that men of the first blood are as firm as butchers by occupation and votary resolution is made equivalent to custom even in matter of blood in other things the predominancy of custom is everywhere visible inso much as a man would wonder to hear men profess, protest, engage give great words and then do just as they had done before as if they were dead images and engines moved only by the wheels of custom we see also the reign or tyranny of custom what it is the Indians, I mean the sect of their wise men lay themselves quietly upon a stalk of wood and so sacrifice themselves by fire nay, the wives strive to be burned with the corpses of their husbands the lads of Sparta of ancient time were want to be scourged upon the altar of Diana without so much as quetching I remember in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's time of England an Irish rebel condemned put up a petition to the deputy that he might be hanged in a whiff and not in an halter because it had been so used with former rebels there be monks in Russia for penance that will sit a whole night in a vessel of water till they be engaged with hard ice many examples may be put of the force of custom both upon mind and body therefore, since custom is the principal magistrate of man's life let men by all means endeavor to obtain good customs certainly custom is most perfect when it beginneth in young years this we call education which is in effect but in early custom so we see in languages the tongue is more pliant to all expressions and sounds the joints are more supple to all feats of activity and motions in youth than afterwards for it is true that late learners cannot so well take the plie except it be in some minds that have not suffered themselves to fix but have kept themselves open and prepared to receive continual amendment which is exceeding rare but if the force of custom simple and separate be great the force of custom copulate and conjoined and collegiate is far greater for their example teacheth company comforteth emulation quickeneth glory raiseth so as in such places the force of custom is in his exaltation certainly the great multiplication of virtues upon human nature resteth upon societies well ordained and disciplined for commonwealths and good governments do nourish virtue grown but do not much mend the deeds but the misery is that the most effectual means are now applied to the ends least to be desired essay 40 of fortune it cannot be denied but outward accidents conduce much to fortune favor, opportunity, death of others occasion fitting virtue but chiefly the mold of a man's fortune is in his own hands faber quisque fortunae suae sayeth the poet and the most frequent of external causes is that the folly of one man is the fortune of another for no man prospers so suddenly as by others' errors serpents nisi serpentum comadaret nonfit draco overt and apparent virtues bring forth praise but there be secret and hidden virtues that bring forth fortune certain deliveries of a man's self which have no name the Spanish name desimbaltura partly expresseth them when there be not stawns nor restiveness in a man's nature but that the wheels of his mind keep way with the wheels of his fortune for so livvy after he had described Cato Major in these words in ilo vero tantum robur corporis et anime foet ot coquenque loco natus eset fortunam civi facturus videratur falleth upon that that he had versatile ingenium therefore if any man looks sharply and attentively he shall see fortune for those she be blind yet she is not invisible the way of fortune is like the milken way in the sky which is a meeting or not of a number of small stars not seen asunder but giving light together so are there a number of little and scarce discerned virtues or rather faculties and customs that make men fortunate the Italians note some of them such as a man would little think when they speak of one that cannot do amiss they will throw in into his other conditions that he hath poco dimatto and certainly there be not two more fortunate properties than to have a little of the fool and not too much of the honest therefore extreme lovers of their country or masters were never fortunate neither can they be for when a man placeth his thoughts without himself he goeth not his own way and hasty fortune maketh an interpriser and remover the French hath it better entreprenant or remwant but the exercised fortune maketh the able man fortune is to be honoured and respected and it be but for her daughters confidence and reputation for those two felicity breedeth the first within a man's self the latter in others towards him all wise men to decline the envy of their own virtues used to ascribe them to providence and fortune for so they may the better assume them and besides it is greatness in a man to be the care of the higher powers so Caesar said to the pilot in the tempest Caesaram portus et fortunam aegis so Scylla chose the name of Felix and not of Magnus and it hath been noted that those who ascribe openly too much to their own wisdom and policy end infortunate it is written that Timotheus the Athenian after he had in the account he gave to the state of his government often interlaced this speech and in this fortune had no part never prospered in anything he undertook afterwards certainly there be whose fortunes are like Homer's verses that have a slide and easiness more than the verses of other poets as Plutarch sayeth of Timoleon's fortune in respect of that of Agicilius or Epaminandus and that this should be no doubt it is much in a man's self end of the essays of Francis Bacon essays 37 38 39 and 40 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the essays of Francis Bacon essay 41 of usury many have made witty invectives against usury they say that it is a pity the devil should have God's part which is the tithe that the usurer is the greatest Sabbath breaker because his plow goeth every Sunday that the usurer is the drone that Virgil speaketh of Ignavum fucas pecus a presepebus arsent that the usurer breaketh the first law that was made for mankind after the fall which was insudore vultus tui comides panum tuum not insudore vultus alieni that usurers should have orange tawny botants because they do judaeis that it is against nature for money to beget money and the like I say this only that usury is a concessum proptur duretium cordus for since there must be borrowing and lending and men are so hard of heart as they will not lend freely usury must be permitted some others have made suspicious and cunning propositions of banks discovery of men's estates and other inventions but few have spoken of usury usefully it is good to set before us the in commodities and commodities of usury that the good may be either weighed out or called out and warily to provide that while we make forth to that which is better we eat not with that which is worse the disc commodities of usury are first that it makes fewer merchants for were it not for this lazy trade of usury money would not be still but would in great part be employed upon merchandising which is the vina porta of wealth in a state the second that it makes poor merchants for as a farmer cannot husband his ground so well if he sit at a great rent so the merchant cannot drive his trade so well if he sit at great usury the third is incident to the other two and that is the decay of customs of kings or states which ever flow with merchandising the fourth that it bringeth the treasure of a realm or state into a few hands for the usurer being at certainties and others at uncertainties at the end of the game most of the money will be in the box and ever a state flourisheth when wealth is more equally spread the fifth that it beats down the price of land for the employment of money is chiefly either merchandising or purchasing and usury way lays both the sixth that it doth dull and damp all industries improvements and new inventions wherein money would be stirring if it were not for this slug the last that it is the canker and ruin of many men's estates which in process of time breeds a public poverty on the other side the commodities of usury are first that howsoever usury in some respects hindereth merchandising yet in some other it advanceeth it for it is certain that the greatest part of trade is driven by young merchants upon borrowing at interest so as if the usurer either call in or keep back his money there will ensue presently a great stand of trade the second is that were it not for this easy borrowing upon interest men's necessities would draw upon them a most sudden undoing in that they would be forced to sell their means be it lands or goods far under foot and so whereas usury doth but gnaw upon them bad markets would swallow them quite up as for mortgaging or pawning it will little mend the matter for either men will not take ponds without use or if they do they will look precisely for the forfeiture I remember a cruel moneyed man in the country that would say the devil take this usury it keeps us from forfeitures of mortgages and bonds the third and last is that it is a vanity to conceive that there would be ordinary borrowing without profit and it is impossible to conceive the number of inconveniences that will ensue if borrowing be cramped therefore to speak of the abolishing of usury as idle all states have ever had it in one kind or rate or other so as that opinion must be sent to utopia to speak now of the reformation and regalment of usury how the discommodities of it may be best avoided and the commodities retained it appears by the balance of commodities and discommodities of usury two things are to be reconciled the one that the tooth of usury be grinded that it might not too much the other that there be left open a means to invite moneyed men to lend to the merchants for the continuing and quickening of trade this cannot be done except you introduce to several sorts of usury a less and a greater for if you reduce usury to one low rate it will ease the common borrower but the merchant will be to seek for money and it is to be noted that the trade of merchandise being the most lucrative may bear usury at a good rate other contracts not so to serve both intentions the way would be briefly thus that there be two rates of usury the one free and general for all the other under license only to certain persons and in certain places of merchandising first therefore let usury in general be reduced to five in the hundred and let that rate be proclaimed to be free and current and let the state shut itself out to take any penalty for the same this will preserve borrowing from any general stop or dryness this will ease infinite borrowers in the country this will in good part raise the price of land because land purchased at sixteen years purchase will yield six in the hundred and somewhat more whereas this rate of interest yields but five this by like reason will encourage and edge industrious and profitable improvements because many will rather venture in that kind than take five in the hundred especially having been used to greater profit secondly let there be certain persons licensed to lend to known merchants upon usury at a higher rate and let it be with the cautions following let the rate be even with the merchant himself somewhat more easy than that he used formerly to pay for by that means all borrowers shall have some ease by this reformation be he merchant or whosoever let it be no bank or common stock but every man be master of his own money not that I altogether mislike banks but they will hardly be brooked in regard of certain suspicions let the state be answered some small matter for the license and the rest left to the lender for if the abatement be but small it will know it discourage the lender for he for example that took before ten or nine in the hundred will sooner descend to eight in the hundred than give over his trade of usury and go from certain gains to gains of hazard let these license lenders be in the number indefinite but restrain to certain principal cities and towns of merchandising for then they will be hardly able to color other men's monies in the country so as the license of nine will not suck away the current rate of five for no man will send his monies far off nor put them into unknown hands if it be objected that this doth in a sort authorize usury which before was in some places but permissive the answer is that it is better to mitigate usury by declaration than to suffer it to rage by connivance essay 42 of youth and age a man that is young in years may be old in hours if he have lost no time but that happeneth rarely generally youth is like the first cogitations not so wise as the second for there is a youth in thoughts as well as in ages and yet the invention of young men is more lively than that of old and imaginations stream into their minds better and as it were more divinely natures that have much heat and great and violent desires and perturbations are not ripe for action till they have passed the meridian of their years as it was with Julius Caesar and Septimius Severus of the latter of whom it is said juventutum agate eroribus emo feroribus plenum and yet he was the ableist emperor almost of all the list but reposed natures may do well in youth as it is seen in Augustus Caesar Cosmus Duke of Florence Gaston de Foix and others on the other side and vivacity in age is an excellent composition for business young men are fitter to invent than to judge fitter for execution than for council and fitter for new projects than for settled business for the experience of age in things that fall within the compass of it directeth them but in new things abuseth them the errors of young men are the ruin of business but the errors of aged men amount but to this that more might have been done or sooner young men in the conduct and manage of actions embrace more than they can hold stir more than they can quiet fly to the end without consideration of the means and degrees pursue some few principles which they have chanced upon absurdly care not to innovate which draws unknown inconveniences use extreme remedies at first and that which doubleeth all errors will not acknowledge or retract them like an unready horse that will neither stop nor turn men of age object too much consult too long adventure too little repent too soon and seldom drive business home to the full period but content themselves with a mediocrity of success certainly it is good to compound employments of both for that will be good for the present because the virtues of either age may correct the defects of both and good for succession that young men may be learners while men in age are actors and lastly good for extern accidents because authority followeth old men in favor and popularity youth but for the moral part perhaps youth will have the preeminence as age half for the politic a certain raven upon the text your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams infereth that young men are admitted nearer to God than old because vision is a clearer revelation than a dream and certainly the more a man drinketh of the world the more it intoxicates and age does prefer rather in the powers of understanding than in the virtues of the will and affections there be some have an over-early ripeness in their years which fadeeth betimes these are first such as have Brittlewitz the edge whereof is soon turned such as was Hermogenes the rhetorician whose books are exceeding subtle who afterwards waxed stupid a second sort is of those that have some natural dispositions which have better grace in youth than in age such as is a fluent and luxuriant speech which becomes youth well but not age so toly sayeth of Hortensius I dim manabat neckway I dim desabat the third is of such as take too high a strain at the first and are magnanimous more than tract of years can uphold as was Scipio africanus of whom Livy sayeth in effect Ultima primus sedibant essay 43 of beauty virtue is like a rich stone best plain set and surely virtue is best in a body that is comely though not of delicate features and that hath rather dignity of presence than beauty of aspect neither is it almost seen that very beautiful persons are otherwise of great virtue as if nature were rather busy not to air than in labor to produce excellency and therefore they prove accomplished but not of great spirit and study rather behavior than virtue but this holds not always for Augustus Caesar Titus Vespacianus Philip Lebel of France Edward IV of England Elcibiades of Athens Ismael the Safi of Persia were all high and great spirits yet the most beautiful men of their times in beauty that of favor is more than that of color and that of decent and gracious motion more than that of favor that is the best part of beauty which a picture cannot express nor the first sight of the life there is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion a man cannot tell whether a palace or Albert Durer were the more trifler where of the one would make a personage by geometrical proportions the other by taking the best parts out of diverse faces to make an excellent such personages I think would please nobody but the painter that made them not but I think a painter may make a better face than ever was but he must do it by a kind of felicity as a musician that maketh an excellent air in music not by rule a man shall see faces that if you examine them part by part you shall find never a good and yet altogether do well if it be true that the principal part of beauty is in decent motion certainly it is no marvel though persons in years see many times more amenable pochrorum, autumnus, pulture for no youth can be comely but by pardon and considering the youth as to make up the comeliness beauty is as summer fruits which are easy to corrupt and cannot last and for the most part it makes a disillute youth and an age a little out of countenance but yet certainly again if it light well it maketh virtue shine and vices blush essay 44 of deformity deformed persons are commonly even with nature for as nature hath done ill by them so do they by nature being for the most part as the scripture sayeth void of natural affection and so they have their revenge of nature certainly there is a consent between the body and the mind and where nature ereth in the one she ventureth in the other ubi peccat in uno pereclititur in altero but because there is in man an election touching the frame of his mind and a necessity in the frame of his body the stars of natural inclination are sometimes obscured by the son of discipline and virtue therefore it is good to consider of deformity not as a sign which is more deceivable but as a cause which seldom faileth of the effect whosoever hath anything fixed in his person that doth induce contempt hath also a perpetual spur in himself to rescue and deliver himself from scorn therefore all deformed persons are extreme bold first as in their own defense as being exposed to scorn but in process of time by a general habit also it stirreth in them industry and especially of this kind to watch and observe the weakness of others that they may have somewhat to repay then in their superiors it quencheth jealousy towards them as persons that they think they may at pleasure despise and it layeth their competitors and emulators asleep as never believing they should be in possibility of advancement till they see them in possession so that upon the matter in a great wit deformity is an advantage to rising kings in ancient times and at this present in some countries were want to put great trust in eunuchs because they that are envious towards all are more obnoxious and officious towards one but yet their trust towards them hath rather been as to good spills and good whispers than good magistrates and officers and much like is the reason of deformed persons still the ground is they will if they be of free spirit seek to free themselves from scorn which must be either by virtue or malice and therefore let it not be marveled if sometimes they prove excellent persons as was Agicilius Zanger the son of Solomon Asop Gaska President of Peru and Socrates may go likewise amongst them with others of building Houses are built to live in and not to look on therefore let use be preferred before uniformity except where both may be had leave the goodly fabrics of houses for beauty only to the enchanted palaces of the poets who build them with small cost he that builds a fair house upon an ill seat committed himself to prison neither do I reckon it an ill seat only where the air is unwholesome but likewise where the air is unequal as you shall see many fine seats set upon a nap of ground environed with higher hills round about it whereby the heat of the sun is pent in and the wind gathereth as in troughs so as you so have and that suddenly as great diversity of heat and cold as if you dwelt in several places neither is it ill air only that maketh an ill seat but ill ways ill markets and if you will consult with Momus ill neighbors I speak not of many more want of water want of wood shade and shelter many of fruitfulness and mixture of grounds of several natures want of prospect want of level grounds want of places at some near distance where sports or hunting, hawking and races to near the sea to remote having the commodity of navigable rivers or the discomodity of their overflowing to far off from great cities which may hinder business or to near them which lurcheth all provisions and maketh everything dear where a man hath a great living laid together and where he is scanted all of which as it is impossible perhaps to find together so it is good to know them and think of them that a man may take as many as he can and if he have several dwellings that he sort them so that what he wanteth in the one he may find in the other Lecolas answered Pompey well who when he saw his stately galleries and rooms so large and lightsome in one of his houses said surely an excellent place for summer but how do you in the winter Lecolas answered why do you not think me as wise as some fowl are that ever change their abode towards the winter to pass from the seat to the house itself we will do as Cicero doth in the orator's art who writes books de oratory and a book he entitles orator whereof the former delivers the precepts of the art and the latter the perfection we will therefore describe a princely palace making a brief model thereof for it is strange to see now in Europe such huge buildings as the Vatican and Escurial and some others be and yet scarce a very fair room in them first therefore I say you cannot have a perfect palace except you have two several sides a side for the banquet as it is spoken of in the book of Hester and a side for the household for feasts and triumphs and the other for dwelling I understand both these sides to be not only returns but parts of the front and to be uniform without though severally partitioned within and to be on both sides of a great and stately tower in the midst of the front that as it were joineth them together on either hand I would have on the side of the banquet in front one goodly room above stairs some forty foot high and under it a room for addressing or preparing place at times of triumphs on the other side which is the household side I wish it was divided at the first into a hall and a chapel with a partition between both of good state and bigness and those not to go all the length but to have at the further end a winter and a summer parlor both fair under these rooms a fair and large cellar sunk underground and likewise some privy kitchens with batteries and pantries and the like as for the tower I would have it two stories of eighteen foot high apiece above the two wings and a goodly leads upon the top railed with statuettes interposed and the same tower to be divided into rooms as shall be thought fit the stairs likewise to the upper rooms let them be upon a fair open new all and finally railed in with images of wood cast into a brass color and a very fair landing place at the top but this to be if you do not point any of the lower rooms for a dining place of servants for otherwise you shall have the servants dinner after your own for the steam of it will come up as in a tunnel and so much for the front only I understand the height of the first stairs to be sixteen foot which is the height of the lower room beyond this front is there to be a fair court but three sides of it of a far lower building than the front and in all the four corners of that court fair staircases cast into turrets on the outside and not within the row of buildings themselves but those towers are not to be of the height of the front but rather proportionable to the lower building let the court not be paved for that strike up a great heat in summer and much cold in winter but only some side alleys with a cross and the quarters to graze being kept shorn but not too near shorn the row of return on the banquet side let it be all stately galleries in which galleries let there be three or five fine cupulas in the length of it placed at equal distance and fine colored windows of several works on the household side chambers of presence and ordinary entertainments with some bed chambers and let all three sides be a double house without thorough lights on the sides that you may have rooms from the sun both for four noon and afternoon cast it also that you may have rooms both for summer and winter shady for summer and warm for winter you shall have sometimes fair houses so full of glass that one cannot tell where to become to be out of the sun or cold for inbode windows I hold them of good use and cities indeed upright do better in respect of the uniformity towards the street for they be pretty retiring places for conference and besides they keep both the wind and sun off for that which would strike almost through the room doth scarce pass the window but let them be but few four in the court on the sides only beyond this court let there be an inward court of the same square and height which is to be environed with the garden on all sides and in the inside cloistered on all sides upon decent and beautiful arches as high as the first story on the underside towards the garden let it be turned to a grotto or a place of shade or estivation and only have opening and windows towards the garden and be level upon the floor no wit sunken underground to avoid all dampishness and let there be a fountain or some fair work of statuettes in the midst of this court and to be paved as the other court was these buildings to be for privy lodgings on both sides and the end for privy galleries whereof you must foresee that one of them be for an infirmary if the prince or any special person should be sick with chambers, bedchamber and to camera and re-camera joining to it this upon the second story upon the ground story a fair gallery open upon pillars and upon the third story likewise an open gallery upon pillars to take the prospect and freshness of the garden at both corners of the further side by way of return let there be two delicate or rich cabinets daintily paved, richly hanged glazed with crystalline glass and a rich cupola in the midst and all the other elegancy that may be thought upon in the upper gallery too I wish that there may be if the place will yield it some fountains running in diverse places upon the wall with some fine avoidances and thus much for the model of the palace save that you must have before you come to the front three courts a green court plain with a wall about it a second court of the same but more garnished with little turrets or rather embellishments upon the wall and a third court to make a square with the front but not to be built nor yet most with terraces let it aloft and fairly garnished on the three sides and cloistered on the inside with pillars and not with arches below as for offices let them stand at distance with some low galleries to pass from them to the palace itself end of the essays of Francis Bacon essays 41 42 43 44 and 45 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the essays of Francis Bacon essay 46 of Gardens God Almighty first planted a garden and indeed it is the purest of human pleasures it is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man without which buildings and palaces are but gross handiworks and a man shall ever see that when ages grow to civility and elegancy men come to build stately sooner than to garden finally as if gardening were the greater perfection I do hold it in the royal ordering of gardens there ought to be gardens for all the months and the year in which several things of beauty may be then in season for December and January and the latter part of November you must take such things as our green all winter holly, ivy, bays, juniper cypress trees, you pine apple trees fir trees, rosemary lavender, periwinkle the white, the purple and the blue germander, flags orange trees, lemon trees and myrtles if they be stovet and sweet majorum, warm set there followeth for the latter part of January and February the mesarian tree which then blossoms crocus vernis both the yellow and the gray primroses, anemones the early tulipa hyacinthus orientalis comaris fritillaria for March there come violets especially the single blue which are the earliest the yellow daffodil the daisy the almond tree and blossom the peach tree in blossom the cornelian tree in blossom sweetbriar in April follow the double white violet the wallflower the stock gilliflower the cow slip flower delices and lilies of all natures rosemary flowers the tulipa the double peony the pale daffodil the french honeysuckle the cherry tree in blossom the damson and plum trees in blossom the white thorn in leaf the lilac tree in May and June come pinks of all sorts especially the blush pink roses of all kinds except the musk which comes later honeysuckles strawberries bugloss columbine the french marigold floss africanus cherry tree in fruit rives figs in fruit rasps vineflowers lavender and flowers the sweet satyrian with the white flower herb muscaria lilium convalium the apple tree in blossom in July come gilliflowers of all varieties musk roses the lime tree in blossom early pears and plums in fruit genitines codlands in August come plums of all sorts in fruit pears apricots berberies philberds musk melons monks hoods of all colors in September come grapes apples poppies of all colors peaches and melocotones nectarines cornelians wardens quinces in October and the beginning of November come services medlar's bullesses roses cut or removed to come late lollihawks and such like these particulars are for the climate of London but my meaning is perceived that you may have ver perpettuum as the place affords and because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air where it comes and goes like warbling of music than in the hand therefore nothing is more fit for the delight than to know what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air roses, damask and red are fast flowers of their smells so that you may walk by a whole row of them and find nothing of their sweetness yea, though it be in a morning's dew bays likewise yield no smell as they grow rosemary little nor sweet marjoram that which above all others yields the sweetest smell in the air is the violet especially the white double violet which comes twice a year about the middle of April and about Bartholomew tide next to that is the musk rose then the strawberry leaves dying which yield a most excellent cordial smell then the flower of vines it is a little dust like the dust of a bent which grows upon the cluster in the first coming forth then sweet briar then wall flowers which are very delightful to be set under a parlor or lower chamber window then pinks and gilliflowers especially the matted pink and clove gilliflower then the flowers of the lime tree then the honeysuckles so they be somewhat far off of bean flowers I speak not because they are field flowers but those which perfume the air most delightfully not pass by as the rest but being trodden upon and crushed are three that is burn it wild time and water mints therefore you are to set whole alleys of them to have the pleasure when you walk or tread for gardens speaking of those which are indeed prints like as we have done of buildings the contents ought not well to be under 30 acres of ground and to be divided into three parts a green in the entrance a heath or desert in the going forth and the main garden in the midst besides alleys on both sides and I like well that four acres of ground be assigned to the green six to the heath four and four to either side and twelve to the main garden the green have two pleasures the one because nothing is more pleasant to the eye than green grass kept finely shorn the other because it will give you a fair alley in the midst by which you may go in front upon a stately hedge which is to enclose the garden but because the alley will be long and in great heat of the year or day you ought not to buy the shade in the garden by going in the sun through the green therefore you are of either side the green to plant a covert alley upon carpenters work about twelve foot in height by which you may go in shade into the garden as for the making of knots or figures with diverse colored earths that they may lie under the windows of the house on that side which the garden stands they be but toys you may see as good sights many times in tarts the garden is best to be square encompassed on all the four sides with a stately arched hedge to be upon pillars of carpenters work of some ten foot high and six foot abroad and the space is between of the same dimension with the breadth of the arch over the arches let there be an entire hedge of some four foot high framed also upon carpenters work and upon the upper hedge over every arch a little turret with a belly enough to receive a cage of birds and over every space between the arches some other little figure with broad plates of round colored glass guilt for the sun to play upon but this hedge I intend to be raised upon a bank not steep but gently slope of some six foot set all with flowers also I understand that this square of the garden should not be the whole breadth of the ground but to leave on either side ground enough for the diversity of side alleys unto which the two covert alleys of the green may deliver you but there must be no alleys with hedges at either end of this great enclosure not at the hither end for letting your prospect upon this fair hedge from the green nor at the further end for letting your prospect from the hedge through the arches upon the heath for the ordering of the ground within the great hedge I leave it to variety of device that whatsoever form you cast it into first it be not too busy or full of work wherein I for my part do not like images cut out in juniper or other garden stuff they be for children little low hedges round like welts with some pretty pyramids I like well and in some places fair columns upon frames of carpenters work I would also have the alleys spacious and fair you may have closer alleys upon the side grounds but none in the main garden I wish also in the very middle a fair mount with three ascents and alleys enough for four to walk abreast which I would have to be perfect circles without any bulwarks or embossments and the whole mount to be 30 foot high and some fine banqueting house with some chimneys neatly cast and without too much glass for fountains they are a great beauty and refreshment but pools mar all and make the garden unwholesome and full of flies and frogs fountains I intend to be of two natures the one that's sprinklet or spaldeth water the other a fair receipt of water of some 30 or 40 foot square but without fish or slime or mud for the first the ornaments of images guilt or of marble which are in use do well but the main matter is so to convey the water as it never stay either in the bowls or in the cistern that the water be never by rest discolored green or red or the like or gather any mossiness or putrefaction besides that it is to be cleansed every day by the hand also some steps up to it and some fine pavement about it death well as for the other kind of fountain which we may call a bathing pool it may admit much curiosity and beauty wherewith we will not trouble ourselves as that the bottom be finally paved and with images the sides likewise and with all embellished with colored glass and such things of luster and compassed also with fine rails of low statuettes but the main point is the same which we mentioned in the former kind of fountain which is that the water be in perpetual motion fed by a water higher than the pool and delivered into it by fair spouts and then discharged away underground by some equality of bores that it stay little and for fine devices of arching water without spilling and making it rise in several forms of feathers, drinking glasses, canopies and the like they be pretty things to look upon but nothing to health and sweetness for the heath which was the third part of our plot I wish it to be framed as much as may be to a natural wildness trees I would have none in it but some thickets made only of sweetbriar and some wild vine amongst and the ground set with violets, strawberries and primroses for these are sweet and prosper in the shade and these to be in the heath here and there not in any order I like also little heaps in the nature of molehills such as are in wild heaths to be set some with wild time some with pinks, some with germander which gives a good flower to the eye some with periwinkle, some with violets some with strawberries, some with cow slips some with daisies, some with red roses some with lilyam comevalium some with sweet williams red some with bear's foot and the like low flowers being with all sweet and sightly part of which heaps are to be with standards of little bushes pricked upon their top and part without the standards to be roses juniper, holly, berberies but here and there because of the smell of their blossoms red currants, gooseberries, rosemary, bays sweetbriar and such like but these standards to be kept with cutting that they grow not out of course for the side grounds you are to fill them with this is private to give a full shade some of them wheresoever the sun be you are to frame some of them likewise for shelter that when the wind blows sharp you may walk as in a gallery and those alleys must be likewise hedged at both ends to keep out the wind and these closer alleys must be ever finely graveled and no grass because of going wet in many of these alleys likewise you set fruit trees of all sorts as well upon the walls as in ranges and this would be generally observed that the borders wherein you plant your fruit trees be fair and large and low and not steep and set with fine flowers but thin and sparingly lest they deceive the trees at the end of both the side grounds I would have a mount of some pretty height leaving the wall of the enclosure breast high into the fields for the main garden I do not deny but there should be some fair alleys ranged on both sides with fruit trees and some pretty tufts of fruit trees and arbors with seats set in some decent order but these to be by no means set too thick but to leave the main garden so as it be not too close but the air open and free for as for shade I would have you rest upon the alleys of the side grounds there to walk if you be disposed in the heat of the year or day but to make account that the main garden is for the more temperate parts of the year and in the heat of summer for the morning and the evening or overcast days for aviaries I'd like them not except they be of that largeness as they may be tuft and have living plants and bushes set in them that the birds may have more scope and natural nesting and that no foulness appear in the floor of the aviary so I have made a platform of a princely garden partly by precept partly by drawing not a model but some general lines of it and in this I have spared for no cost but it is nothing for great princes that for the most part taking advice with workmen with no less cost set their things together and sometimes add statuettes and such things for state and magnificence but nothing to the true pleasure of a garden Essay 47 of negotiating it is generally better to deal by speech than by letter and by the mediation of a third than by a man's self Letters are good when a man would draw an answer by letter back again and it may serve for a man's justification afterwards to produce his own letter or where it may be danger to be interrupted or heard by pieces to deal in person is good when a man's face breatheth regard as commonly with inferiors or in tender cases where a man's eye upon the countenance of him with whom he speaketh may give him a direction how far to go and generally where a man will reserve to himself liberty either to disavow or to expound In choice of instruments it is better to choose men of a planar sort that are like to do that that is committed to them and to report back again faithfully the success than those that are cunning to contrive out of other men's business somewhat to grace themselves and will help the matter in report for satisfaction's sake Use also such persons as effect the business wherein they are employed for that quickeneth much and such as are fit for the matter as bold men for expostulation fair-spoken men for persuasion crafty men for inquiry and observation fraught and observed men for business that doth not well bear out itself Use also such as have been lucky and prevailed before in things wherein you have employed them for that breeds confidence and they will strive to maintain their prescription It is better to sound a person with whom one deals afar off than to fall upon the point at first except you mean to surprise him by some short question It is better dealing with men in appetite than with those that are where they would be If a man deal with another upon conditions the start or first performance is all men cannot reasonably demand except either the nature of the thing be such which must go before or else a man can persuade the other party that he shall still need him in some other thing or else that he be counted the honester man All practice is to discover or to work Men discover themselves in trust, in passion at unawares and of necessity when they would have somewhat done and cannot find an apt pretext If you would work any man you must either know his nature and fashions and so lead him or his ends and so persuade him or his weaknesses and disadvantages and so all him or those that have interest in him and so govern him In dealing with cunning persons we must ever consider their ends to interpret their speeches and it is good to say little to them and that which they least look for In all negotiations of difficulty a man may not look to so and reap at once but must prepare business and so ripen it by degrees Essay 48 of followers and friends Costly followers are not to be liked lest while a man maketh his train longer he makes his wings shorter I reckon to be costly not them alone which charge the purse but which are wearisome and importune in suits Ordinary followers ought to challenge no higher conditions than countenance, recommendation and protection from wrongs Factious followers are worse to be liked which follow not upon affection to him with whom they range themselves but upon discontentment conceived against some other whereupon commonly ensueth that ill intelligence that we many times see between great personages Likewise glorious followers who make themselves as trumpets of the commendation of those they follow are full of inconvenience for they taint business through want of secrecy and they export honor from a man and make him a return in envy There is a kind of followers likewise which are dangerous being indeed espiels which inquire the secrets of the house and bear tales of them to others yet such men many times are in great favor for they are officious and commonly exchange tales The following by certain estates of men answerable to that which a great person himself professeth as of soldiers to him that hath been employed in the wars and the like hath ever been a thing civil and well taken even in monarchies so it be without too much pomp or popularity but the most honorable kind of following is to be followed as one that apprehendeth to advance virtue and desert in all sorts of persons and yet where there is no eminent odds in sufficiency it is better to take with the more passable than with the more able and besides to speak the truth in base times active men are of more use than virtuous it is true that in government it is good to use men of one rank equally for to countenance some extraordinarily is to make them insolent and the rest discontent because they may claim a due but contrary wise in favor to use men with much difference and election is good for it make it the persons preferred more thankful and the rest more officious because all is of favor it is good discretion not to make too much of any man at the first because one cannot hold out that proportion to be governed as we call it by one is not safe for it shows softness and gives a freedom to scandal and disreputation for those that would not censure or speak ill of a man immediately will talk more boldly of those who feel great with them and thereby wound their honor yet to be distracted with many is worse for it makes men to be of the last impression and full of change to take advice of some few friends is ever honorable for lookers on many times see more than gamesters and the veil best discovereth the hill there is little friendship in the world and least of all between equals we want to be magnified that that is is between superior and inferior whose fortunes may comprehend the one the other essay 49 of suitors many ill matters and projects are undertaken and private suits do putrify the public good many good matters are undertaken with bad minds I mean not only corrupt minds but crafty minds that intend not performance some embrace suits which never mean to deal effectually in them but if they see there may be life in the matter by some other mean they will be content to win a thank or take a second reward or at least to make use in the meantime of the suitors hopes some take hold of suits only for an occasion to cross some other or to make an information as they could not otherwise have apt pretext without care what become of the suit when that turn is served or generally to make other men's business a kind of entertainment to bring in their own nay some undertake suits with a full purpose to let them fall to the end to gratify the adverse party or competitor surely there is in some sort a right in every suit either a right of equity be a suit of controversy or a right of dessert if it be a suit of petition if affection lead a man to favor the wrong side injustice let him rather use his countenance to compound the matter than to carry it if affection lead a man to favor the less worthy in dessert let him do it without depraving or disabling the better deserving in suits which a man doth not well understand it is good to refer them to some friend of trust and judgment that may report whether he may deal in them with honor let him choose well his referendaries for else he may be led by the nose suitors are so distasted with delays and abuses that plain dealing in denying to deal in suits at first and reporting the success barely and in challenging no more thanks than one hath deserved no not only honorable but also gracious in suits of favor the first coming ought to take little place so far forth consideration may be had of his trust that if intelligence of the matter could not otherwise have been had but by him advantage be not taken of the note but the party left to his other means and in some sort recompensed for his discovery to be ignorant of the value of simplicity as well as to be ignorant of the right thereof is want of conscience secrecy in suits is a great mean of obtaining for voicing them to be in forwardness may discourage some kind of suitors but doth quicken and awake others but timing of the suit is the principle timing I say not only in respect of the person that should grant it but in respect of those which are like let a man in the choice of his mean rather choose the fittest mean than the greatest mean and rather them that deal in certain things than those that are general the reparation of a denial is sometimes equal to the first grant if a man show himself neither dejected nor discontented in Niccouam Petas Ut Aquam Ferris is a good rule where a man hath strength of favor but otherwise a man were better rise in his suit for he that would have ventured at first to have lost the suitor will not in the conclusion lose both the suitor and his own former favor nothing is thought so easy a request to a great person as his letter and yet if it be not in a good cause it is so much out of his reputation there are no worse instruments than these general contrivers of suits for they are but a kind of poison and infection to the public proceedings essay 50 of studies studies serve for delight for ornament and for ability their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring for ornament is in discourse and for ability is in the judgment and disposition of business for expert men can execute and perhaps judge of particulars one by one but the general counsels and the plots and marshaling of affairs come best from those that are learned to spend too much time in studies is slot to use them too much for ornament is affectation to make judgment holy by their rules is the humor of a scholar they perfect nature and are perfected by experience for natural abilities are like natural plants that need pruning by study and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large except they be bounded in experience crafty men contend studies simple men admire them and wise men use them for they teach not their own use but that is a wisdom without them and above them one by observation read not to contradict and confute nor to believe and take for granted nor to find talk and discourse but to weigh and consider some books are to be tasted others to be swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested that is some books are to be read only in parts others to be read but not curiously and some few to be read holy and with diligence and attention some books also may be read by deputy and extracts made of them by others but that would be only in the less important arguments and the meaner sort of books else distilled books are like common distilled waters flashy things reading maketh a full man conferrence a ready man an exact man and therefore if a man write little he had need have a great memory if he confer little he had need have a present wit and if he read little he had need have much cunning to seem to know that he did not histories make men wise poets witty the mathematics subtle natural philosophy deep moral grave logic and rhetoric able to contend abeyant studio in mores nay there is no stunned or impediment in the wit but may be wrought out by fit studies like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises bowling is good for the stone and reins shooting for the lungs and breast gentle walking for the stomach writing for the head and the like so if a man's wit be wandering let him study the mathematics for in demonstrations if his wit be called away never so little he must begin again if his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences let him study the school men for they are Siamini sectoris if he be not apt to beat over matters and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another let him study the lawyer's cases so every defect of the mind may have a special receipt end of the essays of Francis Bacon essays 46 47 48 49 and 50