 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information and to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Essays of Francis Bacon Essays 16 of Atheism I had rather believe all the fables in the legend and the Talmud and the Al-Quran that this universal frame is without a mind, and therefore God never wrought miracle to convince atheism because his ordinary works convince it. It is true that a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion. For while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them and go no further. But when it beholdeth the chain of them confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to providence and deity. Nay, even that school which is most accused of atheism doth most demonstrate religion, that is, the school of Lysippus and Democritus and Epicurus. For it is a thousand times more credible that four mutable elements and one immutable fifth essence, duly and eternally placed, need no God, than that an army of infinite small portions, or seeds unplaced, should have produced this order and beauty without a divine marshal. The scripture sayeth, the fool hath said in his heart, it is not said the fool hath thought in his heart. So as he rather sayeth it by rote to himself, as that he would have, then, that he can thoroughly believe it, or be persuaded of it. For none deny there is a God, but those for whom it maketh that there were no God. It appeareth in nothing more that atheism is rather in the lip than in the heart of man, than by this. That atheists will ever be talking of that their opinion as if they fainted in it within themselves, and would be glad to be strengthened by the consent of others. Nay more, you shall have atheists strive to get disciples as it fereth with other sex, and, which is most of all, you shall have of them that will suffer for atheism and not recant, whereas if they did truly think that there were no such thing as God, why should they trouble themselves? Epicurus is charged that he did but dissymbol for his credit's sake, when he affirmed there were blessed natures, but such as enjoyed themselves without having respect to the government of the world. Wherein they say he did temporize, though in secret he thought there was no God. But certainly he is traduced, for his words are noble and divine, non deos volgi negari profanum, said volgi opinionis dis applicari profanum. Plato could have said no more, and although he had the confidence to deny the administration, he had not the power to deny the nature. The Indians of the West have names for their particular gods, though they have no name for God, the heathens should have had the names Jupiter, Apollo, Mars, etc., but not the word deus, which shows that even those barbarous people have the notion, though they have not the latitude and extent of it, so that against atheists the very savages take part with the very subtlest philosophers. The contemplative atheist is rare, a diagoras, a beyond, a lucian perhaps, and some others, and yet they seem to be more than they are, for that all that impugn a received religion or superstition are by the adverse part branded with the name of atheists. But the great atheists indeed are hypocrites, which are ever handling holy things but without feeling, so as they must needs be cauterized in the end. The causes of atheism are divisions in religion, if they be many, for any one main division add a zeal to both sides, but many divisions introduce atheism. Another is scandal of priests. When it has come to that which Saint Bernard saith, non-est-jam-dicerie-ut-populus-sic-sacerdos quia-nec-sic-populus-ut-sacerdos A third is custom of profane scoffing in holy matters, which doth by little and little deface the reverence of religion. And lastly, learned times specially with peace and prosperity, for troubles and adversities do more bow men's minds to religion. They that deny a god destroy man's nobility, for certainly man is of kin to the beast by his body, and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and a noble creature. It destroys likewise magnanimity, and the raising of the human nature, for take an example of a dog and mark what a generosity and courage he will put on when he finds himself maintained by a man, who to him is instead of a God, or milior natura, which courage is manifestly such as that creature without that confidence of a better nature than his own could never attain. So man, when he resteth and assures himself upon divine protection and favor, gathered a force and faith which human nature in itself could not obtain. Therefore, as atheism is in all respects hateful, so in this, that it depriveeth human nature of the means to exalt itself above human frailty. As it is in particular persons, so it is in nations. Never was there such a state for magnanimity as Rome. Of this state hear what Cicero seeth. Quam volumus lyset. Patres conscripti nos amimas. Teamen nec numero. Hispanos nec roboro. Galos nec caledate. Poenas nec artibus grecos. Nec denic hoc ipso. Hujus gentis et terra domestico. Nativoc sensu et talas ipso et latinos. Sed pietate ac religione, at che ha una sapientia, quod deorum immortallium, numaine amnia regi, gabernari che perspeximus, amnes gentis nasines che supravimas. Essay 17. Of superstition. It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such an opinion as is unworthy of him. For the one is unbelief, the other is contumely. And certainly superstition is the reproach of the deity. Plutarch seeth well to that purpose. Surely, seeth he, I had rather a great deal. Men should say there was no such man at all as Plutarch than that they should say that there was one Plutarch that would eat his children as soon as they were born, as the poets speak of Saturn. And as the contumely is greater towards God, so the danger is greater towards men. Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation, all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not. But superstition dismounts all these and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men. Therefore atheism did never perturb states, for it makes men wary of themselves as looking no further. And we see the times inclined to atheism as the time of Augustus Caesar were civil times. But superstition hath been the confusion of many states and bringeth in a new premium mobile that ravisheth all the spheres of government. The master of superstition is the people, and in all superstition wise men follow fools, and arguments are fitted to practice in a reversed order. It was gravely said by some of the prelates in the Council of Trent where the doctrine of the schoolmen bear great sway that the schoolmen were like astronomers which did feign eccentrics and epicycles and such engines of orbs to save the phenomena, though they knew there were no such things. And in like manner that the schoolmen had framed a number of subtle and intricate axioms and theorems to save the practice of the church. The causes of superstition are pleasing in sensual rites and ceremonies, excess of outward and pharisaical holiness, over great reverence of traditions which cannot but load the church, the stratagems of prelates for their own ambition and lucre, the favoring too much of good intentions which openeth the gate to conceits and novelties, the taking and aim at divine matters by human which cannot but breed mixture of imaginations and lastly, barbarous times especially joined with calamities and disasters. Superstition without avail is a deformed thing for as it addeth deformity to an ape to be so like a man so the similitude of superstition to religion makes it the more deformed and as wholesome meat corrupteth to little worms though good forms and orders corrupt into a number of petty observances. There is a superstition in avoiding superstition when men think to do best if they go furthest from the superstition, formerly received. Therefore care would be had that as it ferreth in ill purgines the good be not taken away with the bad which commonly is done when the people is the reformer. Essay 18 of Travel Travel in the younger sort is a part of education in the elder a part of experience. He that traveleth into a country before he heth some entrance into the language goeth to school and not to travel. That young men travel under some tutor or grave servant I allow well so that he be such a one that hath the language and hath been in the country before whereby he may be able to tell them what things are worthy to be seen in the country where they go what acquaintances there to see what exercises or discipline the place yieldeth for else young men shall go hooded and look abroad little. It is a strange thing that in sea voyages where there is nothing to be seen but sky and sea men should make diaries but in land travel wherein so much is to be observed for the most part they omit it as if chance were fitter to be registered than observation. Let diaries therefore be brought in use. The things to be seen and observed are the courts of princes especially when they give audience to ambassadors the courts of justice while they sit and hear causes and so of consistories ecclesiastic. The churches and monasteries with the monuments which are there in extent the walls and fortifications of cities and towns and so the havens and harbors antiquities and ruins libraries colleges disputations and lectures where any are shipping and navies houses and gardens of state and pleasure near great cities armories arsenals magazines exchanges verses warehouses exercises of horsemanship fencing training of soldiers in the light comedies such where into the better sort of persons do resort treasuries of jewels and robes cabinets and rarities and to conclude whatsoever is memorable in the places where they go after all which the tutors or servants ought to make diligent inquiry triumphs, masks, feasts, weddings, funerals capital executions and such shows many not to be put in mind of them yet are they not to be neglected if you will have a young man to put his travel into a little room and in short time to gather much this you must do first as was said he must have some entrance into the language before he goeth then he must have such a servant or tutor as knoweth the country as was likewise said let him carry with him also some card or book describing the country where he traveleth which will be a good key to his inquiry let him keep also a diary let him not stay long in one city or town more or less as the place deserveeth but not long nay when he stayeth in one city or town let him change his lodging from one end and part of the town to another which is a great adamant of acquaintance let him sequester himself from the company of his countrymen and diet in such places where there is good company of the nation where he traveleth let him upon his removes from one place to another procure recommendation to some person of quality residing in the place whither he removeeth that he may use his favor in those things he desireeth to see or know thus he may abridge his travel with much profit as for the acquaintance which is to be sought in travel that which is most of all profitable is acquaintance with the secretaries and employed men of ambassadors for so in traveling in one country he shall suck the experience of many let him also see and visit imminent persons in all kinds which are of great name abroad that he may be able to tell how the life agreeeth with fame for quarrels they are with care and discretion to be avoided they are commonly for mistresses, healths, place and words and let a man beware how he keepeth company with caloric and quarrelsome persons for they will engage him into their own quarrels when a traveler returneth home let him not leave the countries where he heth traveled altogether behind him but maintain a correspondence by letters with those of his acquaintance which are of most worth and let his travel appear rather in his discourse than his apparel or gesture and in his discourse let him be rather advised in his answers than forward to tell stories and let it appear that he heth not change his country manners for those of foreign parts but only prick in some flowers of that he heth learned abroad into the customs of his own country essay 19 of empire it is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear and yet that commonly is the case of kings who, being at the highest want matter of desire which makes their minds more languishing and have many representations of perils and shadows which makes their minds the less clear and this is one reason also of that effect which the scripture speaketh of that the king's heart is inscrutable for multitude of jealousies and lack of some predominant desire that should marshal and put in order all the rest maketh any man's heart hard to find or sound hence it comes likewise that princes many times make themselves desires and set their hearts upon toys sometimes upon a building sometimes upon erecting of an order sometimes upon the advancing of a person sometimes upon obtaining excellency in some art or feet of the hand as Nero for playing on the harp Domitian for certainty of the hand with the arrow Commodus for playing at fence Caracola for driving chariots and the like this seemeth incredible unto those that know not the principle that the mind of man is more cheered and refreshed by profiting in small things than by standing at a stay in great we see also that kings have been fortunate conquerors in their first years it being not possible for them to go forward infinitely but that they must have some check or arrest in their fortunes turn in their latter years to be superstitious and melancholy as did Alexander the Great Diocletian and in our memory Charles the Fifth and others for he that is used to go forward and findeth a stop falleth out of his own favor it is not the thing he was to speak now of the true temper of empire it is a thing rare and hard to keep for both temper and distemper consist of contraries but it is one thing to mingle contraries another to interchange them the answer of Apollonius to Vespasian is full of excellent instruction Vespasian asked him what was Nero's overthrow he answered Nero could touch and tune the harp well but in government sometimes he used to wind the pins too high sometimes to let them down too low and certain it is that nothing destroyeth authority so much as the unequal and untimely interchange of power pressed too far and relaxed too much this is true that the wisdom of all these latter times in princes affairs is rather fine deliveries and shiftings of dangers and mischiefs when they are near than solid and grounded courses to keep them aloof but this is but to try masteries with fortune and let men beware how they neglect and suffer matter of trouble to be prepared for no man can forbid the spark nor tell whence it may come the difficulties in princes business are many and great but the greatest difficulty is often in their own mind for it is common with princes sayeth Tacitus to will contradictory Sunt plerum quae regum valentatus vehementis et interce contreriae for it is the solicism of power to think the command the end and yet not to endure the mean kings have to deal with their neighbors their wives their children their prelates or clergy their nobles their second nobles or gentlemen their merchants their commons and their men of war and from all these arise dangers if care and circumspection be not used first for their neighbors there can no general rule be given for occasions are so variable save one which ever holdeth which is that princes do keep do sentinel that none of their neighbors do ever grow so by increase of territory by embracing of trade by approaches or the like as they become more able to annoy them than they were and this is generally the work of standing councils to foresee and to hinder it during that triumvirate of kings King Henry the eighth of England Francis the first king of France and Charles the fifth emperor there was such a watch kept that none of the three could win a palm of ground but the other two would straight ways balance it either by confederation or if need were by a war and would not in any wise take up peace at interest and the like was done by that league which Gucciardini sayeth was the security of Italy made between Ferdinando king of Naples Menzius Medici and Ludovicus Sforza potentates the one of Florence the other of Milan neither is the opinion of some of the school men to be received that a war cannot justly be made but upon a precedent injury or provocation for there is no question but a just fear of an imminent danger though there be no blow given is a lawful cause of a war for their wives there are cruel examples of them Livia is in famed for the poisoning of her husband Roxalana Soleiman's wife was the destruction of that renowned prince Sultan Mustafa and otherwise troubled his house and succession Edward the second of England his queen had the principal hand in the deposing and murder of her husband this kind of danger is then to be feared chiefly when the wives have plots for the raising of their own children or else that they be at Valtrises for their children the tragedies likewise of dangers from them have been many and generally the entering of fathers into suspicion of their children have been ever unfortunate the destruction of Mustafa that we named before was so fatal to Soleiman's line as the succession of the Turks from Soleiman until this day is suspected to be untrue and of strange blood for that Salamis the second was thought to be suppositious the destruction of Crispus a young prince of rare towardness by Constantinus the great his father was in like manner fatal to his house for both Constantinus and Constance his sons died violent deaths and Constantius his other son did little better who died indeed of sickness but after that Julianus had taken arms against him the destruction of Demetrius son to Philip the second of Macedon turned upon the father who died of repentance and many like examples there are but few or none where the fathers had good by such distrust except it were where the sons were up in open arms against them as was Salamis the first against Bajazet and the three sons of Henry the second King of England for their prelates when they are proud and great there is also danger from them as it was in the times of Anselmas and Thomas Beckett Archbishops of Canterbury who with their crojures did almost try it with the king's sword and yet they had to deal with stout and haughty kings William Rufus Henry the first and Henry the second the danger is not from that state but where it hath a dependence of foreign authority or where the churchmen come in and are elected not by the coalition of the king or particular patrons but by the people for their nobles to keep them at a distance it is not a miss but to depress them may make a king more absolute but less safe and less able to perform anything that he desires I have noted it in my history of King Henry the seventh of England who depressed his nobility where upon it came to pass that his times were full of difficulties and troubles for the nobility though they continued loyal unto him yet did they not cooperate with him in his business so that in effect he was feigned to do all things himself for their second nobles there is not much danger from them being a body dispersed they may sometimes discourse high but that doth little hurt besides they are a counter poise to the higher nobility that they grow not too potent and lastly being the most immediate in authority with the common people they do best temper popular commotions for their merchants they are Vina Porta and if they flourish not a kingdom may have good limbs but will have empty veins and nourish little taxes and imposts upon them do seldom good to the king's revenue for that that he wins in the hundred he leaseth in the shire the particular rates being increased but the total bulk of trading rather decreased for their commons there is little danger from them except it be where they have great and potent heads or where you meddle with the point of religion or their customs or means of life for their men of war it is a dangerous state they live and remain in a body and are used to donatives where have we see examples in the Janissaries and Praetorian bands of Rome but trainings of men and arming them in several places and under several commanders and without donatives are things of defense and no danger princes are like to heavenly bodies which cause good or evil times and which have much veneration but no rest all precepts concerning kings are in effect comprehended in those two remembrances memento quad es homo and memento quad es deus or vice dei the one bridaleth their power and the other their will end of the essays of Francis Bacon essays sixteen seventeen eighteen and nineteen 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 twenty of council the greatest trust between man and man is the trust of giving council for in other confidences men commit the parts of life their lands their goods their children their credit some particular affair but to such as they make their councilors they commit the whole by how much the more they are obliged to all faith and integrity the wisest princes need not think at any diminution to their greatness or derogation to their sufficiency to rely upon council God himself is not without but hath made it one of the great names of his blessed son the councilor Solomon hath pronounced that in council is stability things will have their first or second agitation if they be not tossed upon the arguments of council they will be tossed upon the waves of fortune and be full of inconstancy doing and undoing like the reeling of a drunken man Solomon's son found the force of council as his father saw the necessity of it for the beloved kingdom of God was first rent and broken by ill council upon which council there are set for our instruction the two marks whereby bad council is forever best discerned that it was young council for the person and violent council for the matter the ancient times do set forth in figure both the incorporation and inseparable conjunction of council with kings and the wise and politic use of council by kings the one in that they say Jupiter did marry Metis which signifyeth council whereby they intend that sovereignty is married to council the other in that which followeth which was thus they say after Jupiter was married to Metis she conceived by him and was with child but Jupiter suffered her not to stay till she brought forth but eat her up whereby he became himself with child and was delivered of palace armed out of his head which monstrous fable containeth a secret of empire how kings are to make use of their council of state that first they ought to refer matters unto them which is the first begetting or impregnation but when they are elaborate molded and shaped in the womb of their council and grow ripe and be ready to be brought forth that then they suffer not their council to go through with the resolution and direction as if it depended upon them but take the matter back into their own hands and make it appear to the world that the decrees and final directions which because they come forth with prudence and power are resembled to palace armed proceeded from themselves and not only from their authority but the more to add reputation to themselves from their head and device let us now speak of the inconveniences of council and of the remedies the inconveniences that have been noted in calling and using council are three first the revealing of affairs whereby they become less secret secondly the weakening of the authority of princes as if they were less of themselves thirdly the danger of being unfaithfully counseled and more for the good of them that counsel than of him that is counseled for which inconveniences the doctrine of Italy and practice of France in some king's times have introduced cabinet counsels a remedy worse than the disease as to secrecy princes are not bound to communicate all matters with all counselors but may extract and select neither is it necessary that he that consulteth what he should do should declare what he will do but let princes beware that the unsecretting of their affairs comes not from themselves and as for cabinet counsels it may be their motto plenus rimarum sum one futile person that maketh it his glory to tell will do more hurt than many that know it their duty to conceal it is true there be some affairs which require extreme secrecy which will hardly go beyond one or two persons besides the king neither are those counsels unprosperous for besides the secrecy they commonly go on constantly in one spirit of direction without distraction but then it must be a prudent king such as is able to grind with a hand mill and those inward counselors need also be wise men and especially true and trusty to the king's ends as it was with King Henry VII of England who in his great business imparted himself to none except it were to Morton and Fox for weakening of authority the fable showeth the remedy nay the majesty of kings is rather exalted than diminished when they are in the chair of council neither was there ever prince bereaved of his dependences by his council except where there hath been either an over greatness in one counselor or an over strict combination in diverse which are things soon found and hoping for the last inconvenience that men will counsel with an eye to themselves certainly non-invenient phydom superterum is meant for the nature of times and not of all particular persons there be that are in nature faithful and sincere and plain and direct not crafty and involved let princes above all draw to themselves such natures besides counselors are not commonly so united but that one counselor keepeth sentinel over another so that if any do counsel out of faction or private ends it commonly comes to the king's ear but the best remedy is if princes know their counselors as well as their counselors know them principus est vertus maxima nasi sus and on the other side counselors should not be too speculative into their sovereigns person the true composition of a counselor is rather to be skillful in their masters business and in his nature for then he is like to advise him and not feed his humor it is of singular use to princes if they take the opinions of their counsel both separately and together for private opinion is more free but opinion before others is more reverent in private men are more bold in their own humours and in consort men are more obnoxious to others humours it is good to take both and of the inferior sort rather in private to preserve freedom of the greater rather in consort to preserve respect it is in vain for princes to take counsel concerning matters if they take no counsel likewise concerning persons for all matters are as dead images and the life of the execution of affairs resteth in the good choice of persons neither is it enough to consult concerning persons secundum genera as in an idea or mathematical description what the kind and character of the person should be for the greatest errors are committed and the most judgment is shown in the choice of individuals it was truly said optimi conciliari mortui books will speak plain when counselors blanche therefore it is good to be conversant in them especially the books of such as themselves have been actors upon the stage the councils at this day in most places are but familiar meetings where matters are rather talked on than debated and they run too swift to the order or act of counsel it were better that in causes of weight the matter were propounded one day and not spoken to till the next day in nocte concilium so was it done in the commission of union between England and Scotland which was a grave and orderly assembly I command set days for petitions for both it gives the suitors more certainty for their attendance and it frees the meetings for matters of a state that they may hock agiri in choice of committees for ripening business for the council it is better to choose indifferent persons than to make an indifference by putting in those that are strong on both sides I commend also standing commissions as for trade for treasure for war for suits for some provinces for where there be diverse particular councils and but one council of a state as it is in Spain they are in effect no more than standing commissions believe that they have greater authority let such as are to inform councils out of their particular professions as lawyers semen mint men and the like be first heard before committees and then as occasion serves before the council and let them not come in multitudes or in tribunitus manner for that is to clamor councils not to inform them a long table and a square table the seats about the walls seem things of form but are things of substance for at a long table a few at the upper end in effect sway all the business but in the other form there is more use of the counsellor's opinions that sit lower a king when he presides in council let him beware how he opens his own inclination too much in that which he propoundeth for else counsellors will but take the wind of him and instead of giving free council sing him a song of placebo essay 21 of delays fortune is like the market where many times if you can stay a little the price will fall again it is sometimes like Sybola's offer which at first offereth the commodity at full then consumeth part and part and still holdeth up the price for occasion as it is in the common verse turneth a bald noddle after she hath presented her locks in front and no hold taken or at least turneth the handle of the bottle first to be received and after the belly which is hard to clasp there is surely no greater wisdom than well to time the beginnings and onsets of things dangers are no more light if they once seem light and more dangers have deceived men than forced them nay it were better to meet some dangers half way though they come nothing near than to keep too long a watch upon their approaches for if a man watch too long it is odds he will fall asleep on the other side to be deceived with too long shadows as some have been when the moon was low and shown on their enemies back and so to shoot off before the time or to teach dangers to come on by over-early buckling towards them is another extreme the rightness or unrightness of the occasion as we said must ever be well weighed and generally it is good to commit the beginnings of all great actions to Argus with his hundred eyes and the ends to Briarius with his hundred hands first to watch and then to speed for the helmet of Pluto which maketh the politic man go invisible is secrecy in the council and celerity in the execution for when things are once come to the execution there is no secrecy comparable to celerity like the motion of a bullet in the air which flyeth so swift as it outruns the eye essay 22 of cunning we take cunning for a sinister or crooked wisdom and certainly there is a great difference between a cunning man and a wise man not only in point of honesty but in point of ability there be that can pack the cards and yet cannot play well so there are some that are good in canvases and factions that are otherwise weak men again it is one thing to understand persons and another thing to understand matters for many are perfect in men's humours that are not greatly capable of the real part of business which is the constitution of one that had studied men more than books such men are fitter for practice than for council and they are good but in their own alley turn them to new men and they have lost their aim so as the old rule to know a fool from a wise man mite embas nudas ad ignotos et vidibis doth scarce hold for them and because these cunning men are like haberdasher's of small wares it is not a miss to set forth their shop it is a point of cunning to wait upon him with whom you speak with your eye as the Jesuits give it in precept for there be many wise men that have secret hearts and transparent countenances yet this would be done with a demure abasing of your eye sometimes as the Jesuits also do use another is that when you have anything to obtain of present dispatch you entertain and amuse the party with whom you deal with some other discourse that he be not too much awake to make objections I knew a councillor and secretary that never came to Queen Elizabeth of England with bills to sign but he would always first put her into some discourse of a state that she ought the less mind the bills the like surprise may be made by moving things when the party is in haste and cannot stay to consider that the party is moved if a man would cross a business that he doubts some other would handsomely and effectually move let him pretend to wish it well and move it himself in such sort as may foil it the breaking off in the midst of that one was about to say as if he took himself up breeds a greater appetite in him with whom you confer to no more and because it works better if you have gotten from you by question than if you offer it of yourself you may lay a bait for a question by showing another visage and countenance than you are want to the end to give occasion for the party to ask what the matter is of the change as Nehemiah's did and I had not before that time been sad before the king in things that are tendered and unpleasing it is good to break the ice by some whose words are of less weight and to reserve the more weighty voice to come in as by chance so that he may be asked the question upon the other speech as Narcissus did relating to Claudius the marriage of Messalina and Silius in things that a man would not be seen in himself it is a point of cunning to borrow the name of the world as to say the world says or there is a speech abroad I knew one that when he wrote a letter he would put that which was most material in the post script as if it had been a by-matter I knew another that when he came to have speech he would pass over that that he intended most and go forth and come back again and speak of it as a thing that he had almost forgot some procure themselves surprised at such times as it is like the party that they work upon will suddenly come upon them and to be found with a letter in their hand or doing somewhat which they are not accustomed to the end they may be opposed of those things which of themselves they are desirous to utter it is a point of cunning to let fall those words in a man's own name which he would have another man learn and thereupon take advantage I knew two that were competitors for the secretary's place in Queen Elizabeth's time and yet kept good quarter between themselves and would confer one with another upon the business and the one of them said that to be a secretary in the declination of a monarchy was a ticklish thing and that he did not affect it the other straight caught up those words and discourse with diverse of his friends that he had no reason to desire to be secretary in the declination of a monarchy the first man took hold of it and found means it was told the Queen who hearing of a declination of a monarchy took it so ill as she would never after hear of the others suit there is a cunning which we in England call the turning of the cat in the pan which is when that such a man says to another he lays it as if another had said it to him and to say the truth it is not easy when such a matter passed between two to make it appear from which of them it first moved and began it is a way that some men have to glance and dart at others by justifying themselves by negatives as to say this I do not as Tijelenus did towards Burrus said non-diversus spes said in Colometatum Imperatoris Simpliciter Spectare some have in readiness so many tales and stories as there is nothing they would insinuate but they can wrap it into a tale which service both to keep themselves more in guard and to make others carry it with more pleasure it is a good point of cunning for a man to shape the answer he would have in his own words and propositions for it makes the other party stick the less it is strange how long some men will lie and wait to speak somewhat they desire to say and how far about they will fetch and how many other matters they will beat over to come near it it is a thing of great patience but yet of much use a sudden bold and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open like to him that having changed his name and walking in Paul's another suddenly came behind him and called him by his true name where at straight ways he looked back but these small wares and petty points of cunning are infinite and it were a good deed to make a list of them for that nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise but certainly some there are that know the resorts and falls of business that cannot sink into the main of it like a house that hath convenient stairs and entries but never a fair room therefore you shall see them find out pretty looses in the conclusion but are no ways able to examine or debate matters therefore you shall see them find out pretty loose in the conclusion but are no ways able to examine or debate matters and yet commonly they take advantage of their inability and would be thought wits of direction some build rather upon the abusing of others and as we now say putting tricks upon them then upon soundness of their own proceedings but Solomon sayeth prudence advertit ad gressus stultus divertit ad dolos essay 23 of wisdom for a man's self an ant is a wise creature for itself but it is a shrewd thing in an orchard or garden and certainly men that are great lovers of themselves waste the public divide the reason between self love and affinity and be so true to thyself as thou be not false to others specially to thy king and country it is a poor center of a man's actions himself it is right earth for that only stands fast upon his own center whereas all things that have affinity with the heavens move upon the center of another which they benefit the referring of all to a man's self is more tolerable in a sense because themselves are not only themselves but their good and evil is at the peril of the public fortune but it is a desperate evil in a servant to a prince or a citizen in a republic for whatsoever affairs pass such a man's hands he crooked them to his own ends which must needs be often eccentric to the ends of his master or state therefore let princes or states choose such servants as have not this mark except they mean their service should be made but the accessory that which make the effect more pernicious is that all proportion is lost it were disproportion enough for the servants good to be preferred before the masters but yet it is a greater extreme when a little good of the servant shall carry things against a great good of the masters and yet it is the case of bad officers treasurers ambassadors generals and other false and corrupt servants which set a bias upon their bowl of their own petty ends and envies to the overthrow of their masters great and important affairs and for the most part the good such servants receive is after the model of their own fortune but the hurt they sell for that good is after the model of their masters fortune and certainly it is the nature of extreme self lovers as they will set an house on fire and it were but to roast their eggs and yet these men many times hold credit with their masters because their study is but to please them and profit themselves and for either respect they will abandon the good of their affairs wisdom for a man's self is in many branches thereof a depraved thing it is the wisdom of rats that will be sure to leave a house somewhat before it fall it is the wisdom of the fox that thrust out the badger who digged and made room for him it is the wisdom of crocodiles that shed tears when they would devour but that which is specially to be noted is that those which as Cicero says of Pompeii are Sui, Amantes Sini, Rivoli are many times unfortunate and whereas they have all their times sacrificed to themselves they become in the end themselves sacrifices to the inconstancy of fortune whose wings they thought by their self wisdom to have pinion. Essay 24 of Innovations as the births of living creatures at first are ill-shapen so are all Innovations which are the births of time. Yet not withstanding as those that first bring honor into their family are commonly more worthy than most that succeed so the first precedent if it be good is seldom attained by imitation for ill to man's nature as it stands perverted have a natural motion strongest in continuance good as a forced motion strongest at first surely every medicine is an innovation and he that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils for time is the greatest innovator and if time of course alter things to the worse and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better what shall be the end it is true that what is settled by custom though it be disfit and those things which have long gone together are as it were confederate within themselves whereas new things peace not so well but though they help by their utility yet they trouble by their inconformity besides they are like strangers more admired and less favored all this is true if time stood still which contrary wise move around that a forward retention of custom is as turbulent a thing as an innovation and they that reverence too much old times are but a scorn to the new it were good therefore that men in their innovations would follow the example of time itself which indeed innovated greatly but quietly by degrees scarce to be perceived for otherwise whatsoever is new is looked for and ever it men some and pairs others and he that is hoping takes it for a fortune and thanks the time and he that is hurt for a wrong and imputed it to the author it is good also not to try experiments in states except the necessity be urgent or the utility evident and well to beware that it be the reformation change and not the desire of change that pretend it the reformation and lastly that the novelty though it be not rejected yet be held for a suspect and as the scripture sayeth that we make a stand upon the ancient way and then look about us and discover what is the straight and right way and so to walk in it end of the essays of Francis Bacon essay twenty twenty one twenty two twenty three and twenty four 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 twenty five of Dispatch affected Dispatch is one of the most dangerous things to business that can be it is like that which the physicians call predigestion or hasty digestion which is sure to fill the body full of crudities and secret seeds of diseases therefore measure not Dispatch by the times of sitting in the basement of the business and as in races it is not the large stride or high lift that makes the speed so in business the keeping close to the matter and not taking of it too much at once procureth Dispatch it is the care of some only to come off speedily for the time or to contrive some false periods of business because they may seem men of Dispatch but it is one thing contracting another by cutting off and business so handled at several sittings or meetings go with commonly backward and forward in an unsteady manner I knew a wise man that had it for a byword when he saw men hasten to a conclusion stay a little that we may make an end the sooner on the other side true Dispatch is a rich thing for time is the measure of business as money is of wares and business is bought at a deer hand where there is small Dispatch the Spartans and Spaniards have been noted to be of small Dispatch me vinga la muerta de Spagna let my death come from Spain for then it will be sure to be long and coming give good hearing to those that give the first information in business and rather direct them in the beginning than interrupt them in the continuance of their speeches for he that is put out of his own order will go forward and backward and be more tedious while he waits upon his memory than he could have been if he had gone on in his own course but sometimes it is seen that the moderator is more troublesome than the actor iterations are commonly loss of time but there is no such gain of time to reiterate often the state of the question for it chases away many a frivolous speech as it is coming forth long and curious speeches are as fit for Dispatch as a robe or mantle with a long train is for a race prefaces and passages and excusations and other speeches of reference to the person are great wastes of time and though they seem to proceed of modesty they are bravery yet beware of being too material when there is any impediment or obstruction in men's wills for preoccupation of mind ever require a preface of speech like a fomentation to make the ungent enter above all things order and distribution and singling out of parts is the life of Dispatch so as the distribution for he that doth not divide will never enter well into business and he that divideeth too much will never come out of it clearly to choose time is to save time and an unseasonable motion is but beating the air there be three parts of business the preparation the debate or examination and the perfection whereof if you look for Dispatch let the middle only be the work of many and the first and the last the work of few the proceeding upon somewhat conceived in writing doth for the most part facilitate Dispatch for though it should be wholly rejected yet that negative is more pregnant of direction than an indefinite as ashes are more generative than dust essay 26 of seeming wise it hath been an opinion the French are wiser than they seem and the Spaniard seem wiser than they are but howsoever it be between nations certainly it is so between man and man for as the apostle sayeth of godliness having a show of godliness but denying the power thereof so certainly there are in point of wisdom and sufficiently that do nothing or little very solemnly Magno con natu Nugas it is a ridiculous thing and fit for satire to persons of judgment to see what shifts these formalists have and what perspectives to make super fishies to seem body that hath depth and bulk some are so close and reserved as they will not show their wares but by a dark light and seem always to keep back somewhat and when they know within themselves they speak of that they do not know well would nevertheless seem to others to know of that which they may not well speak some help themselves with countenance and gestures and are wise by signs as Cicero sayeth of Piso that when he answered him he fetched one of his brows up to his forehead and bent the other down to his chin respondes altero add frontum sublato altero add mentum depresso supercilio crudillatatum tibi non placeri some think to bear it by speaking a great word and being peremptory and go on and take by admittance that which they cannot make good some whatsoever is beyond their reach will seem to despise or make light of it as impertinent or curious and so would have their ignorance seem judgment some are never without a difference and commonly by amusing men with subtlety blanched the matter of whom a gellius sayeth hominem delirium qui verborum minuteus rerum frangit pondera of which kind also Plato in his protogorus bringeth in prodious in scorn and maketh him make a speech that consisteth of distinction from the beginning to the end generally such men in all deliberations find ease to be of the negative side and effect a credit to object and foretell difficulties for when propositions are denied there is an end of them but if they be allowed it requireeth a new work which false point of wisdom is the bane of business to conclude there is no decaying merchant or inward beggar have so many tricks to uphold the credit of their wealth as these empty persons have to maintain the credit of their sufficiency seeming wise men may make shift to get opinion but let no man choose them for employment for certainly you were better to take for business a man somewhat absurd than over formal essay 27 of friendship it had been hard for him that spake it to have put more truth and untruth together in few words than in that speech whatsoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god for it is most true that a natural and secret hatred and aversation towards society in any man have somewhat of the savage beast but it is most untrue that it should have any character at all of the divine nature that it proceed not out of a pleasure in solitude but out of a love and desire to sequester a man's self for a higher conversation such as is found to have been falsely and faintly in some of the heathen as Epaminides the Candian Numa the Roman Empedocles the Sicilian and Apollonias of Tyena and truly and really in diverse and holy fathers of the church but little do men perceive what solitude is and how far it extendeth for a crowd is not company and faces are but a gallery of pictures and talk but a tinkling symbol where there is no love the Latin adage meeteth with it a little magna civitas magna solitudo because in a great town friends are scattered so that there is not that fellowship for the most part which is in less neighborhoods but we may go further and affirm most truly that it is a mere and miserable solitude to want true friends without which the world is but a wilderness and even in this sense also of solitude whosoever in the frame of his nature and affections is unfit for friendship he taketh it of the beast a principal fruit of friendship is the ease and discharge of the fullness and swellings of the heart which passions of all kinds do cause and induce we know diseases of stoppings and suffocations are the most dangerous in the body and it is not much otherwise in the mind you may take sarza to open the liver steel to open the spleen flowers of sulfur for the lungs castorium for the brain but no receipt openeth the heart but a true friend to whom you may impart griefs joys, fears, hopes suspicions, counsels and whatsoever lieth upon the heart to oppress it in a kind of civil shrift or confession it is a strange thing to observe how high a rate great kings and monarchs do set upon this fruit of friendship where have we speak so great as they purchase it many times at the hazard of their own safety and greatness for princes in regard of the distance of their fortune from that of their subjects and servants cannot gather this fruit except to make themselves capable thereof they raise some persons to be as it were companions and almost equals to themselves which many times sorteth to inconvenience the modern languages give unto such persons the name of favorites or vados as if it were a matter of grace or conversation but the Roman name attaineth the true use and cause thereof naming them participes curarum for it is that which tieeth the knot and we see plainly that this have been done not by weak and passionate princes only but by the wisest and most politic that ever reigned who have often times joined to themselves some of their servants whom both themselves have called friends and allowed other likewise to call them in the same manner using the word which is received between private men El Scylla when he commanded Rome raised Pompey after surnamed the great to that height that Pompey vaunted himself for Scylla's overmatch for when he had carried the consulship for a friend of his against the pursuit of Scylla and that Scylla did a little bit and began to speak great Pompey turned upon him again and in effect bade him be quiet for that more men adored the sun rising than the sun setting with Julius Caesar Decimus Brutus had attained that interest as he set him down in his testament for heir in remainder after his nephew and this was the man that had power with him to draw him forth to his death for when Caesar have discharged the senate in regard of some ill presages and specially of a dream of Calpurnia this man lifted him gently by the arm out of his chair telling him he hoped he would not dismiss the senate till his wife had dreamt a better dream and at Scymyth his favor was so great as Antinius in a letter which is recited verbatim in one of Cicero's Philippics called him Venefica which as if he had chanted Caesar Augustus raised a grippa though of mean birth to that height as when he consulted with Mayacinus about the marriage of his daughter Julia Mayacinus took the liberty to tell him that he must either marry his daughter to a grippa or take away his life there was no third way he had made him so great with Tiberius Caesar Sedgenus had ascended to that height as they too were termed men's Tiberius in a letter to him sayeth Hach pro Amacitia Nostra non occult avi and the whole senate dedicated an altar to friendship as to a goddess in respect of the great dearness of friendship between them too the like or more was between Septimius Severus and Plotianus for he forced his eldest son to marry the daughter of Plotianus and then maintained Plotianus in doing affronts to his son and did write also in a letter to the senate by these words I love the man so well as I wish he may overlive me now if these princes had been as Trajan or Marcus Aurelius a man might have thought that this had preceded of an abundant goodness of nature but being men so wise of such strength and severity of mind and so extreme as those of themselves as all these were it proveeth most plainly that they found their own felicity though as great as ever happened to mortal men but as in half peace except they might have a friend to make it entire and yet which is more they were princes that had wives sons, nephews and yet all these could not supply the comfort of friendship it is not to be forgotten what Comeneus observed of his master Duke Charles the Hardy namely that he would communicate his secrets with none and least of all those secrets which troubled him most whereupon he goeth on and sayeth that towards his latter time that closeness did impair and a little perish his understanding surely Comeneus might have made the same judgment also if it had pleased him of his second master Louis the Eleventh whose closeness was indeed his tormentor the parable of Pythagoras is dark but true core knee addito eat not the heart certainly if a man would give it a hard phrase those that want friends to open themselves unto are cannibals of their own hearts but one thing is most admirable wherewith I will conclude this first fruit of friendship which is that the communicating of a man self to his friend works to contrary effects for it redoubleeth joys and cuteth griefs in halves for there is no man that imparteth his joys to his friend but he joyeth the more and no man that imparteth his griefs to his friend but he grievous the less so that it is in truth of operation upon a man's mind of like virtue as the alchemist used to attribute to their stone for man's body that it worketh all contrary effects but still to the good and benefit of nature but yet without praying in aid of alchemist there is a manifest image of this in the ordinary course of nature for in bodies union strengtheneth and cherisheth any natural action and on the other side weakeneth and dulleth any violent oppression and even so it is of minds the second fruit of friendship is healthful and sovereign for the understanding as the first is for the affections for friendship maketh indeed a fair day in the affections from storm and tempests but it maketh daylight in the understanding out of darkness and confusion of thoughts neither is this to be understood only of faithful counsel which a man receiveth from his friend before you come to that certain it is that whosoever hath his mind fraught with many thoughts his wits and understanding do clarify and break up in the communicating and discoursing with another he tosseth his thoughts more easily he marshaleth them more orderly he seeeth how they look when they are turned into words finally he waxeth wiser than himself and that more by an hour's discourse than by a day's meditation it was well said by Themistocles to the king of Persia that speech was like cloth of heiress opened and put abroad whereby the imagery doth appear in figure whereas in thoughts they lie but as in packs neither is this second fruit of friendship in the opening the understanding restrained only to such friends as are able to give a man counsel they indeed are best but even without that a man learneth of himself and bringeth his own thoughts to light and wedeth his wits as against a stone which cuts itself not in a word a man were better relate himself to a statua or picture than to suffer his thoughts to pass in smother and now to make this second fruit of friendship complete that other point which lieth more open and falleth within vulgar observation a faithful counsel from a friend Heraclitus sayeth well in one of his enigmas dry light is ever the best and certain it is that the light that a man receiveth by counsel from another is drier and purer than that which cometh from his own understanding and judgment which is ever infused and drenched in his affections and customs so as there is as much difference between the counsel that a friend giveth that a man giveth himself as there is between the counsel of a friend and of a flatterer for there is no such flatterer as is a man's self and there is no such remedy against flattery of a man's self as the liberty of a friend counsel is of two sorts the one concerning manners the other concerning business for the first the best preservative to keep the mind and health is the faithful admonition of a friend the calling of a man's self to a strict account is a medicine sometime to piercing and corrosive reading good books of morality is a little flat and dead observing our faults in others is sometimes improper for our case but the best receipt best I say to work and best to take is the admonition of a friend it is a strange thing to behold what gross errors and extreme absurdities many especially of the greater sort do commit for want of a friend to tell them of them to the great damage both of their fame and fortune for as Saint James sayeth they are as men that look sometimes into a glass and presently forget their own shape and favor as for business a man may think if he win that two eyes see no more than one or that a gamester seeeth always more than a looker on or that a man an anger is as wise as he that hath said over the four and twenty letters or that a musket may be shot off as well upon the arm as upon arrest and such other fond and high imaginations to think himself all in all but when all is done the help of good counsel is that which seteth business straight and if any man think that he will take counsel but it shall be by pieces asking counsel in one business of one man in another business of another man it is well that is to say better perhaps than if he ask none at all but he runeth to dangers one that he shall not be faithfully counseled for it is a rare thing except it be from a perfect and entire friend to have counseled given but such as shall be bowed and crooked to some ends which he hath that giveth it the other that he shall have counsel given hurtful and unsafe though with good meaning and mixed partly of mischief and partly of remedy even as if you would call a physician that is thought good for the cure of the disease you complain of but is unacquainted with your body and therefore may put you in a way for a present cure but overthroweth your health in some other kind and so cure the disease and kill the patient but a friend that is holy and fair by furthering any present business how he dasheth upon other inconvenience and therefore rest not upon scattered counsels they will rather distract and mislead then 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 apart 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 furnishing 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 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 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 has his own part if he have not a friend he may quit the stage essay 28 of expense riches are for spending and spending for honor and good actions therefore extraordinary expenses 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 the 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 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 for bear 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 hath need both choose well those whom he employeth and change them often for new are more temerous he that can look into his estate but seldom it behooveeth 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 conserved 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 straights he will revert to his custom but he that cleareth by degrees induceeth a habit of frugality and gaineth as well upon his mind as upon his estate certainly who half a state to repair may not despise small things and commonly it is less dishonorable to abridge petty charges than to stoop to petty giddings a man ought warily to begin charges which once begun will continue but in matters that return not he may be more magnificent end of the essays of Francis Bacon essays 25 26 27 and 28 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 29 of the true greatness of the kingdoms and estates the speech of Themistocles the Athenian which was haughty and arrogant and 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 loot he said he could not fiddle but yet he could make a small town a great city these words hoping a little bit more may express two differing abilities in those that deal in business of a state for if a true survey be taken of counselors 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 and quiet the other way to bring a great and flourishing a state to ruin and decay and certainly whose degenerate arts and shifts whereby many counselors 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 then tending to the wheel and advancement of the state there are also no doubt counselors and governors which may be held sufficient Nagotias Perez 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 lease themselves in vain enterprises nor on the other side by undervaluing them they descend to fearful and pusillanimous councils the greatness of an estate in bulk and territory to fall under measure the greatness of finances and revenue to 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 anything 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 colonel or nut but to a grain which is one of the least grains but half in it a property and spirit hastily to get up and spread so are their states great in territory and yet not apt to enlarge or command and some that have but a small dimension of stem and yet are apt to be the foundations of great monarchies walled towns stored arsenals and armories goodly races of horse chariots of war elephants ordinance 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 number itself in armies important not much where the people is of weak courage for as Virgil sayeth it never troubles a wolf how many the sheep be the army of the Persians in the plains of Arbella was such a 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 Tigran is the Armenian being encamped upon a hill with 400,000 men discovered the army of the Romans being not above 14,000 marching towards them he made himself marry with it and said there are too many for an embassage and too few for a fight but before the sun said he found them now 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 Solan sayeth well to Cresus when in ostentation he showed him his gold sir if any other come that have better iron than you he will be master of all this gold therefore let any prince or state think solely of his forces accept 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 state or prince doth rest upon them he may spread his feathers for a time but he will mute them soon after the blessing of Judah and Issachar will never meet that the same people or nation should be both the lion's welp and the ass between birthings 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 have 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 in 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 make it the common subject grow to be a peasant and base swain driven out and in effect but the gentleman's laborer even as you may see in coppers woods if you leave your statels too thick you shall never have clean underwood but shrubs and bushes so in countries if the gentleman be too many the commons will be base and you will bring it to that that not the hundred pole will be fit for an helmet especially as to the infantry which is the nerve of an army and so there will be a great population and little strength this which I speak of have been nowhere better seen than by comparing of England and France where of England though far less in territory and population have been nevertheless an over match in regard the middle people of England make good soldiers which the peasants of France do not and here in the device of king Henry the seventh where of Duke and 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 plow 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 armus atque uberi glibé neither is that state which for anything 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 contrary wise the close and reserved living of noblemen and gentlemen cause a penury of military forces by all means it is to be procured that the trunk of Nebuchadnezzar's tree of monarchy be great enough to bear the branches and the bows that is that the natural subjects of the crown or state bear a sufficient proportion to the stranger subjects that they govern therefore all states that are liberal of naturalization toward strangers are fit for empire for to think that a handful of people can with the greatest courage and policy in the world embrace too large extent of dominion it may hold for a time but it will fail suddenly the Spartans were a nice people in point of naturalization whereby while they kept their compass they stood firm but when they did spread and their bows were become too great for their stem they became a windfall upon the sudden never any state was in this point so open to receive strangers into their body as were the Romans therefore it sorted with them accordingly for they grew to the greatest monarchy their manner was to grant naturalization which they called just civitas and to grant it in the highest degree that is not only just commerciality just canubi just heredity but also just suffrage and just honor and this not to singular persons alone but likewise to whole families yay to cities and sometimes to nations add to this their custom of plantation of colonies whereby the Roman plant was removed into the soil of other nations and putting both constitutions together you will say that it was not the Romans that spread upon the world but it was the world that spread upon the Romans and that was the sure way of greatness I have marveled sometimes at Spain how they clasp and contain so large dominions with so few natural Spaniards but sure the whole compass of Spain is a very great body of a tree far above Rome and Sparta at the first and besides though they have not had that usage to naturalize liberally yet they have had that which is next to it that is to employ almost indifferently all nations in their militia of ordinary soldiers yay and sometimes in their highest commands nay it seemeth at this instant that they are sensible of this want of natives as by the pragmatical sanction now published appear it it is certain that sedentary and with indoor arts and delicate manufacturers that require rather the finger than the arm have in their nature a contrariety to a military disposition and generally all war like people are a little idle and love danger better than travail neither must they be too much broken of it if they shall be preserved in vigor therefore it was great advantage in the ancient states of Sparta Athens Rome and others that they had the use of slaves which commonly did rid those manufacturers but that is abolished in greatest part by the Christian law that which cometh nearest to it starts chiefly to strangers which for that purpose are the more easily to be received and to contain the principal bulk of the vulgar natives within those three kinds tillers of the ground free servants and handicraftsmen of strong and manly arts as smiths masons carpenters et cetera not reckoning profess soldiers but above all for empire and greatness it's most that a nation do profess arms as their principal honor study and occupation for the things which we formally have spoken of are but habilitations towards arms and what is habilitation without intention and act Romulus after his death as they report or feign sent a present to the Romans that above all they should intend arms and then they should prove the empire of the world the fabric of the state of Sparta was holy though not wisely framed and composed to that scope and end the Persians and Macedonians had it for a flash the Gauls, Germans, Goths Saxons, Normans and others had it for a time the Turks have it at this day though in great declination of Christian Europe they that have it are in effect only the Spaniards but it is so plain that every man profiteth in that he most intended that it needeth not to be stood upon it is enough to point at it that no nation which doth not directly profess arms may look to have greatness fall into their mouths and on the other side it is as a most certain oracle of time that those states that continue long in that profession as the Romans and Turks principally have done do wonders and those that have professed arms but for an age have commonly attained that greatness in that age which maintained them long after when their profession and exercise of arms hath grown to decay incident to this point is for a state to have those laws or customs which may reach forth unto them just occasions as may be intended of war for there is that justice imprinted in the nature of men that they inter not upon wars whereof so many calamities do ensue but upon some at the least specious grounds and quarrels the Turk hath at hand for cause of war the propagation of his law or sect a quarrel that he may always command the Romans though they esteemed the extending the limits of their empire to be great honor to their generals when it was done yet they never rested upon that alone to begin a war first therefore let nations that pretend to greatness have this that they be sensible of wrongs either upon borderers merchants or politic ministers and that they sit not too long upon a provocation secondly let them be pressed and ready to give aids and suckers to their confederates as it ever was with the Romans in so much as if the confederate had leagues defensive with diverse other states and upon invasion offered did implore their aides severally yet the Romans would ever be the foremost and leave it to none other to have the honor as for the wars which were anciently made on the behalf of a kind of party or tacit conformity of a state I do not see how they may be well justified as when the Romans made a war for the liberty of Grisha or when the Laysa Damanians and the Athenians made wars to set up or pull down democracies and oligarchies or when wars were made by foreigners under the pretense of justice and protection to deliver the subjects of others from tyranny and oppression and the like let it suffice that no state that is not awake upon any occasion of arming no body can be helpful without exercise neither natural body nor politic and certainly to a kingdom or a state a just and honorable war is the true exercise a civil war indeed is like the heat of a fever but a foreign war is like the heat of exercise and service to keep the body in health for in a slothful peace both curages will effeminate and manners corrupt but how so ever it be for happiness without all question for greatness it make it to be still for the most part in arms and the strength of a veteran army though it be a chargeable business always on foot is that which commonly give it the law or at least the reputation amongst all neighbor states as may well be seen in Spain which have had in one part rather a veteran army almost continually now by the space of six score years to be master of the sea is an abridgment of a monarchy Cicero writing to Atticus of Pompey his preparation against Caesar sayeth Concilium Pompeii Plani the Mystocleum Est and without doubt Pompeii had tired out Caesar if upon vain confidence he had not left that way we see the great effects of battles by sea the battle of Actium decided the empire of the world the battle of Lepanto arrested by the greatness of the Turk there be many examples where sea fights have been final to the war but this is when princes or states have set up their rest upon the battles but thus much is certain that he that commands the sea is at great liberty and may take as much and as little of the war as he will whereas those that be strongest by land are many times nevertheless in great straits surely at this day in Europe the vantage of strength at sea which is one of the principal dowries of this kingdom of Great Britain is great both because most of the kingdoms of Europe are not merely inland but girt with the sea most part of their compass and because the wealth of both Indies seems in great part but an accessory to the command of the seas the wars of latter ages seem to be made in the dark in respect of the glory and honor which reflected upon men from the wars in ancient time there be now for martial encouragement some degrees in orders of chivalry which nevertheless are conferred promiscuously upon soldiers and no soldiers and some remembrance perhaps upon the scuchin and some hospitals for maimed soldiers and such like things but in ancient times the trophies erected upon the place the funeral lotatives and monuments for those that died in the wars the crowns and garlands personal the style of the emperor which the great kings of the world after borrowed the triumphs of the generals upon their return the great donatives and largeses upon the disbanding of the armies were things able to inflame all men's courage but above all that of the triumph amongst the romans was not pageants or gaudery but one of the wisest and noblest institutions that ever was for it contained three things honor to the general riches to the treasury out of the spoils and donatives to the army but that honor perhaps were not fit for monarchies except it be in the person of the monarch himself or his sons as it came to pass in the times of the roman emperors who did appropriate the actual triumphs to themselves and their sons for such wars as they did achieve in person and left only for wars achieved by subjects some triumphal garments and ensigns to the general to conclude no man can by caretaking as the scripture sayeth add a cubit to his stature in this little model of a man's body but in the great frame of kingdoms and commonwealths it is in the power of princes or estates to add amplitude and greatness to their kingdoms for by introducing such ordinances constitutions and customs as we have now touched they may so greatness to their posterity and succession but these things are commonly not observed but left to take their chance essay 30 of regiment of health there is a wisdom in this the rules of physics a man's own observation what he finds good of is the best physics to preserve health but it is a safer conclusion to say this agreeeth not well with me therefore I will not continue it than this I find no offence of this therefore I may use it for strength of nature in youth passeth over many excesses until his age discern of the coming on of years and think not to do the same things still for age will not be defied beware of sudden change in any great point of diet and if necessity enforce it fit the rest to it for it is a secret both in nature and state that it is safer to change many things than one examine thy customs of diet sleep exercise apparel and try if anything thou shalt judge hurtful to discontinue it by little and little but so as if thou dost find any inconvenience by the change thou come back to it again for it is hard to distinguish that which is generally held good and wholesome from that which is good particularly and fit for thine own body to be free minded and cheerfully disposed at hours of meat and of sleep exercise is one of the best precepts of long lasting as for the passions and studies of the mind avoid envy anxious fears anger fretting inwards subtle and naughty inquisitions joys and exhilarations in excess sadness not communicated entertain hopes mirth rather than joy variety of delights rather than surfeit of them imagination and therefore novelties studies that fill the mind with splendid and illustrious objects as histories fables and contemplations of nature if you fly physic and health altogether it will be too strange for your body when you shall need it if you make it too familiar it will work no extraordinary effect when sickness cometh I commend rather some diet for certain seasons and may it be grown into a custom for those diets alter the body more and trouble it less despise no new accident in your body but ask opinion of it in sickness respect health principally and in health action for those that put their bodies to endure in health may in most sicknesses which are not very sharp be cured only with diet and tendering as a physician had he not been a wise man with all when he giveth it for one of the great precepts of health and lasting that a man do vary and interchange contraries but with an inclination to the more benign extreme use fasting and full eating but rather full eating watching and sleep but rather sleep sitting and exercise but rather exercise and the like so shall nature be cherished and yet taught masteries physicians are some of them so pleasing and conformable to the humor of the patient as they press not the true cure of the disease and some other are so regular in proceeding according to the art for the disease as they respect not sufficiently the condition of the patient take one of a middle temper or if it may not be found in one man combine two of either sort and forget not to call as well the best acquainted with your body as the best reputed of for his faculty essay 31 of suspicion suspicions amongst thoughts are like bats among birds they ever fly by twilight certainly they are to be repressed or at least well guarded for they cloud the mind they lease friends and they check with friends whereby business cannot go on currently and constantly they dispose kings to tyranny husbands to jealousy wise men to irresolution and melancholy they are defects not in the heart but in the brain for they take place in the stoutest natures as in the example of Henry the 7th of England there was not a more suspicious man nor a more stout and in such a composition there is too small hurt for commonly they are not admitted but with examination whether they be likely or no but in fearful natures they gain ground too fast there is nothing makes a man suspect much more than to know a little and therefore men should remedy suspicion by procuring to know more and not to keep their suspicions and smother what would men have do they think those men deal with are saints do they not think they will have their own ends and be truer to themselves than to them therefore there is no better way to moderate suspicions than to account upon such suspicions as true and yet to bridle them as false for so far a man ought to make use of his suspicions as to provide as if that should be true that he suspects yet it may do him no hurt suspicions that the mind of itself gathers are but buzzes suspicions that are artificially nourished and put into men's heads by the tales and whisperings of others have stings certainly the best mean to clear the way in the same would of suspicions is frankly to communicate them with the party that he suspects for thereby he shall be sure to know more of the truth of them than he did before and with all shall make that party or circumspect not to give further cause of suspicion but this would not be done to men of base natures for they if they find themselves once suspected will never be true the Italian says sospetto la sentia fidi as if suspicion did give a passport to faith but it ought rather to kindle it to discharge itself essay 32 of discourse some in their discourse desire rather commendation of wit and being able to hold all arguments then of judgment and discerning what is true as if it were a praise to know what might be said and not what should be thought some have certain common places and themes wherein they are good and want variety which kind of poverty is for the most part tedious and when it is once perceived ridiculous the honorable part of talk is to give the occasion and again to moderate and pass to somewhat else for then a man leads the dance it is good in discourse and speech of conversation to vary and intermingle speech of the present occasion with arguments tales with reasons asking of questions with telling of opinions and just with earnest for it is a dull thing to tire and as we say now to jade anything too far as for jest there be certain things which ought to be privileged from it namely religion, matters of state great persons any man's present business of importance and any case that deserved pity yet there be some that think their wits have been asleep except they dart out somewhat that is pecan't and to the quick vein which would be bridled parsi, pair stimulus at fortias uteri, loris and generally men ought to find the difference between saltness and bitterness certainly he that hath a satirical vein as he maketh others afraid of his wit so he had need be afraid of others memory he that questioneth much shall learn much and content much but especially if he apply his questions to the skill of the persons whom he asketh for he shall give them occasion to please themselves and speaking and himself shall continually gather knowledge but let his questions not be troublesome for that is fit for a poser and let him be sure to leave other men their turns to speak nay, if there be any that would reign and take up all the time let him find means to take them off and to bring others on as musicians used to do with those that danced too long galliards if you disemble sometimes your knowledge of that you are thought to know you shall be thought another time to know that you know not speech of a man's self ought to be seldom and well chosen I knew one was want to say in scorn he must needs be a wise man he speak so much of himself and there is but one case wherein a man may commend himself with good grace and that is in commending virtue in another especially if it be such a virtue wherein to himself pretendeth speech of touch towards others should be sparingly used for discourse ought to be as a field without coming home to any man I knew two noblemen of the west part of England whereof the one was given to scoff but kept ever royal cheer in his house the other would ask of those that had been at the other's table tell truly was there never a flout or dry blow given to which the guest would answer such and such a thing passed the lord would say I thought he would mar a good dinner discretion of speech is more than eloquence and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words or in good order a good continued speech without a good speech of interlocution shows slodice and a good reply or second speech without a good settled speech showeth shallowness and weakness as we see in beasts those that are weakest in the course are yet nimblest in the turn as it is betwixt to the gray hound and the hare to use too many circumstances ere one come to the matter is wearisome to use none at all is blunt end of the essays of francis bacon essay 29 30 31 and 32