 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, or councils, civil and moral, of Francis Lord Verulim, Viscount St. Albans. To the right honourable, my very good Lord, the Duke of Buckingham, His Grace, Lord High Admiral of England. Excellent Lord! Solomon says, A good name is as a precious ointment, and I assure myself such were your grace's name be with posterity. For your fortune and merit both have been imminent, and you have planted things that are like to last. I do now publish my essays, which, of all my other works, have been most current. For that, as it seems, they come home to men's business and bosoms. I have enlarged them both in number and weight, so that they are indeed a new work. I thought it therefore agreeable to my affection and obligation to your grace to prefix your name before them both in English and in Latin. For I do conceive that the Latin volume of them, being in the universal language, may last as long as books last. My inspiration I dedicated to the King, my history of Henry VII, which I have now also translated into Latin, and my portions of natural history to the Prince. And these I dedicate to your grace, being of the best fruits, that by the good increase which God gives to my pen and labours I could yield. God lead your grace by the hand, your grace's most obliged and faithful servant, the Count Saint-Hoban. Essay 1 of Truth What is truth, suggesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer? Certainly there be that delight in giddiness and counter to bondage to fix a belief, affecting free will in thinking as well as in acting. And though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing wits, which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them as was in those of the ancients. But it is not only the difficulty in labour which men take in finding out of truth, nor again that when it is found it imposes upon men's thoughts, that it bring lies in favour. But a natural, though corrupt, love of the lie itself. One of the later school of Grecians examined at the matter, and is at a stand to think what should be in it, that men should love lies. Where neither they make it for pleasure, as with poets, nor for advantage as with the merchant, but for the lie's sake. But I cannot tell. This same truth is a naked and open daylight, that does not show the masks and mummeries and triumphs of the world half so stately and daintily as candle lights. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl that showeth best by day, but it will not rise to the price of a diamond or carbuncle that showeth best in varied lights. A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Death any men doubt that if there were taken out of men's minds vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would and the like, but it would lead the minds of a number of men, poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and in disposition, and unpleasing to themselves. One of the fathers in great severity called Posi venum demonum, because it fireeth the imagination, and yet it is but the shadow of a lie. But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in and settleeth in that doth the hurt, such as we spake of before. But howsoever these things are, thus in men's depraved judgments and affections, yet truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature. The first creature of God in the works of the days was the light of sense, the last was the light of reason. His Sabbath work ever since is the illumination of his spirit. First he breatheth light upon the face of the matter or chaos, then he breatheth light into the face of man, and still he breatheth and inspired light into the face of his chosen. The poet that beautified the sect that was otherwise inferior to the rest, sayeth yet excellently well, it is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tossed upon the sea, a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle and the adventures thereof below. But no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of a hill, a hill not to be commanded and where the air is always clear and serene, and to see the errors and wanderings and mists and tempests in the veil below. So always that this prospect be with pity and not with swelling or pride. Certainly it is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth. To pass from theological and philosophical truth to the truth of civil business, it will be acknowledged, even by those that practice it not, that clear and round dealing is the honor of man's nature, and that mixture of falsehoods is like alloy and coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embezzeth it. For these winding and crooked courses are the goins of the serpent, which goeth basely upon the belly and not upon the feet. There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious, and therefore montane, sayeth Pritaly, when he inquired the reason why the word of the lie should be such a disgrace and such an odious charge, sayeth he, If it be well weighed to say that a man lieth is as much to say as that he is brave towards God and a coward towards men, for a lie faces God and shrinks from man. Surely the wickedness of falsehood and breach of faith cannot possibly be so highly expressed as in that it shall be the last peel to call the judgments of God upon the generations of men. It being foretold that when Christ cometh, he shall not find faith upon the earth. Essay 2 Of Death Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark, and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other. Certainly the contemplation of death as the wages of sin and the passage to another world is holy and religious, but the fear of it as a tribute due unto nature is weak. Yet in religious meditations there is sometimes mixture of vanity and of superstition. You shall read in some of the friars books of mortification that a man should think with himself what the pain is if he have but his fingers in pressed or tortured, and thereby imagine what the pains of death are when the whole body is corrupted and is all, when many times death passeth with less pain than the torture of a limb, for the most vital parts are not the quickest of sins. And by him that spake only as a philosopher and natural man, it is well said, Pompamortis magisteret, quam morseipsa, groans and convulsions and a discolored face and friends weeping and blacks and obsequies and the like show death terrible. It is worthy the observing that there is no passion in the mind of man so weak, but it mates and masters the fear of death, and therefore death is no such terrible enemy when a man hath so many attendants about him that could win the combat of him. Revenge triumphs over death. Love slights it. Honor aspires to it. Grief flyeth to it. Fear preoccupates it. Nay, we read after author the emperor had slain himself, pity, which is the tenderest of affections, provoked many to die out of mere compassion to their sovereign and as the truest sort of followers. Nay, Seneca adds niceness and satiety. Cogita quam diu, iedum feseres. Morivele non tantum fortis alt miser, sed iteum, fastidiosus potest. A man would die, though he were neither valiant nor miserable, only upon a weariness to do the same thing so oft over and over. It is no less worthy to observe how little alteration in good spirits the approaches of death may. For they appear to be the same men till the last instant. Augustus Caesar died in a compliment. Livia conjugi nostri memor vive et vel, Tiberius in dissimulation. As Tacitus seeth of him, jam Tiberium verus et corpus, non dissimulatio deseribent. Vespian in a jest, sitting upon the stool, utputo deus fio. Galba with a sentence. Fere, si ex re, sit populi romani, holding forth his neck. Septimius severus in dispatch. A destes si quid, mi hi aristat agendum, and the like. Certainly the stoics bestowed too much cost upon death, and by their great preparations may it appear more fearful. Beter seeth he, qui finum vitae, extrimum inter munera punet naturee. It is as natural to die as to be born, and to a little infant perhaps the one is as painful as the other. He that dies in an earnest pursuit is like one that is wounded in hot blood, who, for the time, scarce fills the hurt, and therefore a mind fixed and bent upon somewhat that is good, death avert the dolers of death. But above all, believe it, the sweetest kentacle is nunc dimitis, when a man hath obtained worthy ends and expectations. Death hath this also, that it openeth the gate to good fame and extinguisheth envy. Extinctus amabitur idem. Essay 3 Of Unity in Religion Religion being the chief band of human society, it is a happy thing when itself is well contained within the true band of unity. The quarrels and divisions about religion were evils unknown to the heathen. The reason was because the religion of the heathen consisted rather in rites and ceremonies than in any constant belief. For you may imagine what kind of faith theirs was when the chief doctors and fathers of their church were the poets. But the true god hath this attribute, that he is a jealous god, and therefore his worship and religion will endure no mixture nor partner. We shall therefore speak a few words concerning the unity of the church, what are the fruits thereof, what the bounds, and what the means. The fruits of unity, next unto the well pleasing of God, which is all and all, are two. The one towards those that are without the church, the other towards those that are within. For the former it is certain that heresies and schisms are of all others the greatest scandals, yea, more than corruption of manners. For as in the natural body, a wound or solution of continuity is worse than a corrupt humor, so in the spiritual. So that nothing doth so much keep men out of the church and drive men out of the church as a breach of unity. And therefore, whensoever it cometh to pass, that one sayeth, eke in deserto, another sayeth, eke in penetralibus. That is, when some men seek Christ in the conventicles of heretics and others in an outward face of the church, that voice had need continually to sound in men's ears, nolite exadere, go not out. The doctor of the Gentiles, the propriety of whose vocation drew him to have a special care of those without, sayeth, if an heathen come in and hear you speak with several tongues, will he not say that you are mad? And certainly it is little better when atheists and profane persons do hear of so many discordant and contrary opinions in religion. It doth avert them from the church, and maketh them to sit down in the chair of the scorners. It is but a light thing to be vouched in so serious a matter, but yet it expresseth well the deformity. There is a master of scoffing that in his catalogue of books of a feigned library sets down this title of a book, The Morris Dance of Heretics, for indeed every sect of them hath a diverse posture or cringe by themselves which cannot but move derision in world leads and depraved politics who are apt to condemn holy things. As for the fruit towards those that are within, it is peace which containeth infinite blessings. It establisheth faith. It kindleth charity. The outward peace of the church distilleth into peace of conscience, and it turneth the labors of writing and reading of controversies into treaties of mortification and devotion. Concerning the bounds of unity, the true placing of them importeth exceedingly. There appear to be two extremes, for to certain zealots all speech of pacification is odious. Is it peace, Jehu? What hast thou to do with peace? Turn thee behind me. Peace is not the matter but following and party. Contrary wise, certain Laodiceans and lukewarm persons think they may accommodate points of religion by middle way, and taking part of both and witty reconcilements, as if they would make an arbitrament between God and man. Both these extremes are to be avoided, which will be done if the league of Christians pinned by our Savior himself were in two clauses thereof, soundly and plainly expounded. He that is not with us is against us, and again, he that is not against us is with us. That is, if the points of fundamental and of substance in religion were truly discerned and distinguished from points not merely of faith but of opinion, order, or good intention, this is a thing may seem to many a matter trivial and done already, but if it were done less partially it would be embraced more generally. Of this I may give only this advice according to my small model. Men ought to take heed of rending God's church by two kinds of controversies. The one is, when the matter of the point controverted is too small and light, not worth the heat and strife about it, kindled only by contradiction. For as it is noted, by one of the fathers Christ coat indeed had no seam, but the church's vesture was of diverse colors, whereupon he saith, investe variitis sit, sessura non sit. They be two things, unity and uniformity. The other is, when the matter of the point controverted is great, but it is driven to an over great subtlety and obscurity, so that it becomeeth a thing rather ingenious than substantial. A man that is of judgment and understanding shall sometimes hear ignorant men differ, and know well within himself that those which so differ mean one thing, and yet they themselves would never agree. And if it comes so to pass in that distance of judgment which is between man and man, shall we not think that God above that knows the heart doth not discern that frail men, in some of their contradictions, intend the same thing, and accepteth of both? The nature of such controversies is excellently expressed by St. Paul in the warning and precept that he giveth concerning the same. De vita profanis vocum novitatis et appositiones falsi nominis scientia. Men create oppositions which are not, and put them into new terms, so fixed as whereas the meaning ought to govern the term, the term in effect governeth the meaning. There be also two false pieces or unities, the one when the peace is grounded but upon an implicit ignorance, for all colors will agree in the dark. The other when it is pieced up upon a direct admission of contraries in fundamental points. For truth and falsehood in such things are like the iron and clay in the toes of Nebuchadnezzar's image. They may cleave, but they will not incorporate. Concerning the means of procuring unity, men must be aware that in the procuring or reuniting of religious unity, they do not dissolve and deface the laws of charity and of human society. There be two swords amongst Christians, the spiritual and temporal, and both have their due office and place in the maintenance of religion. But we may not take up the third sword, which is Muhammad's sword, or liken to it, that is, to propagate religion by wars or by sanguinary persecutions to force consciences. Except it be in cases of overt scandal, blasphemy, or intermixture of practice against the state, much less to nourish seditions, to authorize conspiracies and rebellions, to put the sword into the people's hands and the like, tending to the subversion of all government, which is the ordinance of God. For this is but to dash the first table against the second, and so to consider men as Christians, as we forget that they are men. Lucretius the poet, when he beheld the act of Agamemnon, that could endure the sacrificing of his own daughter, exclaimed, tantum religio potuit suedere malorum. What would he have said if he had known of the massacre in France, or the powder treason of England? He would have been seven times more epicure and atheist than he was. For as the temporal sword is to be drawn with great circumspection in cases of religion, so it is a thing monstrous to put it into the hands of the common people. Let that be left unto the Anabaptist and other Furies. It was great blasphemy when the devil said, I will ascend and be like the highest, but it is greater blasphemy to personate God and bring him insane, I will descend and be like the Prince of Darkness. And what is it better to make the cause of religion to descend, to the cruel and execrable actions of murdering princes, butchering of people, and subversion of states and governments? Surely this is to bring down the Holy Ghost instead of the likeness of a dove in the shape of a vulture or raven, and set out of the bark of a Christian church a flag of a bark of pirates and assassins. Therefore it is most necessary that the church, by doctrine and decree, princes by their swords, and all learnings both Christian and moral, as by their mercury rod, do damn and sin to hell forever those facts and opinions tending to the support of the same, as have been already and good part done. Surely in Council's concerning religion, that Council of the Apostle would be prefixed Era Hominus Nonimplet Justitium Dei. And it was a notable observation of a wise father, and no less ingeniously confessed, that those which held and persuaded pressure of consciences were commonly interested therein, themselves, for their own ends. 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 Of Revenge Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out. For as for the first wrong, it doth but offend the law. But the revenge of that wrong puteth the law out of office. Certainly in taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy. But in passing it over, he is superior. For it is a prince's part to pardon. And Solomon, I am sure, sayeth, it is the glory of a man to pass by in offense. That which is past is gone, and irrevocable, and wise men have enough to do with things present and to come, therefore they do but trifle with themselves that labor in past matters. There is no man doth a wrong for the wrong's sake, but thereby to purchase himself profit or pleasure or honor or the like. Therefore, why should I be angry with a man for loving himself better than me? And if any man should do wrong merely out of ill nature, why, yet it is but like the thorn or briar which prick and scratch, because they can do no other. The most tolerable sort of revenge is for those wrongs which there is no law to remedy. But then let a man take heed, the revenge be such as there is no law to punish. Else a man's enemy is still beforehand, and it is two for one. Some, when they take revenge, are desirous the party should know whence it cometh. This is the more generous, for the delight seemeth to be not so much in doing the hurt as in making the party repent. But base and crafty cowards are like the arrow that flyeth in the dark. Cosmos, Duke of Florence, had a desperate saying against perfidious or neglecting friends, as if those wrongs were unpardonable. You shall read, sayeth he, that we are commanded to forgive our enemies, but you never read that we are commanded to forgive our friends. But yet the spirit of Job was in a better tune. Shall we, sayeth he, take good at God's hands and not be content to take evil also? And so of friends in a proportion. This is certain, that a man that studyeth revenge keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well. Public revenges are for the most part fortunate, as that for the death of Caesar, for the death of Pertenax, for the death of Henry III of France, and many more. But in private revenges it is not so. Nay, rather, vindictive persons live the life of witches, who, as they are mischievous, so end they unfortunate. Essay 5 of Adversity It was in high speech of Seneca, after the manner of the Stoics, that the good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired. Bonum rerum secunderum optabilia. Adverserum mirabilia. Certainly if miracles be the command over nature, they appear most in adversity. It is yet a higher speech of his, than the other, much too high for a heathen. It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man, and the security of a god. Verimagnum habiri fragillitatum hominus securitatum di. This would have done better in Posey, where transcendences are more allowed. And the poets indeed have been busy with it, for it is in effect the thing which figured in that strange fiction of the ancient poets, which seemeth not to be without mystery. Nay, and to have some approach to the state of a Christian, that Hercules, when he went to unbind Prometheus, by whom human nature is represented, sailed to the length of the great ocean in an earthen pot or pitcher. Lively describing Christian resolution, that saileth in the frail bark of the flesh through the waves of the world. But to speak in a mean, the virtue of prosperity is temperance, the virtue of adversity is fortitude, which in morals is the more heroical virtue. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, adversity is the blessing of the new, which carryeth the greater benediction and the clearer revelation of God's favor. Yet even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols, and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes, and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. We see in needleworks and embroideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground, judged therefore of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye. Certainly virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed, for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue. Essay 6 Of Simulation and Dissimulation Dissimulation is but a faint kind of policy or wisdom, for it asketh a strong wit and a strong heart to know when to tell the truth and to do it. Therefore it is the weaker sort of politics that are the great dissimblers. Tacitus sayeth, Livia sorted well with the arts of her husband and dissimulation of her son, attributing arts or policy to Augustus and dissimulation to Tiberius. And again, when Musianus encouraged Vespian to take arms against Vitellius, he sayeth, We rise not against the piercing judgment of Augustus, nor the extreme caution or closeness of Tiberius. These properties of arts or policy and dissimulation or closeness are indeed habits and faculties several and to be distinguished. For if a man have that penetration of judgment, as he can discern what things are to be laid open and what to be secreted, and what to be showed at half-lites, and to whom and when, which indeed are arts of state and arts of life, as Tacitus well calleth him, to him a habit of dissimulation is a hindrance and a porness. But if a man cannot obtain to that judgment, then it is left to him generally to be close and a dissimbler. For where a man cannot choose or vary in particulars, there it is good to take the safest and various way in general, like this going softly by one that cannot well see. Certainly the ablest men that ever were have had all an openness and frankness of dealing, and a name of certainty and veracity. But then they were like horses well managed, for they could tell passing well when to stop or turn, and at such times when they thought the case indeed required dissimulation, if then they used it, it came to pass that the former opinion, spread abroad, of their good faith and clearness of dealing made them almost invisible. There be three degrees of this hiding and veiling of a man's self. The first, closeness, reservation, and secrecy. When a man leaveeth himself without observation or without hold to be taken what he is. The second, dissimulation in the negative, when a man let's false signs and arguments that he is not that he is. And the third, simulation in the affirmative, when a man industriously and expressly feigns and pretends to be that he is not. For the first of these, secrecy. It is indeed the virtue of a confessor, and assuredly the secret man heareth many confessions, for who will open himself to a blab or a babbler. But if a man be thought secret, it inviteeth discovery, as the more close air sucketh in the more open. And as in confession, the revealing is not for worldly use, but for the ease of a man's heart, so secret men come to the knowledge of many things in that kind, while men rather discharge their minds than impart their minds. In a few words, mysteries are due to secrecy. Besides, to say the truth, nakedness is uncomely, as well in mind as body. And it addeth no small reverence to men's manners and actions, if they be not altogether open. As for talkers and futile persons, they are commonly vain and credulous with all. For he that talketh what he knoweth, will also talk what he knoweth not. Therefore set it down, that inhabit of secrecy is both politic and moral. And in this part, it is good that a man's face give his tongue leave to speak. For the discovery of a man's self by the tracks of his countenance is a great weakness and betraying, by how much it is many times more marked and believed than a man's words. For the second, which is dissimulation, it followeth many times upon secrecy by a necessity, so that he that will be secret must be a dissimbler in some degree. For men are too cunning to suffer a man to keep an indifferent carriage between both, and to be secret without swaying the balance on either side. They will so be said a man with questions, and draw him on, and pick it out of him, that, without an absurd silence, he must show an inclination one way. Or if he do not, they will gather as much by his silence as by his speech. As for equivocations or oroculus speeches, they cannot hold out long, so that no man can be secret except to give himself a little scope of dissimulation, which is, as it were, but the skirts or train of secrecy. But for the third degree, which is simulation and false profession, that I hold more culpable and less politic, except it be in great and rare matters, and therefore a general custom of simulation, which is this last degree, is a vice. Using either of natural falseness or fearfulness, or of a mind that hath some main faults, which, because a man must need disguise, it maketh him practice simulation in other things, lest his hand should be out of use. The great advantages of simulation and dissimulation are three. First, to lay a sleep opposition, and to surprise. For where a man's intentions are published, it is an alarm to call up all that are against them. The second is, to reserve to a man's self a fair retreat. For if a man engage himself by a manifest declaration, he must go through, or take a fall. The third is, the better to discover the mind of another. For to him that opens himself, men will hardly show themselves adverse, but will fair let him go on, and turn their freedom of speech to freedom of thought. And therefore it is a good shrewd proverb of the Spaniard, tell a lie, and find a trough. As if there were no way of discovery, but by simulation. There be also three disadvantages to set it even. The first, that simulation and dissimulation commonly carry with them a show of fearfulness, which in any business does spoil the feathers of round flying up to the mark. The second, that it puzzleth and perplexeth the conceits of many, that perhaps would otherwise cooperate with him, and makes a man walk almost alone to his own ends. The third and greatest is, that it depriveth a man of one of the most principal instruments for action, which is trust and belief. The best competition and temperature is to have openness and fame and opinion, secrecy and habit, dissimulation in seasonable use, and the power to feign, if there be no remedy. Essay 7 Of Parents and Children The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears. They cannot other the one, nor will they utter the other. Children sweeten labors, but they make misfortunes more bitter. They increase the cares of life, but they mitigate the remembrance of death. The perpetuity by generation is common to beast, but memory, merit, and noble works are proper to men. And surely a man shall see the noblest works and foundations have preceded from childless men. Which have sought to express the images of their minds where those of their bodies have failed. So the care of posterity is most in them that have no posterity. They that are the first raisers of their houses are most indulgent towards their children, beholding them as the continuance not only of their kind, but of their work, and so both children and creatures. The difference in affection of parents towards their several children is many times unequal, and sometimes unworthy, especially in the mothers, as Solomon saith, a wise son rejoiceth the father, but an ungracious son shames the mother. A man shall see where there is a house full of children, one or two of the eldest respected, and the youngest made wantons, but in the midst some that are, as it were, forgotten, who many times nevertheless prove the best. The illiberality of parents in allowance towards their children is an harmful error, makes them base, acquaints them with shifts, makes them sort with mean company, and makes them surfeit more when they come to plenty, and therefore the proof is best when men keep their authority towards the children but not their purse. Men have a foolish manner, both parents and schoolmasters and servants, in creating and breeding an emulation between brothers during childhood, which many times sorteth to discord when they are men and disturbeth families. The Italians make little difference between children and nephews or near-kin folks, but so they be of the lump they care not though they pass not through their own body. And to say truth in nature it is much a like matter, in so much that we see a nephew sometimes resembleeth an uncle or a kinsman more than his own parent, as the blood happens. Let parents choose betimes the vocations and courses they mean their children should take, for then they are most flexible, and let them not too much apply themselves to the disposition of their children, as thinking they will take best to that which they have most in mind to. It is true that if the affection or aptness of the children be extraordinary, then it is good not to cross it, but generally the precept is good, optimum, ilegi, suavi et facieli, ilude, faciat, consue tudot. Younger brothers are commonly fortunate, but seldom or never where the elder are disinherited. Essay 8 Of Marriage and Single Life He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune, for they are impediments to great enterprises either of virtue or mischief. Certainly the best works and of greatest merit for the public have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men, which both in affection and means have married and endowed the public. Yet it were great reason that those that have children should have greatest care of future times, unto which they know they must transmit their dearest pledges. Some there are who though they lead a single life, yet their thoughts do end with themselves and account future times impertinences. Nay, there are some other that account wife and children but as bills of charges. Nay more, there are some foolish rich covetous men that take a pride in having no children because they may be thought so much the richer. For perhaps they have heard some talk, such and one is a great rich man, and another except to it, yay, but he hath a great charge of children, as if it were an abatement to his riches. But the most ordinary cause of a single life is liberty, especially in certain self-pleasing and humorous minds, which are so sensible of every restraint as they will go near to think their girdles and garters to be bonds and shackles. Unmarried men are best friends, best masters, best servants, but not always best subjects, for they are light to run away, and almost all fugitives are of that condition. A single life doth well with churchmen, for charity will hardly water the ground where it must first fill a pool. It is indifferent for judges and magistrates. For if they be facile and corrupt, you shall have a servant five times worse than a wife. For soldiers, I find the generals commonly in their hortatives put men in mind of their wives and children, and I think the despising of marriage amongst the Turks maketh the vulgar soldier more base. Certainly wife and children are kind of discipline of humanity, and single men, though they may be many times more charitable, because their means are less exhaust, yet on the other side they are more cruel and hard-hearted, good to make severe inquisitors, because their tenderness is not so oft called upon. Grave natures, led by custom and therefore constant, are commonly loving husbands, as was said of Ulysses. Vetulam suam pretulit immortalatati Chased women are often proud and fraught, as presuming upon the merit of their chastity. It is one of the best bonds, both of chastity and obedience in the wife, if she think her husband wise, which she will never do if she find him jealous. Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses. So as a man may have a quarrel to marry when he will. But yet he was reputed one of the wise men that made answer to the question, when a man should marry, a young man not yet an elder man not at all. It is often seen that bad husbands have very good wives, whether it be that it raise it the price of their husband's kindness when it comes, or that the wives take a pride in their patience. But this never fails if the bad husbands were of their own choosing against their friend's consent. For then they will be sure to make good their own folly. End of The Essays of Francis Bacon Essays 4 through 8 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 9 of Envy There be none of the answers of Envy. There be none of the affections which have been noted to fascinate or bewitch, but love and envy. They both have vehement wishes. They frame themselves readily into imaginations and suggestions. And they come easily into the eye, and especially upon the present of the objects, which are the points that conduce to fascination, if any such thing there be. And likewise, the scripture calleth Envy an evil eye, and the astrologers call the evil influences of the stars evil aspects, so that there still seemeth to be acknowledged in the act of Envy an ejaculation or irradiation of the eye. Nay, some have been so curious as to note that the times when the stroke or percussion of an envious eye death most hurt are when the party Envy'd is beheld in glory or triumph. For that sets an edge upon Envy. And besides, at such times the spirits of the person Envy'd do come forth most into the outward parts and so meet the blow. But leaving these curiosities, though not unworthy to be thought on, in fit place, we will handle what persons are apt to Envy others, what persons are most subject to be Envy'd themselves, and what is the difference between public and private Envy. A man that hath no virtue in himself ever envieth virtue in others. For men's minds will either feed upon their own good or upon others evil, and who wanteth the one will pray upon the other. And whoso is out of hope to attain to another's virtue will seek to come at even hand by depressing another's fortune. A man that is busy and inquisitive is commonly envious. For to know much of other men's matters cannot be because all that adieu may concern his own estate. Therefore it must needs be that he taketh a kind of play-pleasure in looking upon the fortunes of others. Neither can he that mindeth but his own business find much matter for Envy. For Envy is a gadding passion, and walketh the streets, and doth not keep home. Non-est curiosus, quen idem sit malevolus. Men of noble birth are noted to be envious towards new men when they rise. For the distance is altered, and it is like a deceit of the eye that when others come on, they think themselves go back. Deformed persons and eunuchs and old men and bastards are envious. For he that cannot possibly mend his own case will do what he can to impair another's. Except these defects light upon a very brave and heroical nature, which thinketh to make his natural wants part of his honor. In that it should be said that an eunuch or a lame man did such great matters, affecting the honor of a miracle, as it was in Narciss the eunuch and Agicilius and Timberlanes that were lame men. The same is the case of men that rise after calamities and misfortunes. For they are as men fallen out with the times and think other men's harms a redemption of their own sufferings. They that desire to excel in too many matters out of levity and vain glory are ever envious. For they cannot want work. It being impossible, but many in some one of those things should surpass them. Which was the character of the Emperor that mortally envied poets and painters and artificers in works wherein he had a vain to excel. Lastly, near kin folks and fellows in office and those that have been bred together are more apt to envy their equals when they are raised. For it doth up braid unto them their own fortunes and pointeth at them and cometh oftener into their remembrance and incureth likewise more into the note of others and envy ever redubleth from speech and fame. Cain's envy was the more vile and malignant towards his brother Abel because when his sacrifice was better accepted there was nobody to look on. Thus much for those that are apt to envy. Concerning those that are more or less subject to envy first persons of imminent virtue when they are advanced envied for their fortunes seemeth but do unto them and no man envyeth the payment of a debt but rewards in liberality rather. Again, envy is ever joined with the comparing of a man's self and where there is no comparison no envy and therefore kings are not envied but by kings. Nevertheless, it is to be noted that unworthy persons are becoming in and afterwards overcome it better whereas contrary wise persons of worth and merit are most envied when their fortune continueeth long for by that time though their virtue be the same yet it hath not the same luster for fresh men grow up that darken it. Persons of noble blood are less envied in their rising for it seemeth but right done to their birth and it is as the sunbeams that beat hotter upon a bank or steep rising ground than upon a flat and for the same reason those that are advanced by degrees are less envied than those that are advanced suddenly and persultum. Those that have joined with their honor great travels, cares or perils are less subject to envy for men think that they earn their honors hardly and pity them sometimes wherefore you shall observe that the more deep and sober sort of politic persons in their greatness are ever bemoaning themselves what a life they lead chanting not that they feel it so but only to abate the edge of envy but this is to be understood of business that is laid upon men and not such as they call unto themselves for nothing increases envy more than an unnecessary and grossing of business and nothing does distinguish envy more than for a great person to preserve all other inferior officers in their full lights and preeminences of their places for by that means there be so many screens between him and envy above all those are most subject to envy which carry the greatness of their fortunes in an insolent and proud manner never well but while they are showing how great they are either by outward pomp or by triumphing over all opposition or competition whereas wise men will rather do sacrifice to envy in suffering themselves sometimes of purpose to be crossed and overborn in things that do not much concern them not withstanding so much is true that the carriage of greatness in a plain and open manner so it be without envy doth draw less envy than if it be in a more crafty and cunning fashion for in that course a man doth but disavow fortune and seemeth to be conscious of his own want and worth and doth but teach others to envy him lastly to conclude this part as we said in the beginning that the act of envy had somewhat in it of witchcraft so there is no other cure of envy but the cure of witchcraft is to move the lot as they call it and lay it upon another for which purpose the wiser sort of great persons bring in ever upon the stage somebody upon whom to derive the envy that would come upon themselves sometimes upon ministers and servants sometimes upon colleagues and associates and the like and for that turn there are never wanting some persons of violent and undertaking natures now to speak of public envy there is yet some good in public envy whereas in private there is none for public envy is an ostracism that eclipseth men when they grow to great and therefore it is a bridle also to great ones to keep them within bounds this envy being in the Latin word invidia goeth in the modern language by the name of discontentment to which we shall speak in handling sedition it is a disease in a state like to infection for as infection spreadeth upon that which is sound and tainteth it so when envy is gotten once into a state it traduceth even the best actions thereof and turneth them into an ill odor and therefore there is little one by intermingling of plausible actions for that death argue in public envy which hereth so much the more as it is likewise usual in infections which if you fear them you call them upon you this public envy seemeth to be chiefly upon principal officers or ministers rather than upon kings and estates themselves but this is a sure rule that if the envy upon the minister be great when the cause of it in him is small or if the envy be general of an estate then the envy though hidden is truly upon the state itself and so much of public envy or discontentment and the difference thereof from private envy which was handled in the first place we will add this in general touching the affection of envy that of all other affections it is the most importun and continual for of other affections there is occasion given it is well said envidia festus deus non agit for it is ever working upon some or other and it is also noted that love and envy do make a man pine which other affections do not because they are not so continual it is also the vilest affection and the most depraved for which cause it is the proper attribute of the devil who is called the envious man amongst the wheat by night as it always cometh to pass that envy worketh subtly and in the dark and to the prejudice of good things such as is the wheat essay ten of love the stage is more beholding to love than the life of man for as to the stage love is ever a matter of comedies and now and then of tragedies but in life there is death much mischief sometimes like a siren sometimes like a fury you may observe that amongst all the great and worthy persons whereof the memory retaineth either ancient or recent there is not one that hath been transported to the mad degree of love which shows that great spirits and great business do keep out of this wheat passion you must accept nevertheless the desire of Rome and Appius Claudius the December and lawgiver whereof the former was indeed a voluptuous man and inordinate but the latter was an austere and wise man and therefore it seems though rarely that love can find entrance not only in an open heart but also into a heart well fortified satis magnum alter alterie as if man made for the contemplation of heaven and all noble objects should do nothing but kneel before a little idol and make himself a subject though not of the mouth as beasts are yet of the eye which was given him for higher purposes it is a strange thing to note the excess that the speaking in a perpetual hyperbole is comely in nothing but in love neither is it merely in the phrase for whereas it has been well said that the arch flatterer with whom all the petty flatterers have intelligence is a man's self certainly the lover is more for there was never proud man thought so absurdly well of himself as the lover doth of the person loved it is impossible to love and to be wise neither doth this weakness appear to others only and not to the party loved but to the loved most of all except the love be reciprocate for it is a true rule that love is ever rewarded either with the reciprocate or with an inward and secret contempt by how much the more men ought to beware of this passion as for the other losses the poet's relation doth well figure them that he that preferred Helena quiddeth the gifts of Juno and Pallas for whosoever esteemeth too much of amorous affection quiddeth both riches and wisdom this passion have his floods in very times of weakness which are great prosperity and great adversity though this latter is observed both which times kindle love and make it more fervent and therefore show it to be the child of folly they do best who if they cannot but admit love yet make it keep quarters and sever it wholly from their serious affairs and actions of life for if it check once with business it troubleeth men's fortunes and makeeth men that they can no ways makeeth men are given to love I think it is but as they are given to wine for Pallas commonly asked to be paid in pleasures there is in man's nature a secret inclination and motion towards love of others which if it be not spent upon some one or a few doth naturally spread itself towards many and makeeth men become humane and charitable as is seen sometimes in friars and kind friendly love perfecteth it but wanton love corrupteth and invasive it essay 11 of great place men in great place are thrice servants servants of the sovereign or state servants of fame and servants of business so as they have no freedom neither in their persons nor in their actions it is a strange desire to seek power and to lose liberty or to seek power over others and to lose power over a man's self the rising unto place is laborious and by pains men come to greater pains and it is sometimes base and by indignities men come to dignities the standing is slippery and the regress is either downfall or at least an eclipse which is a melancholy thing come nonsis quifuris non essay cur vilis vivere nay retire men cannot win they would neither will they when it were reason but are impatient of privateness even in age and sickness which require the shadow like old townsmen that will be still sitting in the great door though thereby they offer age to scorn certainly great persons had need to borrow other men's opinions to think themselves happy for if they judge by their own feeling they cannot find it but if they think with themselves what other men think of them and that other men would feign be as they are then they are happy as it were by report when perhaps they find the first that find their own griefs though they be the last that find their own faults certainly men in great fortunes are strangers to themselves and while they are in the puzzle of business they have no time to tend their health either of mind or body Elie moors gravis in cubat quy notus nimis omnibus ignatus moritor sibe good and evil whereof the latter is a curse for in evil the best condition is not to win the second not to can but power to do good is the true and lawful end of aspiring for good thoughts though God accept them yet towards men are little better than good dreams except they be put into act and that cannot be without power and place and good works is the end of a man's motion and conscience of the same is the accomplishment of man's rest for if a man can be partaker of God's theater he shall likewise be partaker of God's rest et conversus deus ut espicaret opera quae fesserunt menis suae vidit quad amnia essent bona nimis and then the Sabbath in the discharge of thy place set before thee the best examples for imitation is a globe of precepts and after a time set before thee thine own example and examine thyself strictly whether thou didst not best at first neglect not also the examples of those that have carried themselves ill in the same place not to set off thyself by taxing their memory but to direct thyself what to avoid reform therefore without bravery or scandal of former times and persons but yet set it down to thyself as well to create good precedents as to follow them reduce things to the first institution and observe wherein and how they have degenerate but yet ask counsel of both times of the ancient time what is best what is fittest seek to make thy course regular that men may know before hand what they may expect but be not too positive or a peremptory and express thyself well when thou digressest from thy rule preserve the right of thy place but stir not questions of jurisdiction and rather assume thy right in silence and de facto then voice it with claims and challenges preserve likewise the rights and the honor to direct in chief then to be busy in all embrace and invite helps and advices touching the execution of thy place and do not drive away such as bring the information as medallers but accept of them in good part the vices of authority are chiefly for delays corruption roughness and facility for delays go through with that which is in hand and interlace not business but of necessity for corruption do not only bind thine own hands or thy servants hands from taking but bind the hands of suitors also from offering for integrity used doth the one but integrity professed and with a manifest detestation of bribery doth the other with a suspicion whosoever is found variable and changeth manifestly without manifest cause giveth suspicion of corruption therefore always when thou changest thine opinion or course profess it plainly and declare it together with the reasons that move thee to change and do not think to steal it a servant or a favorite if he be inward and no other apparent cause of esteem for roughness it is a needless cause of discontent severity breedeth fear but roughness breedeth hate even reproofs from authority ought to be grave and not taunting as for a facility it is worse than bribery for bribes come but now and then but if importunity or idol respects lead a man as Solomon sayeth to respect persons is not good for such a man will transgress for a piece of bread it is most true that was anciently spoken a place showeth the man and it showeth some to the better and some to the worse omnium consensu capex imperii nisi imperiset sayeth tacitus of Galba but of Vespian he sayeth solus imperantium vespanius mutitus in milius though the one was meant of sufficiency the other of manners and affection it is an assured sign of a worthy and generous spirit whom honor amends for honor is or should be the place of virtue and as in nature things move violently to their place so virtue and ambition is violent in authority settled and calm all rising to great place is by a winding star and if there be factions it is good to aside a man's self whilst he is in the rising and to balance himself when he is placed use the memory of thy predecessor fairly and tenderly for if thou dost not it is a debt will sure be paid when thou art gone if thou have colleagues respect them and rather call them when they look not for it then exclude them when they have a reason to look to be called be not too sensible or too remembering of thy place in conversation and private answers to suitors but let it rather be said when he sits in place he is another man 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 12 of boldness it is a trivial grammar school text but yet worthy a wise man's consideration question was asked of Dimasthenes what was the chief part of an orator he answered action what next action what next again action he said it that knew it best and had by nature himself no advantage in that he commended a strange thing that that part of an orator which is but superficial and rather the virtue of a player of invention and the rest almost alone as if it were all in all but the reason is plain there is in human nature generally more of the fool than of the wise and therefore those faculties by which the foolish part of men's minds is taken are most potent wonderful like is the case of boldness in civil business what first boldness and yet boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness far inferior to other parts but nevertheless it does fascinate and bind hand and foot those that are either shallow in judgment or weak in courage which are the greatest part yay and prevaileth with wise men at weak times therefore we see it have done wonders in popular states and more ever upon the first entrance of bold persons into action then soon after for boldness is an ill keeper of promise surely as there are amount of banks for the natural body so there are amount of banks for the politic body men that undertake great cures and perhaps have been lucky in two or three experiments but want the grounds of science we also see a bold fellow many times do Muhammad's miracle Muhammad made the people believe that he would call and hill to him and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law the people assembled Muhammad called the hill to come to him again and again and when the hill stood still he was never a wit abashed but said if the hill will not come to Muhammad it matters and failed most shamefully yet if they have the perfection of boldness they will but slight over it and make a turn and no more ado certainly to men of great judgment bold persons are a sport to behold nay and to the vulgar also boldness has somewhat of the ridiculous for if absurdity be the subject of laughter doubt you not but great boldness is seldom without some absurdity especially it is a sport to see when a bold fellow is out of countenance for that puts his face into a most shrunken and wooden posture as needs it must for in bashfulness the spirits do a little go and come but with bold men upon like occasion they stand at a stay like a stale at chess where it is no mate but yet the game cannot stir but this last were fitter for a satire then for a serious observation this is well to be weighed that boldness is ever blind for it see if not danger and inconveniences therefore it is ill in council good in execution so that the right use of bold persons is that they never command in chief but be seconds and under the direction of others for in council it is good to see dangers and in execution not to see them essay 13 of goodness and goodness of nature I take goodness in this sense the effecting of the wheel of men which is that the grecians call philanthropia and the word humanity as it is used is a little too light to express it goodness I call the habit and goodness of nature the inclination this of all virtues is the greatest being the character of the deity and without it man is a busy mischievous wretched thing no better than a kind of vermin goodness answers to the theological virtue charity and admits no excess but error the desire of power in excess cause the angels to fall the desire of knowledge in excess cause man to fall but in charity no excess neither can angel nor man come in danger by it the inclination to goodness is imprinted deeply in the nature of man in so much that if it issue not towards men it will take unto other living creatures as it is seen in the Turks a cruel people who nevertheless are kind to beasts and give alms to dogs and birds in so much as a christian boy in Constantinople had liked to have been stoned for gagging in a waggishness a long-billed fowl errors indeed in this virtue of goodness or charity may be committed the Italians have an ungracious proverb tento buon ce val niente so good that he is good for nothing and one of the doctors of Italy Nicholas Machiavelle had the confidence to put in writing that the christian faith had given up good men in prey to those that are tyrannical and unjust which he spake because indeed there was never law or sect or opinion did so much magnify goodness as the christian religion does therefore to avoid the scandal and the danger both it is good to take knowledge of the errors of inhabit so excellent seek the good of other men but be not in bondage but at facility or softness which taketh an honest mind prisoner never give thou Aesop's cock a gem who would be better pleased and happier if he had had a barley corn the example of God teacheth the lesson truly he sendeth his reign and maketh his son to shine upon the just and unjust but he doth not reign wealth nor shine honor and virtues upon men equally common benefits are to be communicate with all but peculiar benefits with choice and beware how in making the portraiture thou breakest the pattern for divinity maketh the love of ourselves the pattern the love of our neighbors but the portraiture sell all thou hast and give it to the poor and follow me but sell not all thou hast except thou come and follow me except thou have a vocation wherein thou mayest do as much good with little means as with great for otherwise in feeding the streams thou dryest the fountain neither is there only a habit of goodness directed by right reason but there is in some men even in nature a disposition towards it as on the other side there is a natural malignity for there be that in their nature do not affect the good of others the lighter sort of malignity the lessness or forwardness or aptness to oppose or difficulties or the like but the deeper sort to envy and mere mischief some men in other men's calamities are as it were in season and are ever on the loading part not so good as the dogs that licked Lazarus' sores but like flies that are still buzzing upon anything that is raw misanthropy that make it their practice to bring men to the bow and to the tree for the purpose in their gardens as Timon had such dispositions are the very errors of human nature and yet they are the fittest timber to make great politics of like the knee timber that is good for ships that are ordained to be tossed but not for building houses that shall stand firm the parts and signs of goodness are many if a man be gracious to the world and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands but a continent that joins to them if he be compassionate towards the afflictions of others it shows that his heart is like the noble tree that is wounded itself when it gives the balm if he easily pardons and remits offenses it shows that his mind is planted above injuries so that he cannot be shot it shows that he weighs men's minds and not their trash but above all if he have Saint Paul's perfection that he would wish to be anathema from Christ for the salvation of his brethren it shows much of a divine nature and a kind of conformity with Christ himself essay 14 of nobility we will speak of nobility first as a portion of an estate then as a condition of particular persons a monarchy where there is no nobility at all is ever a pure and absolute tyranny as that of the Turks for nobility a tempers sovereignty and draws the eyes of the people somewhat aside from the royal line but for democracies they need it not and they are commonly more quiet and less subject to sedition than where there are stirps of nobles for men's eyes are upon the business and not upon the persons or if upon the persons it is for the business's sake as fittest and not for flags and pedigree we see the switzers last well not withstanding their diversity of religion and of cantons for utility is their bond and not respects the united provinces of the low countries in their government excel for where there is inequality consultations are more indifferent and the payments and tributes more cheerful a great and potent nobility addeth majesty to a monarch but diminishes power and puteth life and spirit into the people but presseth their fortune it is well when nobles are not too great for sovereignty nor for justice and yet maintained in that height as the insolency of inferiors may be broken upon them by the nobility of kings a numerous nobility causeth poverty and inconvenience in a state for it is a surcharge of expense and besides it being of necessity that many of the nobility fall in time to be weakened fortune it makeeth a kind of disproportion between honor and means as for nobility in particular persons it is a reverend thing to be free, sound, and perfect how much more to behold an ancient noble family which has stood against the waves and weathers of time for new nobility is but the act of power but ancient nobility is the act of time those that are first raised to nobility are commonly more virtuous but less innocent than their descendants for there is rarely any rising but it is reason the memory of their virtues remain to their posterity and their faults die with themselves nobility of birth commonly abedeth industry and he that is not industrious envioth him that is besides noble persons cannot go much higher and he that standeth at a stay when others rise can hardly avoid motions of envy on the other side as they worship the passive envy from others towards them because they are in possession of honor certainly kings that have able men of their nobility shall find ease in employing them and a better slide into their business for people naturally been to them as born in some sort to command essay 15 of seditions and troubles shepherds of people of the state which are commonly greatest when things grow to equality as natural tempest are greatest about the equinacea and as there are certain hollow blasts of wind and secret swellings of seas before a tempest so are there in states Ili etium cacos in stare tumultus sepe monet fradesque et aperta tunascare bella discourses against the state when they are frequent and open and in like sort false news often running up and down to the disadvantage of the state and hastily embraced are amongst the signs of trouble Virgil giving the pedigree of fame she was sister to the giants ilam tera perens ira ira tata diorum extremum ut peribent co in seladoki sororim progenuit as if fames were the relics of sedition passed but they are no less indeed the preludes of seditions to come how so ever he noted it right that seditious tumultus and seditious fames differ no more but as brother and sister masculine and feminine especially if it come to that that the best actions of a state and the most plausible and which ought to give greatest contentment are taken in ill-sense and traduced for that shows the envy great as tacitis seis conflata magna invidia sue beni sue mali gesta primunt neither doth it follow that because these fames are a sign of troubles that the suppressing of them with too much severity should be a remedy of troubles that the suppressing of them many times checks them best and the going about to stop them doth let make a wonder long lived also that kind of obedience which tacitis speaketh of is to be held suspected errant in officio sed tamen ke malent mandara imperantium interpretari quam exiqui disputing excusing non-mandates and directions is a kind of shaking off the yoke and assay of disobedience especially if in those disputings they which are for the direction speak fearfully and tenderly and those that are against it audaciously also as maccavel noted well when princes that ought to be common parents make themselves as a party and lean to aside it is as a boat that is overthrown by uneven weight inside as was well seen in the time of Henry III of France for first himself entered league for the extirpation of the protestants and presently after the same league was turned upon himself for when the authority of princes is made but an accessory to a cause and that there be other bands that tie faster than the band of sovereignty kings begin to be put almost out of possession also when discords and quarrels and factions are carried openly and audaciously it is a sign the reverence of government is lost for the motions of the greatest persons in a government ought to be as the motions of the planets under premium mobile according to the old opinion which is that every of them is carried swiftly by the highest motion and softly in their own motion and therefore when great ones in their own particular motion move violently and as tacitus expresseth it well Liberius quam at imperantium mimin is sent it is a sign that the orbs are out of frame for reverence is that wherewith princes are Gert from God who threateneth the dissolving thereof Solvum singula regum so when any of the four pillars of government are mainly shaken or weakened by religion, justice, council, and treasure men had need to pray for fair weather but let us pass from this part of predictions concerning which nevertheless more light may be taken from that which followeth and let us speak first of the materials of seditions then of the motives of them and thirdly of the remedies concerning the materials of seditions it is a thing well to be considered for the surest way to prevent seditions if the times do bear it is to take away the matter of them for if there be fuel prepared it is hard to tell whence the spark shall come that shall set it on fire the matter of seditions is of two kinds much poverty and much discontentment it is certain so many overthrown estates so many votes for troubles Lucian nodeth well the state of Rome before the civil war Hink usora vorax Rapidum ki in tempore Hink concusa fides et multis utili bellum this same multis utili bellum is an assured and infallible sign of a state disposed to seditions and troubles and if this poverty and broken estate in the better sort be joined with a want and necessity in the mean people the danger is imminent and great for the rebellions of the belly are the worst arguments they are in the politic body like the humours in the natural which are apt to gather a preternatural heat and to inflame and let no prince measure the danger of them by this whether they be just or unjust for that were to imagine people to be too reasonable who do often spurn their own good nor yet by this whether the griefs whereupon they rise be in fact great or small for they are the most dangerous discontentments where the fear is greater than the feeling dolendi modus taimendi non itim besides in great oppressions the same things that provoke the patients do with all mate the courage but in fears it is not so neither let any prince or state be secure concerning discontentments because they have been often they have been long and yet no peril have ensued for as it is true that every vapor or fume does not turn into a storm so it is nevertheless true that storms though they blow over diverse times yet may fall at last and as the Spanish proverb notethwell the cord breaketh at the last by the weakest pull the causes and motives of seditions are the creation of laws and customs breaking of privileges general oppression advancement of unworthy persons strangers dearths disbanded soldiers factions grown desperate and what so ever in offending people joineth and kniteth them in a common cause for the remedies there may be some general preservatives and so be left to council rather than rule the first remedy or prevention is to remove by all means possible that material cause of sedition whereof we spake which is want and poverty in the estate to which purpose serveth the opening and well balancing of trade the cherishing of manufactures the banishing of idleness the repressing of waste the regulating of prices of things vindible the moderating of taxes and tributes and the like generally it is to be foreseen that the population of a kingdom especially if it be not mown down by wars do not exceed the stock of the kingdom which should maintain them neither is the population to be reckoned only by number for a smaller number that spend more and earn less that live lower and gather more therefore the multiplying of nobility and other degrees of quality in an over proportion to the common people death speedily bring a state to necessity and so death likewise an overgrown clergy for they bring nothing to the stock and in like manner when more are bred scholars then preferments can take off it is likewise to be remembered that for as much as the increase of any estate must be upon the foreigner is somewhere gotten is somewhere lost there be but three things which one nation selleth unto another the commodity as nature yieldeth it the manufacture and the vector or carriage so that if these three wheels go wealth will flow as in a spring tide and it cometh many times to pass that materium superb it opus that the work and the carriage is more worth than the material and enricheth a state more as is notably seen in the low countrymen who have the best minds above ground in the world above all things good policy is to be used that the treasure and monies in a state be not gathered into few hands for otherwise a state may have a great stock and yet starve and money is like muck not good except it be spread this is done chiefly by suppressing or at least keeping a straight hand upon the devouring trades of usury and grossing great pasturages and the like for removing discontentments or at least the danger of them there is in every state as we know two portions of subjects the no bless and the commonality when one of these is discontent the danger is not great for common people are of slow motion if they be not excited by the greater sort and the greater sort are of small strength except the multitude be apt and ready to move of themselves then is the danger when the greater sort do but wait for the troubling of the waters amongst the meaner that then they may declare themselves the poets feign that the rest of the gods would have bound Jupiter which he hearing of by the council of palace sent for bryorius with his hundred hands to come into his aid as safe it is for monarchs to make sure of the goodwill of common people to give moderate liberty for griefs and discontentments to evaporate so it be without too great insolency or bravery is a safe way for he that turneth the humours back and maketh the wound bleed inwards in dangerith malign ulcers and pernicious impostumations the part of epimetheus but well become prometheus in the case of discontentments for there is not a better provision against them epimetheus when griefs and evils flew abroad at last shut the lid and kept hope in the bottom of the vessel certainly the politic and artificial nourishing and entertaining of hopes and carrying men from hopes to hopes is one of the best antidotes against the poison of discontentments and it is a certain sign of enlightenment and proceeding when it can hold men's hearts by hopes when it cannot by satisfaction and when it can handle things in such manner as no evils shall appear so peremptory but that it hath some outlet of hope which is the less hard to do because both particular persons and factions are apt enough to flatter themselves or at least to brave that which they believe not also the foresight and prevention of both likely or fit head wherein two discontented persons may resort and under whom they may join is a known but an excellent point of caution I understand a fit head to be one that hath greatness and reputation that hath confidence with the discontented party and upon whom they turn their eyes and that is thought discontented in his own particular which kind of persons in a fast and true manner or to be fronted with some other of the same party that may oppose them and so divide the reputation generally the dividing and breaking of all factions and combinations that are adverse to the state and setting them at distance or at least distrust amongst themselves is not one of the worst remedies for it is a desperate case if those that hold with the proceeding of the state be full of discourse and faction in the entire and united I have noted that some witty and sharp speeches which have fallen from princes have given fire to seditions Caesar did himself infinite hurt in that speech Sila Nesivit Lideras Non Hotuit Diktare for it did utterly cut off that hope which men had entertained that he would at one time or other give over his dictatorship Galba undid himself by that speech La Si Militim Non Emi for it put the soldiers out of hope of the Donative Provis likewise by that speech Si Vixero Non Opus Eret Amplius Romano Imperio Militibus a speech of great despair for the soldiers and many the like surely princes had need and tender matters and ticklish times to beware what they say especially in these short speeches which fly abroad like darts and are thought to be shot out of their secret intentions for as for large discourses they are like flat things and not so much noted lastly let princes against all events not be without some great person one or rather more of military valor near unto them for the repressing of seditions in their beginnings for without that they are useth to be more trepidation in court upon the first breaking out of troubles than were fit and the state runneth the danger of that which tacitis seeth Actae is habitus anamorum fuet at pessimum facinus aderent posi plures vellent omnis paterinter but let such military persons be assured and well reputed of rather than factious and popular holding also good correspondence with the other great men in the state or else the remedy is worse than the disease end of the essays of francis bacon chapters 12 13 14 and 15