impossible any other should be over-great. Another means to curb them, is to balance them by others as proud as they. But then there must be some middle counsellors, to keep things steady; for without that ballast the ship will roll too much. At the least, a animate and inure2 some meaner persons,

prince may to be as it were scourges to ambitious men. As for the having of them obnoxious to ruin; if they be of fearful natures, it may do well; but if they be stout and daring, it may precipitate their designs, and prove dangerous. As for the pulling of them down, if the affairs require it, and that it may not be done with safety suddenly, the only way is, the interchange continually of favours and disgraces; whereby they may not know what to expect, and be as it were in a wood. Of ambitions, it is less harmful, the ambition to prevail in great things, than that other to appear in every thing; for that breeds confusion, and mars business. But yet it is less danger to have an ambitious man stirring in business, than great in dependances. He that seeketh to be eminent amongst able men hath a great task; but that is ever good for the public. But he that plots to be the only figure amongst ciphers is the decay of a whole age. Honour hath three things in it: the vantage ground to do good; the approach to kings and principal persons; and the raising of a man's own fortunes. He that hath the best of these intentions, when he aspireth, is

1 qui partes medias teneant, ne factiones omnia pessundent.

2 allicere... et animare.

8 quantum ad ingenerandam illam in ambitiosis opinionem, ut se ruinæ proximos putent, atque eo modo contineantur.

4 confusionem consiliorum.

5 qui gratiâ et clientelis pollet.

an honest man; and that prince that can discern of these intentions in another that aspireth, is a wise prince. Generally, let princes and states choose such ministers as are more sensible of duty than of rising; and such as love business rather upon conscience than upon bravery; and let them discern a busy nature from a willing mind.

XXXVII. OF MASQUES AND TRIUMPHS.2

THESE things are but toys, to come amongst such serious observations. But yet, since princes will have such things, it is better they should be graced with elegancy than daubed with cost. Dancing to song, is a thing of great state and pleasure. I understand it, that the song be in quire, placed aloft, and accompanied with some broken music; and the ditty fitted to the device. Acting in song, especially in dialogues, hath an extreme good grace; I say acting, not dancing (for that is a mean and vulgar thing); and the voices of the dialogue would be strong and manly, (a base and a tenor; no treble ;) and the ditty high and tragical; not nice or dainty. Several quires, placed one over against another, and taking the voice by catches, anthem-wise, give great pleasure. Turning dances into figure is a childish curiosity. And generally let it be noted, that those things which I here set down are such as do naturally take the sense, and not respect petty wonderments. It is true, the alterations of scenes, so it be quietly and without noise,

VOL. XII.

1 quam ex ostentatione.

2 This Essay is not translated.

14

are things of great beauty and pleasure; for they feed and relieve the eye, before it be full of the same object. Let the scenes abound with light, specially coloured and varied; and let the masquers, or any other, that are to come down from the scene, have some motions upon the scene itself before their coming down; for it draws the eye strangely, and makes it with great pleasure to desire to see that it cannot perfectly discern. Let the songs be loud and cheerful, and not chirpings or pulings. Let the music likewise be sharp and loud, and well placed. The colours that shew best by candle-light, are white, carnation, and a kind of sea-water-green; and oes, or spangs, as they are of no great cost, so they are of most glory. As for rich embroidery, it is lost and not discerned. Let the suits of the masquers be graceful, and such as become the person when the vizards are off; not after examples of known attires; Turks, soldiers, mariners, and the like. Let anti-masques not be long; they have been commonly of fools, satyrs, baboons, wild-men, antics, beasts, sprites, witches, Ethiops, pigmies, turquets, nymphs, rustics, Cupids, statua's moving, and the like. As for angels, it is not comical enough to put them in antimasques; and any thing that is hideous, as devils, giants, is on the other side as unfit. But chiefly, let the music of them be recreative, and with some strange changes. Some sweet odours suddenly coming forth, without any drops falling, are, in such a company as there is steam and heat, things of great pleasure and refreshment. Double masques, one of men, another of ladies, addeth state and variety. But all is nothing except the room be kept clear and neat.

For justs, and tourneys, and barriers; the glories of

them are chiefly in the chariots, wherein the challengers make their entry; especially if they be drawn with strange beasts: as lions, bears, camels, and the like; or in the devices of their entrance; or in the bravery of their liveries; or in the goodly furniture of their horses and armour. But enough of these toys.

XXXVIII. OF NATURE IN MEN.

NATURE is often hidden; sometimes overcome; seldom extinguished. Force maketh nature more violent in the return; doctrine and discourse maketh nature less importune; but custom only doth alter and subdue nature. He that seeketh victory over his nature, let him not set himself too great nor too small tasks; for the first will make him dejected by often failings; and the second will make him a small proceeder, though by often prevailings. And at the first let him practise with helps, as swimmers do with bladders or rushes; but after a time let him practise with disadvantages, as dancers do with thick shoes. For it breeds great perfection, if the practice be harder than Where nature is mighty, and therefore the victory hard, the degrees had need be,2 first to stay and arrest nature in time; like to him that would say over the four and twenty letters3 when he was angry; then to go less in quantity; as if one should, in forbearing wine, come from drinking healths to a draught at a

the use.

1 affectus naturales reddunt minus quidem importunos, sed non tollunt.

2

opus erit per gradus quosdam procedere, qui tales sint.

3 priusquam quicquam faceret.

4 secundo, naturam moderari et ad minores portiones reducere.

meal; and lastly, to discontinue altogether. But if a man have the fortitude and resolution to enfranchise himself at once, that is the best:

Optimus ille animi vindex lædentia pectus

Vincula qui rupit, dedoluitque semel.

[Wouldst thou be free? The chains that gall thy breast
With one strong effort burst, and be at rest.]

Neither is the ancient rule amiss, to bend nature as a
wand to a contrary extreme, whereby to set it right;
understanding it, where the contrary extreme is no
vice. Let not a man force a habit upon himself with
a perpetual continuance, but with some intermission.
For both the pause reinforceth the new onset; and if
a man that is not perfect be ever in practice, he shall
as well practise his errors as his abilities, and induce
one habit of both; and there is no means to help this
but by seasonable intermissions.
But let not a man
trust his victory over his nature too far; for nature
will lay 2 buried a great time, and yet revive upon the
occasion or temptation. Like as it was with Æsop's
damsel, turned from a cat to a woman,
who sat very
demurely at the board's end, till a mouse ran before
her. Therefore let a man either avoid the occasion
altogether; or put himself often to it, that he may be
little moved with it. A man's nature is best perceived
in privateness, for there is no affectation; in passion,
for that putteth a man out of his precepts; and in a

1 naturam penitus sub jugum mittere et domare.

2 So in original, and also in Ed. 1639. I have not thought it right to substitute lie, as has been usually done; because it may be that the form of the word was not settled in Bacon's time; and the correction of obsolete forms tends to conceal the history of the language. Compare Natural History, Century I. 19.