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XLII. OF YOUTH AND AGE.

A MAN that is young in if he have lost no time.

years may be old in hours, But that happeneth rarely.

Generally, youth is like the first cogitations, not so

wise as the second.

For there is a youth in thoughts, as well as in ages. And yet the invention of young men is more lively than that of old; and imaginations stream into their minds better, and as it were more divinely. Natures that have much heat and great and violent desires and perturbations, are not ripe for action till they have passed the meridian of their years; as it was with Julius Cæsar, and Septimius Severus. Of the latter of whom it is said, Juventutem egit erroribus, imo furoribus, plenam; [He passed a youth full of errors, yea of madnesses.] And yet he was the ablest1 emperor, almost, of all the list. But reposed natures may do well in youth. As it is seen in Augustus Cæsar, Cosmus Duke of Florence, Gaston de Fois, and others. On the other side, heat and vivacity in age is an excellent composition for busi

Young men are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and fitter for new projects than for settled business.2 For the experience of age, in things that fall within the compass of it, directeth them; but in new things, abuseth them. The errors of young men are the ruin of business; but the errors of aged men amount but to this, that more might have been done, or sooner. Young men, in the conduct and manage of actions, embrace more than

1 celeberrimus.

2 et ad negotia nova melius adhibentur quam ad consueta.

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they can hold; stir more than they can quiet; fly to the end, without consideration of the means and degrees; pursue some few principles which they have chanced upon absurdly; care not to innovate, which draws unknown inconveniences; 1 use extreme remedies at first; and that which doubleth all errors, will not acknowledge or retract them; like an unready horse,2 that will neither stop nor turn. Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success. Certainly it is good to compound employments of both; for that will be good for the present, because the virtues of either age may correct the defects of both; and good for succession, that young men may be learners, while men in age are actors; and, lastly, good for extern accidents, because authority followeth old men, and favour and popularity youth. But for the moral part, perhaps youth will have the pre-eminence, as age hath for the politic. A certain rabbin, upon the text, Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, inferreth that young men are admitted nearer to God than old, because vision is a clearer revelation than a dream. And certainly, the more a man drinketh of the world, the more it intoxicateth: and age doth profit rather in the powers of understanding, than in the virtues of the will and affections. There be some have an over-early ripeness in their years, which fadeth betimes. These

1 This clause is omitted in the translation.

2 equus male domitus.

3 pericula plus quam expedit reformidant; pœnitentiâ præproperâ vacillant. 4 sunt qui in juventute admodum præcoces sunt, sed currentibus annis cito

marcescunt.

are easy to corrupt, and cannot last; and for the most part it makes a dissolute youth, and an age a little out of countenance; but yet certainly again, if it light well, it maketh virtue shine, and vices blush.

XLIV. OF DEFORMITY.

DEFORMED persons are commonly even with nature;2 for as nature hath done ill by them, so do they by nature; being for the most part (as the Scripture saith) void of natural affection; and so they have their revenge of nature. Certainly there is a consent between the body and the mind; and where nature erreth in the one, she ventureth in the other. Ubi peccat in uno, periclitatur in altero. But because there is in man an election touching the frame of his mind, and a necessity in the frame of his body, the stars of natural inclination are sometimes obscured by the sun of discipline and virtue. Therefore it is good to consider of deformity, not as a sign, which is more deceivable; but as a cause, which seldom faileth of the effect. Whosoever hath any thing fixed in his person that doth induce contempt, hath also a perpetual spur in himself to rescue and deliver himself from scorn. Therefore all deformed persons are extreme bold. First, as in their own defence, as being exposed to scorn; but in process of time by a general habit. Also it stirreth in them industry, and especially of this kind, to watch and observe the weakness

1 senectutem autem sero pœnitentem.

2 naturam fere ulciscuntur.

8 This clause is omitted in the translation.

that of favour1 is more than that of colour; and that of decent and gracious motion2 more than that of favour. That is the best part of beauty, which a picture cannot express; no nor the first sight of life. There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. A man cannot tell whether Apelles or Albert Durer were the more trifler; whereof the one would make a personage by geometrical proportions; the other, by taking the best parts out of divers faces, to make one excellent. Such personages, I think, would please nobody but the painter that made them. Not but I think a painter may make a better face than ever was; but he must do it by a kind of felicity, (as a musician that maketh an excellent air in music,) and not by rule. A man shall see faces, that if you examine them part by part, you shall find never a good; and yet altogether do well. If it be true that the principal part of beauty is in decent motion, certainly it is no marvel though persons in years seem many times more amiable; pulchrorum autumnus pulcher; [beautiful persons have a beautiful Autumn;] for no youth can be comely but by pardon, and considering the youth as to make up the comeliness.5 Beauty is as summer fruits, which

1 venustas.

2 decorus et gratiosus corporis et oris motus.

4

8 felicitate quâdam et casu. Keats seems to have felt that this is true also with regard to his own art:

"When I behold upon the night's starred face

Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,

And think that I may never live to trace

Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance."

- Life, Letters, &c. of John Keats, vol. ii. p. 293.

4 The translation adds: Secundum illud Euripidis.

5 Etenim fieri non potest ut juvenis per omnia decus tueatur, nisi forte ju ventutem ipsam ad supplementum decoris assumas.

are easy to corrupt, and cannot last; and for the most part it makes a dissolute youth, and an age a little out of countenance; but yet certainly again, if it light well, it maketh virtue shine, and vices blush.

XLIV. OF DEFORMITY.

DEFORMED persons are commonly even with nature; 2 for as nature hath done ill by them, so do they by nature; being for the most part (as the Scripture saith) void of natural affection; and so they have their revenge of nature. Certainly there is a consent between the body and the mind; and where nature erreth in the one, she ventureth in the other. Ubi peccat in uno, periclitatur in altero. But because there is in man an election touching the frame of his mind, and a necessity in the frame of his body, the stars of natural inclination are sometimes obscured by the sun of discipline and virtue. Therefore it is good to consider of deformity, not as a sign, which is more deceivable; but as a cause, which seldom faileth of the effect. Whosoever hath any thing fixed in his person that doth induce contempt, hath also a perpetual spur in himself to rescue and deliver himself from scorn. Therefore all deformed persons are extreme bold. First, as in their own defence, as being exposed to scorn; but in process of time by a general habit. Also it stirreth in them industry, and especially of this kind, to watch and observe the weakness

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1 senectutem autem sero pœnitentem.

2 naturam fere ulciscuntur.

8 This clause is omitted in the translation.

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