He sleeps well, who feels not that he sleeps | 22. "In vindicando, criminosa est celeritas." 6. "Deliberare utilia, mora est tutissima." To deliberate about useful things is the safest 23. "In calamitoso risus etiam injuria est.” 7. "Dolor decrescit, ubi quo crescat non ha- The flood of grief decreaseth, when it can swell no higher. 8. "Etiam innocentes cogit mentiri dolor." Pain makes even the innocent man a liar. 9. “Etiam celeritas in desiderio, mora est.” Even in desire, swiftness itself is delay. 10. "Etiam capillus unus habet umbram suam. The smallest hair casts a shadow. 11. "Fidem qui perdit, quo se servat in reliquum ?" He that has lost his faith, what has he left to 12. "Formosa facies muta commendatio est." 14. Fortuna obesse nulli contenta est semel." 15. "Facit gratum fortuna, quam nemo videt." The fortune which nobody sees, makes a man happy and unenvied. !6. “Heu! quam miserum est ab illo lædi, de quo non possis queri." O! what a miserable thing it is to be hurt by such a one of whom it is in vain to complain. 17. "Homo toties moritur quoties amittit suos.” A man dies as often as he loses his friends. 18. “Hæredis fletus sub persona risus est." The tears of an heir are laughter under a vizard. 24. "Improbe Neptunum accusat, qui iterum naufragium facit." He accuseth Neptune unjustly, who makes shipwreck a second time. 25. "Multis minatur, qui uni facit injuriam.” He that injures one, threatens an hundred. 26. “Mora omnis ingrata est, sed facit sapientiam." 27. All delay is ungrateful, but we are not wise without it. "Mori est felicis antequam mortem invocet.' Happy he who dies ere he calls for death to take him away. 28. “Malus ubi bonum se simulat, tunc est pessimus." 29. 30. An ill man is always ill; but he is then worst Lock and key will scarce keep that secure, "Male vivunt qui se semper victuros putant.' They think ill, who think of living always. 31. "Male secum agit æger, medicum qui hære 32. 33. 19. “Jucundum nihil est, nisi quod reficit va- 34. rietas." Nothing is pleasant, to which variety does not 20. "Invidiam ferre, aut fortis, aut felix potest."|35. 21. "In malis sperare bonum, nisi innocens, nemo potest." None but a virtuous man can hope well in ill circumstances. dem facit." That sick man does ill for himself, who makes his physician his heir. "Multos timere debet, quem multi timent." He of whom many are afraid, ought himself to fear many. "Nulla tam bona est fortuna, de qua nil possis queri." There is no fortune so good but it bates an ace. "Pars beneficii est, quod petitur si bene neges." It is part of the gift, if you deny genteely what is asked of you. "Timidus vocat se cautem, parcum sordidus." The coward calls himself a wary man; and the miser says he is frugal. 36. "O vita! misero longa, felici brevis." O life! an age to him that is in misery; and to him that is happy, a moment. A COLLECTION OF SENTENCES OUT OF SOME OF THE WRITINGS OF THE LORD BACON.* 1. It is a strange desire which men have, to seek power, and lose liberty. 17. In great place ask counsel of both times: of the ancient time, what is best; and of the latter 2. Children increase the cares of life; but they time, what is fittest. mitigate the remembrance of death. 3. Round dealing is the honour of man's nature; and a mixture of falsehood is like allay in gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it. 18. As in nature things move more violently to their place, and calmly in their place: so virtue in ambition is violent; in authority, settled and calm. 19. Boldness in civil business is like pronun 4. Death openeth the gate to good fame, and ex-ciation in the orator of Demosthenes: the first, tinguisheth envy. 5. Schism in the spiritual body of the church is a greater scandal than a corruption in manners: as, in the natural body, a wound or solution of continuity is worse than a corrupt humour. 6. Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out. second, and third thing. 20. Boldness is blind: wherefore it is ill in counsel, but good in execution. For in counsel it is good to see dangers: in execution, not to see them, except they be very great. 21. Without good nature, man is but a better kind of vermin. 22. God never wrought miracle to convince 7. He that studieth revenge, keepeth his own atheism, because his ordinary works convince it. wounds green. 8. Revengeful persons live and die like witches: their life is mischievous, and their end is unfortu nate. 23. The great atheists indeed are hypocrites, who are always handling holy things, but without feeling; so as they must needs be cauterized in the end. 9. It was a high speech of Seneca, after the 24. The master of superstition is the people. manner of the Stoics, that the good things which And in all superstition, wise men follow fools. belong to prosperity are to be wished; but the good 25. In removing superstitions, care would be things which belong to adversity are to be admired. had, that, as it fareth in ill purgings, the good be 10. He that cannot see well, let him go softly. not taken away with the bad: which commonly is 11. If a man be thought secret, it inviteth dis-done when the people is the physician. covery as the more close air sucketh in the more open. 26. He that goeth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, 12. Keep your authority wholly from your chil- and not to travel. dren, not so your purse. 13. 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. 14. That envy is most malignant which is like Cain's, who envied his brother, because his sacrifice was better accepted, when there was nobody but God to look on. 15. The lovers of great place are impatient of privateness, even in age, which requires the shadow like old townsmen, that will be still sitting at their street door, though there they offer age to scorn. 27. It is a miserable state of mind, and yet it is commonly the case of kings, to have few things to desire, and many things to fear. 28. Depression of the nobility may make a king more absolute but less safe. 29. All precepts concerning kings are, in effect, comprehended in these remembrances: remember thou art a man; remember thou art God's vicegerent: the one bridleth their power, and the other their will. 30. Things will have their first or second agitation: if they be not tossed upon the arguments of counsel, they will be tossed upon the waves of fortune. 31. The true composition of a counsellor is, 16. In evil, the best condition is, not to will: rather to be skilled in his master's business than the next not to can. * Baconiana, page 65. VOL. I.-17 his nature; for then he is like to advise him, and not to feed his humour. 129 32. Private opinion is more free, but opinion | 52. Riches are the baggage of virtue; they before others is more reverend. cannot be spared, nor left behind, but they hin 33. Fortune is like a market, where many times der the march. if you stay a little the price will fall. 34. Fortune sometimes turneth the handle of the bottle, which is easy to be taken hold of; and after the belly, which is hard to grasp. 35. Generally it is good to commit the beginning of all great actions to Argus with an hundred eyes; and the ends of them to Briareus with an hundred hands; first to watch, and then to speed. 36. There is great difference betwixt a cunning man and a wise man. There be that can pack the cards, who yet cannot play well; they are good in canvasses and factions, and yet otherwise | mean men. 37. Extreme self-lovers will set a man's house on fire, though it were but to roast their eggs. 53. Great riches have sold more men than ever they have bought out. 54. Riches have wings, and sometimes they fly away of themselves, and sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more. 55. He that defers his charity till he is dead, is, if a man weighs it rightly, rather liberal of another man's than of his own. 56. Ambition is like choler; if it can move, it makes men active; if it be stopped, it becomes adust, and makes men melancholy. 57. To take a soldier without ambition, is to pull off his spurs. 58. Some ambitious men seem as skreens to princes in matters of danger and envy. For no man will take such parts, except he be like the 38. New things, like strangers, are more ad-seeled dove, that mounts and mounts, because he mired and less favoured. 39. It were good that men, in their innovations, would follow the example of time itself, which indeed innovateth greatly, but quietly, and by degrees scarce to be perceived. 40. They that reverence too much old time, are but a scorn to the new. 41. The Spaniards and Spartans have been noted to be of small despatch. "Mi venga la muerte de Spagna;" Let my death come from Spain, for then it will be sure to be long a coming. 42. You had better take for business a man somewhat absurd, than over-formal. 43. Those who want friends to whom to open their griefs, are cannibals of their own hearts. 44. Number itself importeth not much in armies, where the people are of weak courage; for, as Virgil says, it never troubles a wolf how many the sheep be. 45. Let states that aim at greatness, take heed how their nobility and gentry multiply too fast. In coppice woods, if you leave your stadles too thick, you shall never have clean underwood, but shrubs and bushes. 46. A civil war is like the heat of a fever; but a foreign war is like the heat of exercise, and serveth to keep the body in health. cannot see about him. 59. Princes and states should choose such ministers as are more sensible of duty than rising; and should discern a busy nature from a willing mind. 60. A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds; therefore let him seasonably water the one, and destroy the other. 61. If a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see fortune; for though she be blind, she is not invisible. 62. Usury bringeth the treasure of a realm or state into a few hands: for the usurer being at | certainties, and others at uncertainties; at the end of the game most of the money will be in the box. 63. Beauty is best in a body that hath rather dignity of presence, than beauty of aspect. The beautiful prove accomplished, but not of great spirit; and study, for the most part, rather behaviour than virtue. 64. The best part of beauty is that which a picture cannot express. 65. He who builds a fair house upon an ill seat, commits himself to prison. 66. If you will work on any man, you must either know his nature and fashion, and so lead him; or his ends, and so persuade him; or his 47. Suspicions among thoughts, are like bats weaknesses and disadvantages, and so awe him; among birds, they ever fly by twilight. or those that have interest in him, and so govern 48. Base natures, if they find themselves once him. suspected, will never be true. 49. 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. 50. Discretion in speech is more than eloquence. 51. Men seem neither well to understand their riches nor their strength; of the former they believe greater things than they should, and of the 'atter much less. And from hence certain fatal pillars have bounded the progress of learning. 67. Costly followers (among whom we may reckon those who are importunate in suits) are not to be liked; lest, while a man maketh his train longer, he maketh his wings shorter. 68. Fame is like a river that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid. 69. Seneca saith well, that anger is like rain, which breaks itself upon that which it falls. 70. Excusations, cessions, modesty itself well governed, are but arts of ostentation. 71. High treason is not written in ice, that [or grain is seen, which in a fouler stone is never when the body relenteth, the impression should perceived. go away. 72. The best governments are always subject to be like the fairest crystals, wherein every icicle 73. Hollow church papists are like the roots of nettles, which themselves sting not; but yet they bear all the stinging leaves. SHORT NOTES FOR CIVIL CONVERSATION. BY SIR FRANCIS BACON.* To deceive men's expectations generally (which | wanting true judgment; for in all things no man cautel) arguetha staid mind, and unexpected con- can be exquisite. stancy: viz. in matters of fear, anger, sudden joy or grief, and all things which may affect or alter the mind in public or sudden accidents, or suchlike. It is necessary to use a steadfast countenance, not wavering with action, as in moving the head or hand too much, which showeth a fantastical, light, and fickle operation of the spirit, and consequently like mind as gesture: only it is sufficient, with leisure, to use a modest action in either. In all kinds of speech, either pleasant, grave, severe, or ordinary, it is convenient to speak leisurely, and rather drawingly, than hastily; because hasty speech confounds the memory, and oftentimes, besides unseemliness, drives a man either to a non-plus or unseemly stammering, harping upon that which should follow; whereas a slow speech confirmeth the memory, addeth a conceit of wisdom to the hearers, besides a seemliness of speech and countenance. To desire in discourse to hold all arguments, is ridiculous, To have commonplaces to discourse, and to want variety, is both tedious to the hearers, and shows a shallowness of conceit: therefore it is good to vary, and suit speeches with the present occasions; and to have a moderation in all our speeches, especially in jesting of religion, state, great persons, weighty and important business, poverty, or any thing deserving pity. A long continued speech, without a good speech of interlocution, showeth slowness: and a good reply, without a good set speech, showeth shallowness and weakness. To use many circumstances, ere you come to the matter, is wearisome; and to use none at all, is but blunt. Bashfulness is a great hinderance to a man, both of uttering his conceit, and understanding what is propounded unto him; wherefore it is good to press himself forwards with discretion, both in speech, and company of the better sort "Usus promptos facit." AN ESSAY ON DEATH. BY THE LORD CHANCELLOR BACON.t 1. I HAVE often thought upon death, and I find it the least of all evils. All that which is past is as a dream; and he that hopes or depends upon time coming, dreams waking. So much of our life as we have discovered is already dead; and all those hours which we share, even from the breasts of our mother, until we return to our grandmother the earth, are part of our dying days; whereof even this is one, and those that succeed are of the same nature, for we die daily; and as others have given place to us, so we must in the end give way to others. *From the Remains. 2. Physicians in the name of death include all sorrow, anguish, disease, calamity, or whatsoever can fall in the life of man, either grievous or unwelcome: but these things are familiar unto us, and we suffer them every hour; therefore we die daily, and I am older since I affirmed it. 3. I know many wise men, that fear to die; for the change is bitter, and flesh would refuse to prove it: besides the expectation orings terror, and that exceeds the evil. But I do not believe, that any man fears to be dead, but only Remains. the stroke of death and such are my hopes, that if Heaven be pleased, and nature renew but my lease for twenty-one years more, without asking longer days, I shall be strong enough to acknowledge without mourning that I was begotten mortal. Virtue walks not in the highway, though she go per alta; this is strength and the blood to virtue, to contemn things that be desired, and to neglect that which is feared. 4. Why should man be in love with his fetters, though of gold? Art thou drowned in security? Then I say thou art perfectly dead. For though thou movest, yet thy soul is buried within thee, and thy good angel either forsakes his guard or sleeps. There is nothing under heaven, saving a true friend, who cannot be counted within the number of moveables, unto which my heart doth lean. And this dear freedom hath begotten me this peace, that I mourn not for that end which must be, nor spend one wish to have one minute added to the incertain date of my years. It was no mean apprehension of Lucian, who says of Menippus, that in his travels through hell he knew not the kings of the earth from other men, but only by their louder cryings and tears: which was fostered in them through the remorseful memory of the good days they had seen, and the fruitful havings which they so unwillingly left behind them: he that was well seated, looked back at his portion, and was loath to forsake his farm; and others either minding marriages, pleasures, profit, or preferment, desired to be excused from death's banquet: they had made an appointment with earth, looking at the blessings, not the hand that enlarged them, forgetting how unclothedly they came hither, or with what naked ornaments they were arrayed. 5. But were we servants of the precept given, and observers of the heathen's rule "memento mori," and not become benighted with this seeming felicity, we should enjoy it as men prepared to lose and not wind up our thoughts upon so perishing a fortune: he that is not slackly strong, as the servants of pleasure, how can he be found unready to quit the veil and false visage of his perfection? The soul having shaken off her flesh, doth then set up for herself, and contemning things that are under, shows what finger hath enforced her; for the souls of idiots are of the same piece with those of statesmen, but now and then nature is at a fault, and this good guest of ours takes soil in an imperfect body, and so is slackened from showing her wonders; like an excellent musician, which cannot utter himself upon a defective instrument. 6. But see how I am swerved, and lose my course, touching at the soul, that doth least hold action with death, who hath the surest property in this frail act; his style is the end of all flesh, and the beginning of incorruption. most part out of this world with their heels for ward; in token that he is contrary to life; which being obtained, sends men headlong into this wretched theatre, where being arrived, their first language is that of mourning. Nor in my own thoughts, can I compare men more fitly to any thing, than to the Indian fig-tree, which being ripened to his full height, is said to decline his branches down to the earth; whereof she conceives again, and they become roots in their own stock. So man having derived his being from the earth, first lives the life of a tree, drawing his nourishment as a plant, and made ripe for death he tends downwards, and is sowed again in his mother the earth, where he perisheth not, but expects a quickening. 7. So we see death exempts not a man from being, but only presents an alteration; yet there are some men, I think, that stand otherwise persuaded. Death finds not a worse friend than an alderman, to whose door I never knew him welcome; but he is an importunate guest, and will not be said nay. And though they themselves shall affirm, that they are not within, yet the answer will not be taken; and that which heightens their fear is, that they know they are in danger to forfeit their flesh, but are not wise of the payment day: which sickly uncertainty is the occasion that, for the most part they step out of this world unfurnished for their general account, and being all unprovided, desire yet to hold their gravity, preparing their souls to answer in scarlet. Thus I gather, that death is unagreeable to most citizens, because they commonly die intestate: this being a rule, that when their will is made, they think themselves nearer a grave than before; now they out of the wisdom of thousands think to scare destiny from which there is no appeal, by not making a will, or to live longer by protestation of their unwillingness to die. They are for the most part well made in this world, accounting their treasure by legions, as men do devils, their fortune looks toward them, and they are willing to anchor at it, and desire, if it be possible, to put the evil day far off from them, and to adjourn their ungrateful and killing period. No, these are not the men which have bespoken death, or whose looks are assured to entertain a thought of him. 8. Death arrives gracious only to such as sit in darkness, or lie heavy burdened with grief and irons; to the poor Christian, that sits bound in the galley; to despairful widows, pensive prisoners, and deposed kings: to them whose fortune runs back, and whose spirits mutiny; unto such death is a redeemer, and the grave a place for retiredness and rest. These wait upon the shore of death, and wait This ruler of monuments leads men for the unto him to draw near, wishing above all others |