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ESSAYS

MORAL, ECONOMICAL,

AND

POLITICAL.

BY

FRANCIS BACON,

BAROX OF VERULAM,VISLOUNT ST. ALBANS;

AND

LorA High Chancellor of England.

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION

BOSTON :

PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH GUEENLEAF.

NO. 49, COR\riILL,

1807.

OLirSR i^ MVSROE, PRl.\rEJlf,

Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive

in 2009 witii funding from

University of Toronto

Iittp://www.arcliive.org/details/1807essaysmoral00baco

SKETCH

OF

THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.

Francis bacon, Baron of Verulam, Vis= count of St. Albans, and in the reign of James I. lord high chancellor of England, one of the most illustrious ornaments ofhisage, and among the moderns the first great reformer of philosophy, was born m London oa the 2 2d of January, 1561. He was the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, lord keep- er of the great seal, and of Anne, daughter of Sii- Anthony Cook, eminent for her skill in the Latia and Greek languages. His childhood afforded strong indications of a vigour of intellect above the common level. When queen Elizabeth asked him how old he was, he readily and smartly re- plied, " Just two years younger than your maj- esty's happy reign." The queen was so well pleased with this sprightly compliment from a child, that she afterwards frequently amused her- self with talking with him, and asking him ques- tions, and pleasantly called him her young lord keeper. At the age of 13 he was entered a stu- dent at Trinity -college, Cambridge ; and made

IV

such incredible progress in his studies, that, be- fore he was 15, he had not only run through the whole circle of the liberal arts as they were then raught, but began to perceive those imperfections in the reigning philosophy, which he afterwards so effectually exposed, and thereby not only over- • urned that tyranny which prevented the prog- ress of true knowledge, 'but laid the foundation of that free and useful philosophy which has tinc! opened a way to so many glorious discove- lies. On his leaving the university, his father '^cnt him to France ; where, before he wcio 1^ years ofage, he wrote a general view of the state of Europe : but Sir Nicholas dying, he was obliged suddenly to return to England ; when he applied himself to the study of the common law, at Gray*s Inn. At this period the famous Earl of Essex, who could distinguish merit, and who passionately loved it, entered into an intimate friendship with him ; zealously attempted, though v/ithout success, to procure . him the office of queen's solicitor j and, in order to comfort his friend under the disappointment, conferred on him a present of land to the value of 1 8001. Ba- con, notwithstanding the friendship of so great a person ; notwithstanding the number and power of his own relations; and, above all, notwith- standing the early prepossession of her majesty

in his favour, met with many obstacles to his preferment during her reign. In particular, his enemies represented him as a speculative man, whose head was filled with philosophical notions, and therefore more likely to perplex than for- ward public business. It was not without great difficulty that lord treasurer Burleigh obtained for him the reversion of register to the star- chamber, worth about 16001. a year, which place fell to him about 20 years after. Neither did he obtain any other prefeinnent all this ^reign ; though if obedience to a sovereign in what must be the most disagreeable uf all offices, \ li:. the casting reflection on a deceased friend, entitled him, he might have claimed it. The people were so clamorous even against the Queen her- self on the death of Essex, that it was thought necessary to vindicate the conduct of the admin- istration. This was assigned to Bacon, which brought on him universal censure, nay his very life was threatened. Upon the accession of King James, he was soon raised to considerable honor ; and wrote in favour of the union of the two king- doms of Scotland and England, which tlie king so passionately desired. In I6I6, hewas sworn of the privy-council. He then applied himself to the reducing and recomposing the laws of England. He distinguished himself when a{- A 2

Vi

tomey -general, by his endeavours to restrain the custom of duels, then very frequent : and, in 1617, was appointed lord keeper of the great seal. In 1618, he was made lord chancellor of England, and created Lord Verulam. In the midst of these honours and applauses, and multi- plicity of business, he forgot not his philosophy ; but, in 1620, published his great work entitled Noruum Organum. We find by several letters of his, that he thought convening of parliaments was the best expedient for the king and people. In 1621, he was advanced to the dignity of Vis- count St. Albans, and appeared Tvhh tlie greatest splendour at tlie opening of the session of parlia- ment. But he v/as soon after surprized with a melancholy reverse of fortune. For, about the I2th of INIarch, a committee of the house of com- mons was appointed to inspect the abuses of the courts of justice. The first thing they fell upon was bribery and corruption, of which the lord chancellor was accused. For that very year complaints being made to the house of commons of his lordship's having received bribes, those complaints were sent up to the house of lords ; and new ones being daily made of a like nature? things soon grew too high to be got over. The Xing found it was impossible to save both his chancellor, who was openly acQUsed of cwrup*

Vll

lion, and Buckingham, his favourite, who was se- cretly and therefore more dangerously attacked as the encourager of whatever was deemed most illegal and oppressive^ , He therefore forced the former to abandon his defence, giving him posi- tive advice to submit himself to his peers, and promising upon his princely word to screen him in the last delerminalionj or, if that could not be, to reward him afterwards v. iti) ample retribution of favour. The chancellor, though he foresaw his approaching ruin if he did not plead for him- self, resolved to obey ; and the house of peers, on the 3d of May, i03i, gave judgment against him, " That he should be fined 40,0001. and re- main prisoner in the tower during ihe King's pleasure ; that he should for ever be incapable of any office, place, or employm^ent, in the state or commonwealth ; and that he should never sit in parliament, or come within the verge of the court," The fault which, next to his ingrati- tude to Essex, thus tarnished the glory of this illustrious man, is said to have principally pro- ceeded from an indulgence to his servants, who made a corrupt use of it. One day, during his trial, passing through a room where several of bis domestics were sitting, upon their rising up to salute him, he said, " Sit down, my masters ; your rise hath been xny fall.'* Stefihensy^, 54>,

VIM

And we are told by Rushworth in Iiis historical collections, " That he treasured up nothing for himself or family, but was over-indulgent to his servants, and connived at their takings, and their ways betrayed him to that error ; they were pro- fuse and expensive; and had at their command whatever he was master of. The gifts taken were for the most part for interlocutory orders ; his decrees were generally made with so much equity, that though gifts rendered him suspect- ed of injustice, yet never any decree made by him was reversed as unjust." It was peculiar to this great man (say the authors of the Biogr. Brit.) to have nothing narrov/ and selfish in his composition : he gave away without concern whatever he possessed ; and believing other men of the same mould, he received with as little consideration. He retired, after a short imprison- ment, from the engagements of an active life, to which he had been called much against his ge- nius, to the shade of a contemplative one, which he had always loved. The King remitted his fine, and he was summoned to parliament in tlie first year of King Charles I. It appears from tlie works composed during his retirement, that his thoughts were still free, vigorous, and noble. The last five years of his life he devoted wholly to his studies. In his recess he composed th^

greatest part of his English and Latin works. He expired on the Sth of April, 1626 ; and was buried in St. Michael's church at St. Albans, ac- cording to the direction of his last will, where a monument v/as erected to him by Sir Thomas Meautys, formerly his secretary, and afterwards clerk of the privy council under two kings. A complete edition of this great man*s works was published at London, in the year 1740. Addi- son has said of him, " That he had the sound, distinct, comprehensive knowledge of Aristotle, with all the beautiful light graces and embellish" ments of Cicero." The honourable Mr. Wal- pole calls him the Profihet of Jrts^ which New- ton v/as afterwards to reveal ; and adds, that his genius and his works will be universally admired as long as science exists. " As long as ingrati- tude and adulation are despicable, so long shaU we lament the depravity of this great man*s heart. Alas ! that he who could command immortal fame, should have stooped to the little ambition of power." And another great character further says, " The faculties of his mind were great and happily united ; for his imagination, memory and reason were all extraordinary. He was inde- fatigable in study, and found himself better turn- ed for that than any thing else ; as having a mind <^uick and ready to perceive the corres-

pondence of things ; fixed an Intent to discover their nicer differences ; and this joined with a love of equity ; a patience of doubting ; a pleas- ure in contemplation ; a backwardness in assent- ing ; a readiness in acknowledging an error ; and a scrupulous exactness in disposing and metho- dizing ; at the same time neither affecting novel- ty, nor adoring antiquity ; but hating all kinds of imposture and delusion.

" To consider him in his philosopical capaci- ty, history scarce affords us a proper philosopher wherewith to rompare him.

" Plato and Aristotle were men of a different cast ; they did not pay so great a regard to truth and utility ; nor instructed mankind so justly ; nor opened the hidden veins of science so suc- cessfully ; nor taught the art of philosophical in- vention so happily as Lord Bacon.'*

PREFATORY EPISTLES.

TO MR. ANTHONY BACON,

HIS DEAR BROTHER.

Loving and beloved brother, I do now like some that have an orchard ill neighboured, that gather their fruit before it is ripe, .to pre- vent stealing. These fragments of my con- ceits werfi going to print : to labour the stay of them had been troublesome, and subject to interpretation ; to let them pass had been to adventure the wrong they might receive by untrue copies, or by some garnishment which it might please any that should set them forth to bestow upon them ; therefore I held it best discretion to publish them myself, as they passed long ago from my pen, without any further disgrace than the weakness of the author ; and as I did ever hold, there might be as great a vanity in retiring and withdraw- ing men's conceits, (except they be of some nature,) from the world, as in obtruding them : so in these particulars I have played myself the inquisitor, and find nothing to my understand-

xu

ing in them contrary or infectious to the state of religion or manners, but rather, as I sup- pose, medicinable : only I disliked now to put them out, because they will be like the late new halfpence, which though the silver were good, yet the pieces were small ; but since they would not stay with their master, l»ut would needs travel abroad, I have preferred them to you that are next myself; dedicating them, such as they are, to our love, in the depth whereof, I assure you, I sometimes wish your infirmities translated upon mjself, that her majesty might have the service of so active and able a mind ; and I might be with excuse confined to these contemplations and studies, for which I am fittest ; so commend I you to the preservation of the Divine Majesty,

Your entire loving brother,

Fran. Bacon.

From my chamber at Gray^s Ittriy this ^Oth of January, 1597.

Xlll

TO MY BELOVED BROTHER,

SIR JOHN CONSTABLE, KT.

My last Essays I dedicated to my dear brother, Mr. Anthony Bacon, who is with God. Look- ing amongst my papers this vacation, I found others of the same nature : which if I myself shall not suifer to be lost, it seemeth the world will not, by the often printing of the former. Missing my brother, I found you next ; in respect of bond both of near alliance, and of straight friendship and society, and particularly of communication in studies ; wherein I must acknowledge myself beholding to you : for as my business found rest in my contemplations, so my contemplations ever found rest in your loving conference and judgment ; so wishing 3^ou all good, I remain

Your loving brother and friend,

^^12. Fj^a. Bacon.

XIV

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MY VERY GOOD LORD

THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM,

His Grace Lord High Admiral cf England. bXCELLENT LORD,

Solomon says, "A good name is as a precious *^ ointment;" and I assure myself such will your Grace's name be with posterity : for your for- tune and merit both have been eminent ; and )^ou 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 Eng- lish and Latin : for I do conceive, that the Latin volume of them, being in the universal language, may last as long as books last. My Instauration 1 dedicated to the king ; my history of Henry the Seventh, which I have

XV

now translated into Latin, and my portions of Natural History, to the prince ; and these I de- dicate 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,

Fr. St. ALBA^:.

CONTENTS.

PAGF..

Of Truth . ". : . . I

. . . Death ;>

. . . Unity in Religion 8

, . . Revenge ^^

. . . Adversity J 8

. . . Simulation and Dissimulation . , . 20

. . . Parents and Children 25

. . . Marriage and Single Life • . . . 28

. . . Envy , . 31

. . . Love 40

^ . . Great Place 43

...Boldness ^ . 49

. . . Goodness, and Goodness of Nature . 52

. . . A King 56

. . . Nobility 60

... Seditions and Troubles €3

. . . Atheism 75

. . . Superstition 79

...Travel 82

. . . Empire ...., 86

. . . Counsel , . . . . 94

. . . Delays 102

. . . Cunning 104

. . . Wisdom for a Man's Self .... 110

, . . Innovations 113

. . . Despitch 115

, . . Seeming Wise 118

. . . Friendship 120

. . . Expense , 133

B 2

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Of Tiie True Greatness of Kingdoms and

Estates 135

.. Regimen of Health ...... 151

. . Suspicion 154

. .Discourse 156

. .Plantations 159

. . Riches ]64

. . Propliecics 170

. . Ambition 175

.. Masques and Triumphs .... 178

.. Nature in Men 181

.. Custom and Education 184

. . Fortune 187

. . Usury 190

. .Youth and Age ....... 196

. . Beauty 199

. .Deformity 201

. . Building 204

. . Gardens 211

. . Negociating 222

. . Followers and Friends 225

. . Suitoi's 227

. . Studies 231

. . Faction 233

.. Ceremonies and Respects .... 236

. . Praise 239

. . Vain Glory 242

. . Honour and Reputation . . , . 245

. . Judicature 248

. . Anger 255

.. Vicissitude of Things 258

A Fragment of an Essay on Fame . . 268

ESSAYS,

CIVIL AND MORAL.

OF TRUTH.

What is truth ? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be that delight in giddiness, and count it a 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 and labour which men take in finding out of truth ; nor again, that, when it is found, it imposeth upon men's thoughts, that doth bring lies in favour ;

but a natural, though cornjpt love of the lie itself. One of the later schools of the Grecians examineth the matter, and is at a stand to think what should be in it, that men should love lies, where neither they make 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 doth not shew the masques, and mummeries, and triumphs of the world half so stately and daintly as candlelights. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that sheweth best by day ; but it will not rise to the price of a dia- mond or carbuncle, that sheweth best in varied lights. A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's minds vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one >vould, and the like, but it would leave the minds of a number of men, poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves ? One of the fathers, in great severity, called poesy, *' vinum ** daemonum," because it filleth the imagination, and yet it is but with the shadow of a lie. But it is not the lie that passeth through the

jTiind, but the lie, that sinketh in and settleth in it, that doth the hurt, such as we spake of before. But however these things are thus in men's depraved judgments and affections, yet truth, which only doth judge itself, teach- eth that the enquiry 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 the sense ; the last was the light of reason ; and his sabbath work, ever since, is the illumination of his Spirit. First he breathed light upon the face of the matter, or chaos ; then he breatheth light into the face of man ; and still he breatheth and inspireth light into the face of his chosen. The poet that beautified the sect, that was otherwise inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well, *^ It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to ** see ships tost upon the sea: a pleasure to stand ^' m the window^ of a castle, and to see a battle, '^ and the adventurers thereof below ; but no *^ pleasure is comparable to the standing upon '* llic vantage ground of truth (a hill not to be

4

^* commanded, and where the air is always clear '^ and serene,) and to see the errors and wan- " derings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale ^* below ;" so always that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling or pride. Cer- tainly, 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 practise it not, that clear and round dealing is the honour of man's nature, and that mixture of falsehood is like allay in coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it : for these winding and crooked courses are the goings 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 per- fidious : and therefore Montaigne saith pret- tily, when he inquired the reason why the word of the lie should be such a disgrace, and such an odious charge, " If it be w^ell w^eigh- *' ed, to say that a man lieth, is as much as *^ to say that he is brave tow^ards God, and a

«^ coward towards men : for a lie faces God, <* 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 peal to call the judgments of God upon the generations of men : it being foretold, that when '^ Christ cometh," he shall not " find faith upon earth."

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 passage to another world, is holy and religious ; but the fear of it, as a tribute due unto nature, is weak. Yet in religious medi- tations there is sometimes mixture of vanity and of superstition. You shall read in some of the friars books of mortihcation, that a man should think with himself what the pain is, if he have but his finger's end pressed, or tor- tured, and thereby imagine what the pains of death are when the whole body is corrupte4

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ftnd dissolved ; when many times death passeth with less pain than the torture of a limb ; for the most vital parts are not the quickest of sense : and by him that spake only as a phi- losopher and natural man, it was well said^ "Pompa mortis magis terret, quam mors ipsa." Groans, and convulsions, and a discoloured face, and friends weeping, and blacks, and obsequies, and the like, shew death terrible. It is w^orthy the observing, that there is no passion in the mind of man so weak, but it mates and masters the fear of death; and there- fore death is no such terrible enemy when a man hath so many attendants about him that can win the combat of him. Revenge triumphs over death ; love slights it ; honour aspireth to it ; grief flieth to it ; fear pre-occupieth it ; nay, we read, after Otho the emperor had slain himself, pity (which is the tenderest of affec- tions) provoked many to die out of mere com- passion to their sovereign, and as the truest sort of followers. Nay, Seneca adds, niceness and satiety ; '^ Cogita quamdiu eadem feceris; " mori velle, non tantum fortis, aut miser, sed " etiam 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 ob- sewe how little alteration in good spirits the approaches of death make ; for they appear to be the same men till the last instant. Augustus C^sar died in a compliment : « Livia, conjugii *< nostri memor, vive et vale :" Tiberius in dis- simulation, as Tacitus saith of him, « Jam Ti- « berium vires et corpus, nondissimulatio,dese- « rebant :" Vespasian in a jest,sitting uponthe stool, « Ut puto Deus fio :" Galba with a sen- tence, ^* Feri, si ex re sit populi Romani," holding forth his neck ; Septimius Severus in dispatch," Adeste,si quidmilii restat agendum," and the like. Certainly the Stoics bestowed too much cost upon death, and by their great preparations made it appear more fearful. Bet- ter, saith he, "qui finem vitae extremum inter " munera, ponat naturae." 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 feels the hurt; andtherefore a mind fixed and bent upon somewhat that is good, doth avert the dolours of death : but, above all, be-

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8

lieve it, the sweetest canticle is, "Nunc dimit- ^* tis," when a man hath obtained worthy ends and expectations. Death hath this also, that it openeth the gate to good fame, and extinguish- eth envy ; " Extinctus amabitur idem."

OF UNITY IN RELIGION.

Religion being the chief band of human so- ciety, it is a happy thing when itself is well contained within the true bond of unity. The quarrels and divisions about religion were evils unknown to the heathen. The reason was, be- cause the religion of the heathen consisted ra- ther in rites and ceremonies, than in any con- stant 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 concern- ing the unity of the church ; what are the fruits thereof; what the bonds; and what the means.

The fruits of unity (next unto the well- pleasing of God, which is all in 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 great- est scandals; yea more than corruption of man- ners : for as in the natural body a wound or solution of continuity is w^orse than a corrupt humour, so in the spiritual : so that nothing doth so much keep men out of the church, and drive men out of the church, as breach of unity ; and, therefore, whensoever it cometh to that pass that one saith, *^ ecce in deserto,'' an- other saith, " ecce in penetralibus ;'» that is, when some men seek Christ in the conventicles of heretics, and others in an outward face of a church, that voice had need continually to sound in men's ears, <^nolite exire," '^ go not out." The doctor of the Gentiles (the propriety of whose vocation drew him to have a special care of those without) saith, << 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 dis-

10

cordant 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 Jn 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 them- selves, which cannot but move derision in world- lings and depraved politics, who are apt to con- temn holy things.

As for the fruit towards those that are within, it is peace, which containeth infinite blessings ; it establisheth faith ; it kindleth cha- rity : the outward peace of the church distilleth into peace of conscience, and it turneth the labours of waiting and reading of controversies into treatises of mortification and devotion.

Concerning the bonds of unity, the true placing of them importeih exceedingly. There appear to be two extremes: for to certain zealots all speech of pacification is odious. 'f Is it peace, Jehu ?" " What hast thou to do ^^ with peace ? turn thee behind me." Peace u

11

not the matter, but following and party. Con- trariwise, certain Laodiceans and lukewarm persons think they may accommodate points of religion by middle w^ays, and taking part of both, and witty reconcilements, as if they would make an arbitrement betw^een God and man. Both these extremes are to be avoided ; which will be done if the league of Christians, penned by our Saviour himself, were in the two cross clauses thereof soundl}' and plainly ex- pounded : ^^ 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 fundamen- tal, 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, ac- cording 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 c 2

12

it, kindled only by contradiction ; for, as it is noted by one of the fathers, Christ's coat in- deed had no seam, but the church's vesture was of divers colours ; whereupon he saith^ ^^ in veste yarietas sit, scissura 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 sub- tilty and obscurity, so that it becometh a thing rather ingenious than substantial. A man that is of judgment and understanding shall some- times 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 come so to pass in that dis- tance 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 *he same thing, and accepteth of both ? The aature of such controversies is excellently ex- pressed by St. Paul m the warning and precept that he giveth concerning the same, *^ devita " profanas vocum novitates, et oppositiones ** falsi nominis scientiae." Men create oppo- sitions which are not, and put them into new

terms so fixed, as whereas the meaning oughi to govern the term, the term in effect govern- eth the meaning. There be also two false peaces, or unities ; the one, when the peace is grounded but upon an impHcit ignorance ; for all colours 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 ofNebuchadnezzar»s image; they may cleave_, but they will not incorpo- rate.

Concerning the means of procuring unity, rnen must beware^ that, in the procuring or muniting of religious unity, they do not dis- solve 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 mainte- nance of religion : but we may not take up the third sword, which is Mahomet's sword, or like imto h[; that is, to propagate religion by wars, or by sanguinary persecutions to force con- sciences ; except it be in cases of overt scandal, blasphemy, or intermixture of practice against the state ; much less to nourish seditions ; to

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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, ex- claimed,

" Tantum rellgio potuit suadere malorum."

What would he have said if he had knowii of the massacre in France, or the po\vder trea- son 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 anabaptists, and other furies. It w^as great blasphemy when the devil said, " I will as- " cend and be like the Highest;" but it is greater blasphemy to personate God, and bring him in saying, " I will descend, and be like the " prince of darkness :" and what is it better

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to make the cause of religion to descend to the cruel and execrable actions of murdering princes, butchery 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 to 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 sword; and all learnings, both christian and moral, as by their mercury rod to damn, and send to hell forever those facts and opinions tending to the support of the same, as hath been already in good part done. Surely in councils concerning religion, that council of the Apostle would be prefixed, '* Ira hominis non implet justitiam Dei ;" and it was a notable observation of a wise father, and no less ingenuously confessed, that those, which held and persuaded pressure of consciences, were commonly interested therein themselves tor their own ends.

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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 wTong, it doth but offend the law, but the revenge of that wrong putteth the law out of office. Cer- tainly 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, saith, " It is the ^* glory of a man to pass by an offence." That which is past is gone and irrecoverable, and wise men have enough to do with things present and to come ; therefore they do but trifle with themselves that labour in past matters. There is no man doth a wrong for the wrong's sake, but thereby to purchase himself profit, or plea- sure, or honour, or the like ; therefore why should I be angry w^ith a man for loving him- self 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

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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 de- sirous the party should know when 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 flieth in the dark. Cosmus, duke of Florence, had a desperate saying against perfidious or neglect- ing friends, as if those wrongs were unpardon- able. "You shall read,"saith 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," saith 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 studieth 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 Pertinax ; for the death of Henry the third of France ; and

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many more. But in private revenges it is not so ; nay, rather vindicative persons live the life of witches ; who, as they are mischievous, so end they unfortunate.

OF ADVERSITY.

It was an 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 : *^ Bona rerum secundanim " optabilia, adversarum mirabilia." Certainly if miracles he 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 :" " Vere magnum habere fragilitatem " hominis, securitatem Dei." This would have done better in poesy, where transcendencies are more allowed ; and the poets, indeed, have been busy with it : for it is in effect the thing which is figured in that strange fiction of the ancient poets, which seemeth not to be with-

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out mystery ; liay, 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 '^ the length of the great ocean in an earthen ^^ pot or pitcher, lively describing Christian re- ^' solution, 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 forti- tude, which in morals is the more heroical virtue. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament ; adversity is the blessing of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction and the clearer revelation of God's favour. Yet even in the old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many herse- like airs as carols ; and the pencil of tiie Holy Ghost hath laboured more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solo- mon. 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 D

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a lightsome ground: judge therefore of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye. Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.

OF SIMULATION AND DISSIMULATION.

Dissimulation is but a faint kind of policy or wnsdom ; for it asketh a strong wit and a strong heart to know when to tell truth, and to do it : therefore it is the weaker sort of politicians that are the great dissemblers.

Tacitus saith, " Livia sorted well with the " arts of her husband, and dissimulation of her " son ; attributing arts of policy to Augustus, *' and dissimulation to Tiberius :" and again, when Mucianus encourageth Vespasian to take arms against Vitellius, he saith, " We rise not " against the piercing judgment of Augustus, *' nor the extreme caution or closeness of Ti- ^^ berius :" these properties of arts or policy.,

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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 v^hat to be secreted, and what to be shewed at half lights, and to whom and when, (which indeed are arts of state, and arts of life, as Tacitus well calleth them,) to him a habit of dissimulation is a hinderance and a poornees. But if a man cannot attain to that judgment, then it is left to him generally to be close and a dissembler ; for where a man cannot choose or vary in particulars, there it is good to take the safest and wariest way in genera!, Hke the 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 hke horses well managed, for they could tell passing well when to stop or turn ; and at such times vvhe^i 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 invisi- ble.

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There be three degrees of this hiding and veiling of a man's self; the first, closeness, re- servation, and secrecy, when a man leaveth himself without observation, or without hold to be taken, what he is ; the second, dissimulation in the negative, when a man lets fall 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 w^ho will open himself to a blab or a babbler ? But if a man be thought secret, it inviteth discov- ery, as the more close air sucketh in the more open : and as in confession the revealing is not for w^orldly use, but for the ease of a man^s heart, so secret men come to the know^ledge of many things in that kind; while men rather discharge their minds than impart their minds. In few words, mysteries are due to secrecy. Besides (to say truth) nakedness is uncomely, as well in mind as in body ; and it addeth no small reverence to men's manners and actions if they be not altogether open. As for talkers

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and futile persons, they are commonly vain and credulous withal : for he that talketh what he knoweth, will also talk what he knoweth not ; therefore set it down, that an habit 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 tracts of his countenance is a great weak- ness 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 ne- cessity ; so that he that will be secret must be a dissembler in some degree : for men are too cunning to suffer a man to keep an indifferent carriage between both, and to be secret with- out swaying the balance on either side. They will so beset a man with questions and draw him on, and pick it out of him, that without an absurd silence he must shew 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 eraculous speeches, they can- not hold out long. So that no man can be se- cret, except he give himself a little scope of D 2

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disslmv.lation, which is as it were but the skirts or train of secrecy.

But for the third degree, which is simula- tion 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 de- gree,) is a vice rising either of a natural false- ness or fearfulness, or of a mind that hath some main faults ; which, because a man must needs disguise, it maketh him practise simulation in other things, lest his hand should be out of use.

The great advantages of simulation and dissimulation are three : first, to lay aleep op- position, 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 leserve 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 shew themselves averse ; but will (fair) let bim go on, and turn their freedom of speech %o iieedoia of thought ; and therefgie it is a

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good shrewd proverb of the Spaniard, *< Tell % « lie and find a troth ;"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 shew of fearfulness, which, in any business, doth 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 co-operate with him, and makes a man walk almost alone to his own ends ; the third and greatest is, that it de- priveth a man of one of the most principal in- struments for action, which is trust and belief. The best composition and temperature is, to have openness in fame and opinion ; secrecy in habit ; dissimulation in seasonable use ; and a power to feign, if there be no remedy.

OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN.

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears ; they cannot utter the one, nor they will not utter the other. Children sweeten fabours, but they make misfortunes more bit-

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tcr : they increase the cares of Hfe, but they mitigate the remembrance of death. The per- petuity by generation is common to beasts ; but memory, merit, and noble works are proper to men : and surely a man shall see the noblest works and foundations have proceeded 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 posterit}^ 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 aifection of parents to- wards their several children is many times unequal, and sometimes unworthy, especially in the mother; 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 iiliberality

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of parents in allowance towards their children is an harmful error ; and makes them base ; ac- quaints 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 author- ity tow^ards their children, but not their purse. Men have a foolish manner, (both pa- rents, and schoolmasters, and servants,) in creating and breeding an emulation between brothers during childhood, which many times sorteth to discord \vhen they are men, and disturbeth families. The Italians make little diiference between children and nephews, or near kinsfolks ; 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 ; insomuch that we see a nephew sometimes resembleth an uncle or a kinsman more than his own parents, as the blood happens. Let parents choose be- times 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 "hildren, as thinking they will take best to

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that which they have most mind to. It is tme, 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, " opti- " mum elige, suave et facile illud faciet con- " suetudo.'' Younger brothers are commonly fortunate, but seldom or never where the elder are disinherited.

OF MARRIAGE AND SINGLE LIFE.

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune ; for they are impediments to great enterprizes, either of virtue or mis- chief. Certainly the best works, and of great- est merit for the public have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men ; which, both in affection and means, have married and en- dowed 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 singU

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life, yet their thoughts do end with themselves, and account future times impertinence?; 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 an ^' one is a great rich man," and another except to it, " Yea, but he hath a great charge of chil- ^' dren," as if it v^rere 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 fivery restrai)itasthey 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 w^orse than a wife. For soldiers, I find the general^ com

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monly in their hortatives put men in mind of their wives and children ; and I think the de- spising of marriage among the Turks maketh the vulgar soldier more base. Certainly wife and children are a kind of discipline of hu- manity ; and single men, though they be many times more charitable because their means are less exhaust, yet, on the other side, they are more cruel and hardhearted, (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, <^ ve- " tulam suam praetulit immortalitati." Chaste women are often proud and froward, as pre* suming 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 hus- band wise, which she never will do if she find him jealous. Wives are young men's mis- tresses ; companions for middle age, and old men's nurses ; so as a man ma}' have a quarrel to marry when he will : but yet he was re- puted one of the wise men that made answer to the question when a man should marry, '^ A *^ 3^oung man not yet, an elder man not at alL''

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'it is often seen that bad husbands have very .good wives ; whether it be that it raiseth the price of their husbands 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 choosmg, against their friends con- sent, for then they will be sure to make good their own folly.

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 imagina- tions and suggestions ; and they come easily into the eye, especially upon the presence of the objects, which are the points that conduce to fascination, if any such thing there be. We see, likewise, the scripture calleth envy aa evil eye ; and the astrologers call the evil in- fluences of the stars evil aspects ; so that still there seemeth to be acknowledged in the act of envy an ejaculation or irradiation of the eye ^ nay, some have been so curious as to E

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note, that the times, when the stroke or percus- sion of an envious eye doth most hurt,are when the party envied is beheld in glory or triumph ; for that sets an edge upon env}^ : and besides, at such times the spirits of the person envied 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 envied themselves ; and what is the diiference betw^een 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 ow^n good, or upon others evil ; and who wanteth the one will prey 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 for- tune.

A man that is busy and inquisitive is com- monly envious ; for to know much of other men's matters cannot be, because all that ado may concern his own estate ; therefore it must needs be that he taketh a kind of play-pleasure

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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, quin idem sit ^^ malevolus."

Men of noble birth are noted to be envious towards new men when they rise ; for the dis- tance is altered, and it is like a deceit of the eye, that when others come on they think them- •i^elves go back.

Deformed persons and eunuchs, and old men and bastards are envious ; for he that cannot possibly mend his own case will do w^hat he can to impair another's; except tliese defects hghf upon a very brave and herocial nature which thinketh to make his natural wants part of his honou/ : in that it should be said, " That an ^* eunuch or a lame man did such great matters;'-' affecting the honour of a miracle, as it was in Narses the eunuch, and Agesilaus and Tamber- lane, that were lame men.

The same is the case of men that rise after ealamities and misfortunes ; for they are as men fallen out with the times, and think other men's karms a redemption of their own sufferings.

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They lliat desire to excel in too many mat- ters, out of levity and vain glory, are even en- vious, for they cannot want work; it being im- possible, but many, in some one of these things^ should surpass them ; which was the character uf Adrian the emperor, that mortally envied poets, and painters, and artificers in ^vorks- wherein he had a vein to excel.

Last]}', near kinsfolko and fellows in office, jind those that have been bredtogether are more apt to envy their equals when they are raised; ibr it doth upbraid unto them their own for- 'iines, and pointeth at them, and comelh of-- tener into their remembrance, and incurreth likewise more into the note of others; and envy ever redoubleth from speech and fame. Cain's envy Vv-as the more vile and malignant towards his brother Abel, because, when his sacrifice was better accepted, there was no body to look on. Thus much for those that are apt to envy.

Concerning those that are more or less sub- ject to envy. First, persons of emiinent virtue when they are advanced are less envied ; for their fortune seemeth but due unto them ; and no man envieth the payment of a debt^ but

rewards and 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 unvs^orthy persons are most envied at their first coming in_, and afterwards overcome it better; whereas con- trariwise, persons of worth and merit are most envied when their fortune continueth long;- for by that time, though their virtue be the same,, yet it hath not the same lustre, for fresh men grow up to darken it.

Persons of noble blood are less envied in their rising ; for it seemeth but right done to their birth ; besides, there seemeth not much added to their fortune ; and envy is as the sun- beamSy that beat hotter upon a bank or steep rising ground, than upon a flat : and, for the same reason, those that are advanced by de- grees are less envied than those that are ad- vanced suddenly, and " per saltum."

Those that have joined with their honour great travels, cares, or perils are less subject to envy; for men think that they earn their ho- nours hardly, and pity them sometimes ; and pity ever healeth envy : w^herefore you shall e2

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observe, that the more deep and sober sort of politic persons in their greatness are ever be- moaning themselves what a life they lead, chanting a " quanta patimur ;" 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 increaseth envy more than an unnecessary and ambitious ingrossing of business ; and nothing doth extinguish envy more than for a great person to preserve all other inferior officers in their full rights and pre-eminences 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 ia an insolent and proud manner; being never well but while they are shewing 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 con- cern them. Notwithstanding so much is true, that the carriage of greatness in a plain and

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open manner, (so it be without arrogancy and vain glory,) 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 in worth, and doth but teach others to envy him.

Lastly, to conclude this part, as we said in the beginning that the act of env}^ had some- what in it of witchcraft, so there is no other cure of envy but the cure of witchcraft; and that is, to remove the lot, (as they call it,) and to 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 ; some- times 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, who, so they may have power and business, will take it at any cost.

Now to speak of public en^y : there is yet some good in public envy, whereas in private there is none ; for public envy is as an ostra- cism, that eclipseth men when they grow too

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great ; and therefore it is a bridle also to great ones to keep them within bounds.

This envy, being in the Latin word " in- «^vidia," goeth in the modern languages by the name of discontentment ; of which we shall apeak in handling sedition. It is a disease in a state like to infection : for as infection spread- eth upon that which is sound and tainteth it ; so when envy is gotten once into a state it traduceth ev^n the best actions thereof, and turneth them into an ill odour ; and therefore there is little won by intermingling of plau- sible actions : for that doth argue but a weak> ness and fear of envy, which hurteth so much the more, as it is likewise usual in infectionsj which if you fear them you oall them upon you.

This public envy seeemeth to bear chiefly upon principal officers or ministers, rather than upon kings and states themselves. But this is a sure rule, that if the envy upon the min- ister be great when the cause. of it in him is small ; or if the envy be general in a manner upon all the ministers of an estate, then the envy (though hidden) is truly upon the state., itself. And so much of public envy or disr

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contentment, 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 importune and continual ; for of other affections there is occasion given but now and then ; and therefore it was w^ell said, " Invidia festos dies 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 aiiections 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, that sow-eth tares amongst ^^ the wheat by night ;" as it ahvays cometh to pass that envy worketh subtilly, and in the dark, and to the prejudice of good things, such ii is the wheat.

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OF LO\^E.

The stage is more beholding to love than the life of man ; for as to the stage, love is even matter of comedies, and now and then of tra- gedies ; but in life it doth much mischief; sometimes like a siren, sometimes like a fury. You may observe, that among.-t all the great and worthy persons, (whereof the m.emory re- maineth, either ancient or recent,) there is not one that hath been transported to tlie mad degree of love; which shews that great spirits and great business do keep out this weak pas- sion. You mxust except, nevertheless,. Marcus Antonius, the half partner of the empire of Rome, and Appius Claudius, the decemvir and lawgiver ; whereof the former was indeed a voluptuous man, and inordinate ; but the lat- ter was an austere and wise man ; and there- fore it seems, (though rarely,) tiiat love can find entrance, not only into an open heart, but also into a heart well fortified, if watch be not well kept. It is a poor saying of Epi- curus, " Satis magnum alter alteri theatrum ^< sumus ;" as if man, made for the contem--

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plation 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 of this passion, and how it braves the nature and value of things by this, that the speaking in a perpetual hyperbole is comely in nothing but in love ; neither is it merely in the phrase ; for whereas it hath been well said, ^' That the arch fiat- "terer, with whom all the pretty flatterers have ** intelligence, is a man's self;" certainly the lover is more; for there was never a proud man thought so absurdly well of himself as the lover doth of the person loved ; and therefore it was well said, " That 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 reciprocal ; for it is a true rule, that love is ever rewarded either with the recipro- cal or with an inward and secret contempt, by how much the more men ought to beware of this passion, which loseth not only other things, but itself. As for the other losses, the

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poet's relation doth well figure them ;/« That " he that preferred Helena quitted the gifts of *< Juno and Pallas;" for whosoever estecmeth too much of amorous aifection, quitteth both riches and wisdom. This passion hath its floods ill the very times of weakness, which are, great prosperity, and great adversity, though this lat- ter hath been less observed ; both which times kindle love and make it more fervent, and therefore shew it to be the child of folly. They do best, who, if they cannot but admit love, yet make it keep quarter, and sever it wholly from their serious affairs and actions of hfe ; for if it check once with business, it troubleth men's fortunes, aiid maketh men that they can no ways be true to their own ends. I know not how, but martial men are given to love : I think it is, but as they are given to wine ; for perils commonly ask to be paid in plea- sures. There is in man's nature a secret in- clination 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 maketh men become humane and chari- table, as it is seen sometime in friars. Nuptial love maketh mankind ; friendly love perfecteth

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it ; but wanton love cornipteth and cmbas- f th it.

OF GREAT PLACE.

Men in great place are thrice servants ; ser- vants 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, nor in their times. It is a Strange desire to seek power and to Io?e li- berty ; 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 stand- ing is slippery, und the regress is either a dosvnfal, or at least an eclipse, which is a me- lancholy thing : " Cum non sis qui fueris, *' non esse cur velis vivere ?" Nay, retire men cannot when they w^ould, 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 at their street door, though

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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 feehng, they cannot find it : but if they think with themselves what other men think of them, and that other men would fain be as they are, then they are happy as it were by report, when, perhaps, they find the contrary within : for they are 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 body or mind : " lUi mor$ '^ gravis incubat, qui notus nimis omnibus, " ignotus moritur sibi." In place there is li- cense to do good and evil ; whereof the latter is a curse : for in evil the best condition is not to will ; the second not to can. But power to do good is the true and lawful end of aspir- ing ; for good thoughts (though God accept them,) yet towards men are little better than good dreams, except they be put in act ; and that cannot be without power and place, as the vantage and commanding ground. Merit

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and good works is the end of man's motion ; and conscience of the same is the accompiish- ment of man's rest : for if a man can be par- taker of God's theatre, he shall likewise be partaker of God's rest : '' Et conversus Deus, *' ut aspiceret opera, qu3e fecerunt manus suae, " vidit quod omnia 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 tliemselves 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 3'et set it down to thj^self, as well to create good precedents as to follow them. Reduce things to the first institution, and observe wherein and how they have degenerated, but yet ask counsel of both times ; of the ancient time what is best ; and of the latter time what is fittest. Seek to make thy course regular, that men may know beforehand what they may

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expect : but be not too positive and peremp- tory ; and express thyself well when thou di- gressest 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," than voice it with claims and challenges. Preserve likewise the rights of inferior places ; and think it more honour to direct in chief, than to be busy in all. Em- brace and invite helps and advices touching the execution of thy place ; and do not drive away such as bring thee information as med- <Uers, but accept of them in good part. The vices of authority are chiefly four ; delays, corruption, roughness, and facility. For delays give easy access ; keep times appointed ; go through with that w^hich is in hand, and in- terlace not business but of necessity. For cor- ruption, do not only bind thine own hands or thy servants hands from taking, but bind the hand of suitors also from offering ; for integrity used doth the one ; but integrity professed, and with a manifest detestation of bribery, doth the other; and avoid not only the fault, but the suspicion. Whosoever is found variable, and changeth manifestly with--

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out manifest cause giveth suspicion of corrupt- tion : 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, is com- monly thought but a by-way to close corrup- tion. For roughness, it is a needless cause of discontent : severity breedeth fear, but rough- ness breedeth hate. Even reproofs from au- thority ought to be grave, and not taunting. As for facility, it is worse than bribery ; for bribes come but now and then ; but if impor- tunity or idle respects lead a man, he shall never be without ; as Solomon saith, " To ** respect persons it is not good, for such a man *^ will transgress for a piece of bread." It is most true that was anciently spoken, " A place " sheweth the man ; and it sheweth some to <^ the better, and some to the worse :'' *^ omni- *^ um consensu, capax imperii, nisi imperasset,'* saith Tacitus of Galba ; but of Vespasian he saith, *^ solus imperantium, Vespas;ianus mu- " tatus in melius ;" though the one was meant of sufficiency, the other of manners and affec- F 2

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lion. It is an assured sign of a worthy and generous spirit, whom honours amend ; for honour is, or should be the place of virtue; and as in nature things move violently to their place, and calmly in their place, so virtue m ambition is violent, in authority settled and calm. All rising to great place is by a winding stair ; and if there be factions, it is good to side 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 ten- derly ; ^or if thou dost notj it is a debt will sure be paid when thou art gone. If thou have colleagues, respect them ; and rather call them w^hen they look not for it, than exclude them when they have reason to look to be called. Be not too sensible or too remem- bering of thy place in conversation and pri- vate answers to suitors ; but let it rather be said, " When he sits in pUce he is another ^' nian.'>

«

OF BOLDNESS.

It is a trivial grammar school text, but yet worthy a wise man's consideration. Question was asked of Demosthenes, 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, should be placed so high above those other noble parts of invention, elocution, and the rest ; nay 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 : what second and third ? boldness. And yet boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness, far inferior to other parts : but, ne- vertheless, it doth fascinate, and bind hand and foot those that are either shallow in judgment

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or weak in courage, which are the greatest part : yea, and pre\ aileth with wise men at weak times : therefore we see it hath done wonders in popular states, but with senates and princes less ; and more, ever upon the first en- trance of bold persons into action, than soon after; for boldness is an ill keeper of promise. Surely, as there are mountebanks for the na- tural body, so are there mountebands 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, and therefore cannot hold out : nay, you shall see a bold fellow many times do Mahomet's mi- racle. Mahomet made the people believe that he would call an hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled : Mahomet called the hill to come to him again and again ; and when the hill stood still he was never a whit abashed, but said, " If the hill will not come to <^ Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill." So these men,w^hen they have promised great mat- ters and failed most shamefully, yet, (if they have the perfection of boldness,) they will but slight it over, and make a turn, and no more

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ado. Certainly to men of great judgmeivt, bold persons are sport to behold ; nay, and to the vulgar also boldness hath 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 in 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, than for a se- rious observation. This is well to be weighed, that boldness is ever blind; for it seeth not dangers and inconveniences : therefore it is ill in counsel, good in execution ; so that the right use of bold persons is, that they never command in chief, but be seconds, and under the direc- tion of others : for in counsel it is good to see dangers, and in execution not to see them, ex- cept they be very great.

SB

OF GOODNESS, AND GOODNESS OF NATURE.

I TAKE goodness in this sense, the affecting of the weal of men, which is that the Grecians call Philanthropia ; and the word humanity (asit 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 and dignities of the mind, 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 powder in excess caused the angels to fall ; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall : but in charity there is no excess, neither can angel or man come in danger by it. The inclination to goodness is imprinted deeply in the nature of man ; insomuch, that if it issue not towards men, it will take unto other liv- ing creatures ; as it is seen in the Turks, a cruel people, who, nevertheless, are kind to

Ijeast?, and give alms to dogs and birds ; inso- much as Busbechius reporteth, a Christian boy in Constantinople had Hke to have been stoned for gagging in a v^^aggishness a long billed fowl. Errors indeed, in this virtue, in goodness or charity, may be committed. The Italians have an ungracious proverb, " Tanto " buon che val niente ;" " So good, that he is <"*good for nothing:" and one of the doctors of Italy, Nicolas Machiavel, had the confidence to put in writing, almost in plain terms, ** That " the Christian faith had given up good men *^ in prey to those that are tyrannical and un- ^* unjust;" which he spake, because, indeed, there was never law, or sect, or opinion did so much magnify goodness as the Christian religion doth : therefore, to avoid the scandal, and the danger both, it is good to take knowledge of the errors of an habit so excellent. Seek the good of other men, but be not in bondage io their faces or fancies ; for that is but facility or softness, which taketh an honest mind pris- oner. Neither give thou ^sop's cock a gem, who would be better pleased and happier if he had a barley-corn. The example of God teaclieth the lesson truly ; " He scndeth his

«' rain, and inaketh his sun to shin^upon the just ♦* and the unjust ;" but he doth not rain wealth, nor shine honour and virtues upon men equal- ly : common benefits are to be communicated with all, but peculiar benefits with choicce And beware how in making the portraiture thou breakest the pattern ; for divinity maketh the love of ourselves the pattern ; the love of our neighbours 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 ; that is, 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 driest 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 turneth but to a crossness, or frowardness, or aptness to oppose, or difficileness, or the like ; but the deeper sort to envy, and mere mischief. Such men, in other men^s calamities, are, as it were.

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iQ season^ and are ever on the loading parts 'i not so good as the dogs that licked Lazarus' sores, but like flies that are still buzzing upon any thing that is raw ; misanthropi. that make it their practice to bring men to the bough, 'and yet have never a tree for the purpose in their gardens, as Timon had : such dicpo?itions are the very errors of human nature, and yet they are the fittest timber to make great poli- tics of; like to 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 and courteous to strangers, it shews he is a citizen of 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 shews that his heart is like the noble tree that is wounded itself when it gives the balm : if he easily pardons and remits oflences, it shews that his mind is planted above injuries, «o that he cannot be shot : if he be thankiul for small benefits, it shews that he weighs men's minds, and not their trash : but, above •all, if he have St. Paul-s perfection, that hf

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would wish to be an anathema from Christ, for the salvation of his brethren, it shews much of a divine nature, and a kind of conformity with Christ himself.

OF A KING.

1. A KING is a mortal god on earth, unto whom the living God hath lent his own name as a great honour ; but withal told him, he should die like a man, lest he should be proud, and flatter himself that God hath with his name imparted unto him his nature also.

2. Of all kind of men, God is the least be- holding unto them ; for he doth most for them, and they do ordinarily least for him.

3. A king that would not feel his crown too heavy for him, must wear it every day ; but if he think it too light, he knoweth not of what metal it is made.

4. He must make religion the rule of go- vernment, and not to balance the scale ; for he that casteth in religion only to make the scales even, his own weight is contained in those cha-

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i^cters, " Mene mene, tekel uphart-in/' '< He is ^' found too light, his kingdom shall be taken " from him."

5. And that king that holds not religion the best reason of state, is void of all piety and justice, the supporters of a king.

6. He must be able to give counsel himself, but not rely thereupon; for though happy events justify their counsels, yet it is better that the evil event of good advice be rather imputed to a subject than a sovereign.

7. He is the fountain of honour, which should not run with a waste pipe, lest the cour- tiers sell the water, and then, (as papists say of their holy wellsf,) it loses the virtue.

S* He is the life of the law, not onty as he is " lex loquens" himself, but because he ani- mateth the dead letter, making it active towards all his subjects, '^ pr^emio et poena."

9. A wise king must do less in altering his laws than he may ; for new government is ever dangerous ; it being true in the body politic, as in the corporal, that " omnis subita immutatio <^ est periculosa :" and though it be for the bet- ter, yet it is not without a fearful apprehension ; for he that changeth the fundamental laws of a

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kingdom thlnketh there is no good title to ^ crown but by conquest,

10. A king that setteth to sale seats of justice^ oppresseth the people; for he teacheth his judges to sell justice ; and "precio parata precio vendi- ^^ tur justitia."

11. Bounty and magnificence are virtues very regal, but a prodigal king is nearer a tyrant than a parsimonious ; for store at home draweth not his contemplations abroad ; but want supplieth itself of what is next, and many times the next way : a king herein must be wise, and know what he may justly do.

12. That king w4iich is not feared is not loved ; and he that is well seen in his craft must as well study to be feared as loved ; yet not loved for fear, but feared for love.

13. Therefore, as he must always resemble hirn whose great name he beareth, and that as in manifesting the sv/eet influence of his mercy on the severe stroke of his justice sometimes, so in this not to suffer a man of death to live ; for, besides that the land doth mourn, the restraint of justice towards sin doth more retard the af- fection of love than the extent of mercy doth

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enflame it ; and sure where love is [111] bestow- ed fear is quite lost*

14. His greatest enemies are his flatterers; for though they ever speak on his side, yet their words still make against him.

15. The love which a king oweth to a weal public should not be restrained to any one particular ; yet that his more special favour do reflect upon some worthy ones is somewhat necessary, because there are few of that capa- city.

15. He must have a special care of five things, if he would not have his crown to b.e but to him " infelix felicitas :"

first, that " simulata sanctitas" be not in the church ; for that is " duplex iniquitas :"

secondly, that ^^ inutilis aequitas" sit not in the chancery ; for that is " inepta miseri- ^^ cordia :'*

thirdly, that " utilis iniquitas" keep not the exchequer ; for that is *^ crudele latro- ^^ cinium :'*

fourthly, that *^fidelis temeritas" be not his general; for that will bring but "seram ^^ poenitentiam :"

fifthly, that <f infidelis prudentia" be not G 2

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his secretary, for that is ^^ anguig sub virldi « herba."

To conclude ; as he is of the greatest power, so he is subject to the greatest cares, made the servant of his people, or else he were without a calling at all.

He then that honoureth him not is next an atheist, wanting the fear of God in his heart*

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 no- bility at all, is ever a pure and absolute ty- ranny, as that of the Turks ; for nobility at» tempers sovereignty, and draws the eyes of the people somewhat aside from the line royal : but for democracies they need it not ; and they are commonly more quiet, and less subject to sedhion, 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 sake, as fittest, and not for

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ffags and pedigree. We see the Switzers last well, notwithstanding their diversity of religion and of cantons ; for utility is their bond, and not respects. The united provinces of the Low Countrie? in their government excel ; for where there is an equality the consultations are more indifferent, and the payments and tributes more cheerful. A great and potent nobility addeth majesty to a monarch, but diminisheth power ; and putteth 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 before it come on too fast upon the majesty of kings. A numerous nobility causeth poverty and inconvenience in a state^ for it is a surcharge of expence ; and besides^ it being of necessity that many of the nobility fall in time to be weak in fortune, it maketh a kind of disproportion between honour and means.

As for nobility in particular persons, it is a reverend thing to see an ancient castle or building not in decay, or to see a fair timber tree sound and perfect ; how much more to

6^

behold an ancient noble family, which hat^i stood against the waves and weathers of time t 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 decend- ants ; for there is rarely any rising but by a commixture of good and evil arts : but it is reason the memory of their virtues remain to their posterity, and their faults die with them- selves. Nobilit}' of birth commojjly abateth industry ; and he that is not industrious envieth him that is : besides, noble persons cannot go much higher; and he that standeth at a slay when others rise, can liardly avoid motions of envy. On the other side, nobility extinguish- eth the passive envy from others towards them, because they are in possession of honour. Cer^ tainly, kings that have able men of their nobil- it}^ shall find ease in employing them, and a better slide into their business ; for people nat- urally bend to them as born in some sort ta command.

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OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES,

Shepherds of people had need know the cal- endars of tempests in state, which are com*- monly greatest when things grow to equahty ; as natural tempests are greatest about the equi- noctia ; and as there are certain hollow blastfi of wind and secret swellings of seas before a tempest, so are there in states :

" Ille etiam caecos instare tumultus

Saepe monet, fraudesque et operta tumuscere bella.*'

Libels and licentious discourses against the state^ when they are frequent and open ; and in like sort false news often running up and down ta the disadvantage of the state, and hastily em- braced, are amongst the signs of troubles. Vir- gil, giving the pedigree of fame, saith she was jister to the giants ;

" Illam terra parens, ira irritata deorum, EYtremam (ut perhibent) CoeoEnceladoque sororem Progenuit." .Eneid. IV. 177.

As if fames were the relics of seditions past f but they are no less indeed the preludes oi

seditions to come. Howsoever he noteth it right, that seditious tumults, 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 plau^ible, and which ought to give greatest Gontentment, are taken m ill sense and tra- duced ; for that shews the envy great, as Taci- tus saith, ^ conflata, magna invidia, seu bene, ^^ seu male, gesta premunt." 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; for the despising of them many times checks them best, and the going about to stop them doth but make a wonder long-lived. Also that kind of obedience which Tacitus speaketh of is to be held suspected ;. " Erant in officio, sed '^ tamen qui maileiit mandata imperantium in- *"* terpretari, quam exequi ;" disputing, ex- cusing, cavilling upon 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 au> daciouslv.

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Also, as Machiavel noteth weT!, when ^princes, that ought to be common parents, make themselves as a party and lean to a side, it is as a boat that is overthrown by uneven weight on the one side : as was well seen in the time of Henry "the third 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 accessary 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 posses- sion.

Also, when discords, and quarrels, and fac- tions 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 *' primum mobile," (according to the old opi- nion,) 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 ^< quani ut imperantium meminigsent," it is a

6^

sign the orbs arc out of frame ; for reverence is that wherewith princes are girt from God, who threateneth the dissolving thereof; *' solvam <* cingula regura."

So when any of the four pillars of govern- ment are mainly shaken, or w^eakened, (which are religion, justice, council, and treasure,) men had need to pray for fair weather. But let us pass from this part of predictions, (con- cerning which, nevertheless, more light may be taken from that which foUoweth,) and let us speak first of the materials of seditions, then of the motives of them, and thirdly of the re- medies.

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 '^^•hence the spark shall come that shall set it on fire. The matter of seditions is of two kinds, much poverty and much discontent- ment. It is certain, so many overthrown iestates, so many votes for troubles. Lucan noteth well the state of Rome hefore the civil war.

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<* Hlnc usora vorax, rapidumque in tempore foemis, <' Hinc concussa fides, et multis utUe beilum."

This same, « multis utile bellum," is an a3sured and infallible sign of a state disposed to sedi- tions 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 rebel lions of the belly are the worst. As for discon- tentments, they are in the politic body like to 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 ju«t or unjust ; for that were to imagine people to be too reasonable, who do often spurn at their own good ; nor yet by this, whether the griefs whereupon they rise be in fact great or small ; for they are the most dan- gerous discontentments where the fear is greater than the feeling : " Dolendi modus, timendi <' non item :" besides, in great oppressions, the same things that provoke the patience, do withal mate the courage ; but in fears it is not £0 : neither let any prince or state be secure concerning discontentments because they have bectt often, or have been long, and yet no H

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peril hath ensued; for as it is true that every vapour or fume doth not turn into a storm, £0 it is nevertheless true, that storms, though they blow over divers times, yet may fall at last ; and as the Spanish proverb noteth well, *' The cord breaketh at the last by the weakest « pull."

The causes and motives of seditions are in- novation in religion, taxes, alteration of laws and customs, breaking of privileges, general oppression, advancement of unworthy persons, strangers, dearths, disbanded soldiers, factions grown desperate; and whatsoever in offending people joineth and knitteth them in a common cause.

For the remedies there may be some gen- eral preservatives, whereof we will speak : as for the just cure, it must answer to the particu- lar disease ; and so be left to counsel rather than rule.

The first remedy or prevention is to remove by -all means possible that material cause of sedition whereof we speak, which is want and poverty in the estate ; to which purpose serveth the opening and well balancing of trade ; the clierishing of manufactures ; the banishing of

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idleness ; the repressing of waste and excess by sumptuary laws ; the improvement and hus- banding of the soil ; the regulating the prices of things vendible ; the moderating of taxes and tributes, and the like. Generally it is to be foreseen that the population of a kingdom, (es- pecially 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, do wear out an estate sooner that a greater number that live lower and gather more : therefore the multiplying of nobility and other degrees of quality, in an over-proportion to the common people, doth speedily bring a state to necessity ; and so doth likewise an overgrown clergy, for they bring nothing to the stock ; and in like manner when more are bred scholars than pre- ferments can take off.

It is likewise to be remembered, that, foras- much as the increase of any estate must be up- on the foreigner, (for whatsoever is somewhere gotten is somewhere lost,) there be but three things which one nation selleth unto another . the commodity as nature yieldeth it; the man-

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ufecturc ; and the vecture or carriage : so that if these three wheels go, wealth w ill flow as in a spring tide. And it cometh many times to pass, that " materiam superabit opus," that the work and carriage is more worth than the material, and enricheth a state more : as is notably seen in the Low Country men, who have the best mines 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 the least, keeping a strait hand upon the devouring trades of usury, ingrossing, 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 nobles and the commonalty. When one of these is discontent the danger is not great ; for com- mon people are of slow motion if they be not 'excited by the greater sort ; and the greater 3ort are of small strength, except the multitude

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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 themr selves. The poets feign that the rest of the gods would have bound Jupiter, which he hear- ing of by the counsel of Pallas, sent for Briareus with his hundred hands to come in to his aid : an emblem, no doubt, to shew how safe it is for monarchs to make sure of the good will cf common people.

To give moderate liberty for griefs and dis- contentments 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, endanger- eth malignj ulcers and pernicious imposthuma^ tions.

The part of Epimetheus might 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, snd kept hope in the bottom of the vessel. Certainly, the poli- tic and artificial nourishing and entertauiing of hopes, and carrying men from hopes to hopes H 2

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is one of the best antidotes against the poisou of discontentraents : and it is a certain sign of a wise government 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 evil shall appear so peremptory, but that it hath some outlet of hope : which -is the less hard to do, because both particular persons and fac- tions are apt enough to flatter themselves, or, at least, to brave that which they believe not.

Also the foresight and prevention that there he no likely or fit head whereunto discontent- ed persons may resort, and under whom they iiiayjoin, 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 are either to be won and xeconciled to the state, and that in a fast and true manner ; or to be fronted with some other of the same party that may oppose them, and m divide the reputation* Generally, the divid-

ing and breaking of all faction* and combina- tions that are adverse to the state, and setting them at distance, or, at least, distrust among 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 dis- cord and faction, and those that are against it be 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 in- finite hurt in that speech, '' Sylla nescivit " literas, non potuit dictare ;^ for it did ut- terly cut off that hope which men had enter- tained, that he would at one time or other give over his dictatorship. Galba undid him- self by that speech, " legi a se militem, non <^ emi ;" for it put the soldiers out of hope of the donative. Probus, likewise, by that speech, ^*si vixero, non opus erit amplius Romano " imperio militibus ;" a speech of great despair for the soldiers, and many the like. Surely, princes had need in tender matter and tick- lish times to beware what they say, especi- ally in these short speeches which fly abroad like darts, and are thought to be shot out of

their secret intentions ; for as for large db- courses, they are 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 valour, near unto them, for the repressing of seditions in their beginnings ; for without that there useth to be more tre- pidation in court upon the first breaking out of troubles, than were fit ; and the state rurh neth the danger of that which Tacitus saith, ^' atque is habitus animorum fuit, ut pessimum ** facinus auderent pauci, plures vellent, omnes " paterentur ;" but let such mihtary persons be assured and well reputed of, rather than factious and popular; holding also good cor- respondence with the other great men in the state, or else the remedy is worse than the disease.

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OF ATHEISM.

I HAD rather believe all the fables in the le- gend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran than that this universal frame is without a mind : and, therefore, God never wrought miracles to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convmce it. It is true that a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism ; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to re- ligion ; for while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them and go no farther ; but when it beholdeth the chain of them confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to provi- dence and Deity : nay, even that school which is most accused of atheism, doth most demon- strate religion ; that is, the school of Leucip- pus, and Democritus, and Epicurus : for it is a thousand times more credible, that four muta- ble elements and one immutable fifth essence, duly and eternally placed, need no God, than that an army of infinite small portions, or seeds unplaced,, should have produced this order and beauty without a divine marshal.

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The scripture saith, " The fool hath said in " his heart, there is no God ;" it is not said, ^' The fool hath thought in his heart ;" so as he rather saith it by rote to himself, as that he would have, than that he can thoroughly believe it, or be persuaded of it; for none deny there is a God, but those for whom it maketh that there were no God. It appeareth in no- thing more, that atheism is rather in the lip than in the heart of man, than by this, that atheists w^ill ever be talking of that their opi^ nion, as if they fainted in it within themselves, and would be glad to be strengthened by the consent of others : nay more, you shall have atheists strive to get disciples, as it fareth with other sects; and, which is most of all, you shall have of them that will suffer for atheism, and not recant ; whereas, if they did truly think that there were no such thing as God, why should they trouble themselves ? Epicurus is charged, that he did but dissemble for his credit's sake when he affirmed there were blessed natures, but such as enjoyed themselves without having respect to the government of the world ; wherein they say he did tempa» rize, though, iu secret he thought there \\&s

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MO God : but certainly he is tradiaced_, for hk words are noble and divine ; " Non Deos vulgi ♦^ negare profanum ; sed vulgi opiniones diis ^ applicare profanum." Plato could have said no more ; and, although he had the confidence to deny the administration, he had not the power to deny the nature. The Indians of the west have names for their particular gods, though they have no name for God ; as if the heathens should have had the names Jupiter, Apollo, Mars, &c. but not the word Deus ; which shews, that even those barbarous people have the notion, though they have not the latitude and extent of it : so that against athe- ists the very savages take part with the very subtilest philosophers. The contemplative athe- ist is rare, a Diagoras, a Bion, a Lucian per- haps, and some others ; and yet they seem to fee more than they are ; for that all that impugn a received religion or superstition, are by the adverse part branded with the name of atheists : but the great atheists indeed are hy- pocrites, which are ever handling holy things, but without feeling ; so as they must needs be cauterized in the end. The causes of atheism are^ divisions in religion, if they be many ; fdr

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any one nr^ain division addeth zeal to both sides, but iiiany divisions introduce atheism :; another is, scandal of priests, when it is come to that which St. Bernard saith, " non est jam " dicere, ut populus, sic sacerdos ; quia nee sic ^' populus, ut sacerdos :" a third is, a custom of profane scoffing in holy matters, which doth by little and httle deface the reverence of re- ligion; and, lastly, learned times, especially with peace and prosperity ; for troubles and adversities do more bow men"'s minds to re- ligion. They that deny a God destroy man's nobility ; for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body ; and, if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignobte creature. It destroys likewise magnanimity, and the raising human nature ; for take an example of a dog, and mark what a generosity and courage he will put on when he finds himself maintained by a man, who to him is instead of a God, or ** melior natura ;'* which courage is manifestly such as that creature, without that confidence of a better nature than his own, could never attain. So man, •when he resteth and assureth himself upon divine protection and favour, gathereth a force

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and faith which human nature in itself could not obtain ; therefore, as atheism is in all re- spects hateful, so in this, that it depriveth human nature of the means to exalt itself above human frailty. As it is in particular persons, so it is in nations : never was there such a state for magnanimity as Rome ; of this state hear what Cicero saith, " Q,uam volu- " mus, licet, patres conscripti, nos amemiis, '' tamen nee numero Hispanos, nee robore Gal- *' los, nee calliditate Poenos, nee artibus Gr^e- *^ cos, nee denique hoc ipso hujus gentis et *f terrae domestico nativoque sensu Italos ipsos " et Latinos ; sed pietate, ac reiigione, atque <f hac una sapientia, quod deorum immorta- '' Hum numine omnia regi, gubernarique per- " speximus, omnes gentes nationesque superavi- " mus."

OF SUPERSTITION.

It were better to have no opinion of God at all, than such an opinion as is unworthy of him ; for the one is unbelief, the other is con- tumely : and certainly superstition is the re- I

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jjioach of the Deity. Plutarch saith well to that purpose ; " Surely," saith he, " I had ra- *' ther a great deal men should say there was '* no such man at all as Plutarch, than that '^ they should say that there was one Plutarch, *^ that would eat his children as soon as they *^^ were born;" as the poets speak of Saturn : and, as the contumely is greater towards God, so the danger is greater towards men. Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation ; all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not ; but superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men : therefore atheism did never perturb states ; for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking no farther, and we see the times inclined to atheism, (as the time of Augustus Caesar,) were civil times : but su- perstition hath been the confusion of many states, and bringeth in a new '^ primum mo- ^' bile," that ravisheth all the spheres of gov- ernment. The master of superstition is the people, and in all superstition wise men follow fools; and arguments are fitted to practice in a reversed order. It was gravely said by somp

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of the prelates in the council of Trent, where the doctrme of the schoolmen bare great sway, that the schoolmen were like astronomers, which did feign eccentrics and epicycles, and such engines of orbs to save the phienomena, though they knew there were no §uch things; and in like manner, that the schoolmen had famed a number of subtile and intricate axioms and theorems, to save the practice of the church. The causes of superstition are pleasing and sen- sual rites and ceremonies ; excess of outward and Pharisaical holiness ; over-great reverence of traditions, which cannot but load the church ;. the stratagems of prelates for their own am- bition and lucre ; the favouring too much of good intentions, which openeth the gate to conceits and novelties ; the taking an aim at divine matters by human, which cannot but breed mixture of imaginatiojis ; and, lastly, bar- barous times, especially joined with calamities and disasters. Superstition without a vail is a deformed thing ; for as it addeth deformity to an ape to be so like a man, so the similitude of superstition to religion makes it the more de- formed : and, as wholesome meat corrupteth to little v<orm^^, so good forms and orders cor-

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rupt into a number of petty observances. There is a superstition in avoiding superstition, when men think to do best if they go farthest from the superstition formerly received ; therefore care should be had that, (as it fareth in ill purgings,) the good be not taken away with the bad, which commonly is done when the people is the reformer.

OF TRAVEL.

Travel in the younger sort is a part of edu= cation ; in the elder a part of experience. He that travelleth into a country, before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not .to travel. That young men travel under some tutor, or grave servant, I allow well ; so that he be such a one that hath the language, and hath been in the country before; whereby he may be able to tell them what things are worthy to be seen in the coun- try where they go, what acquaintances they are to seek, what exercises or discipline the place yieldeth ; for else young men shall ga hooded^ and look abroad little. It is a strange

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thing, that in sea voyages, where there is no- thing to be seen but sky and sea, men should make diaries ; but in land travel, wherein so much is to be observed, for the most part they omit it ; as if chance were fitter to be re- gistered than cbser\'ation : let diaries, there- fore, be brought in use. The things to be seen and observed are the courts of princes, espe- cially when they give audience to ambassadors ; the courts of justice while they sit and hear causes ; and so of consistories ecclesiastic ; the churches and monasteries, with tjie monuments which are therein extant ; the walls and for- tifications of cities and towns ; and so the havens and harbours, antiquities and ruins, libraries, colleges, disputations, and lectures where any are ; shipping and navies; houses and gardens of state and pleasure near great cities; armo- ries, arsenals, magazines, exchanges, burses, ware-houses, exercises of horsemanship, fenc- ing, training of soldiers, and the like : come- dies, such whereunto the better swt of persons do resort; treasuries of jew^els and robes; cabinets and rarities ; and to conclude, what- soever is memorable in the places where they go ; after all which the tutors or servants ought I 2

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to make diligent inquiry. A8 for triumphs, masks, feasts, weddings, funerals, capital exe- cutions, and such shews, men need not be put in mind of them; yet are they not to be ne- glected. If you will have a young man to put his travel into a little room, and in short time to gather much, this you must do : first, as was said, he must have some entrance into the lan- guage before he goeth ; then he must have such a servant, or tutor as knoweth the country, as was likewise said : let him carry with him also some card or book describing the country where he travelleth, which will be a good key to his inquiry ; let him keep also a diary ; let him not stay long in one city or town, more or less as the place deserveth, but not long ; ■nay, when he stayeth in one city or town, let him change his lodging from one end and part of the town to another, which is a great adamant of acquaintance ; let him sequester himself from the company of his countrymen, and diet in such places where there is good company of the nation where he travelleth ; let him upon his removes from one place to another procure recommendation to some per= .son of quahty residing in the place whithe*"

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he removeth, that he may use his favour in those things he desireth to see or know : thus he may abridge his travel with much profit. As for the acquaintance which is to be sough^ in travel, that which is most of all profitable is acquaintance with the secretaries and em- ployed men of ambassadors ; for so in travel- ling in one country he shall suck the experi- ence of many : let him also see and visit emi- nent persons in all kinds which are of great name abroad, that he may be able to tell how the life agreeth with the fame ; for quarrels, they are with care and discretion to be avoid- ed ; they are commonly for mistresses, healths, place, and words : and let a man beware how he keepeth company with choleric and quarrel- some persons ; for they will engage him into their own quarrels. When a traveller return- eth home, let him not leave the countries where he hath travelled altogether behind him ; but maintain a correspondence by letters with those of his acquaintance which are of most worth ; and let his travel appear rather in his discourse, than in his apparel or gesture ; and in his discourse let him be rather advised in his answers, than forward to tell stories :

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and let it appear that he doth not change his country manners for those of foreign parts; but only prick in some flowers of that he hath learned abroad into the customs of his own eountrv.

OF EMPIRE.

It is a miserable state of mind to have fev/ things to desire, and many things to fear; and yet that commonly is the case of kings, who being at the highest, want matter of desire, which makes their minds more languishing ; and have many representations of perils and shadows, which make their minds the less clear : and this is one reason also of that ef- fect which the scripture speaketh of, " That " the king's heart is inscrutable;" for multi- tude of jealousies, and lack of some predomi- nant desire, that should marshal and put in order all the rest, maketh any man's heart hard to find or sound. Hence it comes like- wise, that princes many times make them- selves desires, and set their hearts upon toys; sometimes upon a building; sometimes upo.9

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erecting of an order; sometimes upon the ad- vancing of a person ; sometimes upon obtain- ing excellency in some art, or feat of the hand ; as Nero for playing on the harp ; Domitian for certainty of the hand with the arrow; Commodus for playing at fence ; Caracalla for driving chariots, and the like. This seemeth incredible unto those that know not the prin- ciple, that the mind of man is more cheered and refreshed by profiting in small things, than by standing at a stay in great. We see also that kings that have been fortunate con- querors in their first years, it being not possible for them to go forward infinitely, but that they must have some check or arrest in their fortunes, turn in their latter years to be su- perstitious and melancholy ; as did Alexander the Great, Dioclesian, and in our memory Charles the Fifth, and others ; for he that is used to go forward, and findeth a stop, falleth out of his own favour, and is not the thing he was.

To speak now of the true temper of em- pire, it is a thing rare and hard to keep ; for both temper and distemper consist of con- traries : but it is one thing to mingle con-

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traries, another to intercliauge them. The an- swer of Apollonius to Vespasian is full of excel- lent instruction. Vespasian asked him,\vhat was Nero's overthrow ? he answered, Nero could touch and tune the harp well, but in govern- ment sometimes he used to wind the pius too high, sometimes to let them down too low ; and certain it is, that nothing destroyeth au- thority so much as the unequal and untimely interchange of power pressed too far, and re- relaxed too much.

This is true, that the wisdom of all these latter times in princes' affairs, is rather fine deliveries, and shiftings of dangers and mis- chiefs, when they are near, than solid and grounded courses to keep them aloof: but this is but to try masteries w^ith fortune ; and let men beware how they neglect and suffer matter of trouble to be prepared ; for no man can forbid the spark, nor tell whence it may come. The ditficulties in princes' busi- ness are many and great ; but the greatest difficulty is often in their own mind ; for it is common with princes, (saith Tacitus,) to will contradictories ; *^ Sunt plerumque regum vo- *^ luntates vehementes^ et inter se gontrariiie ;'*

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for it is the solecism of power to think to command the end, and yet not to endure the means.

Kings have to deal with their neighbours, their waives, their children, their prelates or clergy, their nobles, their second nobles or gentlemen, their merchants, their commons, and their men of war ; and from all these arise dangers, if care and circumspection be not used.

First, for their neighbours there can no general rule be given, (the occasions are so variable,) save one which ever holdeth ; which is, that princes do keep due centinel, that none of their neighbours do overgrow so, (by in- crease of territory, by embracing of trade, by approaches, or the like,) as they become more able to annoy them than they were ; and this is generally the work of standing counsels to foresee and to liinder it. During that trium- virate of kings, king Henry the eighth of Eng- land, Francis the first, king of France, and Charles the fifth emperor, there was such a. watch kept that none of the three could win a palm of ground, but the other two would straighways balance it, either by confederation.

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or, if need were, by a war ; and would not in any wise take up peace at interest : and the like was done by that league, (which, Guicciardine saith, was the security of Italy,) made between Ferdinando, king of Naples, Lorenzius Medices, and Ludovicus Sforsa, po- tentates, the one of Florence, the other of Milan. Neither is the opinion of some of the schoolmen to be received, that a war cannot justly be made, but upon a precedent injury or provocation ; for there is no question, but a just fear of an iminent danger, though there be no blow given, is a lawful cause of a war.

For their wives, there are cruel examples of them. Livia is infamed for the poiscnii2g of her husband ; Roxolana, Solyman's v\ ife, was the destruction of that renowned prince. Sultan Mustapha, and otherwise troubled his house and succession ; Edward the second of Eng- land's queen had the principal band in the deposing and murder of her husband. This kind of danger is then to be feared chiefly when the wives have plots for the raising of their own children, or else that they be advou- tresses.

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For their children, the tragedies likewise of dangers from them have been many ; and ge- nerally the entering of the fathers into suspicion of their children hath been ever unfortunate. The destruction of Mustapha, (that we named before,) was so fatal to Solyman's line, as the succession of the Turks from Solyman until this day is suspected to be untrue, and of strange blood; for that Selymus the second was thought to be suppositious. The destruction of Cris- pus, a young prince of rare towardness, by Constantinus the Great, his father, was in like manner fatal to his house, for both Constantinus and Constance, his sons, died violent deaths; and Constantius, his other son, did little better, who died indeed of sickness, but after that Julianus had taken arras against him. The destruction of Demetrius, son to Philip the se- cond of Macedon, turned upon the father, who died of repentance : and many like examples there are, but few or none where the fathers had good by such distrust, except it were where the sons were up in open arms against them ; as was Selymus the first against Bajaz- et, and the three sons of Henry the second liing of England.

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For their prelates, when they are proud and great there is also danger from thtm ; as it was in the times of Anselmus and Thomas Beckett, archbishops of Canterbur}', who with their cro- siers did almost try it with the king's i?word; and yet they had toMeal with stout and haughty kings, William Rufus, Henry the first, and Henry the second. The danger is not from that state, but where it hath a dependence of foreign authority ; or where the churchmen come in, and are elected, not by the collation of the king, or particular patrons, but by the people.

For their nobles, to keep them at a distance it is not amiss ; but to depress them may make a king more absolute, but less safe, and less able to perform any thing that he desires. I have noted it in my history of king Henry the seventh of England, who depressed his nobility, whereupon it came to pass that his times were full of difficulties and troubles ; for the nobility, though they continued loyal unto him, yet did they not co-operate with him in his business; so that in effect he was fain to do all things himself.

For their second nobles, there is not much

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danger from them, being a body dispersed ; the}^ may sometimes discourse high, but that doth Httle hurt ; besides, they are a counter- poise to the higher nobihty, that they grow not too potent ; a)id, lastly, being the most immediate in authority with the common people, they do best temper popular commo- tions.

For their merchants, they are ^* vena porta ;^^ and if they flourish not, a kingdom may have good limbs, but will have empty veins, and nourish little. Taxes and imposts upon them do seldom good to the king's revenue, for that which he wins in the hundred, he loseth in the shire ; the particular rates being increased, but the total bulk of trading rather decreased.

For their commons, there is little danger from them, except it be where they have great and potent heads ; or where you meddle with the point of religion, or their customs, or means of life.

For their men of war, it is a dangerous state where they live and remain in a body, and are used to donatives, whereof we see examples in the janizaries and pretorian bands of Rome ; but trainings of men, and arming them in several

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jftlaces, and under several commanders, and without donatives, are things of defence and no danger.

Princes are like to heavenly bodies, which cause good or evil times ; and which have much veneration, but no rest. All precepts concerning kings are in effect comprehended in those two remembrances, " memento quod es " homo ;" and " memento quod es Deus, or *< vice Dei ;" the one bridleth their power, and '-.he other their will.

OF COUNSEL.

The greatest trust between man and man is the trust of giving counsel ; for in other con- fidences men commit the parts of life, their lands, their goods, their children, their credit, some particular affair ; but to such as they make their counsellors they commit the whole : by how much the more they are obliged to ail faith and integrity. The wisest princes need not think it any diminution to their greatness, or derogation to their sufficiency, to rely up- on counsel. God himself is not without, but

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hath made it one of the great names of hk blessed Son, " The Comisellor." Solomon hath pronounced that, " in counsel is stabili- *^ ty." Things will have their first or second agitation : if they be not tossed upon the ar- guments of counsel, they will be tossed upon the waves of fortune ; and be full of incon- stancy, doing and undoing, like the reeling of a drunken man. Solomon's son found the force of counsel,, as his father saw the neces- sity of it ; for the beloved kingdom of God was first rent and broken by ill counsel ; upon which counsel they are set for our instruction the two marks whereby bad counsel is for- ever best discerned, that it w^as young counsel for the persons, and violent counsel for the matter.

The ancient times do set forth in figure both the incorporation and inseparable con- junction of counsel with kings, and the wise and politic use of counsel by kings: the one, in that they say Jupiter did marry Metis, which signifieth counsel ; whereby they in- tend that sovereignty is married to counsel ; the other in that which foUoweth, which was thus : they say, after Jupiter was married to K 2

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Metis, she conceived by him and was with child, but Jupiter suffered her not to stay till she brought forth, but eat her up ; whereby he became himself with child, and was delivered of Pallas armed out of his head. Which mon- strous fable containeth a secret of empire, how kings are to make use cf their council of state : that first, they ought to refer matters unto them, which is the first begetting or impregna- tion ; but when they are elaborate, moulded, and shaped in the womb of their council, and grow ripe and ready to be brought forth, that then they suffer not their council to go through with the resolution and direction, as if it de- pended on them ; but take the matter back into their own hand?, and make it appear to the world, that the decrees and final directions, (which, because they come forth with prudence and power, are resembled to Pallas armed,) proceeded from themselves ; and not only from their authority, but, (the more to add repu- tation to themselves,) from their head and de- vice.

Let us now speak of the inconveniences of counsel, and of the remedies. The incon- veniences that have been noted in calling and

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using counsel, are three : first, the reveahng of affairs, whereby they become less secret : se- condly, the weakening of the aiithorit}' of prin- ces, as if they were less of themselves : third- ly, the danger of being unfaithfully counselled, and more for the good of them that counsel, than of him that is counselled ; for which in- conveniences, the doctrine of Italy, and prac- tice of France in some kings times, hath intro- duced cabinet councils ; a remedy worse than the disease.

As to secrecy, princes are not bound to communicate all matters with all counsellors, but may extract and select ; neither is it neces- sary, that he that consulteth what he should do, should declare what he will do ; but let princes beware that the imsecreting of their affairs comes not from themselves : and, as for cabinet councils, it may be their motto, *^ plenus rimarum sum :" one futile person, that maketh it his glory to tell, will do more hurt than many, that know it their duty to con- ceal. It is true there be some affairs which require extreme secrecy, w^hich will hardly go beyond one or two persons beside the king : neither are those counsels unprosperous ; for.

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besides the secrecy, ihey commonly go on con- stantly in one spirit of direction without dis- traction : but then it must be a prudent king, such as is able to grind with a hand-mill : and those inw^ard counsellors had need also be wise men, and especially true and trusty to the king's ends ; as it was with king Henry the seventh of England, who in his greatest business imparted himself to none,excepr it were to Morton and Fox.

For w^eakness of authority the fable shewv eth the remedy : nay, the majesty of kings is rather exalted than diminished when they are in the chair of council ; neither w^as there ever prince bereaved of his dependences by his coun- cil, except where ther« hath been either an over-greatness in one counsellor, or an over- strict combination in divers, which are things soon found and holpen.

For the last inconvenience, that men wiH counsel with an eye to themselves ; certainly, " non inveniet fidem super terram," is meant of the nature of times, and not of all particular persons. There be that are in nature faithful and sincere, and plain and direct, not crafty and involved : let princes above all, draw to

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themselves such natures. Besides, counsellors are not cotnmonly so united, but that one counsellor keepeth centinel over another ; so that if any counsel out of faction or private ends, it commonly comes to the king's ear : but the best remedy is, if princis know tieir counsellor^;, as well as their counsellors know them ;

" Principis est virtus maxima nos^e suos."

And on the other side, counsellors should not be too speculative into their sovereign's person. The true composition of a counsellor is, rather to be skilful in their master's business, than in his nature ; for then he is like to advise him, and not to feed his humour. It is of singular use to princes if they take the opinions of their council both separately and together ; for pri- vate opinion is more free, but opinion before others is more reverend. In private men are more bold in their own humours, and in con- sort men are more obnoxious to others hu- mours, therefore it is good to take both ; and of the inferior sort, rather in private, to pre- serve freedom ; of the greater, rather in con- sort, to preserve respect, It is m vain for prin-

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ces to take counsel concerning matters, if thej taki- no counsel likewi-se concerning persons; for all matters are as dead images ; and the life of the execution of afTairs resteth in the good choice of persons : neither is it enough to consult concerning persons, ** secundum gen- " era," as in an idea or mathematical descrip- tion, what the kind and character of the person should be ; for the greatest errors are commit- ted, and the most judgment is shewn, in the choice of individuals. It was truly said, " op- " timi consiliarii mortui ;" ** books will speak ^' plain when counsellors blanch ;" therefore it is good to be conversant in them, especially the books of such as themselves have been ac- tors upon the stage.

The councils at this day in most places are but familiar meetings, where matters are rar ther talked on than debated ; and they run too swift to the order or act of council. It were better that in causes of weight the mat- ter were propounded one day and not spoken to till the next day ; " in nocte consilium :" so w^as it done in the commission of union between England and Scotland, w^iich was a grave and orderly assenat>ly, I commend

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set days for petitions ; for both it gives the suitors more ceitainty f»)r their attendance, and it frees the meetings for matters of estate, that they may ^* hoc agere." In choice of committees for ripening business for the coun- cil, it is better to choose indiiferent persons, than to make an indifferency by putting in those that are strong on both sides. I com- mend also standing commissions; as for trade, for treasure, for war, for suits, for some pro- vinces ; for where there be divers particular councils, and but one council of estate, (as it is in Spain,) they are, in effect, no more than standing commissions, save that they have greater authority. Let such as are to hiform councils out of their particular professions, (as lawyers, seamen, mintmen, and the like,) be first heard before committees ; and then, as occasion serves, before the council ; and let them not come in multitudes, or in a tribu- nitious manner ; for that is to clamour coun- cils, not to inform them. A long table and a square table, or seats about the walls, seem things of form, but are things of substance ; for at a long table a few at the upper end, in effect, sway all the business ; but in the other

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form there is more use of the counsellors' opinions thai sit lower. A kiiig, wLen he presides in council, let him beware how he opens his own inchnation too much in that which he propoundeth ; for else counsellors will but take the wind of him, and instead of giving free council, will sing him a song of *'* placebo."

OF DELAYS.

Fortune is like the market, where many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall ; and again, it is sometimes like Sibylla's offer, which at first offereth the commodity at full, then consumeth part and part, and still holdeth up the price ; for occasion, (as it is in the common verse,) turnetli a bald noddle after she hath presented her locks in front, and no hold taken ; or, at least, turneth the handle of the bottle first to be received, and after the belly, w^hich is hard to clasp. There is surely no greater wisdom than well to time the be- ginnings and onsets of things. Dangers are no more light, if they once seem light ; and more

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dangers have deceived men than forced them : nay, it were better to meet some dangers hali way, though they come nothing near, than to keep too long a watch upon their approaches ; for if a man watch too long, it is odds he will fall aleep. On the other side, to be deceived with too long shadows, (as some have been when the moon was low and shone on their enemies back,) and so to shoot off before the time ; or to teach dangers to come on by over= early buckling towards them, is another ex- treme. The ripeness or unripeness of the oc- casion, (as we said,) must ever be well weigh- bd ; and generally it is good to commit the beginnings of all great actions to Argos with his hundred eyes, and the ends to Briareus whh his hundred hands ; first to watch, and then to speed : for the helmet of Pluto, which mak- €th the politic man go invisible, is secrecy in the council, and celerity in the execution ; for when things are once come to the execution, there is no secrecy comparable to celerity ; like the motion of a bullet in the air, which flieth so swift as it outruns the eye.

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OF CUNNING.

We take cunning for a sinister or crooked wis- dom ; and, certainly, there is a great differ- ence between a cunning man and a wise man, not only in point of honesty, but in point of ability. There be that can pack the cards, and yet cannot play w^ell ; so there are some that are good in canvasses and factions, that are otherwise weak men. Again, it is one thing to understand persons, and another thing to understand matters ; for many are perfect in men's humours that are not greatly capable of the real part of business, which is the constitu- tion of one that hath studied men more than books. Such men are fitter for practice than for counsel, and they are good but in their ow]i alley : turn them to new men, and they have lost their aim ; so as the old rule to know a fool from a wise man, " Mitte ambos nudos ad " ignotos, et videbis," doth scarce hold for them ; and, because these cunning men are like haberdashers of small wares, it is not amiss to set forth their shop.

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It is a point of cunning to wait upon hira with whom you speak with your eye, as the Jesuits give it in precept; for there be many wise men that have secret hearts and trans- parent countenances : yet this would be done with a demure abasing of your eye sometimes^ as the Jesuits also do use*

Another is, that when you have any thing to obtain of present despatch, you entertain and amuse the party with whom you deal with some other discourse, that he be not too much awake to make objections. I knew a coun- sellor and secretary that never came to queen Elizabeth of England with bills to sign, but he would always first put her into some dis- course of estate, that she might the less mind the bills.

The hke surprise may be made by moving- things when the party is in haste, and cannot stay to consider advisedly of that is moved.

If a man would cross a business that he doubts some other would handsomel}^ and ef- fectually move, let him pretend to wi.<h it well, and move it himself in such sort as may foil it.

The breaking off in the midst of that one

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was about to say, as if he took himself up, breeds a greater appetite in him, with whom you confer, to know more.

And because it works better when any thing seemeth to be gotten from you by question, than if you offer it of yourself, you may lay a bait for a question by shewing another visage and countenance than you are w^ont ; to the end, to give occasion for the party to ask what the matter is of the change, as Nehemiah did, •* And I had not before that time been sad be- ** fore the king."

In things that arc tender and unpleasing it is good to break the ice by some whose words are of less weight, and to reserve the more weighty voice to come In as by chance, so that he may be asked the question upon the other^« speech ; as Narcissus did in relating to Claudius the marriage of Messalina and Silius.

In things that a man would not be seen in himself, it is a point of cunning to borrow the name of the world ; as to say, ^^ The world says," or, ^* There is a speech abroad."

I knew one that, when he wrote a letter, he .vould put that w^hich w^as most material iii the postscriDt, as if it had been a bve matter.

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1 knew another that, when he came to have speech, he would pass over that that he in- tended most ; and go forth, and come back again, and speak of it as of a thing that he had almost forgot.

Some procure themselves to be surprised at such times as it is like the party, that they work upon, will suddenly come upon them, .and be found with a letter in their hand, or doing somew^hat which they are not accustom- ed, to the end they may be apposed of those things which of themselves they are desirous . to utter.

It is a point of cunning to let fall those words in a man's own name which he would have another man learn and use, and there- 'upon take advantage. I knew two that were competitors for the secretary's place in queen Elizabeth's time, and yet kept good quarter between themselves, and would confer one with another upon the business ; and the one of them said, that to be a secretary in the de- clination of a monarchy was a ticklish thing, and that he did not affect it : the other straight caught up those words, and discoursed with divers of his friends, that he had no reason to l2

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desire to be secretary in the declining of e monarchy. The first man took hold of it, and found means it was told the queen ; who, hear- ing of a declination of a monarchy, took it so ill, as she would never after hear of the other's suit.

There is a cunning which we in England call " The turning of the cat in the pan ;'» which is, when that which a man says to an- other, he lays it as if another had said it to him ; and to say truth, it is not easy, when such a matter passed between two, to make it appear from which of them it first moved and began.

It is a way that some men have to glance and dart at othess by justifying themselves by negatives ; as to say, " This I do not ;" as Tigellinus did towards Burrhus, " se non di- ^* versas spes, sed incolumitatem imperatoris ^^ simpliciter spectare."

Some have in readiness so many tales and itories, as there is nothing they would insinu- ate, but they can wrap it into a tale ; which serveth both to keep themselves more on guard, and to make others carry it with more plea- sure.

It is a good point of cunning for a man Xp

10'^

sliape the answer he would have in his owii words and propositions ; for it makes the other party stick the less.

It is strange how long some men will lie in wait to speak somewhat they desire to say ; and how far about they will fetch, and how many other matters they will beat over to come near it : it is a thing of great patience, but yet of much use,

A sudden, bold, and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man, and la}^ him open. Like to him, that, having changed his name, and walking in Paul's, another sudden- ly came behind him and called him by his true name, whereat straightways he looked back.

But these small wares and petty points of cunning are infinite, and it were a good deed to make a hst of them ; for that nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.

But certainly some there are that know the resorts and falls of business, that cannot sink into the main of it ; like a house that hath convenient stairs and entries, but never a fair room : therefore you shall see them find out pretty looses in the conclusion, but are no ways

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able to examine or debate matfers : and j'et commonly they take advantage of tiieir inabil- ity, and would be thought wits of direction. Some build rather upon the abusing of others, and, (as we now say,) putting tricks upon them, than upon the soundness of their own proceedings : but Solomon saith, " Prudens ad- " vertit ad gressus suos : stuitus divertit ad " dolos."

OF WISDOM FOR A MAN'S SELF.

An ant is a wise creature for itself, but it is a shrewd thing in an orchard or garden; and, certainly, men that are great lovers of them- selves waste the public. Divide with reason between self-love and society ; and be so true to thyself, as thou be not false to others, espe- oially to thy king and country. It is a poor centre of man's actions, himself. It is right earth ; for that only stands fast upon his own centre ; w^hereas all things that have affinity with the heavens, move upon the centre of another which they benefit. The referring of

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all to a man's self, is more tolerable in a sove- reign prince, because themselves are not only themselves, but their good and evil is at the peril of the public fortune : but it is a despe- rate evil in a servant to a prince, or a citizen in a republic ; for whatsoever affairs pass suck a man's hands, he crooketh them to his own ends; which must needs be often eccentric to the ends of his master or state : therefore let princes or states choose such servants as have not this mark ; except they mean their service should be made but the accessary. That which maketh the effect more pernicious is, that al! proportion is lost ; it were disproportion enough for the servant's good, to be preferred before the master's ; but yet it is a greater extreme, when a little good of the servant shall carry things against the great good of the m^aster's : and yet that is the case of bad officers, trea- surers, ambassadors, generals, and other false and corrupt servants ; which set a bias upon their bowl of their own petty ends and envies, to the overthrow of their masters great and important affairs : and for the most part, the good such servants receive is after the model of thfiir own fortiuie ; but the hurt thev sell

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for ihat good is after the model of their maa- ters fortune : and certainly it is the nature of extreme self-lover?, as they ^^■ill set an house on fire, and it were but to roast their eggs ; and yet these men many times hold credit with their masters, because their study is but to please them, and profit themselves; and for either respect they will abandon the good of their affairs.

Wisdom for a man's self is in many branches thereof a depraved thing : it is the wisdom of rats, that will be sure to leave a house some- time before it fall : it is the wisdom of the fox, that thrusts out the badger, who digged and made room for him : it is the wisdom of croco- diles, that shed tears when they would devour. But that which is specially to be noted is, that those which, (as Cicero says of Pompey,) are, " sui amantes sine rivali," are many times un^ fortunate : and w-hereas they have all their time sacrificed to themselves, they become in the end themselves sacrifices to the inconstancy of fortune, whose wings they thought by the^ self-wisdom to have pinioned.

1«

OF INNOVATIONS.

As the births of living creatures a^ first are ill shapen, so are all innovations, which are the births of time ; yet, notwithstanding, as those that first bring honour into their family are commonly more worthy than most that suc- ceed, so the first precedent, (if it be good,) is seldom attained by immitation ; for ill, to man's nature as it stands perverted, hath a natural motion strongest in continuance ; but good, as a forced motion, strongest at first. Surely every medicine is an innovation, and he that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator; and if time of course alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end ? It is true, that what is settled by custom, though it be not good, yet at least it is fit : and those things which have long gone together, are, as it were, con- federate within themselves ; whereas new things piece not so well ; but, though they help by their utility, yet they trouble by their incon- formity : besides, they are like strangers, more

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admired, and Ics? favoured. All this is true if time stood still ; which contrariwise movcth so round, that a froward retention of custom is as turbulent a thing as an innovation ; and they that reverence too much old times are but a scorn to the new. It were good, therefore, that men in their innovations would follow the ex- ample of time itself, which indeed innovateth greatly, but quietly and by degrees scarce to be perceived ; for otherwise, whatsoever is new is unlooked for ; and ever it mends some, and pairs others : and he that is holpen takes it for a fortune, and thanks the time ; and he that is hurt for a wrong, and imputeth it to the author. It is good ali^o not to try experiments in states, except the necessity be urgent, or the utility evident ; and v.'ell to beware that it be the re- formation that draweth on the change, and not the desire of change that pretendeth the refor- mation ; and, lastly, that the novelty, though it be not rejected, yet be held for a suspect ; and, as the scripture saith, " That we make a " stand upon the ancient way, and then look «f about us, and discover what is the straight ^< and right way, and so to walk in it,"

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OF DISPATCH,

Affected dispatch is one of the most danger- ous things to business that can be : it is hke that which the physicians call predigestion, or -hasty digestion; which is sure to fill the body full of crudities, and secret seeds of diseases : therefore measure not dispatch by the times of sitting-, but by the advancment of the business : and as, in races^ it is not the large stride, or high lift, that makes the speed ; so, in business^ the keeping close to the matter, and not taking of it too much at once, procure th dispatch. It is the care of some only to come off speedly for the time, or to contrive some false periods of business, because they may seem men of dis- patch : but it is one thing to abbreviate by con- tracting, another by cutting off; and business so handled at several sittings or meetings goeth commonly backward and forward in an un- steady manner. I knew a wise man that had it for a by-word, when he saw men hasten to a eonclusioi), " Stay a little, that we may make ^^ an end the sooner,'' M

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On the other side, true despatch is a rich thing ; for time is the measure of business, as money is of wares ; and business is bought at a dear hand where there is small dispatch. The Spartans and Spaniards have been noted to be of small despatch, " Mi vcnga la muerte de " Spagna ;" '*Let my death come from Spain ;" for then it will be sure to be long in coming.

Give good hearing to those that give the first information in business, and rather direct them in the beginning, than interrupt them in the continuance of their speeches ; for he that is put out of his own order will go forward and back- ward, and be more tedious while he waits upon his memory, than he could have been if he had gone on in his own course : but sometimes it is seen, that the moderator is more troublesome than the actor.

Iterations are commonly loss of time : but there is no such gain of time as to iterate often the state of the question ; for it chaseth away many a frivolous speech as it is coming forth. Long and curious speeches are as fit for despatch as a robe or mantle with a long train is for a race. Prefaces, and passages, and excusa- tions, and other speeches of reference to the

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person are great wastes of time ; and though they seem to proceed of modesty, they are bravery. Yet beware of being too material when there is any impediment or obstruction in men's wills; for preoccupation of mind ever requireth preface of speech, like a fomentation to make the unguent enter.

Above all things^-order, and distribution, and singling out of parts is the life of dispatch ; so as the distribution be not too subtile : for he that doth not divide will never enter well into business; and he that divideth too much will never come out of it clearly. To clioose time io to save time ; and an unreasonable motion is but beating the air. There be three parts of business, the preparation, the debate or exam- ination, and the perfection ; whereof, if you look for dispatch, let the middle only be the work of many, and the first and last the work of few\ The proceeding upon somewhat con- ceived in writing doth for the most part facili- tate dispatch : for though it should be w^holly rejected, yet that negative is more pregnant of direction than an indefinite, as ashes are more generative than dust.

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OF SEEMING WISE.

It hath been an ophiion that the French are wiser than the}^ seem, and the iSpaniards seem wiser than they are : but hoN^'Soever it be be- tween nations, certainly it is so between man and man ; for as the apos-tle saith of godhness, " Having a shew of godhness, but denying the powder thereof;" so certainly there are in points of wisdom and sufficienc}^, that do nothing or little very solemnly : ^^ magno conatu nugas." It is a ridiculous thing, and fit for a satire to persons of judgment^ to see what shift these formalists have, and what prospectives to make superficies to seem body that hath depth and bulk. Some are so close and reserved as they will not shew tlieir wares but by a dark light, and seem alwajs to keep back somewhat ; and when they know within themselves that they speak of that they do not well know^ would nevertheless seem to others to know of that of which they may not well speak. Some help themselves with countenance and ges*. ture, and are wise by signs; as Cicero saith of

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Pisoj that when he answered him, he fetched one of his brows up to his forehead, and bent the other down to his chin ; " respondes, alte- *"* ro ad frontenf sublato^ altero ad mentum de- ^' presso superciiio, crudeUtatem tibi non place- ^^ re. Some think to bear- it by speaking a great word, and being peremptory ; and go on, and take by admittance that which they can- not make good. Some, whatsoever is beyond their reach, will seem to despise or make hght of it as impertinent or curious; and so would have their ignorance seem judgment. Some are never without a difference, and common- ly by amusing men with a subtilty, blanch the matter ; of whom A. Gellius saith, " hominem •* delirum, qui verborum minutiis rerum frangit ** pondera." Of which kind also Plato in his Protagoras bringeth in Prodicus in scorn, and maketh him make a speech tha.t consisteth of distinctions from the beginning to the end. Generally such men in all deliberations find ease to be of the negative side, and affect a credit to object, and foretell difficulties ; for when propositions are denied, there is an end of them ; but if they be allowed, it requireth a new work ; which false point of wisdom is the M 2

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bane of bui;ine?s. To conclude, there is nc- decaying merchant, or inward beggar, hath so many tricks to uphold the credit of then' wealth as these empty persons have to main- tain the credit of their sufficiency. Seem- ing wise men may make shift to get opin- ion ; but let no man choose them for em- ployment ; for, certainly, you were better take for business a man somewhat absurd, than over-formal.

OF FRIENDSHIP,

It had been hard for him that spake it, to bave put more truth and untruth together in few words, tlian in that speech, " Whosoev- ^' er is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast " or a god ;'^ for it is most true, that a natural and secret hatred and aversation towards soci- ety in any man, hath somewhat of the savage beast ; but it is most untrue, that it should have any character at all of the divine nature, ex- cept it proceed, not out of a pleasure in soli- tude, but out of a love and desire to sequester ^ man's self for a higher conversation : sugh as-

rsi-

13 found to have been falsely and feignedly In some of the heathen ; as Epimenides the Can- dian, Numa the Roman, Empedocles the Sici- lian, and Apollonius of Tyana ; and truly and really in divers of the ancient hermits, and holy fathers of the church. But little do men per- ceive what solitude is, and how far it extend° eth ; for a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal where there is no love. The Latin adage meeteth with it a little ; *^ magna " civitas, magna solitudo ;" because in a great town friends are scattered, so that there is not that fellowship, for the most part, which is in less neighbourhoods : but we may go farther, and affirm mcrst trul}', that it is a mere and miserable solitude to want true friends, without which tlie world is but a wilderness ; and even in this sense also of solitude, whosoever in the frame of his nature and affections is unfit for friendship, he taketh it of the beast, and not from humanity.

A principal fruit of friendship is the ease and. discharge uf the fulness of the heart, which passions of ail kinds do cause and induce. We l£now diseases of stoppings and suffocations

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are the most dangerous in the body ; and it is- not much -otherwise in the mind : you may take sarza to open the Hver, steel to open the spleen, flower of sulphur for the lungs, cas- toreum for the brain ; but no receipt openeth the heart but a true friend, to whom you may impart griefij, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, counsels, and whatsoever lieth upon the heart to oppress it, in a kind of civil shrift or con- fession.

It is a strange thing to observe how high a rate great kings and monarchs do set upon this fruit of friendship whereof we speak: so great as they purchase it many times at the hazard of their own safety and greatness : for princes, in regard of the distance of their for- tune from that of their subjects and servants, cannot gather this fruit, except, (to make themselves capable thereof,) they raise some persons to be as it were companions and al- most equals to themselves^ which many times sorteth to inconvenience. The modern lan> guages give unto such persons the name of fa- vourites, or privadoes, as if it were matter of grace or conversation ; but the Roman name attaineth the true use and cause thereof, nani-

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iiig them ^^ participes curarum ;" for it is that which tieth the knot : and we see plainly that this hath been doae, not b}' weak and passion- ate princes only, but by tlie wisest and most politic that ever reigned, who have oftentimes joined to themselves some of their servants, whom both themselves have called friends, and allowed others likewise to call them in the same manner, using the word which is receis''- ed between private men.

L. Sylla, when he commanded Rome, raised Pompey, (after surnamed the great,) to that heigiit tiiat Pompey vaunted himself for Syl- ia's over-match; for when he had carried the consulship for a friend of his against the pur^ suit of Sylla, and that Sylla did a little resent thereat, and began to speak great, Pompey turned upon him again, and in effect bade him be quiet ; for that more men adored the sun rising than the sun setting. With Julius Ctcsar, Decimus Brutus had obtained that in- terest as he set him down in his testament for heir in remainder after his nephew ; and this was the man that had power with liim to draw him forth to his death ; for v^^hen Caesar would iiave discharged the senate in regard of sorrrc

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ill presages, and specially a dream of Calpur- Ilia, this man lifted him gently by the arm out of his chair, telling him he hoped he would not dismiss the senate till his wife had dreamed a better dream ; and it seemeth his favour was so great, as Antonius, in a letter which is reci- ted verbatim in one of Cicero's Philippics, call- ed him " venefica," " witch ;" as if he had enchanted Caesar. Augustus raised Agrippa, (though of mean birth,) to that height, as, when he consulted with Mecaenas about the mar- riage of his daughter Julia, Mecaenas look the liberty to tell him, that he must either marry his daughter to Agrippa, or take away his life ; there was no third way, he had made him so great. With Tiberius Cyesar Sejanus had ascended to that height as they two were termed and reckoned as a pair of friends. Tiberius, in a letter to him saith, " haec " pro amicitia nostra non occultavi ;" and the whole senate dedicated an altar to friendship, as to a goddess, in respect of tlie great dear- ness of friendship between them two. The like, or more, was between Septimius Severus and Plautianus ; for he forced his eldest son to marry the daughter of Plautianus, ajid

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Tvould often maintain Plautianus in doing af- fronts to his son : and did write also in a letter to the senate by these words, '^ I love the *^ man «o well, as I wish he may over-live me." Now, if these princes had been as a Trajan, or a Marcus Aureliiis, a man might have thought that this had proceeded of an abundant goodness of nature ; but being men so wise, of such strength and severity of mind, and so extreme lovers of themselves, as all these were, it proveth most plainly that they found their own felicity, (though as great as ever happened to mortal men,) but as an half piece, except they might have a friend to make it en- tire ; and yet, which is more, they w^ere prin- ces that had wives, sons, nephews; and yet all these could not supply the comfort of friendship.

It is not to be forgotten what Commineus observeth of his first master, duke Charles the Hardv, namely, that he would communicate his secrets with none ; and least of all, those secrets which troubled him most. Whereup- on he goeth on, and saith, that towards his latter time that closeness did impair and a lit- tle perish his understanding. Surely Co?b-

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iimieus might have made the same jndgmeiit also, if it bad pleased him, of his second master, Lewis, the eleventh, whose cloi^ejiCss was in^ deed his tormentor. The parable of ythagoras is dark, but true ; *' cor ne edito," " eat not the heart " Certainly, if a man would give it a hard phrase, those that want friends to open themselves unto, are cannibals of their own hearts : but one thing is most admirablc,(where- with I will conclude riiis first fruit of friendship,) which is, that this communicating of a man's self to his friend works two contrary effects, for it redoubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in lialfs ; for there is no man tiiat impartetli his joys to his friend, but he joyeth the more ; and no man that imparteth his griefs to his friend, but he grieveth the less. So t)iat, it is in truth^ of operation upon a man's mind of like virtue -as the alchymists use to attribute to their stone for man's body, that it worketh all contrary eitects, but stiil to the good and benefit of na- ture : but yet, without praying in aid of al- chyniists, there is a manifect image of this in the ordinary course of nature ; for in bodies imion strengtiieneth and clierishetfi any nat- ural action ; and^ on tiie other side^, weakenetb

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and dulleth any violent impression -; and eve^ so is it of minds.

The second fruit of friendship is healthful

and sovereign for the understanding as the

^rst is for the affections ; for friendship maketh

indeed a fair day in the affections from storm

and tempests, but it maketh daylight in the

Hinderstanding out of darkness and confusion

of thoughts : neither is this to be understood

only of faithful counsel, which a man receiveth

Trom his friend ; but before you come to that,

certain it is, that whosoever hath his mind

-fraught with many thoughts, his wits and un-

derstanding do clarify and break up in the

c^ommunicating and discoursing with another ;

he tosseth his thoughts more easily ; he mar-

shalleth them more orderly; he seeth how

they look when they are turned into words ;

finally, he waxeth wiser than himself; and

*that more by an hour's discourse than by a

day's meditation. It was well said by The-

mistocles to the King of Persia, " That speech

" was like cloth of Arras, opened and put

*' abroad :" whereby the imagery doth appear

in figure ; whereas in thoughts they lie but a?

-.in packs. Neither is this second fruit of friend-

N

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ship in opening the understanding, restrained only to such friends as are able to give a man counsel, (they indeed are best,) but even with- out that a man learneth of himself, and bringeth his own thoughts to light, and whetteth his wits as against a stone which itself cuts not. In a word, a man were better relate himself to a statue or picture, than to suffer his thoughts to pass in smother.

Add now, to make this second fruit of friendship complete, that other point which lieth more open and falleth within vulgar ob- servation ; which is faithful counsel from a friend. Heraclitus saith well in one of his enigmas, '^ Dry ligbt is ever the best," and certain it is, that the light that a man receiv- eth by counsel from another is drier and purer than that which conieth from his own under- standing and judgment ; which is ever infused and drenched in his affections and customs. So as there is as much difference between the counsel that a friend giveth, and that a man giveth himself, as there is between the counsel of a friend and of a flatterer ; for there is no such flatterer as is a man's self, and there is no •auch remedy against flattery of a man's self as

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the liberty of a friend. Counsel is of two sorts ;: the one concerning manners, the other con- cerning bus^iness : for the first, the best preser- vative to keep the mind in health is the faith- ful admonition of a friend. The calling of a man's self to a strict account is a medicine sometimes too piercing and corrosive ; read- ing good books of morality is a little flat and dead ; observing our faults in others is some- times improper for our case ; but the best re- ceipt, (best I say to work, and best to take,) is the admonition of a friend. It is a strange thing to beiiold what gross errors and extremie absurdities many, (especially of the greater sort,) do commit for want of a friend to tell them of them, to the great damage both of their fame and fortune ; for, as St. James saith, they are as men ^' that look sometimes into a " glass and presently forget their own shape '^ and favour ;" as for business, a man may think, if he will, that two eyes see no more than one ; or, that a gamester seeth al- ways more than a looker on ; or, that a man in anger is as wise as he that hath said over the four and twenty letters ; or, that a musket may be shot off as well upon the arm as upoa'

ISO

^rest; and such other fond and high imagma> tions to think himself all in all : but when all !3 done, the help of good counsel is that which- setteth business straight ; and if any man think that he will take counsel, but it shall be fey pieces ; asking counsel in one busi- ness of one man, and in another business of another man ; it is as well, (that is to say, better perhaps than if he asked none at all,) ?mt he runneth two dangers ; one, that he shall Bot be faithfully counselled ; for it is a rare thing, except it be from a perfect and entire friend, to have counsel given, but such as shall be bowed and crocked to some ends which he hath that giveth it : the other, that he shalL have counsel given, hurtful and unsafe, (though with good meaning,) and mix partly of mis- ohief and partly of remedy ; even as if yoit- would call a physician that is thought good for tlie cure of the disease you complain of, but is unacquainted with your body ; and, therefore, may put you in a way for present cure, but overthroweth your health in some other kind, and so cure the disease and kill the patient : but. a friend that is wholly ac- -^^uainted with a . man's, estate^^ ^ will hewai"e_j , b.y^

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forthering any present busine^s;^ how he dash*- eth upon other inconvenience ; and, there- fore^ rest not upon scattered counsels ; for they will rather distract and mislead, than settle and direct.

After these two noble fruits of friendship^, (peace in the aifection?_, and support of the judgment;,) folioweth the last fruit, which is, like the pomegranate, full of many kernels ; I mean aid and bearing a part in all actions and occasions. Here the best way to represent to life the manifold use of friendship, is to cast and see how many things there are which a man cannot do himself; and then it will appear that it was a sparing speech of the ancients to 5ay, *^ that a friend is another him- ^'self ; for that a friend is far more than him- ^* self." Men. have their time, and die many times in desire of some things which they principally take to heart ; the bestowing of a child, the finishing of a work, or the like. If a man have a true friend he may rest almost secure that the care of those things will con- tinue after him ; so that a man hath, as it were, two lives in his desires, A man hath a body, and that body is confined to a olace ; but N 2

VST

where friendship is,, all offices oflife are, as if ■were, granted to him and his deputy; for he- may exercise them by his friend. How many/ things are there which a man cannot with, any face or comliness say or do himself? A man can scarce allege his own merits with modesty, much less extol them ; a man can- not sometimes brook to supplicate or beg ; and a number of the like : but all these things are graceful in a friend's mouth, which are blush- ing in a man's own. So again, a man's per- son hath many proper relations which he can- not put off. A man cannot speak to his son t)ut as a father ; to his wife but as a husband ; . to his enemy but upon terms; whereas a. friend may speak as the case requires, and not as it sorteth with the person ; but to enumer- ate these things were endless ; I have given the rule where a man cannot fitly play his own part^ if he have not a friend he may quit the stage.

13:

OF EXPENSE,

Riches are for spending, and spending for hc-- nour and good actions ; therefore extraordina- ry expense must be limited by the worth of the occasion : for voluntary undoing may be as well for a man's country as for the kingdom- of heaven ; but ordinary expense ought to be limited by a man's estate, and governed with such regard as it be witliin his compass ; and Bot subject to deceit and abuse of servants ; and ordered to the best shew, that the bills may be less than the estimation abroad. Certainly, if. a man will keep but of even hand, his ordi- nary expenses ought to be but to the half of" his receipts; and if he think to wax rich, but to the third part. It is no baseness for the greatest to descend and look into their own estate. Some forbear it, not upon negligence alone, but doubting to bring themselves into melancholy, in respect they shall find it broken: but wounds cannot be cured w^ithout search-- ing. He that cannot look into his own estate at all had need both choose well those whom, he employeth^ aud change them, often ; for-

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new are more timorous and less subtile. Ho that can loolf into his estate hut seldom, it be- hoveth him to turn all to certainties. A man had need, if he be plentiful in some kind of ex.- pense, to be as saving again in some other: as if he be plentiful in diet, to be saving in apr parel ; if he be plentiful in the hall, to be sav- ing in the stable, and the like : for he that is plentiful in expenses of all kinds will hardly be preserved from decay. In clearing of a man's estate he may as well hurt himself in being too sudden, as in letting it run on too long ; for hasty selling is commonly as disadvan- tageable as interest. Besides, he that clears at once will relapse ; for,, finding himself out of straits he will revert to his customs : but he that cleareth by degrees induceth a habit of frugality, and gaineth as well upon his mind as upon his estate. Certainly, who hath a state to repair may not despise small things; and, eommonly, it is less dishonorable to abridge petty charges than to stoop to petty getting?. A man ought warily to begin charges, which once begun will continue : but, in matters that return not he may be more magnificent.

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OF THE TRUE GREATNESS OF KING- DOMS AND ESTATES.

The speech of Themistocles the Athenian_3 which was haughty and arrogant in taking so much to himself, had been, a grave and wise ebservation and censure, applied at large to oth- eri\ Desired a^ a feast. to touch a lute, he said, he *^ could not fiddle, but yet he could, make a small town a great city." These words, (holpen a little with a metaphor,) may express two differing abilities in those that deal in business of estate ; for, if a true surveys be taken of counsellors and statesmen, there may be found, (though rarely,) those which can make a small state great, and yet cannot- fiddle : as, on the other side, there will be found a great many that can fiddle very cun- ningly, but yet are slo far from being able to make a small state great, as their gift lieth the other way ; to bring a great and flourishing es- tate to ruin and decay ; and, certainly, those degenerate arts and shifts, whereby many coun- sellors and governors gain both, favour with

138

their masters and estimation with the vulgar^, deserves no better name than fiddhng ; being things ratlier pleasing for the time, and grace- ful to themselves only, than tending to the weal and advancemeht of the state which they serve. There are also, (no doubt,) counsel- lors and governors which may be held suffi- cient, ^' negotiis pares," able to manage af- fairs, and to keep them from precipices and manifest inconveniences ; which, nevertheless, are far from the ability to raise and amplify an estate in power, means, and fortune : but be the workman what they may be, let us speak of the work; that is^^the the true greatness of kingdoms and estates ; and the means there- of. An argument lit for great and mighty princes to have in their hand ; to the end, that neither by over-measuring their forces they lose themselves in vain enterprizes ; nor, on the other side, b}'' undervaluing them they descend to fearful and pusillanimous counsels.

The greatness of an estate in bulk and ter- ritory doth fall under measure ; and the great- ness of finances and revenue doth fall under computation. The population may appear by musters ; and the number and greatness

137

ness of cities and towns by cards and maps ; but yet there is not any thing, aaiongst civil af- fairs, more subject to error than the right val- uation and true judgment concerning the povv* er and forces of an estate. The kingdom of heaven is compared, not to any great kernel or nut, but to a grain of mustard seed; which is one of the least grains, but hath in it a prop- erty and spirit hastily to get up and spread. So are there states great in territory', and yet not apt to enlarge or command ; and some that have but a small dimension of stem, and yet are apt to be the foundation of great mon- archies.

Walled towns, stored arsenals and armories, goodly races of horse, chariots of war, ele- phants, ordnance, artillery, and the like ; all thi.s it but a sheep in a lion's skin, except the breed and disposition of the people be stout and warlike. Nay, number (itself) in armies, im- porteth not much, where the people is of weak courage ; for, as Virgil saith, " It never trou^ ■" bles the wolf how many the sheep be." The army of the Persians, in the plains of Arbela, was such a vast sea of people as it did some- what astonish the commanders in Alexander's

. . 138

'larmy, who came to him therefore, and wish- ed him to set upon them by night ; but he an- >swered, he would not pilfer the victory ; and the defeat was easy. When Tigranes the Ar» menian, being encamped upon a hill with four hundred thousand men, discovered tlie army of the Romans, being not above fourteen thou- sand marching to^vards him, he made him- self merry with it and said, *' Yonder men ^' are too many for an ambassage, and too few '^ for a fight :" but before the sun set he found them enow to give them hmi the chase with infinite slaughter. Many are the examples of the great odds between number and courage: so that a man may trul}' m.ake a judgment, that the principal point of greatness in any state is to have a race of military men. Nei- ther is money the sinews of war, (as it is triv- ially said,) where the sinews of men's arms in base and effeminate people are failing; for Solon said well to Croesus, (when in osten- tation he showed him liis gold,) ^' Sir, if any «f other come that hath better iron than j^ou, ^f he will be master of all this gold." There- fore let any prince or state think soberly of his forces, except his militia of natives be of good

^ 139

and valiant soldiers ; and let princes, on the oih erside, that have subjects of martial disposition, know their own strength, unless they be other- wise wanting unto themselves. As for mer- cenary forces, (which is the help in this case,) all examples shew that, whatsoever estate or prince doth rest upon them, he may spread his feathers for a time, but he will mew them soon after.

The blessing of Judas and Issachar will nev- er meet ; that the same people or nation should be both the Hon's whelp, and the ass between burdens : neither will it be, that a people overlaid with taxes should ever become valiant and martial. h is true that taxes, levied by consent of the estate, do abate men^s courage less ; as it hath been seen notably in the exercises of the Low countries j and, in som.e degree, in the subsidies of England ; for you must note that we speak now of the heart, and not of the purse ; so that, although the same tribute and tax, laid by consent or by imposing, be all one to the purse, yet it works diversely upon the courage. So that you may conclude, tliat no people overcharged with tribute is fit for empire. o

140

Let states that aim at greatness take heed how their nobihty and gentlemen multiply too fast ; for that maketh the common subject grow to be a peasant and base swine, driven out of heart, and, in effect, but a gentleman's labourer. Even as you may see in coppice woods ; if you leave your straddles too thick, you shall never have clean underwood, but shrubs and bushes. So in countries, if the gentlemen be too many, the commons will be base ; and you will bring it to that, that not the hundredth poll will be fit for an helmet ; especially as to the infantry, which is the nerve of an army : and so there will be great popu- lation and little strength. This which I speak of hath been no where better seen than by comparing of England and France ; whereof England, though far less in territory and pop- ulation, hath been (nevertheless,) an over- match; in regard the middle people of Eng- land make good soldiers, which the peasants of France do not ; and herein the device of king Henry the seventh, (whereof I have spo- ken largely in the history of his life,) was pro- found and admirable ; in making farms and houses of husbandry of a standard ; that is,

141

maintained with such a proportion of land unto them as may breed a subject to live in con- venient plenty, and no servile condiiion ; and to keep the plough in the hands of the owners, and not mere hirelings : and thus in- deed you shall attain to Virgil's character which he gives to ancient Italy :

*' Terra potens armis atque utere gleboe."

Neither is that state, (which for any thing I know, is almost peculiar to England, and hard- ly to be found any where else, except it be perhaps in Poland,) to be passed over ; I mean the state of free servants and attendants upon noblemen and gentlemen, which are no ways inferior unto the yeomanry for arms ; and therefore, out of all question,, the splendour and magnificence, and great retinue^^, the hospital- ity of noblemen and gentlemen received into custom, do much conduce unto martial great- ness : whereas, contrariwise, the close and re- served living of noblemen and gentlemen caus- eth a penury of military forces.

By all means it is to be procured, that the trunk of Nebuchadnezzar's tree of monarchy be great enough to bear the branches and the

142

boughs ; that is, that the natural subjects of the crosvn or state bear a sufficient proportion to the strange subjects that they govern ; therefore all states that are liberal of naturali- zation towards strangers are fit for empire : for to think that an handful of people can, with, the greatest courage and policy in the world, embrace too large extent of dominion, it may hold for a time, but it will fail suddenly. The Spartans were a nice people in point of natu- ralization ; whereby, while they kept their compass,. they stood firm ; but when they did spread, and their boughs were become too great for their stem, they became a windfall upon the sudden. Never any state was, in this point, so open to receive strangers into their body as w-ere the Romans ; therefore it sorted with them according!}^, for they grew to the greatest monarchy. Their manner was to grant naturalization, (which they called,, "jus civitatis,") and to grant it in the highest degree, that is, not only '^ jus commercii, jus '^ connubii, jus htereditatis;" but also, '^jus *^ suffragii, and jus honorum ;" and this not to singular persons alone, but likewise to whole ''amilies ; yea, to citie>, and sometimes to na^

143

tions. Add to this, their custom of plantartion of colonies,, whereby the Roman plant was re- moved into the soil of other nations ; and, putting both constitutions together, you will say, that it was not the Romans that spread upon the w^orld, but it was the world that spread upon the Romans ; and that was the sure w-ay of greatness. I have marvelled sometimes at Spain, how they clasp and con- t;iin so large dominions with so few natural Spaniards : but sure the whole compass of Spain is a very great body of a tree, far above Rome and Sparta at the first; and, besides, though they have not had that usage to nata- ralize liberally, yet they have that which is next to it ; that is, to employ, almost indiffer- ently, all nations in their militia of ordinary ooldiers; yea, and sometimes in their highest Gommands : iiay, it seemeth at this instant, they are sensible of this want of natives ; as by the pragmatical sanction, now published, ap- pcareth.

It is certain, that sedentary and within-door

arts, and delicate manufactures, (that require

father the finger than the arm,) have in their

nature a contrariety to a inihtarv dispositiou t

0 2

14-4

and generally all warlike people are a little idle, and love danger better than travail ; nei- ther must they be too much broken of it, if they shall be preserved in vigour : therefore it was great advantage in the ancient states of Sparta, Athens, Rome, and others, that they had the use of slaves, which commonly did rid those manufactures ; but that is abolished, in greatest part, by the christian law. That which Cometh nearest to it is, to leave those arts chiefly to strangers, (which for that purpose are the more easily to be received,) and to contain the principal bulk of the vulgar na- tives within those three kinds, tillers of the ground, free servants, and handicraftsmen of strong and manly arts ; as smiths, masons, carpenters, &c, not reckoning professed sol- diers.

But, above all, for empire and greatness it- Importeth most, that a nation do profess arms as their principal honour, study and occupa- tion ; for the things which we formerly have spoken of are but habilitations towards arms* and what is habilitation without intention and act ? Romulus, after his death, (as they report- er feign^) sent a present to the Romans, that ^

145

above all they should intend ai*ms_, and thee they should prove the greatest empire of the world. The fabric of the state of Sparta wa^ wholly, (though not wisely,) framed and corn- posed to that scope and end ; the Persians; and Macedonians had it for a flash ; the Gauls, Germans,-Goths, Saxons, Normans, and others had it for a time ; the Turks have it at this day, though in great declination. Of Christain Europe tliey that have it are, in effect, only the Spaniards : but it is so plain^ that every man profiteth in that he most in- tendeth, that it needeth not to be stood upon : it is enough to point at it ; that no nation which doth not directly profess arms, may look to have greatness fall into their mouths : and, on the other side, it is a most certain ora- cle of time, that those states that continue long in that profession, (as the Romans and Turks principally have done,) do wonders ; and those that have professed arms but for an age have, notwithstanding, commonly attained that greatness in that age which maintained them long after, when their profession and ex- ercise of arms hath grown to decay.

Incident to this point is for a state to have

14S

those laws or customs which may reach forth unto them just occasions, (as may be pretend? ed,) of war ; for there is that justice imprinted in the nature of men, that tiiey enter not upon wars, (whereof so many calamities do ensue,) but upon some, at the least specious, grounds and quarrels. The Turk hath at hand, for cause of war,, the. propagation of his law or sect, a quarrel that he may always command* The Romans, though they esteemed the ex- tending the limits of their empire to be great honour to their generals wheji it was done., yet they never rested upon that alone to begin a war : first, therefore, let nations that pretend to greatness have this, that they be sensible of ■wrongs, either upon borderers, merchants, or politic ministers; and that they sit not too long upon a provocation: secondly, let them be pressed and ready to give aids and succours to their confederates ; as it e\ter was with the Romans ; insomuch, as if the confederates had leagues defensive with divers other states, and upon invasion offered did implore their aids severally, yet the Romans would ever be the foremost, and leave it to none other to have the honour, As for the wars, which were

14T

anciently made on the behalf of a kind of- party, or tacit conformity of estate, I do not see how they may be well justified : as when the Romans made a war for the liberty of Griecia ; or,, when the Lacedaemonians and Athenians made wars to set up or pull down democracies and oligarchies ; or when wars were made by foreigners under the pretence of justice or protection, to deliver the subjects of others from tyranny and oppression, and the like. Let it suffice, that no estate expect to be great that is not awake upon any just occasion of armi]igo

No body can be healthful without exercise, neirher natural body nor politic : and, cer- tainly, to a kingdom or estate a just and hon-* curable war is the true exercise.. A civil war, indeed, is like the heat of a fever ; but a foreign war is like the heat of exercise, and serveth to keep the body in health ; for in a slothful peace both courages will effeminate,, and manners corrupt : but howsoever it be for happiness, without all question for greatness, it maketh to be still for the most part in arms ;, •cuid the strength of a veteran army, (though it be a chargeable business,) always on foot, is-

us

that which commonly givet'n the law ; or, at least, the reputation amongst ail neighbour states, as may be well seen in S{jain ; which hath had, in one part or other, a veteran army almost continually, now by the space of six- score years.

To be master of the sea is an abridgment of a monarchy. Cicero, writing to Atticus of Pompey his preparation against Caesar, saith, *' Consilium Pompeii plane Themistocleum est; " putat enim, qui mari potitur, eum rerum **■ potiri :" and, without doubt, Pompey had tired out Coesar, if upon vain confidence he had not left that way. We see the great ef- fects of battles by sea : the battle of Actiura decided the empire of the world ; the battle cf Lepanto arrested the greatness of the Turk. There be many examples where sea fights have been final to the war ; but this is when princes or states have set up their rest upon the bat- tles ; but thus much is certain, that he that commands the sea is at great liberty, and may take as much and as little of the war as he will; whereas those that be strongest by land are many times, nevertheless, in great straits. Surely, at this day, with us of Europe the

149

vantage of strength at sea, (which is one o| the principal dowries of this kingdom of Great Britain,) is great ; both because most of th^ kingdoms of Europe are not merely inland, but girt with the sea most part of their com- pars ; and because the wealth of both Indies seems in great part but an accessary to the command of the seas.

The wars of later ages seem to be made in the dark in respect of the glory and honour which reflected upon men from the wars in ancient time. There be now, for martial en- couragement, some degrees and orders of chi- valry, which, nevertheless, are conferred pro- miscuously upon soldiers, and no soldiers, and some remembrance perhaps upon the escut^ cheon, and some hospitals for maimed soldiers, and such like things ; but in ancient times the trophies erected upon the place of the victory ; the funeral laudatives and monuments for those that died in the wars ; the crowns and garlands personal ; the style of emperor, whicli the great kings of the world after borrowed ; the triumphs of the generals upon their return ; the great donatives and largesses upon the disband- Ing of the armies, were things able to inflame

150 )

all men's courages ; but above all, that of the triumph amongst the Roman? was not pageants or gaudery, but one of the wisest and noblest institutions that ever was ; for it contained three things, honour to the general ; riches to •the treasury out of the spoils ; and donatives to the army : but that honour, perhaps, were not fit for monarchies ; except it be in the person of the monarch himself, or in his sons ; -as it came to pass in the times of the Roman emperors, who did impropriate the actual tri- umphs to themselves and their sons for such wars as they did achieve in person, and left only for w^ars acheived by subjects «ome tri- umphal garments and ensigns to the ge- neral.

To conclude : no man can by care taking, (as the scripture saith,) <^ add a cubit to his ** stature," in this little model of a man's body ; fcut in the great frame of kingdoms and com- monwealths it is in the power of princes or -estates to add amplitude and greatness to their kingdoms ; for by introducing such ordinances, constitutions, and customs, as we have now touched, they may sow greatness to their pos- terity and succession : but these things are

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commonly not observed, but left to take their chance.

OF REGIMEN OF HEALTH.

There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic ; a man's own observation what he finds good of, and what he finds hurt of, is the best physic to preserve health ; but it is a safer conclusion to say, " This agreeth not well *^ with me, therefore I will not continue it ;" than this, *^ I find no offence of this, therefore *^ I may use it ;" for strength of nature in youth passe th over many excesses which are owing a man till his age. Discern of the coming on of years, and think not to do the same thJjigs still ; for age will not be defied. Beware of sudden change in any great point of diet, and if necessity enforce it, fit the rest to it ; for it is a secret both in nature and state, that it is safer to change many things than one. Ex- amine thy customs of diet, sleep, exercise, ap- parel, and the like ; and try in aiiy thing thou shalt judge hurtful^ to discontinue it by little ^nd little ; but so, as if thou dost find any in- p

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convemence by the change, thou come back to it again : for it is hard to distinguish that, which is generally held good and wholesome, from that, which is good particularly, and fit for thine own body. To be freeminded and cheerfully disposed at hours of meat and sleep, and of exercise, is one of the best precepts of long lasting. As for the passions and studies of the mind, avoid envy, anxious fears, anger fretting inwards, subile and knotty inquisitions, joys and exhilarations in excess, sadness not communicated. Entertain hopes, mirth rather than joy, variety of delights, rather than sur- feit of them ; w^onder and admiration, and therefore novelties ; studies that fill the mind with splendid and illustrious objects, as histo- ries, fables, and contemplations of nature. If you fly physic in health altogether, it vj'iW be too strange for your body when you shall need it ; if you make it too familiar, it will work no extraordinary effect when sickness Cometh, I commend rather some diet for certain seasons, than frequent use of physic, except it be grown into a custom ; for those diets alter the body more, and trouble it less. Despise no new accident in your body, but ask

153

eplnion of it. In sickness, respect health prin- cipally ; and in health, action : for those that put their bodies to endure in health, may in most sicknesses which are not very sharp, be eared only with diet and tendering. Celsus could never have spoken it as a physician, had he not been a svise man withal, when he giv- eth it for one of the great precepts of health and lasting, that a man do vary and inter- change contraries ; but with an inclination to the more benign extreme : use fasting and full eating, but rather full eating ; watching and sleep, but rather skep ; sitting and exercise, but rather exercise, and the like : so shall na- ture be cherished, and yet taught masteries. Physicians are some of them so pleasing and conformable to the humour of the patient, a3 they press not the true cure of the disease ; and some other are so regular in proceeding according to art for the disease, as they respect not sufficiently the condition of the patient. Take one of a middle temper ; or, if it may not be found in one man, combine two of either sort ; and forget not to call as well the best acquainted with your body, as the best reput ed of for his faculty.

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OF SUSPICION.

Suspicions amongst thoughts are like bats, amongst birds, they ever fly by twihght : cer- tainly they are to be repressed, or, at the least, well guarded ; for they cloud the mind, they .lose friends, and they check with business, whereby business cannot go on currently and eonstantl}' : they dispose kings to tyranny, hus- bands to jealousy, wise men to irresolution and melancholy : they are defects, not in the heart but in the brain ; for they take place in the stoutest natures ; as in the example of Henry the seventh of England ; there was not a more suspicious m.an nor a more stout : and in such a composition they do small hurt; for com- monly they are not admitted but with exami- nation, whether they be likely or no ? but in fearful natures they gain ground too fast. There is nothing makes a man suspect much, inore than to know little ; and, therefore, men .should remedy suspicion by procuring to know more, and to keep their suspicions in smother. What would men have ? do they think those

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ttiey employ and deal with are saints ? do they not think they will have their own ends, and be truer to themselves than to them ? therefore there is no better way to moderate suspicions, than to account upon such suspi- cions as true, and yet to bridle them as false : for so far a man ought to make use of suspi- cions as to provide, as if that should be true that he suspects, yet it may do him no hurt. Suspicions that the mind of itself gathers are but buzzes ; but suspicions that are artificially nourished, and put into men's heads by the tales and whisperings of others, have stings. Certainh', the best mean to clear the w'ay in this same wood of suspicions, is frankly to com- municate them with the party that he sus- pects ; for thereby he shall be sure to know more of the truth of them than he did before ;. and withal shall make that party more circum- spect not to give further caui^e of suspicion : but this would not be done to men of base na- tures; for they,. if they find themselves once suspected, will never be true. The Italian says^ " Sospetto licentia fede ;" as if suspicion did give a passport to faith; but it ought rather to kindle it to discharge itself., r 2

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OF DISCOURSE.

Some in their discourse desire rather commen- dation of wit, in being able to hold all argu- ments, than of judgment, in discerning what is true ; as if it were a praise to know what might be said, and not what should be thought. Some have certain common places and themes, v/hereiii they are good, and want variety ; which kind of poverty is for the most part te- dious, and, when it is once perceived, ridicu* lous. The honourablest part of talk is to give the occasion ; and again to moderate and pass to FomeW'hat else, for then a man leads the dance. It is good in discourse, and speech of conversation, to vary and intermingle speech of the present occasion with arguments, tales with reasons, asking of questions with telling of opinions, and jest with earnest ; for it is a cluU thing to tire, and as we say now^, to jade any thing too far. As for jest, there be cer- tain things w^hich ought to be privileged from it ; namely, religioi?, matters of state, great persons, any man's present business of jmpor-

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tance, and any case that deserveth pity ; yet there be some that think their wits have been asleep, except they dart out somewhat that is piquant, and to the quick: that is a vein which would be bridled ;

"Parce puer stimulis, et fortius utere Ion's."

And, generally, men ought to find the differ- ence between saltness and bitterness. Cer- tainly, he that hath a satirical vein, as he maketh others afraid of his wit, so he had need be afraid of other's memory. He that questioneth much shall learn much, and con- tent much ; but especially if he apply his ques- tions to the skill of the persons whom he ask- eth ; for he shall give them occasion to please themselves in speaking, and himself shall con- tinually gather knowledge ; but let his ques- tions not be troublesome, for that is fit for a poser ; and let him be sure to leave other men their turns to speak : nay, if there be any that would reign and take up all the time, let him find means to take them off, and bring others on : as musicians use to do with those that dance too long galliards. If you dissemble sometimes your knowledge of that you are

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thought to know, you shall be thought another time to know that you know not. Speech of a man's self ought to be seldom, and well chosen. I knew one was wont to say in scorn, '^ He must needs be a wise man, he *^ speaks so much of himself :" and there is but one case wherein a man may commend him- self with good grace, and that is in commend* ing virtue in another; especially if it be such- a virtue whereunto himself pretendeth. Speech of touch towards others should be sparingly used; for discourse ought to be as a fields ■without coming home to any man. I knew two noblemen of the west part of England, whereof the one was given to scoff, but kept ever royal cheer in his house ; the other would ask of those that had been at the other's table, ^^ Tell truly, was there never a flout or dry ^^ blow given ?" to which the guest would an!swer, " Such and such a thing passed ;" the lord would say, " I thought he would mar a *f good dinner." Discretion of speech is more than eloquence ; and to speak agreeably to him whh whom we deal, is more than to speak in good words, or in good order. A good continued speech without a good speech of

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interlocution shews slowness ; and a good re- ply, or second speech, without a good settled speech, sheweth shallowness and weakness. As we see m beasts, that those, that are weak- est in the course, are yet nimblest in the turn ; as it is betwixt the greyhound and the hare* To use too many circumstances ere one come to the matter is wearisome ; to use none at all is blunt.

OF PLANTATIONS.

Plantations are amongst ancient, primi- tive, and heroical works, \yhen the world was young it begat more children ; but now it is old it begets fewer : for I may justly account new plantations to be the children of former kingdoms. I like a plantation in a pure soil ; that is, where people are not displanted to the end to plant in others ; for else it is rather an extirpation than a plantation. Planting of countries is like planting of woods ; for you must make account to lose almost twentyyear's profit, and expect your recompense in the end : for the principal thing that hath been the

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destruction of most plantations, hath been the base and hasty drawing of profit in the first year?. It is true, speedy profit is not to be neglected as far as may stand with the good of the plantation, but no farther. It is a shameful and unblessed thing to take the scum of people and wicked condemned men, to be thf people with whom you plant ; and not only so, but it spoileth the plantations ; for they will ever live like rogues, and not fall to work, but be lazy, and do mischief, and spend vic- tuals, and be quickly weary, and then certify over to their country to tlie discredit of the plantation. The people wherewith you plant ought to be gardners, ploughmen, labourers, smiths, carpenters, joiners, fishermen, fowlers, with some few apothecaries, surgeons, cooks, and bakers. In a country of plantation first look about what kind of victual the country yields of itself to hand ; as chesnuts, walnuts, pine-apples, olives, dates, plums,, cherries, wild honey, and the like, and make use of them. Then consider what victual, or esculent things there are, which grow speedily, and within the year ; as parsnips, carrots, turnips, onions, raddish, artichokes of Jerusalem;, maise, and

'ihe like : for wi'eat, barley, and oats, they ask too much labour ; but with pease and beans ycu inay begin ; both because they ask less labour, and because they serve for meat, as well as for bread ; and of rice likewise cometh a great increase, and it is a kind of meat. Above all there ought to be brought store of biscuit, oatmeal, flower, meal, and the like in the beginning, till bread may be had. For beasts or birds, take chiefly such as are least subject to diseases, and multiply fastest ; as swine, goats, cocks, hens, turkeys, geese, house-doves and the like. The victual in plan- tations ought to be expended almost as in a~ besieged town ; that is, with certain allow- ance ; and let the main part of the ground employed to gardens or corn, be to a common stock ; and to be laid in, and stored up, and then delivered out in proportion ; besides some spots of ground that any particular person will manure for his own private use. Consider, like- wise, what commodities the soil where the plantation is doth naturally yield, that they may some way help to defray the charge of the plantation ; so it be not, as was said, to the untimely prejudice of the main business :

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as it hath fared with tobacco in Virginia. Wood commonly aboundeth but too much ; and therefore timber is fit to be one. If there be iron ore, and streams whereupon to set the mills, iron is a brave commodity where wood aboundeth. Making of bay-salt, if the climate be proper for it, would be put in experience ; growing silk likewise, if any be, is a likely' commodity : pitch and tar, where store of firs and pines are, will not fail ; so drugs and sweet woods, where they are, cannot but yield great profit ; soap ashes likewise, and other things that may be thought of : but moil not too much under ground, for the hope of mines is very uncertain, and useth to make the planters lazy in other things. For government, let it be in the hands of one assisted with some coun- sel ; and let them have commission to exercise martial laws with some limitation ; and, above all, let men make that profit of being in the wilderness, as they have God always, and his service before their eyes . let not the govern- ment of the plantation depend upon too many counsellors and undertakers in the country that planteth, but upon a temperate number ^ and let those be rather noblemen and gentle-

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men, than merchants ; for they look ever to the present gain : let there be freedoms from custom till the plantation be of strength ; and not only freedom from custom, but freedom to carry their commodities where they may make their best of them, except there be some special cause of caution. Cram not in people, by send- ing too fast company after company ; but ra- ther hearken how they waste, and send sup- plies proportionably ; but so as the number may live well in the plantation, and not by surcharge be in penury. It hath been a great endanger- ing to the health of some plantations that ti-ey have built along the sea and rivers, in maricih and unwholesome grounds : therefore, though; you begin there to avoid carriage and ollier- iike discommodities, yet build still rather up- wards from the streams, than along. It con- cerneth likewise the health of the plantation that they have good store of sait with them, that they may use it in their victuals when it shall be necessary. If you plant where sava- ges are, do not only entertain them with tniles and gingles ; but use them justly and gracious- ly, w^ith sufficient guard nevertheless ; and do not win their favour by helping them to invade

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fheir enemies, but for their defence it is not amiss ; and send oft of them over to the coun- try that plants, that they may see a better condition than their own, and commend it ■when they return. When the plantation grows to strength, then it is time to plant with wo- men as well as with men ; that the plantation may spread into generations, and not be ever pierced from without. It is the sinfullest thing in the world to forsake or destitute a plantation once in forwardness; for, besides the dishonour, it is the guiltiness of blood of many commiserable persons.

OF RICHES.

I CANNOT call riches better than the baggage of virtue ; the Roman word is better, " im- pedimenta ;" for as tlie baggage is to an ar- my, so is riches to virtue ; it cannot be spared nor left behind, but it hindereth the march ; yea, and the care of it sometimes loseth or distJirbeth the victory : of great riches there is no real use, except it be in the distribution ; tlie rest is but conceit ; so saith Solomon ;

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^ WFiere much is, there are many to consume ^^it; and what hath the owner but the sight of it with his eyest^' The personal fruition in any man cannot reach to feel great riches : there is a custody of them ; or a power of dole and donative of them ; or a fame of them ; but no solid use to the owner. Do you not see what feigned prices are set upon little stones and rarities ? and what works of ostentation are undertaken, because there might seem to be some use of great riches ? But then you will say, they may be of use to buy men out of dangers or troubles; as Solo- mon saith, *^ Riches are as a strong hold in "the imagination of the rich man:" but this is excellently expressed, that it is in imagina- tion, and not always in fact; for, certainly, great riches have sold miore men than they have bought out. Seek not proud riches, but such as thou mayest get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly ; yet have no abstract or friarly contempt of them ; but distinguish, as Cicero saith well of Rabirius Posthumus, ^' in studio rci amplifi- ^' candte apparebat, non avaritiie pri^dam, sed. <^ instrumentum bonitati quyeri,'^ Hearken also

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to Solomon, and beware of hasty gathering of riches ; '' Qui festinat ad divitias, non erit *' inson-" The poets feign, that when Phitus, (which is riches,) is sent from Jupiter, he limps, and goes slowly ; but when he is sent from Pluto, he runs, and is swift of foot ; afneaning, that riches gotten by good means and just labour pace slowly ; but when they come by the death of others, (as by the course of inheritance, testaments, and the lil^e,) they tome tumbling upon a man : but it might be applied likewise to Pluto taking him for the devil: for when riches come from the devil, (as by fraud and oppression, and unjust means,) they come upon speed. The w^ays to enrich are many, and most of them foul : parsimony is one of the best, and yet is not innocent : for it w itliholdeth men from works and liberality and charity. The improvement of the ground :s the most natural obtaining of riches ; for it is our great mother-s blessing, the earth; but it is slow : and yet, where men of great wealth do stoop to husbandry, it multiplieth riches exceedingly. I knew a nobleman of England that had the greatest audits of any man in my lime; a great grazier, a great sheep master, a

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great timber man, a great collier, a great corn master, a great lead maa, and so of iron, and a number of the like points of husbandry ; so as the earth seemed a saa to him in respect of the perpetual importation. It was truly observed by one, ^* That himself came very hardly to a " little riches, and very easily to great riches;'* for when a man's stock is come to that, that he can expect the prime of markets, and over- come those bargains, which for their greatness are few men's money, and be partner in the industries of younger men he cannot but in- crease mainly. The gains of ordinary trades and vocations are honest, and furthered b}' two things, chiefly, by diligence, and by a good name for good and fair dealing; but the gains of bargains are of a more doubtful nature^ when men shall wait upon others necessity ; broke by servants and instruments to draw them on ; put off other? cunningly that would be better chapmen, and the like practices, ■which are crafty and naught : as for the chop- ping of bargains, when a man buys not to hold but to sell over again, that commonly grind- cth double, both upon the seller and upon the buyer. bharings do greatly enrich if tlie

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bands be well chosen that are trusted. Usury is the certainest means of gain, though one of the worst, as that whereby a man doth eat his bread, ^^ in sudore vultus alieni ;" and besides, doth plough upon Sundays : but yet certain though it be, it hath flaws ; for that the scri- veners and brokers do value unsound men to serve their own turn. The fortune, in be- ing the first in an invention or in a privilege, doth cause sometimes a wonderful overgrowth in riches ; as it was with the first sugar man in the Canaries : therefore, if a man can play the true logician, to have as well judgment as invention, he may do great matters, especially if the times be fit : he that resteth upon gains certain, shall hardly grow to great riches ; and he that puts all upon adventures, doth often- times break and come to poverty : it is good, therefore, to guard adventures with certainties that may uphold losses. Monopolies, and co- emption of wares for resale, where they are not restrained, are great means to enrich; es- pecially if the party have intelligence what things are like to come into request, and so store himself before hand. Riches gotten by ?ervice^ though it be of the best rise^ yet when

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they are gotten by flattery, feeding humours, and other servile conditions, they may be plac- ed amongst the worst. As for fishing for tes- taments and executorships, (as Tacitus saith of Seneca, '' testmenata et orbos tanquam inda- " gine capi,") it is yet worse, by how much men submit themselves to meaner persons than in service. Believe not much them that seem to despise riches, for they despise them that despair of them ; and none worse when they come to them. Be not penny wise ; riches have wings, and sometimes they fly away of them- selves, sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more. Men leave their riches either to their kindred, or to the public ; and moder- ate portions prosper best in both. A great es- tate left to an heir, is as a lure to all the birds of prey round about to seize on him, if he be not the better established in years and judg- ment : likewise, glorious gifts and foundations are like sacrifices without salt ; and but the painted sepulchres of alms, which soon will pu- trify and corrupt inwardl}^ : therefore measure not thine advancements by quantity, but frame them by measure : and defer not charities till death ; for, certainly, if a man weigh it rightly.

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he that doth so is rather liberal of another man's than of his own.

OF PROPHECIES.

I MEAN not to speak of divine prophecies, nor of heathen oracles, nor of natural predictions ; but only of prophecies that have been of cer- tain memor}', and from hidden causes. Saith the Pythonissa to Saul, '' To-morrow thou and *' thy son shall be with me." Virgil hath these verses from Homer :

*< At domus iEneay cimctis dominahitur oris,

Et nati natorum,et qui nascentur,ab illis." ^n.iii.dT.

A prophecy as it seems of the Roman empire. Seneca the tragedian hath these verses :

Venient annis

Ssecula seris, qnibiis oceanns Vincala rerum laxet, et ingens Pateat tellus, Tiphysque novos Detegat orhes ; nee iit terris Ultima Thule :"

a prophecy of the discovery of America. The daughter of Polycrates dreamed that Jupiter

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bathed her father, and Apollo anointed him ; and it came to pass that he was crucified in an open place, where the sun made hi? body run with sweat, and the rain washed it. Philip of Macedon dreamed he sealed up his wife's belly ; whereby he did expound it, that his wife should be barren ; but Aristander the soothsayer told him his wife was with child, because men do not use to seal vessels that are empty. A phantasm that appeared to M. Brutus in his tent, said to him, " Phillippis " iterum me videbis." Tiberius said to Galba, *^ tu quoque, Galba, degustabis imperium," In Vespasian's time there w^ent a prophecy in the East, that those that should come forth of Judea, should reign over the world; which though it may be was meant of our Saviour, yet Tacitus expomids it of Vespasian. Domi- tian dreamed, the night before he was slain, that a golden head was growing out of the nape of his neck ; and indeed the succession that followed him, for many years, made golden times. Henry the sixth of England said of Henry the seventh, when he was a lad, and gave him water, " This is the lad that shall enjoy the crown for which we strive.''

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When I was in France, I heard from one Dr. Pena, that the queen mother, who was given to curious arts, caused the king her hus- band's nativity to be calculated under a false name ; and the astrologer gave a judgment, that he should be killed in a duel; at which the queen laughed, thinking her husband to be above challenges and duels : but he was slain upon a course at tilt, the splinters of the staff of Montgomery going in at his bever. The trivial prophecy which I heard when I was a child, and queen Elizabeth was in the flower ©f her years, was ;

" When hempe is spun, England's done."

whereby it was generally conceived, that after the princes had reigned which had the princi- pal letters of that word hempe, (which w^ere Henry, Edward, Mary, Philip, and EHzabeth,) England should come to utter confusion ; which thanks be to God, is verified in the change of the name ; for that the king's style is now no more of England but of Britain. There was also another prophecy before the year of eighty-eight, which I do not well understand-.

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*' There shall be seen upon a davj Between the Baugh aiid Jhs May, The black fleet of Norway. When that is come and gone, England build houses of lime and stone, For after wars you shall have none."

It was generally conceived to be meant of the Spanish fleet that came in eighty-eight ; for that the king of Spain's surname, as they say, is Norway. The prediction af Regiomonta- nus,

" Octogesimus octavtis mirabilis annus:''

was thought likewise accomplished in the send- ing of that great fleet, being the greatest in strength, though not in number, of all that ever swam upon the sea. As for Cleon's dream, I think it was a jest : it was, that he was devoured of a long dragon ; and it was expounded of a maker of sausages, that trou- bled him exceedingly. There are numbers of the like kind ; especially if you include dreams, and predictions of astrology ; but I have set down these few only of certain credit, for example. My judgment is, that they ought

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all to be despised, aud ought to serve but for winter talk by the fire side. Though when I say despised, I mean it as for belief; for other- wise, the spreading or publishing of them is in no sort to be despised; for they have done much mischief; and I see many severe law? made to suppress them. That, that hath given them grace and some credit, consisteth in three things. First, that men mark when they hit, and never mark when they miss ; as they do, generally, also of dreams. The second is, that probable conjectures, or obscure tradi- tions, many times turn themselves into pro- phecies; while the nature of man, which cov- ereth devination, thinks it no peril to foretel that which indeed they do but collect ; as that of Seneca's verse ; for so much was then subject to demonstration, that the globe of the earth had great parts beyond the Atlantic, which might be probably coiiceived not to be all sea : and adding thereto the tradition in Plato's Timaeus, and his Atlanticus, it n.ight encourage one to turn it to a prediction. The third and last, (which is the great one,; is that almost all of them, being infinite in number, have been impostures, and by idle and crafty

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brains, merely contrived and feigned^ after the event past.

OF AMBITION,

Ambition is like choler, which is an humour that maketh men active, earnest, full of alacri- ty, and stirring, if it be not stopped : but if it be stopped, and cannot have its way, it be- cometh adust, and thereby malign and ven- omous : so ambitious men, if they find the way open for their rising, and still get forward, they are rather busy than dangerous ; but if they be checked in their desires, they become secretly discontent, and look upon men and matters with an evil eye, and are best pleased when things go backv^'ard ; which is the worst property in a servant of a prince or state? therefore it is good for princes;, if they use ambitious men, to handle it so, as they be still progressive, and not retrogade ; which, be- cause it cannot be without inconvenience, it IS good not to use such natures at all ; for if they rise not with their service they will take order to make their service fall with them, R

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But since we have said, it were good not to use men of ambitious natures, except it be up- on necessity, it is fit we speak in what cases they are of necessity. Good commanders in the wars must be taken, be they never so am- bitious ; for the use of their service dispenseth with the rest ; and to take a soldier without ambition, is to pull off his spurs. There is also great use of ambitious men in being screens to princes in matters of danger and envy ; for no man will take that part, except he be like a seeled dove, that mounts and mounts, be- cause he cannot see about him. There is use also of ambitious men in pulling down the greatness of any subject that overtops ; as Ti- berius used Macro in the pulling down of Se- janus. Since therefore they must be used in such cases, there resteth to speak how they are to be ridled, that they may be less danger- ous : there is less danger of them if they be of mean birth, than if they be noble ; and if they be rather harsh of nature, than gracious and popular; and if they be rather new raised, than grown cunning and fortified in their greatness. It is counted by some a weakness in princes to have favourites; but it is, of al?

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others, the best remedy against ambitious great ones ; for when the way of pleasuring and dis- pleasuring lieth by the favorite, it is impossi- ble 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 wiU roll too much. At the least, a prince may animate and inure some meaner persons 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 aftairs require it, and that it may not be done with safety suddenh', the only way is, the interchange con- tinually of favours and di.<graces, 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 dependences..

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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 cyphers, 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'& own fortunes. He that hath the best of these intentions, when he aspire th, is an honest man ; and that prince, that can dis- cern of these intentions in another that aspir- eth, is a wise prince. Generally let princes and states choose such ministers as are more sensible of duty than of rising, and such as lt)ve business rather upon conscience than upon bravery ; and let them discern a busy nature from a willing mind.

OF MASaUES AND TRIUMPHS.

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 wnth cost,. Dancing to song is a thing of great state and

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pleasure. I understand it that the song be in quire, placed aloft, and accompained 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, nat dancing : (for that is a mean and vulgar thing;) and the voices of the dialogue would be strong and manly, (a base, and 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 an- them-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 wonder- ments. It is true, the alterations of scenes, so it be quietly and without noise, 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, especially couloured and varied ; and let tbx? 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 witii R 2

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great pleasure to desire to see that it cannot perftctly discrrn. 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 candlelight are white, carnation, and a kind of sea water green ; and ouches, 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, spirits, witches, aethi- opes, pygmies, turquets, nymphs, rustics, cu= pids, statues moving, and the like. As for an- gels, it is not comical enough to put them in an- ti-masques ; 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

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refreshment. Double masques^ one of men, an- other of ladies, addeth st^jte and variet}- ; but all is nothing except the room be kept clear and neat.

For justs,, and tourne^^s, and barriers, the glories; of them are chiefly in the chariots, wherein the challengers make their entry ; es- pecially if they be drawn with strange beasts : as lions, bears, camels, and the like ; or in the devices of their entrance, or in bravery of their liveries, or in the goodly furniture of their horses and armour. But enough of these toys.

OF NATURE IN MEN.

Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome^, seldom extinguished. Force maketh nature more violent in the return ; doctrine and dis- course maketh nature less importune ; but cus- tom 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 failing, and the second will make him a small proceeder, though by often prevailing ; and at

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the first, let him practise with help?, as swim- mers 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 the use. Where nature is mighty, and there- fore the victory hard, the degrees had need be, first to stay and arrest-nature in time ; lik-e to him that would say over the four and tvi^enty letters 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 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, Isedantia pectus. Zincula qui rupit, dedoluitque semel "

Neither is the ancient rule amiss, to bend na- ture as a wand to a contrary extreme, where- by to set it right;.understanding it where the con- trary extreme is no vice. Let not a man force a habit upon himst'If with a perpetual contin- uance, 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

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shall as well practice his errors as his abilities,- and induce one habit of both ; and there ly no means to help this but by seasonable inter- mission : but let not a man trust his victory over his nature too far ; for nature will lie buried a great time, and yet revive upon the occasion of temptation ; like as it was with iEsop'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 pas- sion ; for that putteth a man out of his pre- cepts, and in a new case or experiment, for there custom leaveth him. They are happy men whose natures sort with their vocations ; otherwise they may say, ^^ multum incola fuit ^' anima mea," when they converse in those things they do not affect. In studies, whatso- ever a man commandeth upon himself, let him set hours for it ; but whatsoever is agreeable to his nature, let him take no care for any set times ; for his thoughts will fly to it of them- selves, so as the spaces of other business or

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studies will suffice. A man's nature runs ei- ther to herbs or weeds ; therefore let him reasonably water the one, and destroy the ether.

OF CUSTOM AND EDUCATION. ,

Men's thoughts are much according to their inclination ; tlieir discourse and speeches ac- cording to their learning and infused opinions ; but their deeds are after as they have been ac- customed : and therefore, as Machiavel well noteth, (though in an ill favoured instance,) there is no trusting to the force of nature, nor to the braver}^ of words, except it be corrobo- rate by custom. His instance is,lhat for the atchieving of a desperate conspiracy a man should not rest upon the- fierceness of any man's nature, or his resolute undertakings ; but take such an one as hath had his hands formerly in blood : but Machiavel knew not af a friar Clement, nor a Ravillac, nor a Jaureguy, nor a Baltazar Gerard : yet his rule holdeth still, that nature, nor the engagement of words^ are not so forcible as custom. Only

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superstition is now so well advanced, that men of the first blood are as firm as butchers by occupation ; and votary resolution is made equipollent to custom, even in matter of blood. In other things the predominancy of custom is every where visible, insomuch as a man would wonder to hear men profe?s, protest, engage, give great words, and then do just as they have done before, as if they were dead images and engines moved only by the wheels of eustom. We see also the reign or tyranny of custom what it is. The Indians, (I mean the sect of their wise men,) lay themselves quietly upon a stack of wood, and so sacrifice them- selves by fire-: nay, the wives strive to be burned with the corpse of their husbands. The lads of Sparta of ancient time were wont to be scourged upon the altar of Diana, with- out so much as squeeking, I remember, in the beginning of queen Elizabeth's time of England, an Irish rebel condemned, put up a petition to the deputy t'-at he might be hanged in a vvyth, and not in an haltar, because it had been so used with former rebels. There be monks in Russia, for penance, that will sit a whole night in a vessel of water till they be

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engaged with liard ice. Many examples may be put of the force of custom, botli upon nriiiid and body : therefore, since custom is the prin- cipal magistrate of man's life, let men by all means endeavour to obtain good customs. Cer- tainly, custom is most perfect when it begin - jfieth in young years : this we call education, which is, in effect, but an early custom. So we see in languages the tongue is more pliant to all expressions and sounds, the joints are more supple to all feats of activity and motions in youth, and afterwards ; for it is true, the late learners cannot so well take the ply, ex- cept it be in some minds that have not suffered themselves to fix^ but have kept themselves open and prepared to receive continual amend- ment, which is exceeding rare : but if the force of custom, simple and seperate, be great, the force of custom, copulate and conjoined and collegiate, is far greater; for their exam- ple teacheth, company comforteth, emulation quickeneth, glory raiseth ; so as in such places the force of custom is in its exaltation. Cer- tainly, the great multiplication of virtues upon human nature resteth upon societies well or- dained and disciplined ; for commonwealths

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and good governments do nourish virtue growii^ but do not much mend the seeds : but the mi- sery is, that the most effectual means are now appHed to the ends least to be desired.

OF FORTUNEo

It cannot be denied but outward accidents conduce much to fortune ; favour, opportunity, death of others, occasion fitting virtue; but chiefly, the mould of a man's fortune is in his own hand.? ; " Faber quisque fortunte suli?," saith the poet ; and the most frequent of exter- nal causes is, that the folly of one man is the fortune of another ; for no man prospers so suddenly as by otlers errors ; " serpens nisi ser- *^ pentem comederit non sit draco," Overt and apparent virtues bring forth praise ; but there be secret and hidden virtues that bring forth fortune ; certain deliveries of a man's self which have no name. The Spanish name, '^ disemboltura," parti}' expressetii them, when there be not stands nor restiveness in a man's nature, but that the wheels of his mind keep way with the wheels of his fortune ; for so

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LIvy (after he had described Cato Major in these word?, ^^ in illo viro, tantum robur cor- '^poris et aniini fuit, ut quocunque loco natus '^ esset, fortunam sibi facturus videretur,") falleth upon that that he had, *^ versatile in- *'genium :" therefore if a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see fortune ; for though she be blind, yet she is not invisible. The way of fortmie is like the milky way in the sky ; which is a meeting or knot of a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together: so are there a num- ber of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate : the Italians note some of them such as a man would little think. "When they speak of one that cannot do amiss they will throw in into his other conditions, that he hath '^ Poco di matto ;" and, certainly, there be not two more fortunate properties, than to have a little of the fool, and not too much of the honest : therefore extreme lovers of their country, or masters were never for- tunate : neither can they be ; for when a man placeth his thoughts without himself, he goeth not his own way. An hasty fortune maketh

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an enterprizer and remover; (the French hath it better, '^ enterpernant," or " remuant ;") but the exercised- fortune maketh the able man. Fortune is to be honoured and respected, and it be but for lier daughters. Confidence and Reputation ; for those two felicity breedeth ; the first within a man's self; the latter, in others towards him. All wise men, to decline the envy of their own virtues, use to ascribe them to Providence and Fortune ; for so they may the better assume them : and, besides, it is greatness in a man to be the care of the higher powers. So Ciesar said to the pilot in the tempest, " Ciesarem portas, et fortunam ** ejus." So Sylla chose the name of ^^ felix," and not of *^ magnus :" and it hath been noted, that those that ascribe openly too much to their own wisdom and policy, end unfortunate. It is written, that Timotheus, the Athenian, after he had, in the account he gave to the state of his government, often interlaced this speech, ^^ And in this fortune had no part," never prospered in any thing he undertook afterwards. Certainly there be whose for- tunes are like Homer's verses, that have a slide and easiness more than the verses of other

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poets ; as Plutarch saith of Timeleon's fortune

in respect of that of Agesilaus, or Epaminon- das : and that this should be, no doubt it is xnuch in a man's self.

OF USURY.

Many have made witty invectives againsfr usur}^ They say, that it is pity the devil should have God's part, which is the tithe ; that the usurer is the greatest tabbath-breaker, because his plough goeth every sunday ; that the usurer is the drone that Virgil speaketb of;

^ Ignavum fucos pecus a praesepibus arcent j"

that the usurer breaketh the first law that wa^ made for mankind after the fall ; which was,. ^' in sudore vultus tui comedes panem tuum ;" not, '^ in sudore vultis alieni ;-' that usurers should have orange-tawny bonnets, because they do judaize ; that it is against nature for money to beget money, and the like. I say this only, that usury is a ^^ concessum propter "duritiem cordis :" for since there must be

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borrowing and lending, and men are so hard of heart as they will not lend freely, usury must be permitted. Some others have made suspicious and cunning propositions of banks, discovery of men's estates^, and other inven- tions ; but few have spoken of usury usefully. It is good to set before us the incommodities and commodities of usury, that the good may be either w^eighed out, or culled out : and warily to provide, that, while we make forth to that which is better, we meet not with tha-C w^hich is worsc,^

The discommodities of usury are, first, that ft makes fewer merchants ; for were it not for this lazy trade of usury, money would not lie still,, but would in great part be employed upoii merchandizing ; which is the '^ vena porta^' of wealth in a state : the second, that it makes poor merchants ; for as a farmer cannot hus- band his ground so well if he sit at a great rent, so the merchant cannot drive his trade so well if he sit at great usury : the third i« inci- dent to the other two; and that is, the decay of customs of kings or estates, wlikh ebb or flow with merchandizing : tho Tourth, that it bringeth the treasure of a realm or state into a s ^

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few hands ; for the usurer being at certaintie?^ and others at uncertainties, at the end of the game most of the money will be in the box ; and ever a state flourisheth when wealth is more equally spread : the fifth, that it beats down the price of laud; for the employment of money is chiefly either merchandizing, or purchasing ; and usury waylays both : the- sixth, that it doth dull and damp all industries^ improvements, and new inventions, wherein money would be stirring, if it were not for this slug : the last, that it is the canker and ruin of many men's estates, which in process of time breeds a public poverty.

On the other side, the commodities of usury are first, that howsoever usury in some respect hindereth merchandizing, yet in some other it advanceth it ; for it is certain that the greatest part of trade is driven by young merchants upon borrowing at interest ; so as if the usurer either call in, or keep back his money, there will ensue presently a great stand of trade : the second is, that, were it not for this easy borrowing upon interest, men's necessities- would draw Upon them a most srdden undoing, m that they woula v»e forced to sell their means^

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(be it lands or goods,) far under foot, and so^ whereas usury doth but gnaw among them, bad markets would swallow them quite up. As for mortgaging, or pawning, it will little mend the matter ; for either men will not take pains without use : or if they do, they will look pre- cisely for the forfeiture. I remember a cruel monied man in the country, that would say, ** The devil take this usury, it keeps us from, forfeitures of mortgages and bonds." The third and last is, that it is a vanity to conceive that there would be ordinary borrowing with- out profit ; and it is impossible to conceive the number of inconveniences that will ensue if borrowing be crampf^d : therefore to speak of the abolishing of usury is idle ; all states have ever had it in one kind or rate or other : so as that opinion must be sent to Utopia.

To speak now of the reformation and re-^ glement of usury ; how the discommodities of it may be best avoided, and the commodities retained. It appears, by the balance of com- modities aud discommodities of usury, two- things are to be reconciled ; the one that the tooth of usury be grinded, that it bite not too BHich ; the other, that there be left open a-

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means to invite monied men to lend to the merchants for the continuing and quickening of trade. This cannot be done, except you in- troduce two several sorts of usury, a less and a greater ; for if you reduce usury to one low rate, it will ease the common borrower, but the merchant will be to seek for money: and it is to be noted, that the trade of merchandize being the most lucrative, may bear usury at a good rate ; other contracts not so.

To serve both intentions, the way would be briefly thus : that there be two rates of usury ; the one free and general for all ; the other under licence only to certain persons, and in certain places of merchandizing. First, therefore, let usury in general be reduced to Hve in the hundred ; and let that rate be pro- claimed to be free and current ; and let the state shut itself out to take any penalty for the same : this will preserve borrowing from any general stop or dryness ; this will ease infinite borrowers in the country ; this will in good part raise the price of land, because land pur- chased at sixteen years purchase, will yield six in the hundred and somewhat more, whereas this rate of interest yields but five ; this by

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like reason will encourage and edge industrious and profitable improvements, because many will rather venture in that kind, than take five in the hundred, especiallj having been used to greater profit. Secondly let there be certain persons licensed to lend to known merchants upon u?ury at a high rate ; and let it be with the cautions following ; let the rate be, even with the merchant himself, somewhat more easy than that he used formerly to pay ; for by that means all borrowers shall have some ease by this reformation,, be he merchant or who- soever; let it be no bank,, or common stocky but every man be master of his own money ; not that I altogether dislike banks, but they will hardly be brooked in regard of certain suspicions. Let the stale be answered some small matter for the license, and the rest left to the lender ; for if the abatement be but small, it will no whit discourage the lender; for he, for example, that took before ten or nine in the hundred, will sooner descend to eight in the hundred, than give over this trade of usury, and go from certain gains to gains of hazard. Let these licensed lenders be in num ber indefinite, but restrained to certain prin

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clpal cities and towns of merchandizinsj ; for then they will be hardly able to colour other men's monies in the country ; so as the license of nine will not suck away the current rate of five ; for no man will lend his monies far off, nor put them into unknown hands.

If it be objected that this doth in a sort au- thorise usury, which before was in some places but permissive, the answer is, that it is better to mitigate usury by declaration, than to suffer it to rage by connivance.

OF YOUTH AND AGE.

A MAN that is young in years may be old in hours, if he have lost no time ; but that hap- peneth 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 pertubations, are not ripe for action till they have pas&ed the

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meridian of their years : as it was with Julius Caesar and Septimius Severus : of the latter of whom it is said, "juventutem egit, erroribus^ " imo furoribus plenam ;" and yet he was the ablest emperor, almost, of all the list : but re- posed natures may do well in youth, as it is seen in Augustus Ciesar, Cosmes, duke of Florence, Gaston de Fois, and others. On the other side, heat and vivacity in age is an ex- cellent composition for business 5 Young men are fitter to invent than to judge ; fitter for execution than for counsel ; and fitter for new projects, than for settled business; for the ex- perience of age, in tilings that fall within the compass of it, directeth them ; but, in new things abuseth them. The errors of yoiuig 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 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 ab- surdly ; care not to innovate, whicii draws unknown inconveniences ; use extreme reme-

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dies at first ; and that, which doubleth ail er- roi\s, will not acknowledge or retract them^ like an umeady horse, that will neither stop nor turn. Men of age object too much, con- sult \oo iong, adventure too little, repent too S0'.>ij, a:id scidoai drive business home to the full period ; but content themselves with a mediocrity of success. Certainly it is good to compound eaipli)yments of both ; for that will be good for the present, because the vir- tues of either age iiiay correct tlie defects of both ; and good for succesiiion, that joung men may be learners, while men in age are actors ; and, lastly,good for external accidents, because authority folio weth old men, and favour and popularity 3^oung : but for the moral part, per- haps, youth will have the preeminence, as age hath for the politic. A certain rabbm upon the text, " Your young men shall see visions, " and your old men shall dream dreams," in- ferreth, that young men are admitted nearer to God than old, because vision is a clearer re- velation than a dream : and, certainly,the more a man drinketh of the world, the more it in- toxicateth ; and age doth profit rather in the powers of understanding, than in the virtues

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of the will and affections. There be some have an over-early ripeness in their yearsj which fadeth betimes : these are, first, such as have brittle wits, the edge whereof is soon turned ; such as was Herrnogenes the rheto- rician, whose books are exceeding subtile, who afterwards waxed stupid : a second sort is of those that have some natural dispositions, which have better grace in youth than in age ; such as is a fluent and luxuriant speech ; which be- comes youth well, but not age : so Tully saith of Hortensius, ^^ idem manebat, neque idem *^ decebat :" the third is of such as take too high a strain at the first ; and are magnani- mous, more than tract of years can uphold ; as was Scipio Africanus, of whom Livy saith iq effect, ^< ultim.a primis cedebant."

OF BEAUTY.

Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set :; and surel}^ virtue is best in a body that is comely^ though not of delicate features ; and that hath rather dignity of presence, than btauty of aspect ; neither is it almost seen, that very

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beautiful persons are otherwise of great virtue ; ^s if nature were rather busy not to err, than in labour to produce excellency ; and there- fore they prove accomplished, but not of great spirit ; and study rather behaviour than virtue. But this holds not always : for Augustus Caesar Titus Vespasianus, Philip le Belle of France, Edward the Fourth of England, Alcibiades of Athens, Ismael the sophy of Persia, were all high and great spirits ; and yet the most beau- tiful men of their times. In beauty, that of favour is more than that of colour ; and that of decent and gracious motion more than that of favour. That is the best part of beauty which a picture cannot express : no, nor the first sight of the life. There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. A man cannot .tell whether Apel- les, or Albert Durer, w^ere 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 no body 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

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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 trie principal part of beauty is in decent motion^ certainly it is no marvel, though persons in y^ars seem many times more amiable ; ^' pul- ^^ chrorum autumnus puleher ;" for no youth can be comely but by pardon, and considering the youth as to make up the comeliness. Beau- ty is as summer-fruits, wLich are easy to cor- rupt, 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 virtues shine, and vice^ blush.

OF DEFORMITY".

Deformed persons are commonly even with nature ; 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 affec- " tion ;'* and so they have their revenge at

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aatiire. 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 incli- nation 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 w^hich seldom faileth of the effect. Whosoever hath any thing fixed in his person that doth iuduce con- tempt, hath also a perpetual spur in himself to rescue and deliver himself from scorn ; there- fore all deformed persons are extreme bold ; first, as in their owm defence, as being expos- ed to scorn ; but in process of time by a gen- eral habit. Also it stirreth in them industry, and especially of this kind, to watch and ob- jgerve the w^eakness of others, that they may have somewhat to repay. Again in their su- periors, it quencheth jealousy towards them, as persons that they think they may at plea- sure despise ; and it layeth their competitors and emulators asleep, as never believing they-

should be in possibility of advancement till they see them in possession : so that upon the matter, in a great wit^ deformity is an advan- tage to rising. Kings in ancient times, (and at this present in some countries,) were wont to put great trust in eunuchs, because they that are envious towards all are more obnoxious and officious towards one : but yet their trust towards them hath rather been as to good spi- als, and good whisperers, than good magis- trates and officers : and much like is the reason of deformed persons. Still the ground is, they will, if they be of spirit, seek to free themselves from scorn ; which must be either by virtue or malice : and, therefore, let it not be marvelle(J if sometimes they prove excellent persons ; as was Agesilaus, Zanger the son of Solyman. iEsop, Gasca, president of Peru ; and Socrates may go likewise amongst them^ with other.s,

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OF BUILDING.

Houses are built to live in, and not to look on ; therefore let use be preferred before uni- formity, except where both may be had. Leave the goodly fabrics of houses, for beauty only, to the enchanted palaces of the poets, who build them with small cost. He, that builds a fair house upon an ill seat, commit- teth himself to prison : neither do I reckon it an ill seat only, where the air is unwholesome, but likewise where the air is unequal ; as you shall see many fine seats set upon a knap of ground, environed with higher hills round a- bout it, whereby the heat of the sun is pent in, and the wind gathereth as in troughs ; so as you shall have, and that suddenly, as great diversity of heat and cold as if you dwelt in several places. Neither is it ill air only that maketh an ill seat ; but ill ways, ill markets ^ and, if you will consult wnth Momus, ill neigh- bours. I speak not of many more ; want of water; want of wood, shade, and shelter; want ©f frviitfulcess, and mixture of grounds of se-

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veral natures ; want of prospect ; want oflev- el grounds ; want of places at some near dis- tance for sports of hunting, hawking, and races; too near the sea, too remote ; having the com- modity of navigable rivers^ or the discommodi- ty of their overflowing ; too far off from great cities, which may hinder business ; or too near them, which lurcheth alt provisions, and mak- eth every thing dear; where a man hatha great living laid together, and where he is scanted; all which, as it is impossible perhaps to find together, so it is good to know them, and thmk of them, that a man may take as many as he can ; and if he have several dwellings, that he sort them so, that what he wanteth in the one, he may find in the other. LucuUus answered Pompey well, who, when he saw his stately galleries and rooms so large and light- some in one of his houses, said, ^' Surely an '* excellent place for summer, but how do you " in winter ?" LucuUus answered, ^' Why do <*you not think me as wise as some fools are, <f that ever change their abode towards the *' winter ?"

To pass from the seat to the house itself, we will do as Cicero doth in the orator^s art.

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who writes books De Oratore, and a book He entitles Orator ; whereof the former delivers the precepts of the art, and the latter the per- fection. We will therefore describe a princely palace, making a brief model thereof : for it is strange to see, now in Europe, such huge buildings as the Vatican and Escurial and some others be, and yet scarce a very fair room in them.

First, therefore, I say you cannot have a perfect palace, except you have two several sides ; a side for the banquet, as is spoken of in the book of Esther, and a side for the household ; the one for feasts and triumphs, and the other fordvvelling.. I understand both these sides to be not only returns, but parts of the front ; and to be uniform without, though* severally partitioned within ; and to be on both sides of a grea,t and stately tower in the midst of the front, that, as it were, joineth them together on either hand. I would have, on the side of the banquet in front, one only goodly Toom above stairs, of some forty foot high ; and under it a room for a dressing or preparing place, at times of triumphs. On the other side, which is the househgld side, I wish it d^->

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vided at the first into a hall and a chapel, (with a partition between,) both of good itate and bigness ; and those not to go all the lengthy but to have at the farther end a winter and a summer parlour, both fair ; and under these rooms a fair and large cellar sunk under ground ; and likewise some priv)' kitchens, with butteries and pantries, and the like. As for the tower, I would have it two stories, of eigh- teen foot high apiece above the two wnngs ; and goodly leads upon the top, railed with statues interposed ; and the same tow^er to be divided into rooms as shall be thought fit' The stairs likev^'ise to the upper rooms, let them be upon a fair open newel, and finely railed in with images of wood cast into a brass colour ; and a very fair landing place at the top. But this to be, if you do not point any of the lower rooms for a dining place of servants ; for, oth- erwise, you shall have the servants dinner after your own ; for the steam of it will come up as in a tunnel ; and so much for the front : only. I understand the height of the first stairs to be sixteen foot, which is the height of the lower room.

Beyond this front is there to be a fair court^

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but three sides of it of a far lower buildlhg than the front ; and in all the four corners o^ that court fair stair-cases, cast into turrets en the outside, and not within the row of build- ings themselves : but those towers are not to be of the height of the front, but rather pro- portionable to the lower building. Let the court not be paved, for that striketh up a great beat in summer, and much cold in winter ■; but only some side allejs with a cross, and the quarters to graze, being kept shorn, but not too near shorn. The row of return on th6 banquet side, let it be all stately galleries ; in which galleries let there be three, or five fine cupolas in the length of it, placed at equal distance, and fine coloured windows of several Work : on the household side, chambers of presence and ordinary entertainments, with some bed-chambers ; and let all three sides be a double house, without thorough lights on the sides, that you may have rooms from the sun, both for forenoon and afternoon. Cast it also, that you may have rooms both for sum^ nier and winter ; shady for summer, and warm for winter. You shall have sonietimes fair ho^o^es so full of glass that one cannot tell

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where to become to be out of the sun or cold. For embovved windows, I hold them of good use ; (in cities, indeed, upright do better, in re- spect of the uniformity towards the street ;) for they be pretty retiring places for conference ; and, besides, they keep both the wind and sun off; for that which would strike almost through the room, doth scarce pass the window : but let them be but few.;, four in the court, on the sides only.

Beyond this court, let there be an inward court of the same square and height, which is to be environed with the garden on all sides ; and, in the inside, cloistered on all sides upon decent and beautiful arches as high as the first story ; on the under story towards the garden, let it be turned to a grotto, or place of shade or estivation ; aud only have opening and win- dows towards the garden, and be level upon the floor, no whit sunk under ground, to avoid all dampi':hness : and itt there be a fountain or some fair work of statues in the midst of this court, and to be paved as the otiier court was. These buildings to be for privy lodgings on b'oth sides, and the end for privy galleries ; whereof you mu?t foresee that one of them be for an infir-

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iiiary,if the prince or any special person should ■be sick, with chambers, bed-chamber, *' an' *^ tecamera," and <* recamera," joining to it ; this upon the second story. Upon the ground story, a fair gallery, open, upon pillars ; and upon the third story likewise, an open gallery upon pillars, to take the prospect and freshness of the garden. At both corners of the farther ^side, by way of return, let there be two deli- cate or rich cabinets, daintil}' paved, richly hanged, glazed with crystalline glass, and a rich cupola in the midst ; and all other ele- gancy that may be thought upon. In the upper gallery too, I wish that there may be, if the place will yield it, some fountains running in divers places from the wall, with some fine avoidances. And thus much far the model of the palace ; save that you must have, be- fore you come to the front, three courts ; a green court plain, with a wall about it ; a second court of the same, but more garnislied with little turrets, or rather embelliishments upon the wall ; and a third court, to make a square with the front, but not to be built, nor yet enclosed with a naked wall, but enclosed with terraces leaded aloft, and fairly garnish-ed

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on the three sides ; and cloistered on the inside with pillars, and not with arches below. As for offices, let them stand at a distance, with some low galleries to pass from them to the |3alace itself.

OF GARDENSo

God Almighty first planted a garden ; and, in= deed, it is the purest of human pleasures ; it is the greatest refrejhment to the spirits of man ; without which buildings and palaces are but gi'oss handyworks : and a man shall ever see> that, when ages grow to civility and elegancy, men come to build stately, sooner than to garden finely ; as if gardening were the greater perfection. I do hold it, in the royal ordering of gardens, there ought to be gardens for all the months in the year ; in which, severally, things of beauty may be then in season. For December and January, and the latter part of November, you must take such things a* are green all winter ; holly ; ivy ; bays ; ju- niper ; cypress trees ; yew ; pines ; fir-trees ; rosemary ; lavender ; periwinkle, the white, tb^ U

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puvpie,and the blue ; germander ; flags; orange trees ; lemon trees, and myrtles, if they be stored ; and sweet marjoram warm set. There iolloweth, for the latter part of January and February, the mezereon tree, which then blos- soms ; crocus vernus, both the yellow and the grey; primroses; anemones; the early tulip; hyacinthus orientalis ; chamairis ; fritellaria. For March there come violets, especially the siar gle blue, which are the earliest; the early daffo- dil ; the daisy ; the almond tree in blossom ; the peach tree in blossom ; the cornelian tree in blossom i sweet-briar. In April follow the double white violet ; the wall-flower ; the stock- gilliflower ; the cowslip ; flower-de-luces ; and lilies of all natures ; rosemary-flowers ; the tu- lip ; the double peony ; the pale daffodil ; the French honeysuckle ; the cherry tree in blos- som ; the damascene and plum trees in blossom ; the white thorn in leaf; the lilac tree. In May and June come pinks of all sorts, espe- cially the blush pink ; roses of all kinds, ex- cept the musk, which comes later ; honey- suckles ; strawberries ; bugloss ; columbine ; the French marygold; flos Africanus; cherry tree in fruit ; ribes ; figs in fruits ; rasps ; vine flowers ;

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lavender in flowers : the sweet satyrian^ with the white flower ; herba muscaria ; iilium con- TaUiiim ; the apple tree in blossom. In July come gilliflowers of all varieties ; musk roses ; the lime tree in blossom ; early pears, and plums in fruit ; gennitings ; codlins. In August come plums of all sorts in fruit ; pears ; apricots ; berberies ; filberds ; muskmelons ; monks-hoods of all colours. In September come grapes ; ap- ples ; poppeys of all colours ; peaches ; melo* cctones ; nectarines ; cornelians ; wardens ; quinces. In October and the beginning of November, come services ; medlars ; bullaces; roses cut or removed to come late ; hollyoaks- ; and such like. These particulars are for the climate of London : but my meaning is per- ceived, that you may have ** ver perpetuum,"' as the place affords.

And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air, (where it comes and goes, like the warWing of music,) than in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that delight, than to know what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air. Roses, damask and red, are fast flowers of their smells 5 so that you may walk by a whole row of then-h,

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and find nothing of their sweetness ; }ea>, though it be in a morning's' dew. Bays, Hke- vvise, yield no smell as they grow, rosemary little, nor sweet marjoram ; that which, above all others, yields the sweetest smell in the air, is the violet ; especially the white double vio- let, which comes twice a year, about the mid- dle of April, and about Bartholomew-tide. Next to that is the musk-rose ; then the straw- berry leaves dying, with a most excellent cor- dial smell ; then the fiower of the vines ; it is a little dust like the dust of a bent, which grows upon the cluster in the first coming forth ; then sweet-briar, then wall-flowers, which are very delightful to be set under a parlour or lower chamber window ; then pinks and gilliflowers, especially the matted pink, and clove gilliflower ; then the flowers of the lime tree ; then the honey-suckles, so iliey be somewhat afar off. Of bean-flow- ers I speak not, because they are field flow- ers : but those which perfume the air most delightfully, not passed by as the rest, but being trodden upon and crushed, are three : that is, burnet, wild thyme, and water- mints : therefore you are to. set whole alle^^sof

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them, to have the pleasure when you walk or tread.

For gardens, (speaking of those which are indeed prince-like, as we have done of build- ings,) the contents ought not well to be under thirty acres of ground, and to be divided into three parts ; a green in the entrance, a heath or desert in the going forth, and the main garden in the midst, besides alleys on both sides ; and I like well, that four acres cf ground be assigned to the green, six to the heath, four and four to either side, and twelve to the main garden. The green- hath two plea-sures ; the one, because nothing is more pleasant to the eye than green grass kept finely shorn ; the other, because it will give you a fair alley in the midst, by which you may go in front upon a stately hedge, which is to inclose the garden : but because the alley will be long, and, in great heat of the year or day, you ought not to buy the shade in the garden by going in the sun through the green ; therefore you are, of either side the green, to plant a covert alley, upon carpenter's work, about twelve foot in height, by which you may go in shade into the garden. As for the mak-

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ing of knots or figures with divers coloured earths, that they may lie under the windows of the house on that side which the garden stands, they be but toys : you may see as good sights many times in tarts. The garden is best to be square, encompassed on all the four sides with a stately arched hedge ; the arches to be upon pillars of carpenter's work ; of some ten foot high, and six foot broad ; and the spaces between of the same dimen- sions with the breadth of the arch. Over the arches let their be an entire hedge of some four foot high, framed also upon car- p.enter's work ; and upon the upper hedge, over every arch, a little turnet, with a belly enough to receive a cage of birds ; and over every space between the arches some other* little figure, with broad plates of round co- loured glass gilt, for the sun to play upon : but this hedge I intend to be raised upon a bank,, not steep, but gently slope, of some six foot, set all with flowers. Also I understand, that this square of the garden should not be the whole breadth of the ground, but to leave on either side ground enough for diversity of side alleys, unto w-hich the two covert alleys of

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the green may deliver you ; but there must be no alleys with hedges at either end of this great enclosure; not at the hither end, for letting your prospect upon this fair hedge from the green ; nor at the farther end, for letting your prospect from the liedge through the arches upon the heath.

For the ordering of the ground within the great hedge, I leave it to variety of device ; advising, nevertheless, that whatsoever form you cast it into first, it be not too busy or full of work ; wherein I, for my part, do not like images cut out in jupiter or other garden stuffs they be for children.- Little low hedges, round like welts, with some pretty pyramids, I like well ; and in some places fair columns upon- frames of carpenter's work. I would -also have the alleys spacious and fair. You may have closer alleys upon the side grounds, but none in the main garden. I wish also, in the very middle, a fair mount, with three ascents and alleys, enough for four to walk abreast ; which I would have to be perfect circles, with- out any bulwarks or embossments; and the whole mount to be thirty feit high ; and some fine banqueting house^ with some chim-

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neys neatly cast, and without too mucli glass.

For fountains, they are a great beauty and refreshment ; but pools mar all, and make the garden unwholesome, and full of flies and frogs* Fountains I intend to be of two natures ; the one that sprinkleth or spouteth water : the other a fair receipt of water of some thirty or forty feet square, but without fish, or slime, or mud. For the first, the ornaments of imagesj gilt or of marble, which are in use, do well : but the main m^atter is so to convey the water, as it never stay either in the bowls or in the cistern : that the water be never by rest dis- coloured, green or red, or the like, or gather any mossiness or putrefaction ; besides that, it is to be cleansed every day by the hand : . also some steps up to it, and some fine pavement about it do welL As for the other kind of fountain, which we may call a bathing pool, it may admit much curiosity and beauty, where- with we will not trouble ourselves ; as, that the bottom be finely paved, and with im.ages •' the sides likewise ; and withal embelhshed with coloured gla.-s, and such things of lustre ; en- compassed also Nvith fine rails of low statues -

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but the main point is the same which we mentioned in the former kind of fountain ; which is, that the water be in perpetual mo- tion, fed b}^ a water higher than the pool, and delivered into it by fair spouts, and then dis- charged away under ground by some equality of bores, shat it stay little ; and for fine de- vices, of arching water without spilling, and making it rise in several form, (of feathers, drinking glasses, canopies, and the like,) they be pretty things to look on, but nothing to health and sweetness.

For the heath, which was the third part of our plot, I wish it to be framed as much as may be to a natural wildness. Trees I would have none in it, but some thickets made only of sweetbriar and hone3'suckle, and some mild vine amongst ; and the ground set with violets^ strawberries, and primroses ; for these are ?weet, and prosper in the shade ; and these are to be in the heath here and there, not in any order. I like also little heaps, in the nature of mole-hills, (such as are in wild heaths,) to be set, some with wild thyme : some with pinks ; some with germander, that gives a good flower to the eye; some with pcriwuikle ; some with

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violets 7 some with strawberries ; some wit!^ cowslips ; some with daisies ; some with red roses ; some with liliiim convaHium ; some with sweet-williams red ; some with bears-foot, and the like low flowers, being withal sweet and sightly : part of which heaps to be with stand- ards of little bushes pricked upon their top, and part without ; the standards to be roses, juniper, holly, berberies, (but here and there, because of the smell of their blossom,) red cur- rants, gooseberries, rosemary, bays_y sweetbriar, and such like : but these standards to be kept with cutting, that they ^row not out of course.

For the side grounds, you are to fill them with variety of alleys private, to give a full shade ; some of them wheresoever the sun be« You are to frame some of them likewise foi* shelter, that when the wind blows sharp, you may walk as in a gallery : and those alleys must be likewise hedged at both ends, to keep out the wind ; and these closer alleys must be ever finely gravelled, and no grass, because of going wet. In many of these alleys, likewise, you are to set fruit trees of all sorts, as well upon the walls as in ranges ; and this should

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be generally observed, that the borders where- in you plant your fruit trees be fair and large and lowj and not steep ; and set with fine flow, ers, but thin and sparingly^, lest they deceive the trees. At the end of both the side grounds I would have a mount of some pretty height, leaving the wall of the enclosure breast high to look abroad into the fields.

For the main garden, I do not deny but there should be some fair alleys ranged on both sides with fruit trees, and some pretty tufts of fruit trees, and arbours with seats, set in some decent order ; but these to be by no means set too thick, but to leave the main garden so as it be not close, but the air open and free. For as for shade, I would have you rest upon the al- leys of the side grounds, there to walk, if you be disposed, in the heat of the year or day ; but to make account, that the main garden is for the more temperate parts of the year, and, in the heat of summer, for the morning and the evening, or overcast days.

For aviaries, I like them not, except they be of that largeness as they may be turfed, and have living plants and bushes set in them ; that the birds may have more scope and natural

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laestling, and that no foulness appear on Xbe floor of the aviary. So I have made a plat- form of a princely garden, partly by precept, partly by drawing ; not a model, but some gen- eral lines of it ; and in this I have spared for no cost : but it is nothing for great princes, that, for the most part taking advice with work- men, with no less cost set their things together ; and sometimes add statues and such things for state and magnificence, but nothing to the true pleasure of a garden.

OF NEGOCIATING,

It is generally better to deal by speech, thah by letter ; and by the meditation of a third than by a man's self. Letters are good, when a man w^ould draw an answer by a letter back again; or w^hen it may serve for a man's justi- fications afterwards to produce his own letter; or where it may be in danger to be interrup- ted, or heard by pieces. To deal in person is good when a man's face breedeth regard, as commonly with inferiors ; or in tender cases, where a man's eve unon the countenance of

Ilim, with whom he speaketh, may give hirh a direction how far to go ; and generally where a man will reserve to himself liberty, either to disavow or to expound. In choice of instru- ments, it is better to chouse men of a plainer sort, that are like to do uat, that is committed to them, and to report back again faithfully the success, than those, that are cunning to contrive, out of other men's business, somewhat to grace themselves, and will help the matter in report for satisfaction sake. Use also such persons as affect the business wherein they are employed, for that quickeneth much ; and such as are fit for the matter; as bold men for ex- postulation, fair-spoken men for persuasion, crafty men for inquir}^ and observation, froward and absurd men for business that doth not well bear out itself. Use also such as have been lucky, and prevailed before in things wherein you have employed them ; for that breeds con- fidence, and they will strive to maintain their prescription. It is better to sound a person, witli whom one deals, afar off, than to fall upon tue point at first; except you mean to surprise him by some short question. It is better dealing with men in appetite, than with w

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those that are where they would be. If a man deal with another upon conditions, the start of first performance is all; which a man cannot reasonably demand, except either the nature of the thing be such which must go before ; or else a man can persuade the other party, that he shall still need him in some other thing ; or else that he be counted the honester man. All practice is to discover, or to work. Men discover themselves in trust ; in passion ; at unawares; and of necessity, when they would have somewhat done, and cannot find an apt pretext. If you would W'ork any man, you must either know his nature and fashions_, and so lead him ; or his ends, and so persuade him ; or his weakness and disadvantages, and so awe him ; or those that have interest in him, and so govern him. In dealing with cunning persons, we must ever consider their ends to interpret their speeches ; and it is good to say little to them, and that which they least look for. In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once ; but must prepare busines, and so ripen it by degrees.

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OF FOLLOWERS AND FRIENDS,

Costly followers are not to be liked ; lest while a man maketh his train longer^ he make his wings shorter. I reckon to be costly, r.ot them alone which cl:a;ge the purse, but which are wearisome and importune in suits. Ordi^ nary followers ought to challenge no higher conditions than countenance, recommendation, and protection from wrongs. Factious follow- ers are worse to be liked, which follow not upon affection to him, with whom they range themselves, but upon discontentment conceived against some other ; whereupon commonly en- sueth that ill intelligence that we many times see between great personages. I^ikewise glo- rious followers, who make themselves as trum- pets of the commendation of those they follow, are full of inconvenience ; for they taint busi- ness through want of secrecy ; and they ex- port honour from a man, and make him a re- turn in envy. There is a kind of followers, likewise, which are dangerous, being indeed espialv«; ; which inquire the secrets of the house,

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and bear tales of them to others ; yet &uch men many times are in great favour ; for they are officious, and commonly exchange tales. The following by certain estates of men, answerable to that which a great man liimself professeth, (as of soldiers to him that hath been employed in the wars, and the like,) hath ever been a thing civil, and well taken even in monarchies : so it be without too much pomp or popularity : but the mo^ft honourable Jkind of following, is to be followed as one that apprehendeth to advance virtue and de- sert in all sorts of persons ; and yet where there is no eminent odds in sufficiency, it is^ better to take with the more passable, than with the more able ; and, besides, to speak truth in base times, active men are of more use than virtuous. It is true, that in govern- iTient, it is good to use men of one rank equal- ly ; for to countenance some extraordinarily, is to make them insolent, and the rest discontent ; because they ma}^ claim a due : but contra- riwise in favour, to use men with much differ- ence and election is good ; for it maketh the persons preferred more thankful, and the rest- more officious ^ because all is of favour. It is.

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good discretion not to make too much of any man at the first ; because one cannot hold oirt that proportion. To be governed, (as we call it,) by one, is not safe ; for it shews softnes?, and gives a freedom to scandal and disreputa- tion ; for those that would not censure, or speak ill of a man immediately, will talk more boldly of those that are so great with them, and thereby wound their honour ; yet to be distracted with many is worse ; for it makes men to be of the last impression, and full of change. To take advice of some few friends is ever honourable ; for lookers on many times see more than gamesters ; and the vale best discovereth the hill. There is little friendship in the world, and least of all between equals which was wont to be magnified. That that. is, is between superior and inferior, w^hose for^ tunes may comprehend the one he other,

OF SUITORS.

Many ill matters and projects are undertaken j

and private suits do putrt fy the public gc^od,-

Many good matters are undertaken with Dad

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minds ; I mean not only corrupt mihds^ bnt^ crafty minds, that intend not performance. Some embrace suits which never mean to deal effectually in them ; but if they see there may- be life in tlie matter by some other mean, they will be content to win a thank, or take a se- cond reward, or, at least, to make use in the mean time of the suitor's hopes. Some take hold of suits only for an occasion to cross some other ; or to make an information, whereof, they could not otherwise have apt pretext, without care what become of the suit when that turn is served ; or generally, to make other men^s business a kind of entertainment to bring in their own : nay, some undertake suits with a full purpose to let them fall ; to the end to gratify the adverse party or com- petitor. Surely there is in some sort a right in every suit ; either a right of equity, if it be a suit of controversy ; or a right of desert, if it be a suit of petition. If affection lead a man to favour the wrong side in justice, let him rather use his countenance to compound the matter, than to carry it. If affection lead a man to favour the less worthy in desert, let feim do it without depraving- or disabling the

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better deserver. In suits which a man doth not well understand, it is good to lefer them to some friend of trust and judgment, that may report whether he may deal in them with ho- nour ; but let him choose well his referendaries, for else he may be led by the nose.. Suitors are so distasted with delays and abuses, that plain dealing in denying to deal in suits at first, and reporting the success barel}^, and in challenging no more thanks than one hath deserved, is grown not only honourable, but also gracious. In suits of favour, the first coming ought to take little place ; so far forth consideration may be had of his trust, that if. intelligence of the matter could not otherwise have been had but by him, advantage be not taken of the note, but the party left to his other means ; and in some sort recompensed for his discovery. To be ignorant of the value of a suit, is simplicity; as well as to be ig- norant of the right thereof, is want of con- science. Secrecy in suits is a great mean of obtaining ; for voicing them to be in forward- ness, may discourage some kind of suitors ; but doth quicken and awake others : but timing of the suit is the principal ; timing I say, not

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only in respect of the person, that should grant it, but in respect of those, which are like to eross it. Let a man, in the choice of his mean-, rather choose the fittest mean, than the greatest mean ; and rather them that deal in certain things, than those that are general. The re- paration of a denial is sometimes equal to the first grant, if a man shew himself neither de- jected nor discontented. " Iniquum petas, ut *^ ?equum feras," is a good rule where a man hath strength of favour ; but, otherwise, a man were better rise in his suit ; for he that would have ventured at first to have lost the suitor, will not, iu the conclusion, lose both the suitor and his own former favour. Nothing is th'viight go easy a request to a great person, as his let- ter ; and yet, if it be not in a good cause, it is so much out of his reputation. There are no worse instruments than these general contriv- ers of suits ; for they are but a kind of poison and infection to public proceedings.

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OF STUDIES.

Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring ; for ornament, is in discourse ; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business : for expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one : but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies, is sloth ; to use them too much for or- ament, is affectation : to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scho= lar : they perfect nature, and are perfected by experience : for natural abilities are like na- tural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, sim- ple men admire them, and wise men use them ; for they teach not their own use ; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and

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confute, nor to believe and take for granted;^ nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted,

others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed aiid digested : that is, some books are to be read only in parts ; others to be read, but not curiouslj^ ; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by dej)uty, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments,, and the meaner sort of books ; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man ; confer- ence a ready man ; and writing an exact man ; and, therefore, if a man write a little, he had need have a great memory : if he confer little, need have a present wit : and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make men wise ; poets wilt}' ; the mathematic subtile ; natural philosophy deep ; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend ; '^ Abeunt studia ill mores ;" nay, there is no stand or injpedi- ment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies ; like as diseases of the body may havQ

appropriate exercises ; bowling is good for the stone and reigns ; shooting for the lungs and breast ; gentle walking for the stomach ; rid- ing for the head, and the like ; so if a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathe- matics ; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again ; if his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen ; for they are " Cymini sectores ;" if he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call upon one thing to prove and illustrate another : let him study the lawyer's cases : so every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.

OF FACTION.

Many have an opinion not wise, that for a prince to govern his estate, or for a great per- son to govern his proceedings, according to the respect to factions, is a principal part of policy ; whereas, contrariwise, the chiefest wisdom is, either in ord^rin^ those things which are gen- eral, and wherein men of several factions dd

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nevertheless agree, or in dealing with corres- pondence to particular persons, one by one ; but I say not, that the consideration of factions is to be neglected. Mean men, in their rising, must adhere ; but great men, that have strength in theniselv^es, were better to maintain them- selves indifferent and neutral : yet even in beginners, to adhere so moderately, as he be a man of the one faction, which is most passable with the other, commonly giveth best way. The lower and weaker faction is the firmer in conjunction; and it is often seen, that a few that are stiff, do tire out a greater number that are more moderate, \yhen one of the fac- tions is extinguished, the remaining subdivide eth; as the faction between Lucullus and the rest of the nobles of the senate, (which they called " optimates,"; held out a while against the faction of Pompey and Ct^sar ; but when the senate's authority was pulled down, Cctisar and Pompey soon after brake. The faction or party of Antonius and Octavianus Giesar, a- gainst Brutus and Cassius, held out likewise for a time ; but when Brutus and Cassms were overthrown, then soon aff r Antonius and Octavianus brake and subdivided. These ex-

o.r.

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imples are of wars, but the same lioldeth in private factions : and, therefore, those that are seconds in factions, do many times, when the faction subdivideth, prove principals ; but many times also they prove cyphers and cashiered ; for many a man's strength is in oppo^ition ; and when that faileth, he groweth out of use. It is commonly seen, that men once placed, take in with the contrary faction to that by which they enter; thinking, belike, that they have their first sure, and now are ready for a new purchase. The traitor in faction lightly goeth away with it, for when matters have stuck long in balancing, the vvinning of some one man casteth them, and he gettcth all the thanks. The even carriage between two fac- tions proceedeth not always of moderation, but of a trueness to a man^s self, with end to make use of both. Certainly, in Italy, they hold it a little suspect in popes, when they have often in their mouth " Padre commune ;" and take it to be a sign of one that meaneth to refer all to the greatness of his own house. Kings had need beware how they side themselves, and make themselves as of a faction or party ; for leagues within the state are ever pernicious tr

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uionarcliics ; for they raise an obligation par- amount to obligation of sovereignty, and make the king " tanquam unus ex nobis ;" as was to be seen in the league of France. When factions are carried too high and too violently, it is a sign of weakness in princes, and much to the prejudice both of their authority ana business. The motions of factions under kings, ought to be like the motions, (as the astrono- mers speak,) of the inferior orbs which may have their proper motions, but yet still are qui- etly carried by the higher motion of " primiim mobile.'*

OF CEREMONIES AND RESPECTS.

He that is only real, had need have exceeding great parts of virtue ; as the stone had need to be rich that is set without foil : but if a man mark it well, it is in praise and commendation of men, as it is in gettings and gains ; for the proverb is true, " That light gains make heavy <^ purses ;" for light gains come thick, whereas great come but now and then : so it is true, tha^ small matters win great comm.endatioji.

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because they are continually in use and m note ; whereas the occasion of any great vir- tue Cometh but on festivals : therefore it dolh much add to a man's reputation, and is, (as queen Isabella said,) like perpetual letters com- mendatory, to have good forms : to attain them, it almost sufficeth not to despise them ; for so shall a man observe them in others ; and let him trust liimself with the rest : for if he la- bour too much to express them, he shall lose their grace ; which is to be natural and unaf- fected. Some men's behaviour is like a verse, wherein every syllable is measured ; how can a man comprehend great matters, that break- eth his mind too much to small observations ? Not to use ceremonies at all, is to teach others not to use them again ; and so diminisheth res- pect to himself ; especially they are not to be omitted to strangers and formal natures : but the dwelling upon them, and exalting them above the moon, is not only tedious, but doth diminish the faith and credit of him that speaks; and, ycertainU^, there is a kind of conveying of effectual and imprinting passages amongst com- pliments, which is of singular use if a man can hit upon it. Amongst a man's peers, a

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aiian shall be sure of familiarity ; and there- fore it is good a httle to keep state : amongst a man's inferiors, one shall be sure of rever- ence ; and therefore it is good a little to be familiar. He that is too much in any thing, so that he givelh another occasion of society, maketh himself cheap. To apply oneself to others, is good ; so it be with demonstration, that a man doth it upon regard, and not upon facility. It is a good precept, generally in seconding another, yet to add somewhat of one's own : as if you will grant his opinion, let it be with some distinction : if vou will follow his motion, let it be with condition ; if you allow his counsel,!et it be with alledging far- ther reason. Men had need beware how" they be too perfect in compliments ; for be they never so sufficient otherwise, their enviers -will be sure to give them that attribute, ta the disadvantage of their greater virtues. It is loss also in business to be too full of respects, or to be too curious in observing times and opportunities. Solomon saith, ^^ He that con- *^' sidereth the wind shall not sow, and he that ^' looketh to the clouds shall not reap." A wise man vs-ill aiake more opportunities than h^

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finds. Men's behaviour should be Uke their apparel ; not too strait or point device, but free for exercise or motion.

OF PRAISE.

Praise is the reflection of virtue ; but it is as the glass or body which giveth the reflection : if it be from the common people, it is common- ly false and nought, and rather foUoweth vain persons, than virtuous ; for the common peo- ple understand not many excellent virtues : the lowest virtues draw praise from them, the middle virtues work in them astonishment or admiration ; but of the highest virtues they have no sense or perceiving at all; but shews, and " species virtutibus similes,'^' serve best with them. Certainly, fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid ; bat if per- sons of quality and judgment concur, then it is, (as the scripture saith,) *^ Ncmen bonum instar " unguenti fragrantis ;" it filleth all round about, and will not easily away ; for the odours of ointments are more durable than X 2

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those of flowers. There be so many fala^ points of praise, that a man may justly hold it in suspect. Some praises proceed merely of flattery ; and if he be an ordinary flatterer, he will have certain common attributes, which may serve every man ; if he be a cunning flat- terer, he will follow the arch-flatterer, which is a man's self, and wherein a man thinketh best of himself, therein the flatterer will uphold him most : but if he be an impudent flatterer, look wherein a man is conscious to himself that he is most defective, and is most out of countenance in himself, that will the flatterer entitle him to perforce, " Spreta consci entia.'* Some praises come of good wishes and res- pects, which is a form due in civility to kings and great persons, " laudando praecipere ;" when by telling men what they are, they rep- resent to them w'hat they should be : some men are praised maliciously to their hurt, thereby to stir envy and jealousy towards them ; ^< pessimum genus in^imicorum laudantium ;" insomuch as it was a proverb amongst the Grecians that, ^' He that was praised to hi? *^ hurt, should have a push rise upon his nose;'* as "vve say, that a blister will rise upon one's

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tongue that tells a lie; certainly, moderate praise, used with opportunity, and not vulgar, is that which doth the good. Solomon saith, «' He that praiseth his friend aloud rising early, *^ it shall be to him no better than a curse.*' Too much magnifying of man or matter doth irritate contradiction, and procure envy and scorn. To praise a man's self cannot be de- cent, except it be in rare cases; but to praise a man's office or profession, he may do it with good grace, and with a kind of magnanimity. The cardinals of Rome, which are theologues and friars and schoolmen, have a phrase of notable contempt and scorn towards civil busi- ness ; for they call all temporal business of wars, embassages, judicature, and other em- ployments, sherrerie, which is under sheriffries, as if they were but matters for under-sheriffs and catchpoles ; though many times those under-sheriffries do more good than their high speculations. St. Paul, when he boasts of him- self, doth oft interlace, " I speak like a fool ;" but speaking of hi.s calling, he saith, *^ magni- ficabo apostolatum meum."

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OF VAIN GLORY.

It was prettil\^ devised ofiEsop; tlie fiy sat upon the axle-tree of the chariot wheel, and saidj '^ What a dust do I raise !" So are there some vain persons, that, whatsoever goeth alone or moveth upon greater means, if thej have never so little hand in it, they think it is they that carry it. They that are glorious must needs be factious ; for all bravery stands upon comparisons. They must needs be vio- lent to make good their own vaunt.s : neither can they be secret, and therefore not effectual ; but according to the French proverb, *' beau- " coup de bruit, peu de fruit ;" *^ much bruit, ^^ little fruit.'* Yet, certainly there is use of this quality in civil affairs : where there is an opinion and fame to be created, either of vir- tue OF greatness, these men are good trumpet- ers. Again, as Titus Livius noteth in the case, of Antiochus and tlie rEtolians, there are some- times great effects of cross lies ; as if a man that n:fgociates between two princes, to draw them to join in a war against the third^ doth

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extol the forces of either of them above mea- sure, the one to the other ; and sometime?, lie that deals between man and man raiseth his own credit with both, by pretending greater interest than he hath in either : and in these, and the Hke kinds, it often falls out, that some- what is produced of nothing ; for lies are suffix cient to breed opinion, and opinion brings on substance. In military commanders and sol- diers vain glory is an essential point ; for as iron sharpens iron, so by glory one courage fharpeneth another. In cases of great enter- prize upon charge and adventure, a composi- tbn of glorious natures doth put life into busi- ness ; and those, that are of solid and sober natures, have more of the ballast than of the sail. In fame of learning, the flight will be slow without some feathers of ostentation ; " Qui *'* de contemnenda gloria libros scribunt, no = -<■ men suum inscribunt." Socrates, Aristotle, Galen, wem men full of ostentation : certainly vain glory helpeth to perpetuate a man's mem- ory ; and virtue was never so beholden to hu- man nature, as it received its due at the second hand. Neither had the fame of Cicero, Seneca, Piinius Secundus borne her age so well if i*

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had not been joined with some vanity in theurt selves ; like unto varnish, that makes ceilings not only shine, but last. But all this \vhilej when 1 speak of vain glory, I mean not of that property that Tacitus doth attribute to Muci- anus ■; *^ Omnium, quce dixerat feccratque, ar- " te quadam ostentator :" for that proceeds net of vanity, but of natural magnanimity and discretion ; and, in some persons, is not only comely, but gracious : for excusations, ces- sion;, modesty itself well governed are but arts of ostentation ; and amongst those arts there is none better than that which Plinius Se- cundus speaketh of; which is to be liberal of praise and commendation to others, in that wherein a man's self hath any perfection : for saith c liny very Vv'itti'y, " In commending ano- ^^ ther you do yourself right ;" for he that you commend is either superior to you in that you commend, or inferior ; if he be inferior, if he be to be commended, you much more ; if he be superior, if he be not to be commended, you much less glorious. Men are the scorn of wise men, the admiration of fool^, the idols of par- asites; and the slave? of their own vaunti.

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OF HONOUR AND REPUTATION.

The winning of honour is but the revealing of a man's virtue and worth without disadvan- tage ; for some in their actions do woo and affect honour and reputation ; which sort df men are commonly much talked of, but in- wardly little admired : and some, contrariwise, darken their virtue in the shew of it ; so as they be undervalued in opinion. If a man perform that which hath not been attempted before, or attempted and given over, or hath been atchieved, but not with so good circum- stance, he shall purchase more honour than by affecting a matter of greater difficulty, or virtue, wherein he is but a follower. If a man so temper his actions, as in some one of them he doth content every faction or combination of people, the music will be the fuller. A man is an ill husband of his honour that entereth into any action, the failing wherein may dis- grace him more than the carrying of it through can honour him. Honour that is gained and broken upon another hath the quickest reflec-

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lion, like diamonds cut with fasccts ; and, therefore, let a man contend to excel any com- petitors of his in honour, in out-shooting them if he can in their own bow. Discreet fol- lowers and servants help much to reputation ; *^ Omnis fania a domesticis emanat." Envy, which is the canker of honour, is best distin- guished by declaring a man's self in his ends, rather to seek merit than fame : and by at- tributing a man's succestcs rather to divine Providence and felicity, than to his own vir- tue or policy. The true marshalling of the degrees of sovereign honour are these : m the first place are " conditores imperiorum," foun- ders of states and commonwealths ; such as were Romulus, Cyrus, Cyesar, Ottoman, Is- mael : in the second place are ^^ legislatores,^ lawgivers ; which are also called second foun- ders, or ^^ perpetui principes," because they govern by their ordinances after they are gone ; such were Lycurgus, Solon, Justinian, Edgar, Alphonsus of Castile, the wise, that made the ^^ Siete patridas :" in the third place are " li- *^' beratores," or " salvatores ;" such as com' pound the long miseries of civil wars, or de- liver their countries from servitude of strangers

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or tyrants ; as Augustus Cciesar, Vespasianus, Aurelianus, Theodoricus, king Henry the sev- enth of England, king Henry the fourth of France : in the fourth place are " propaga- ^^ tores," or " propugnatores imperii ;" such as in honourable wars enlarge their territories, or make noble defence against invaders : and in the last place, are " patres patriae," which reign justly, and make the times good whereia they live ; both which last kinds need no examples, they are in such number. Degrees of honour in subjects are first, " participes cu- ^^ rarum," those upon whom princes do dis- charge the greatest weight of their affairs ; their right hands, as we call them : the next are, " duces belli," great leaders ; such as are princes lieutenants, and do theni notable ser- vices in the wars ; the third are, ^^ gratiosi," favourites ; such as exceed not this scantling, to be solace to the sovereign, and harmless to the people : and the fourth, ^^ negotiis pares ;•* such as have great places under princes, an4 execute their places witli sufficiency. There is an honour, likewise, which may be ranked amongst the a:rtiatest, which happeneth rarely ; that is, of sue. 1 as sacrifice themselves to death

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or danger for the good of their country ; as was ^I. Kegulus, and the two Decii.

OF JUDICATURE.

Judges ought to remember that their office is ^' jus dicere," and not "jus dare,;" to inter- pret law, and not to make law, or give law : else will it be like the authority claimed by the church of Rome ; which, under pretext of exposition of scripture, doth not stick to add and alter ; and to pronounce that which they do not find, and by shew of antiquity intro- duce novelty. Judges ought to be more learn- ed than witty, more reverend than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper vir- tue. Cursed, (saith the law,) " Is he that re- " moveth the landmark." The mislayer of a mere stone is to blame; but it is the unjust judge that is the capital remover of landmarks when he defineth amiss of lands and property. One foul sentence doth more hurt than m ny foul examples ; for these do but corrupt the stream, the other corrupteth the fountain : so

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saith Solomon ; " Fons turbatus, et vena cor^ <^ rupta est Justus cadens in causa sua coram '^ adversario." The office of judges may have reference unto tlie parties that sue, unto the advocates that plead, unto the clerks and minis- ters of justice underneath them, and to the sovereign or state above them.

First, for the causes or parties that sue. There be, (saith the scripture,) " that turn *^ judgment into wormwood;" and surely there be also that turn it into vinegar ; for injustice jnaketh it bitter, and delays make it sour. The principal duty of a judge, is to suppress force and fraud ; whereof force is the more pernicious when it is open; and fraud wheii^ it is close and disguised. Add thereto con- tentious suit«;, which ought to be spewed out, as the surfeit of courts. A judge ought to pre- pare his way to a just sentence, as God usethr to prepare his way, by raising valleys and tak- ing down hills : so when there appeareth on either side an high hand, violent prosecution, cunning advantages taken, combination, power, great counsel, then is the virtue of a judge seen to make inequality equal ; that he may plant his judgment as upon an even grounds

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'*^ Qui forliter cmiuigit, elicit sanguinem ;" and where the wine-prt'hs is hard wrought, it yields a harsh wine that tastes of the grape-stone. Judges must beware of hard constructions, and atrained inferences ; for there is no worse tor" ture than the torture of laws : especially in case of laws penal, they ought to have care^, that that, wliich was meant for terror, be not turned into rigour ; and that they bring not iipon the people that shower whereof the scrip- ture speaketh, " Pluet super eos laqueos ;" for penal laws pressed,, are a shower of snares up- on the people : therefore let penal laws, if they iiave been sleepers of long, or if they be grown unfit for the present time, be by wise judges confined in the execution ; *^Judicis officium est,. *^ ut res^ ita tempora rerum," &c. In causes of life and death judges ought, (as far as the law permitteth,) in justice to remember mercy, and to cast a severe eye upon the example^,, but a merciful eye upon- the person.

Secondly, for the advocates and counsel that plead. Patience and gravity of hearing is an essential part of justice ; and an overspeaking judge is no well tuned cymbal. It is no grace to a judge first to find that which he might

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have heard in due time from the bar ; or to shew quickness of conceit in cutting off evi- dence or counsel too short ; or to prevent in- formation by questions, though pertinent. The parts of a judge in hearing are four : to direct the evidence ; to moderate length, repetition, or impertinency of speech ; to recapitulate, select, and collate the material points of that which hath been said ; and to give the rule or sentence. Whatsoever is above these is too much, and proceedeth either of glory and willingness to speak, or of impatience to hear, or of shortness of memory, or of want of a stayed and equal attention. It is a strange thing to £?e that the boldness of advocates should prevail with judges ; whereas they should imitate God, in whose seat they sit ; who represseth the presumptuous, and giveth grace to the modest : but it is more strange, that judges should have noted favourites, which cannot but cause multiplication of fees, and suspicion of by-ways. There is due from the judge to the advocate some commendation and gracing where causes are well handled and fair pleaded, especially towards the side which obtaineth not ; for that upholds in the client Y 2:

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the reputation of his counsel, and beats down in him the conceit of his cause. There is likewise due to the pubHc a civil reprehension of advocates where there appeareth cunning counsel, gross neglect, slight information, in- discreet pressing, or an over-bold defence ; and let not the counsel at the bar chop with the judge, nor wind himself into the handling of the cause anew after the judge hath declar- ed his sentence ; but on the other side, let not the judge meet the cause half way, nor give occasion to the party to say, his counsel or proofs were not heard.

Thirdly, for that that concerns clerks and ministers. The place of justice is an hallowed place ; and therefore, not only the bench, but the footpace and precincts and purprise thereof ought to be preserved without scandal and corruption ; for, certainly, grapes, (as the scrip- ture saith,) '' will not be gathered of thorns or « thistles ;" neither can justice yield her fruit with sweetness amongst the briars and bram- bles of catching and polling clerks and minis- ters. The attendance of courts is subject to four bad instruments : first, certain persons that are sowers of suitS;, which make the court

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swell, and the country pine : the second sort is of those, that engage courts in quarrels of jurisdiction, and are not truly " amici curiae," but ^^ parasiti curit«," in puffing a court up be- yond her bounds for their own scraps and ad- vantages : the third sort is of those that may be accounted the left hands of courts ; persons that are full of nimble and sinister tricks and shifts, whereby they pervert the plain and di- rect courses of courts, and bring justice into oblique lines and labyrinths : and the fourth is the poller and exacter of fees ; which justifies the common resemblance of the courts of jus- tice to the bush, whereunto while the sheep flies for defence in weather, he is sure to lose part of the fleece. On the other side, an an- cient clerk, skilful in precedents, wary in pro- ceeding,and understanding in the business of the court, is an excellent figure of a court,and doth many times point the way to the judge him- ^If. ^

Fourthly, for that which may concern the sovereign and estate. Judges ought, above all, to remember the conclusion of the Roman twelve tables ; " Salus populi suprema lex ;" and to know that laws, except they be in order

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to that end, are but things captious, and ora- cles not well in.^pired : therefore it is an happy thing in a state when kings and states do often consult with judges : and again, when judges do often consult with the king and state: the ene, when there is matter of law intervenient in business of state ; the otiier when there is some consideration of state intervenient in mat- ter of law : for many times, the things deduced to judgment may be " meum" and " tuum," when the reason and consequence thereof may trench to point of estate : I call matter of estate, not only the parts of sovereignty, but whatsoever ijitroduceth any great alteration, or dangerous precedent ; or concerneth mani- festly any great portion of people : and let no man weakly conceive that just laws, and true policy have any antipathy ; for they are like the spirits and sinews, that one moves with the other. Let judges also remember, .that Solo- mon's throne was supported by lions on both sides : let them be lions, but yet lions under the throne ; being circnmspect that they do not check or oppose an} points of sovereignty. Let not judges also be so ignorant of their own right, as to think there is not left to them^ as a

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principal part of their office, a wi^ use and application of laws ; for they may remember what the Apostle saith of a greater law than theirs ; " Nos scimus quia lex bona est, modo ^^ quis ea utatur legitime."

OF ANGER.

To seek to extinguish anger utterly is but a bravery of the Stoics. We have better ora- cles : " Be angry, but sin not : let not the sun ^^ go down upon your anger.'' Anger must be limited and confined, both in race and in time. We will first speak how the natural in- clination and habit, " to be angry," may be at- tempted and calmed ; secondly, how the par- ticular motions of anger may be repressed, or,^ at least, refrained from doing mischief; thirdly, how to raise anger, or appease anger in an- other.

For the first, there is no other way but to meditate and ruminate well upon the effects of anger, how it troubles man's life : and the best time to do this, is to look back upon an- ger when the fit is thoroughly over. Seneca

saith well, ^^'lliat anger is like rain, whicli " breaks itself upon that it falls." The scrip- ture exhorteth us, ^' to possess our souls in " patience ;" whosoever is out of patience, is out of possession of his soul. Men must not turn bees ;

" Aniraasc[ue in vulnere ponunt."

^nger is certainly a kijid of baseness ; as it appears well in the weakness of those subjects in whom it reigns : children, women, old folks, sick folks. Only men must beware that they carry their anger rather with scorn than with fear ; so that they may seem rather to be above the injury than below it ; wiiich is a thing easily done, if a man will give law to himself in it.

For the second point, the causes and motives of anger are chiefly three : first, to be too sen- sible of hurt ; for no man is angry that feels not himself hurt ; and, therefore, tender and delicate persons must needs be oft angry, they have so many things to trouble them, which more robust natures have little sense of: the next is, the apprehension and construction of the injury offered to be^ in the circumstances

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therefore, full of contempt : for contempt is that which putteth an edge upon anger as much or more than the hurt itself ; and, therefore, when men are ingenious in picking out circum- stances of contempt, they do kindle their anger much : lastly, opinion of the touch of a man's reputation doth multiply and sharpen anger ; \vherein the remedy is that a man should have, as Gonsalvo was wont to say, " telara ** honoris crassiorem." But in all refrainings of anger it is the best remedy to win time, and to make a man's self believe that the opportu- nity of his revenge is not yet come ; but that he-foresees a time for it, and so to still himself in the mean time, and reserve it.

To contain anger from mischief, though it take hold of a man, there be two things where- of you must have special caution : the one, of extreme bitterness of words, especially if they be aculeate and proper ; for '^ communia male- *' dicta" are nothing so much ; and again, that in anger a man reveal no secrets ; for that makes him not fit for society : the other, that you do not peremptorily break off in any business in a fit of anger ; but howsoever you shew bitter- iiess, do not act any thing that is not revocable.

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For raising and appeasing anger in another, it is done chiefly by choosing of times, when men are forwardest and worst disposed to in- cense them ; again, by gathering, (as was touched before,) all that you can find out to aggravate the contempt : and the two remedies are by the contraries : the former to take good times, when first to relate to a man an angry business, for the first impression is much ; and the other is, to sever, as much as may be, the construction of the injury from the point of contempt ; imputing it to misunder- standing, fear, pa^^sion, or what you will.

OF VICISSITUDE OF THINGS.

Solomon saith, " there is no new thing upon <* the earth ;" so that as Plato had an imagi- nation that all knowledge was but remem- brance ; so Solomon giveth his sentence, " that « all novelty is but oblivion ;" whereby you may see, that the river of Lethe runneth as well above ground as below. There is an ab- struse astrologer that saith, if it were not for two things that are constant, (the one is.

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that the fixed stars ever stand at like distance cne from another, and never come nearer to- gether nor go farther asunder; the other, that the diurnal motion perpetually keepeth time,) 110 individual would last one moment : certain it is, that the matter is in a perpetual flux, and never at a stay. The great winding-sheets that bury all things in oblivion are two ; deluges and earthquakes. As for conflagrations and great droughts, they do not merely dispeople, but destroy. Phaeton's car \vent but a day; and the three year's drought, in the times of Elias, was but particular, and left people alive. As for the great burnings by lightnings, which are often in the West Indies, tiiey are but nar- row ; but in the other two dtstructions, by deluge and earthquake, it is farther to be no- ted that the remnant of people, which hap to be reserved,are commonly ignorant and moun- tainous people, that can give no account of the time past ; so that the oblivion is all one, as if none had been left. If you consider well of the people of the West In.iits, it is very probable that they are a newer, or a younger people than the people of the old world ; and it is much more likely, that the destcuc- z

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iitcm, tliat hath heretofore been there, was n<^ by earthquakes, (as the Egyptian priest told Solon, concerning the island of Atlantis, that it was swallowed by an earthquake,) but rather, that it was desolated by a particular deluge ^ for earthquakes are seldom in those parts : but on the other side, they have such pouring riv- ers, as the rivers of Asia, and Africa, and Eu- rope, are but brooks to them. Their Andes likewise, or mountains, are far higher than those with us ; whereby it seems, that the rem- nants of generation of men were, in such a particular deluge, saved. As for the observa- tion that Machiavel hath, that the jealousy of sects doth much extinguish the memory of things ; traducing Gregory the Great, that he did what in him lay to extinguish all heathen antiquities ; I do not find that those zeals do any great effects, nor last long : as it appear- ed in the succession of Sabinian, who did re- vive the former antiquities.

The vicissitude or mutations in the superior globe, are no fit matter for this present argu- ment. It may be Plato's great year, ii the world should last so long, would have some effect, not in renewing the state of like indi-

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viduals, (for that is the fume of those that conceive the celestial bodies have more ac- curate influences upon these things below, than indeed they have,) but in gross. Comets, out of question, have likewise power and ef- fect over the gross and mass of things : but they are rather gazed upon, and waited upon in their journey, than wisely observed in their effects ; especially in their respective effects ; that is, what kind of comet, for magnitude, co- lour, version of the beams, placing in the re- gion of heaven, or lasting, produceth what kind of effects.

There is a toy, which I have heard, and I would not have it given over, but waited upon a little. They say it is observed in the Low Countries, (I know not in what part,) that every five and thirty years the same kind and suit of years and weathers comes about again; as great frosts, great wet, great droughts, wariiL winters, summers with little h€at, and the like ; and they call it the prime : it is a thing I do the rather mention, because, computing back- wards, I have found some concurrence.

But to leave these points of nature, and to eome to men. The greatest vicissitude of

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things amongst men, is the vicissitude of secte.- and religions ; for those orbs rule in men's minds most. The true religion is built upon the rock ; the rest are tossed upon the waves of time. To speak therefore of the causes of new sects, and to give some counsel concerning them, as far as the weakness of human judgment caa give stay to so great revolutions.

When the religion formerly received is rent by discords; and when the holiness of the professors of religion is decayed and full of scandal ; and withal the times be stupid, ig- norant, and barbarous, you may doubt the springing up of a new sect : if then also there should arise any extravagant and strange spir- it to make himself author thereof; all. which points held when Mahomet published his law. If a new sect have not two properties, fear it not, for it w'ill not spread : the one is the sup- ]>lanting, or the opposing of authority estab- lished ; for nothing is more popular than that ; the other is the giving license to plea- sures and a voluptuous life : for as for specu- lative heresies, (such as were in ancient time.s the Arians, and now the Arminians,) though they work mightily upon men's wits,,yet. they

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do not prodtice any great alterations in stiites- r except It be by the help of civil occasions. There be three manner of plantations of new sects : by the power of signs and miracles; by the eloquence and wisdom of speech and per- suasion ; and by the sword. For martyrdoms, I reckon them amongst miracles ; because they seem to exceed the strength of human nature 5 and I may do the like of superlative and ad- mirable holiness of life. Surely there is no better way to stop the rising of new sects and schisms, than to reform abuses ; to compound the smaller differences ; to proceed mildly, and not with sanguinary persecutions ; and rather to take off the principal authors, by winning and advancing them, then to enrage them by Tiolence and bitterness.

The changes and vicissitude in wars are many ; but chiefly in three things ; in the seats or stages of the war, in the weapons, and in the manner of the conduct. Wars, in ancient time, seemed more to move from east to west ; for the Persians, Assyrians, Arabians, Tartars^. -{which were the invaders,) were all eastern people. It is true, the Gauls were western ; but we read but of two incursion? oftheirs i 7.2

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the one to Gallo-Grsecia, the other to Rome : but east and west have no certain points of heaven ; and no more have the wars, either from the east or west, any certainty of obser- vation : but north and south are fixed ; and it hath seldom or never been seen that the far southern people have invaded the northern, but contrariwise ; whereby it is manifest, that the northern tract of the world is in nature the more martial region ; be it in respect of the Stars of that hemisphere;^ or of the great conti- nents that are upon the north ; whereas the south part, for aught that is known, is almost all sea ; or, (which is most apparent,) of the cold of the northern parts, which is that,which^ without aid of discipline, doth make the bodies hardest, and the courage warmest.

Upon the breaking and shivering of a great State and empire, you may be sure to hav€ wars ; for great empires, while they stand, do enervate and destroy the forces of the natives which they have subdued, restmg upon their ow^n protecting forces ; and then, when they ^fail also, all goes to ruin, and they become a prey ; so it was in the decay of the Roman empire^ and likewise in the empire of Al-

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maigne, after Charles the Great, every bird taking a feather ; and were not unlike to be- fal to Spain, if it should break. The great accessions and unions of kingdoms do likewiss stir up wars : for when a state grows to an over power, it is like a great flood that will be sure to overflow ; as it hath been seen in the states of Rome, Turkey, Spain, and others. Look when the world hath fewest barbarous people, but such as commonly will not marry or generate except they know means to live, (as it is almost every where at this day, except Tartary,) there is no danger of inundations of people : but when there be great shoals of people, which go on to popu- late without foreseeing means of life and sus- tentation, it is of necessity that once in an age or two they discharge a portion of their peo- ple upon other nations, which the ancient northern people were wont to do by lot ; cast- ing lots what part should stay at home, and what should seek their fortunes. When a warlike state grows soft and effeminate, they may be sure of a war : for commonly suck estates are grown rich in the time of their dc-

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generating ; and so the prey inviteth, and theif decay in valour encourageth a war.

As for the weapons, it hardly falleth under rule and observation ; yet we see even they have returns and vicissitudes ; for certain it is^ that ordnance was known in the city of the Oxydraces in India ; and was that which the Macedonians called thunder and lightning and magic ; and it is well known that the use of ordnance hath been in China above two thou- sand years. The conditions of weapons and their improvement are, first, the fetching afar off; for that outruns the danger, as it is seen in ordnance and muskets : secondly, the strength of the percussion ; wherein likewise ordnance do exceed all arietations, and ancient inventions : the third is, the commodious use of them ; as that they may serve in all weath- ers ; that the carriage may be light and man- ageable, and the like.

For the conduct of the war : ' at the firsts men rested extremely upon number : they did put the wars likewise upon main force and valour, pointing days for pitched fields, and so trying it upon an even match ; and they were

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more ignorant in ranging and arraying their battles. After they grew to rest upon num- ber, rather competent than vast ; they grew to advantages of place, cunning diversion?, and the like ; and they grew more skilful in the or- dering of their battles.

In the youth of a state, arms do flourish ; in the middle age of a state, learning ; and then both of them together for a time : in the de- clining age of a state, mechanical arts and merchandize. Learning hath its infancy, when it is but beginning, and almost childish; then its youth, when it is luxuriant and juvenile ; then its strength of years, when it is solid and reduced ; and lastly, its old age, when it wax- eth dry and exhaust : bij.t it is not good to look too long upon these turning wheels of vicissi- tude, lest we become giddy : as for the philolc« gy of them, that is but a circle of tales and therefore not fit for this writing..

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A i^RAGMENT OF AN ESSAY OF FAME.

The poets make Fame a monster; they de- scribe her in part finely and elegantly, and in part gravely and sententiously : they say. Look how many feathers she hath, so many eyes she hath underneath, so many tongues, so many voices, she pricks up so many ears.

This is a flourish : there follow excellent parables ; as that she gathereth strength in going ; that she goeth upon the ground, and yet hideth her head in the clouds ; that in the day-time she sitteth in a watch-tower, and flyeth most by night ; that she mingleth things done with things not done ; and that she is a terror to great cities : but that which passeth all the rest is, they do recount that the earth, mother of the giants that made war against Jupiter and were by him destroyed, thereupon in anger brought forth fame ; for certain it is, that rebels, figured by the giants and seditious fames and libels, are but brothers and sisters, masculine and feminine : but now if a man can tame this monster^ and bring her to feed

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at the hand, and govern her, and with her fly other ravening fowl and kill them, it is some- what worth : but we are infected with the style of the poets. To speak now in a sad and serious manner : there is not in all the politics a place less handled, and more worthy to be handled, than this of fame ; we will therefore speak of these points : what are false fames ; and what are true fames ; and how they may be best discerned ; how fames may be sown and raised ; how they may be spread and mul- tiplied ; and how they may be checked and laid dead ; and otiier things concerning the nature of fame. Fame is of that force, as there is scarcely any gi<sat Qr.tion where hi it hath not a great part, especially in the war. Mucianus undid Vitellius by a fame that he scattered ; that Vitellius had in purpose to re- move the legions of Syria into Germany, and the legions of Germany into Syria ; whereupon the legions of Syria were infinitely inflamed. Julius Coesar took Pompey unprovided, and laid asleep his industry and preparations by a fame that he cunningly gave out, how Ciesar's own soldiers loved him not ; and bemg weari- ed with the wars and laden with the spoils of

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Gaul, would forsake him as soon as he came into Italy. Livia settled all things for the suc- cession of her son Tiberius by continually giv- ing out, that her husband Augustus was upon recovery and amendment ; and it is an usual thing with the bashavvs_, to conceal the death cf the gre^at Turk from the Janizaries and men of war to save the sacking of Constantinople, and other towns, as their manner is. Themis- tocles made Xerxes, king of Persia, post apace ©ut of Gr^jecia, by giving out that the Grae- cians had a purpose to break his bridge of ships which he had made athwart the Hellespont. There be a thousand such like examples, and the mnrp th(^y Qro the leas ihey need to be re- peated, because a man meeteth with them ev- ery where : wherefore let all wise governors have as great a watch and care over fames, as they have of the actions and designs them- selves.

FINIS.

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