abusing of others, and (as we now say) putting tricks upon them, than upon soundness of their own proceedings. But Salomon saith, Prudens advertit ad gressus suos: stultus divertit ad dolos.1 XXIII. 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 themselves waste the public, Divide with reason between selflove and society; and be so true to thyself, as thou be not false to others; specially to thy king and country. It is a poor centre of a man's actions, him 1 The prudent man looks to his steps: the fool turns aside to deceits. Proverbs xiv. 8. This is a translation of Bacon's Latin. The Authorized Version is: "The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: but the folly of fools is deceit." As Bacon remembered this saying of Solomon's, it seems to be made up from two verses of the Vulgate, loosely quoted:-Sapientia callidi est intelligere viam suam; et imprudentia stultorum errans. Proverbs xiv. 8, and astutus considerat gressus suos. Proverbs xiv. 15. 2 Shrewd. Sly, mischievous, unkind. "Do my Lord of Canterbury A shrewd turn, and he is your friend for ever." v. 2. "For many are wise in their own ways that are weak for government or counsel; like ants, which is a wise creature for itself, but very hurtful for the garden." Advancement of Learning. II. xxiii. 10. 3 Waste. To lay waste; to devastate. "To thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Shakspere. Hamlet. i. 3. self. It is right1 earth. For that only stands fast upon his own centre; 2 whereas all things that have affinity with the heavens, move upon the centre of another, which they benefit. The referring of all to a man's self is more tolerable in a sovereign prince; because themselves are not only themselves, but their good and evil is at the peril of the public fortune. But it is a desperate evil in a servant to a prince, or a citizen in a republic, For whatsoever affairs pass such a man's hands, he crooketh3 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 all 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 a great good of the master's! And yet that is the case of bad officers, treasurers, ambassadors, generals, and other false and corrupt servants; which set a bias 5 upon their bowl, of their own petty ends and envies, to the overthrow of their master's great and important affairs. And for the most part, the good such 1 Right. True, genuine, actual, real. "The Poet is indeed the right Popular Philosopher. Whereof Esops tales give good proofe." Sir Philip Sidney. The Defense of Poesie. p. 18. 2 Bacon accepted the Ptolemaic system, which made the earth the centre of the universe. The Copernican system was not generally received until long after his time. 3 Crook. To bend or turn out of the straight course; to pervert. Accessary, also spelled accessory. 5 Bias. A weight in one side of the bowl, that is, 'ball,' which deflects it from the straight line. servants receive is after the model of their own fortune; but the hurt they sell for that good is after the model of their master's fortune. And certainly it is the nature of extreme self-lovers, as they will set an house on fire, and1 it were but to roast their eggs;2 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 somewhat before it fall. It is wisdom of the fox, that thrusts out the badger, who digged and made room for him. It is the wisdom of crocodiles, 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,5 are many 3 2 The motive of Lamb's essay, A Dissertation upon Roast Pig, turns on the drollery that the art of roasting was discovered in China by the accidental burning of a cottage containing "a fine litter of new-farrowed pigs, no less than nine in number." 3 "His nature is ever when he would have his prey to cry and sob like a Christian body, to provoke them to come to him, and then he snatcheth at them." Master John Hawkins's Second Voyage. Hakluyt. p. 534. ed. 1598. "the mournful crocodile With sorrow snares relenting passengers;" Shakspere. II. King Henry VI. iii. 1. 4 Cneius Pompeius Magnus, surnamed 'the Great,' 106-48 B.C. With Caesar and Crassus, Pompey formed the first triumvirate, 60 B.C. He was defeated by Caesar in the battle of Pharsalus, in Thessaly, 48 B.C. 5 Lovers of themselves, without a rival (quam se ipse amans sine rivali). Cicero, Ad Quintum Fratrem. III. 8. 4. The Correspondence of M. Tullius Cicero. Robert Yelverton Tyrrell. Vol. II. p. 194. times unfortunate. And whereas they have all their times sacrificed to themselves, they become in the end themselves sacrifices to the inconstancy of fortune, whose wings they thought by their self-wisdom to have pinioned. XXIV. OF INNOVATIONS. As the births of living creatures at first are illshapen, 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 succeed, so the first precedent (if it be good) is seldom attained by imitation. 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 medicine1 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 confederate within themselves; whereas new things piece not so well; but though they help by their utility, yet they trouble by their inconformity.3 Be sides, they are like strangers; more admired and less favoured. All this is true, if time stood still; which contrariwise moveth so round,1 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 there fore that men in their innovations would follow the example of time itself; which indeed innovateth greatly, but quietly, and by degrees scarce to be perceived. For otherwise, whatsoever is new is unlooked for; and ever it mends some, and pairs2 other; and he that is holpen3 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 also not to try experiments in states, except the necessity be urgent, or the utility evident; and well to beware that it be the reformation that draweth on the change, and not the desire of change that pretendeth the reformation. And lastly, that the novelty, though it be not rejected, yet be held for a suspect; and, as the Scrip 1 Round, flat adverb, quick, swift; the idea is of an easy, smooth, brisk motion, like that of a wheel. "Round was their pace at first, but slacken'd socn." Tennyson. Geraint and Enid. 2Pairs. Impairs, injures. "No faith so fast (quoth she) but flesh does paire. Flesh may empaire (quoth he) but reason can repaire." Canto vii. Stanza 41. "The holy blisful martir for to seeke, That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke." Suspect. Suspicion. "My Lord of Gloster, 't is my special hope, iii. 1. |