ture saith, that we make a stand upon the ancient way, and then look about us, and discover what is the straight and right way, and so to walk in it.1 XXV. OF DISPATCH. AFFECTED dispatch is one of the most dangerous things to business that can be. It is like 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 advancement 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, procureth dispatch. It is the care of some only to come off speedily for the time; or to contrive some false periods of business, because they may seem men of dispatch. But it is one thing to abbreviate by contracting, another by cutting off. And business so handled at several sittings or meetings goeth commonly backward and forward in an unsteady manner. I knew a wise man that had it for a by-word, when he saw men hasten 1 "Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." Jeremiah vi. 16. 2 Because. That, in order that, usually followed by a redundant 'that.' "But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified." John vii. 39. to a conclusion, Stay a little, that we may make an end the sooner.1 On the other side, true dispatch 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 dispatch; Mi venga la muerte de Spagna;2 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 backward, 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 dispatch, as a robe or mantle with a long train is for race. Prefaces and passages, 1 "Sir Amice Pawlet, when he saw too much haste made in any matter, was wont to say, Stay a while, that we may make an end the sooner." Bacon. Apophthegmes New and Old. 76 (71). Sir Amias Paulet or Poulet, 1536 (?)-1588, was keeper of Mary Queen of Scots from 1585 to her execution in 1587-1588. When Paulet was sent as the Queen's ambassador to France, in 1576, Bacon, then a lad of about sixteen, accompanied him as a member of his household. 2 This proverb is a curious mixture of Italian and Spanish. It is an Italian saying and should read, Mi venga la morte di Spagna. 3 Iteration. Repetition. "O, thou hast damnable iteration, and art, indeed, able to corrupt a saint." Shakspere. I. King Henry IV. i. 2. Interchange of communications, negotiations. 4 Passages. and excusations,1 and other speeches of reference to the person, are great wastes of time; and though they seem to proceed of 2 modesty, they are bravery. Yet beware of being too material3 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 unguent5 enter. Above all things, order, and distribution, and singling out of parts, is the life of dispatch; so as the distribution be not too subtle: 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 choose time is to save time; and an unseasonable motion is but beating the air. There be three parts of business; the preparation, the debate or examination, 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 conceived in writing doth for the most part facilitate dispatch : for though it should be wholly rejected, yet that negative is more pregnant of direction than an indefinite; as ashes are more generative than dust. 1 Excusations. Excuses. 2 Of. From. "And thou shalt receive them of their hands, and burn them upon the altar for a burnt offering, for a sweet savour before the Lord: it is an offering made by fire unto the Lord." Exodus xxix. 25. 3 Material. Full of matter. "A material fool!" Shakspere. As You Like It. iii. 3. Fomentation. The application to the surface of the body either of flannels, etc., soaked in hot water, whether simple or medicated, or of any other warm, soft, medicinal substance. 5 Unguent. lubrication. Any soft substance used as an ointment or for XXVI. OF SEEMING WISE.1 For as IT hath been an opinion, that the French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are. But howsoever it be between nations, certainly it is so between man and man. the Apostle saith of godliness, Having a shew of godliness, but denying the power thereof;2 so certainly there are in point of wisdom and sufficiency, that do nothing or little very solemnly: magno conatu nugas.3 It is a ridiculous thing and fit for a satire to persons of judgment, to see what shifts 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 their wares but 1 "In the essay on Seeming Wise we can trace from the impatient notes put down in his Commentarius Solutus, the picture of the man who stood in his way, the Attorney-General Hobart." R. W. Church. Bacon, in English Men of Letters. Sir Henry Hobart, d. 1625, chief justice of the common pleas. He became attorney-general July 4, 1606, and barred Bacon's path to promotion for seven years. The Dictionary of National Biography says of Hobart: "He was a very modest and learned lawyer, and as a judge escaped the charge of subserviency to the crown." 2 II. Timothy iii. 5. 3 Play the fool with great effort. "Nae, ista hercle magno jam conatu magnas nugas dixerit." Terence. Heauton-timorumenos. IV. 1. A marginal note in the Commentarius Solutus, on "Hubbard's disadvantages" reads, "Solemn goose." 4 Prospective. A perspective glass, a telescope. "What means my sister's eye so oft to passe Through the long entry of that Optic glasse? And is this all? doth thy Prospective please Th' abusèd fancy with no shapes but these?" Francis Quarles. Emblemes. III. xiv. 1, 2, 13, 14. Superficies. The surface. by a dark light; and seem always to keep back somewhat; and when they know within themselves they speak of that they do not well know, would nevertheless seem to others to know of that which they may not well speak.1 Some help themselves with countenance and gesture, and are wise by signs; as Cicero saith of Piso,2 that when he answered him, he fetched one of his brows up to his forehead, and bent the other down to his chin; Respondes, altero ad frontem sublato, altero ad mentum depresso supercilio, crudelitatem tibi non placere.3 Some think to bear it by speaking a great word, and being peremptory; and go on, and take by admittance that which they cannot make good. Some, whatsoever is beyond their reach, will seem to despise or make light of it as impertinent or curious; and so would have their ignorance seem judgment. Some are never without a difference, and commonly by amusing men with a subtilty, blanch8 the matter; of whom A. Gellius9 5 1 "Gravity is a mysterious carriage of the body, invented to cover the defects of the mind." Maximes et Réflexions Morales du duc de La Rochefoucauld. 257. (Paris. 1828.) 2 Lucius Calpurnius Piso, Consul with Gabinius, 58 B.C., the year of Cicero's exile, father-in-law of Julius Caesar. Cicero's bitterest invective speech was delivered in the senate, against Piso, 55 B.C. 3 With one brow elevated to your forehead, and the other depressed to your chin, you respond that cruelty is not pleasing to you. M. Tullii Ciceronis in L. Calpurnium Pisonem Oratio. Bear. Carry on, deal with. "Beware vi. 14. Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in, Impertinent, Latin sense, not pertaining to, irrelevant. • Curious. Over-nice, exacting. 'Difference. A subtile distinction. 8 Blanch. Fvade, pass over. i. 3. 'Aulus Gellius, born about 130 A.D., Roman grammarian; he wrote Noctes Atticae, in twenty books, first printed in 1469. |