may have power and business, will take it at any cost. Now, to speak of public envy. There is yet some good in public envy, whereas in private there is none. For public envy is as an ostracism, that eclipseth men when they grow too great.) And therefore it is a bridle also to great ones, to keep them within bounds. This envy, being in the Latin word invidia, goeth in the modern languages by the name of discontentment; of which we shall speak in handling Sedition. It is a disease in a state like to infection. For as infection spreadeth upon that which is sound, and tainteth it; so when envy is gotten once into a state, it traduceth even the best actions thereof, and turneth them into an ill odour. And therefore there is little won by intermingling of plausible1 actions. For that doth argue but a weakness and fear of envy, which hurteth so much the more; as it is likewise usual in infections; which if you fear them, you call them upon you. This public envy seemeth to beat chiefly upon / principal officers or ministers, rather than upon kings and estates themselves. But this is a sure rule, that if the envy upon the minister 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 discontentment, and the difference thereof from private envy, which was handled in the first place. 1 Plausible. Deserving of applause. 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 well said, invidia festos dies non agit:1 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 affections 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 soweth tares amongst the wheat by night;2 as it always cometh to pass, that envy worketh subtilly, and in the dark; and to the prejudice of good things, such as is the wheat. X. OF LOVE. THE stage is more beholding3 to Love, than the life of man. For as to the stage, love is ever matter of comedies, and now and then of tragedies; but in life it doth much mischief; sometimes like a syren, sometimes like a fury. You may observe, that amongst all the great and worthy persons (whereof the memory remaineth, either ancient or recent), there is not 1 Envy keeps no holidays. 2 "But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.' Matthew xiii. 25. 3 Beholding. Beholden. A common Elizabethan error. tice of peace sometime may be beholding to his friend for Shakspere. The Merry Wives of Windsor. i. 1. "A jus man." one that hath been transported to the mad degree of love which shows that great spirits and great business do keep out this weak passion. You must except nevertheless Marcus Antonius,1 the half partner of the empire of Rome, and Appius Claudius,2 the decemvir and lawgiver; whereof the former was indeed a voluptuous man, and inordinate; but the latter was an austere and wise man: and therefore it seems (though rarely) that 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 Epicurus, Satis magnum alter alteri theatrum sumus:3 as if man, made for the contemplation 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-flatterer, with whom 1 Marcus Antonius, 83-30 B.C., Roman triumvir and general. Antony's love story is best told by Shakspere in The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra. B.C. 2 Appius Crassus Claudius was one of the decemvirs, 451-449 The tragical story of Appius and Virginia, first told by Livy, reappears, in English, in The Doctor's Tale of Chaucer, in Gower's Confessio Amantis, and in three different tragedies, one written by John Webster in Bacon's time. 3 We are to one another a spectacle great enough. Epicurus, 342-270 B.O., was the founder of the Epicurean philosophy which took please to be the highest good. Bacon quotes the saying of Epicurus nom L. Annaei Senecae ad Lucilium Epistularum Moralium Li I. Epistula VII. 11. The quotation occurs again in the Adment of Learning. I. iii. 7. all the petty flatterers have intelligence, is a man's self; certainly the lover is more. For there was never 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.2 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 reciproque.3 For it is a true rule, that love is ever rewarded either with the reciproque 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 poet's relation doth well figure them; That he that preferred Helena, quitted the gifts of Juno and Pallas. For whosoever esteemeth too much of amorous affection quitteth both riches and wisdom. This passion hath his floods in the very times of weakness; which are great prosperity and great adversity; though this latter 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 life; for if it check once with business, it troubleth men's fortunes, and maketh men that they can no ways be 5 4 1 Plutarch. De autatore et amiz. 1. 2 Amare et sapere vix Deo conceditur. It is hardly granted by God to love and to be wise. Publilii Syri Mimi Sententiae. 15. 3 Reciproque. Reciprocal. 4 Quarter. 'quarters.' Proper or appointed place; now used in the plural, Check with. Interfere with. ra Way. Wise; no ways means in no wise. 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 pleasures. There is in man's nature a secret inclination 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 charitable; as it is seen sometime in friars. Nuptial love maketh mankind; friendly love perfecteth it; but wanton love corrupteth and embaseth it. XI. OF GREAT PLACE. MEN in great place are thrice servants: servants 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 lose liberty 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 indignities1 men come to : Conduct involving shame or disgrace; a disgraceful "Fie on the pelfe for which good name is sold, Spenser. The Faery Queene. Book V. Canto xi. Stanza 63. "Whoever is apt to hope good from others is diligent to please them; but he that believes his powers strong enough to force their own way, commonly tries only to please himself." Dr. Samuel Johnson. Lives of the English Poets. John Gay. |