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. 2 Of. Excuses. 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. Any soft substance used as an ointment or for lubrication. XXVI. OF SEEMING WISE.1 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. For as 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 5 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 And is this all? doth thy Prospective please 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. 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 5 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 6 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. vi. 14. Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in, Б Impertinent, Latin sense, not pertaining to, irrelevant. "Difference. A subtile distinction. 8 Blanch. Erade, pass over. Aulus Gellius, born about 130 A.D., Roman grammarian; he wrote Noctes Atticae, in twenty books, first printed in 1469. saith, Hominem delirum, qui verborum minutiis rerum frangit pondera.1 Of which kind also, Plato 2 in his Protagoras bringeth in Prodicus in scorn, and maketh him make a speech that 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 bane of business. To conclude, there is no decaying merchant, or inward beggar,3 hath so many tricks to uphold the credit of their wealth, as these empty persons have to maintain the credit of their sufficiency. Seeming wise men may make shift to get opinion; but let no man choose them for employment; for certainly you were better take for business a man somewhat absurd than over-formal. 1 A foolish man who fritters away weighty matters with niceties of words. Bacon is not quoting Aulus Gellius here, but Quintilian, who says of Seneca: si rerum pondera minutissimis sententiis non fregisset, consensu potius eruditorum quam puerorum amoreTM comprobaretur. If he had not broken the weight of things with the most minute sentences, he would have won the unanimous approval of the learned, rather than the admiration of boys. M. Fabii Quintiliani de Institutione Oratoria Liber X. i. 130. 2 Plato, 429 or 427-347 B.C. His name was originally Aristocles, but he was surnamed Plato (IIλáтwv) from his broad shoulders. A famous Greek philosopher, a disciple of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle. Plato expounded his philosophy in a series of dialogues, of which the Protagoras is one. There is still no greater exposition of idealism than is contained in Plato's 'Dialogues.' 3 Inward beggar. One who is really bankrupt, though keeping up the appearance of solvency. XXVII. OF FRIENDSHIP. IT had been hard for him that spake it to have put more truth and untruth together in few words, than in that speech, Whosoever 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 2 towards society 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; except3 it proceed, not out of a pleasure in solitude, but out of a love and desire to sequester a man's self for a higher conversation: such as is found to have been falsely and feignedly in some of the heathen; as Epimenides 5 the Candian, Numa the Roman, Empedocles the Sicilian, and Apollonius 1 "But he who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god: he is no part of a state." The Politics of Aristotle. Translated into English by B. Jowett. Vol. I. i. 2. 2 Aversation towards. Aversion to. 3 Except. Unless. "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." John iii. 3. 4 Conversation. Mode or course of life. "Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom." James iii. 13. 5 Epimenides, a Cretan poet and prophet, who lived in the 7th century B.C. He was said to have fallen into a sleep that lasted fifty-seven years, and to have lived two hundred and ninety-nine years. Numa Pompilius, second King of Rome, 715-672 B.C. The origin of many Roman institutions is referred to Numa, such as the flamens, vestal virgins, pontifices, etc. He was supposed to have been instructed in the art of legislation by the nymph Egeria. 7 Empedocles was born at Agrigentum, Sicily, and lived 490-430 He was a Greek philosopher, poet, and statesman. He was said to have declared himself to be immortal, and to be able to cure all evils. B.C. |