destruction of Demetrius, son to Philip the Second1 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 Bajazet; and the three sons of Henry the Second,3 King of England.

For their prelates; when they are proud and great, there is also danger from them; as it was in the times of Anselmus and Thomas Becket,5 Archbishops of Canterbury; who with their crosiers did almost try it with the king's sword; and yet they had to deal 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.

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1 Philip II., 582-336 B.C., King of Macedon and father of Alexander the Great. Livy says that Philip "mandata dedisse dicitur de filio occidendo." Liber XL. 24.

T. Livii Patavini Historiarum Ab Urbe Condita

2 Selymus I., 1465-1520, son of Bajazet II., Sultan of the Ottoman Turks from 1481 until he was dethroned and succeeded by his son Selim in 1512.

3 Henry II., 1133-1189, first Plantagenet King of England, 1154-1189.

* St. Anselm, 1033-1109, Archbishop of Canterbury, and founder of scholastic theology.

5 Thomas, known as Thomas à Becket, 1118 (?)-1170, Archbishop of Canterbury.

6 William Rufus, 1056-1100, second son of William the Conqueror, King of England, 1087-1100.

7 Henry I., 1068-1135, Beauclerc, that is, 'fine scholar,' third son of William the Conqueror, King of England, 1100-1135.

8 Collation. The bestowal of a benefice or other preferment upon a clergyman.

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,1 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 fain2 to do all things himself.

For their second-nobles; there is not much danger from them, being a body dispersed. They may sometimes discourse high, but that doth little hurt; besides, they are a counterpoise to the higher nobility, that they grow not too potent; and, lastly, being the most immediate in authority with the common people, they do best temper popular commotions.

For their merchants; they are vena porta;3 and if they flourish not, a kingdom may have good

1 Henry VII., 1457-1509, first Tudor King of England, 1485– 1509.

2 Fain. Obliged or compelled.

3 Upon this phrase, which recurs two or three times in Bacon (see for instance the History of Henry VII., page 259; "being a king that loved wealth and treasure, he could not endure to have trade sick, nor any obstruction to continue in the gate-vein, which disperseth that blood,") I am indebted to Mr. Ellis for the following characteristic note. "The metaphor," he writes, "is historically curious; for no one would have used it since the discovery of the circulation of the blood and of the lacteals. But in Bacon's time it was supposed that the chyle was taken up by the veins which converge to the vena porta. The latter immediately divides into branches, and ultimately into four ramifications, which are distributed throughout the substance of the liver, so that it has been compared to the trunk of a tree giving off roots at one extremity and branches at the other. Bacon's meaning therefore is, that commerce concentrates the resources of a country in order to their redistribution. The heart, which receives blood from all parts of the

limbs, but will have empty veins, and nourish little. Taxes and imposts upon them do seldom good to the king's revenue; for that he wins in the hundred1 he leeseth2 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.

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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 pretorian5 bands of Rome; but trainings of men, and arming them in several places, 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 the other their will.

body and brings it into contact with the external air, and then redistributes it everywhere, would I think have taken the place of the vena porta, after Harvey's discovery had become known; especially as the latter is a mere conduit, and not a source of motion." S. 1 Hundred. A division of a county in England. 2 Leeseth.

Loseth.

3 Donatives. Gifts, gratuities.

Janizary. One of a former body of Turkish infantry, constituting the Sultan's guard and the main part of the standing army. 5 Pretorian, or praetorian bands. In imperial Rome, the bodyguards of the Emperor.

Remember that thou art man; remember that thou art God, or God's lieutenant.

XX. OF COUNSEL.

THE greatest trust between man and man is the trust of giving counsel. For in other confidences men commit the parts of life; their lands, their goods, their child,1 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 all faith and integrity. The wisest princes need not think it any diminution to their greatness, or derogation to their sufficiency, to rely upon counsel. God himself is not without, but hath made it one of the great names of his blessed Son; The Counsellor.2 Salomon hath pronounced that in counsel is stability.3 Things will have their first or second agitation: if they be not tossed upon the arguments of counsel, they will be tossed upon the waves of fortune; and be full of inconstancy, doing and undoing, like the reeling of a drunken man. Salomon's son found the force of counsel, as his father saw the necessity of it. For the beloved kingdom of God was first rent and broken by ill counsel; upon which counsel there are set for our instruction the two marks whereby bad counsel is for ever best discerned; that it was young

1 So edd. 1612 and 1625. Ed. 1639 has children.

S.

2 "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Isaiah ix. 6.

3 "Every purpose is established by counsel." Proverbs xx. 18.

counsel, for the persons; and violent counsel, for the matter.

The ancient times do set forth in figure both the incorporation and inseparable conjunction 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 intend that Sovereignty is married to Counsel: the other in that which followeth, which was thus: They say, after Jupiter was married to 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.1 Which monstrous fable containeth a secret of empire; how kings are to make use of their counsel of state. That first they ought to refer matters unto them, which is the first begetting or impregnation; but when they are elaborate, moulded, and shaped in the womb of their counsel, and grow ripe and ready to be brought forth, that then they suffer not their counsel to go through with the resolution and direction, as if it depended on them; but take the matter back into their own hands, 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 reputation to themselves) from their head and device.

1 Bacon here relates the myth of the birth of Pallas Athene as told in Hesiod's Theogony, or 'Genealogy of the Gods.' It is Metis, or Counsel, of the Wisdom of the Ancients.