XXI. OF DELAYS. FORTUNE is like the market; where many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall. And again, it is sometimes like Sibylla's1 offer; which at first offereth the commodity at full, then consumeth part and part, and still holdeth up the price. For occasion (as it is in the common verse) turneth a bald noddle, after she hath presented her locks in front, and no hold taken;2 or at least turneth the handle of the bottle. first to be received, and after the belly,3 which is hard to clasp. There is surely no greater wisdom than well to time the beginnings and onsets of things. Dangers are no more light, if they once seem light; 1 Bacon alludes to the Sibyl of Cumae in Italy, the most celebrated of the wise women. According to story, she appeared before Tarquin the Proud and offered him nine books for sale. He declined to buy them, whereupon she burned three and offered the remaining six at the original price. On being again refused, she destroyed three more and offered the remaining three at the price she had asked for the nine. Tarquin, unable to understand her importunity and her bargaining, bought the three books, which were found to contain directions as to the worship of the gods and the policy of the Romans. The Sibylline books were kept with great care at Rome, and were consulted from time to time under direction of the senate. They were burned in the fire which destroyed the temple of Jupiter, in 83 B.C. 2 Spenser describes Occasion as an old woman lame of one leg. Her hair hangs down before her face, so that no one may know her, till she is past; at the back of her head she is bald, so that when once she is past, no one may grasp her from behind. She personifies the truth that an opportunity once missed never returns. Read The Faery Queene. Book II. Canto iv. Stanza 4. A Latin proverb, from a distich of Dionysius Cato, runs: 8 "Fronte capillata, post est occasio calva. Time hath a Lock before, but 's bald behind." Catonis Distichorum de Moribus Liber II. 26. Belly. That part of a thing, here a bottle, which swells out. and more dangers have deceived men than forced them. Nay, it were better to meet some dangers half way, though they come nothing near, than to keep too long a watch upon their approaches; for if a man watch too long, it is odds he will fall asleep. On the other side, to be deceived with too long shadows (as some have been when the moon was low and shone on their enemies' back), and so to shoot off before the time; or to teach dangers to come on, by over early buckling1 towards them; is another extreme. The ripeness or unripeness of the occasion (as we said) must ever be well weighed; and generally it is good to commit the beginnings of all great actions to Argos2 with his hundred eyes, and the ends to Briareus3 with his hundred hands; first to watch, and then to speed. For the helmet of Pluto, which maketh the politic man go invisible, is secrecy in the counsel and celerity in 1 Buckle. To gird one's self; to apply one's self resolutely to. "And buckling soone himselfe, gan fiercely fly Upon that carle, to save his friend from jeopardy." Spenser. The Faery Queene. Book VI. Canto viii. Stanza 12. 2 Argos, surnamed Panoptes (the all-seer), had one hundred eyes, some one of which was always awake. Hera (Juno) set him to guard Io, and Hermes killed him. After his death Hera transferred his eyes to the tail of the peacock. Spenser alludes to "Great Junoes golden chaire," which was "Drawne of faire pecocks, that excell in pride, The Faery Queene. Book I. Canto iv. Stanza 17. Briareus or Aegaeon, a giant with fifty heads and one hundred hands. Homer mentions him in Iliad. I. 403. The helmet of Pluto, made by the Cyclops, had the peculiar property of rendering the wearer invisible. Mercury wore it in the battle with the giants, and Perseus in his contest with the Gorgons. Minerva puts it on when she is helping Diomede against Mars on the plain of Troy. Homer. Iliad. V. 845. For Bacon's version of the fable of Perseus, see Perseus; or War, in the Wisdom of the Ancients. the execution. For when things are once come to the execution, there is no secrecy comparable to celerity; like the motion of a bullet in the air, which flieth so swift as it outruns the eye. XXII. OF CUNNING. WE take Cunning for a sinister or crooked wisdom. And certainly there is a great difference between a cunning man and a wise man; not only in point of honesty, but in point of ability. There be that can pack the cards, and yet cannot play well; so there are some that are good in canvasses and factions, that are otherwise weak men. Again, it is one thing to understand persons, and another thing to understand matters; for many are perfect in men's humours, that are not greatly capable of the real part of business; which is the constitution of one that hath studied men more than books. Such men are fitter for practice than for counsel; and they are good but in their own alley:1 turn them to new men, and they have lost their aim; so as the old rule to know a fool from a wise man, Mitte ambos nudos ad ignotos, et videbis,2 doth scarce hold for them. And because these cunning men are like haber 1 Alley. A long narrow passage for playing at bowls; a metaphor from the game of bowls. 2 Send both naked to those who do not know, and you will see. Diogenes Laertius, II. 73, attributes this saying to Aristippus. "One of the philosophers was asked; What a wise man differed from a fool? He answered; Send them both naked to those that know them not, and you shall perceive." Bacon. Apophthegmes New and Old. 255 (189). dashers1 of small wares, it is not amiss to set forth their shop. It is a point of cunning, to wait upon him with whom you speak, with your eye; as the Jesuits give it in precept: for there be many wise men that have secret hearts and transparent countenances. Yet this would3 be done with a demure abasing of your eye sometimes, as the Jesuits also do use. Another is, that when you have anything to obtain of present despatch, you entertain and amuse the party with whom you deal with some other discourse; that he be not too much awake to make objections. I knew a counsellor and secretary, that never came to Queen Elizabeth of England with bills to sign, but he would always first put her into some discourse of estate, that she mought the less mind the bills. The like surprise may be made by moving things when the party is in haste, and cannot stay to consider advisedly of that is moved. If a man would cross a business that he doubts some other would handsomely and effectually move, let him pretend to wish it well, and move it himself in such sort as may foil it. The breaking off in the midst of that one was 1 Haberdasher. A dealer in small wares pertaining to dress, such as tape, thread, ribbon, etc. 2 To wait upon or on. To look watchfully to. "Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thy heart: wait, I say, on the Lord." Psalms xxvi. 14. 3 Would. Should. 4 Move. ceptance. That. To propose or bring forward for consideration or ac What. about to say, as if he took himself up, breeds a greater appetite in him with whom you confer to know more. And because it works better when anything seemeth to be gotten from you by question, than if you offer it of yourself, you may lay a bait for a question, by showing another visage and countenance than you are wont; to the end to give occasion for the party to ask what the matter1 is of the change? As Nehemias did; And I had not before that time been sad before the king.2 In things that are tender and unpleasing, it is good to break the ice by some whose words are of less weight, and to reserve the more weighty voice to come in as by chance, so that he may be asked the question upon the other's speech; as Narcissus did, in relating to Claudius the marriage of Messalina and Silius.3 In things that a man would not be seen in himself, it is a point of cunning to borrow the name of the world; as to say, The world says, or There is a speech abroad. I knew one that, when he wrote a letter, he would put that which was most material in the postscript, as if it had been a bye-matter. I knew another that, when he came to have speech, he would pass over that that he intended most; and go forth, and come back again, and speak of it as of a thing that he had almost forgot. 1 Matter. Cause. "I have almost matter enough in me for such an embassage." Shakspere. Much Ado About Nothing. i. 1. |