let those be rather noblemen and gentlemen, than merchants; for they look ever to the present gain. Let there be freedoms from custom,1 till the plantation be of strength; and not only freedom from custom, but freedom to carry their commodities where they may make their best of them, except there be some special cause of caution. Cram not in people, by sending too fast company after company; but rather harken how they waste, and send supplies proportionably; but so as the number may live well in the plantation, and not by surcharge be in penury. It hath been a great endangering to the health of some plantations, that they have built along the sea and rivers, in marish3 and unwholesome grounds. Therefore, though you begin there, to avoid carriage and other like discommodities, yet build still rather upwards from the streams, than along. It concerneth likewise the health of the plantation that they have good store of salt with them, that they may use it in their victuals, when it shall be necessary. If you plant where savages are, do not only entertain them with trifles and gingles,5 but use them justly and graciously, with sufficient

1 Custom. A tax levied by a king or sovereign authority upon merchandise in export or import; now levied only on imports from foreign countries. Rarely in singular in modern English. "Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.” Romans xiii. 7.

2 Harken (hearken). To learn by ‘hearing'; to have regard to; to heed.

"This King of Naples, being an enemy
To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit."
Shakspere. The Tempest. i. 2.

Marish. Marshy.

Discommodity. Disadvantage, inconvenience.

Gingle. Old spelling of jingle, anything that jingles.

guard nevertheless; and do not win their favour by helping them to invade their enemies, but for their defence it is not amiss; and send oft of them over to the country that plants, that they may see a better condition than their own, and commend it when they return. When the plantation grows to strength, then it is time to plant with women as well as with men; that the plantation may spread into generations, and not be ever pieced from without. It is the sinfullest thing in the world to forsake or destitute1 a plantation once in forwardness; for beside the dishonour, it is the guiltiness of blood of many commiserable2 persons.

XXXIV. OF RICHES.

I CANNOT call Riches better than the baggage of virtue. The Roman word is better, impedimenta.3 For as the baggage is to an army, so is riches to virtue.1 It cannot be spared nor left behind, but it hindereth the march; yea and the care of it sometimes loseth or disturbeth the victory. Of great riches there is no real use, except it be in the distribution; the rest is but conceit. So saith Salomon, Where much is, there are many to consume it; and what hath the

1 Destitute. To abandon; to leave to neglect.

2 Commiserable. Deserving commiseration or pity.

8 Hindrances.

"But Satan now is wiser than of yore,

And tempts by making rich, not making poor." Pope. Epistle III. To Allen, Lord Bathurst. ll. 351-352.

owner but the sight of it with his eyes ?1 The personal fruition in any man cannot reach to feel great riches: there is a custody of them; or a power of dole2 and donative of them; or a fame of them; but no solid use to the owner. Do you not see what feigned prices are set upon little stones and rarities? and what works of ostentation are undertaken, because there might seem to be some use of great riches? But then you will say, they may be of use to buy men out of dangers or troubles. As Salomon saith, Riches are as a strong hold, in the imagination of the rich man. But this is excellently expressed, that it is in imagination, and not always in fact. For certainly great riches have sold more men than they have bought out. Seek not proud riches, but such as thou mayest get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly. Yet have no abstract nor friarly contempt of them. But distinguish, as Cicero saith well of Rabirius Posthumus, In studio rei amplificandæ apparebat, non avaritiæ prædam, sed instrumentum bonitati quæri. Hearken also to Salomon, and beware of

3

1 "When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?" Ecclesiastes v. 11.

2 Dole. Dealing out or distribution of gifts.

"Pleasures stinted in the dote."

Browning. La Saisiaz. 431.

3 "The rich man's wealth is his strong city." Proverbs x. 15. In his desire to increase his wealth, it appeared that he sought not the gratification of avarice, but the means of doing good (ut in augenda re non avaritiae praedam, sed instrumentum bonitati quaerere videretur. M. Tullii Ciceronis Pro C. Rabirio Postumo Oratio. II. 3).

In the year 54 B.C. Cicero defended Caius Rabirius Postumus, & Roman knight, who by helping Pompey to restore King Ptolemy Auletes to the throne of Egypt had laid himself open to the crime of extortion. Bacon quotes inaccurately. Cicero makes the state

hasty gathering of riches; Qui festinat ad divitias, non erit insons.1 The poets feign, that when Plutus (which is Riches) is sent from Jupiter, he limps and goes slowly; but when he is sent from Pluto, he runs and is swift of foot. Meaning that riches gotten by good means and just labour pace slowly; but when they come by the death of others (as by the course of inheritance, testaments, and the like), they come tumbling upon a man. But it mought be applied likewise to Pluto, taking him for the devil. For when riches come from the devil (as by fraud and oppression and unjust means), they come upon2 speed. The ways to enrich are many, and most of them foul. Parsimony is one of the best, and yet is not innocent; for it withholdeth men from works of liberality and charity. The improvement of the ground is the most natural obtaining of riches; for it is our great mother's blessing, the earth's; but it is slow. And yet where men of great wealth do stoop to husbandry, it multiplieth riches exceedingly. I knew a nobleman in England, that had the greatest audits3 of any man in my time; a great grazier, a great sheep-master, a great timber man, a great collier, a great corn-master, a great lead-man, and so of iron, and a number of the like points of husbandry. So as the earth seemed a sea to him, in respect of the perpetual importation. It

ment, not of Rabirius Postumus, but of his father, Caius Curius, who made the fortune Rabirius lost through his connection with Pompey's political schemes.

1 "He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent." Proverbs xxviii. 20.

3

was truly observed by one, that himself came very hardly to a little riches, and very easily to great riches. For when a man's stock is come to that, that he can expect1 the prime of markets, and overcome2 those bargains which for their greatness are few men's money, and be partner in the industries of younger men, he cannot but increase mainly. The gains of ordinary trades and vocations are honest; and furthered by two things. chiefly by diligence, and by a good name for good and fair dealing. But the gains of bargains are of a more doubtful nature; when men shall wait upon others' necessity, broke by servants and instruments to draw them on, put off others cunningly that would be better chapmen," and the like practices, which are crafty and naught. As for the chopping.e. of bargains when a man buys not to hold but to recog sell over again, that commonly grindeth double,

1 To expect the prime of markets is to wait until the market is at its best for buying and selling. Compare expect meaning to wait for in the Bible and Shakspere. "From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool." Hebrews x. 13.

"Sweet soul, let 's in, and there expect their coming."
Shakspere. The Merchant of Venice.

2 Overcome. To come over suddenly; to take by surprise.

3 Mainly.

Greatly.

v. 1.

4 Broke. To broke is to transact business by means of an agent, but the context shows that here it means, as it often did, to deal craftily.

5 Chapmen.

Traders.

"Fair Diomed, you do as chapmen do,

Dispraise the thing that you desire to buy."
Shakspere. Troilus and Cressida.

iv. 1.

Notice Bacon's explanation of chopping of bargains, in the next sentence.

Naught, or naughty. Bad, wicked.

"Of a certain knight that swore by his honour they were good pancakes, and swore by his honour the mustard was naught: now I'll stand to it, the pancakes were naught, and the mustard was good." Shakspere. As You Like It. i. 2.