APPENDIX.

EXAMINATION PAPER ON BACON'S ESSAYS

SET AT THE

OXFORD LOCAL EXAMINATIONS, 1864.

(WITH ANSWERS.)

I. QUESTIONS.

1. Define Essay.' Has the word changed its meaning since Bacon's time?

2. Enumerate the 'fruits' and the manifold uses' of Friendship. 3. What are your author's views of the causes of Atheism? Does he appear to have omitted some?

4. Where are the following persons mentioned in the Essays: Pythagoras, Prodicus, Cyrus, Justinian, Apollonius of Tyana, Albert Durer, Cosmo Duke of Florence, Louis XI. ? And how are their names introduced?

5. Give Bacon's chief directions to Planters.

6. Give the substance of the Essays on Delays, Innovations, and the Regimen of Health.

7. 'The causes and motives of seditions are'

can, with the proposition.

8. What is your author's advice to Travellers?

9. Tell a lie and find a troth.

Abeunt studia in mores.

Fortune is like the market.

Go on, if you

The blessing of Judah and Issachar will never meet.
When hempe is spun, England's done.

Comment on these; and say where they occur.

10.

Better have no opinion of God at all, than such an opinion as is unworthy of Him.'-How does your author make out this?

II. 'If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill.'-What use does he make of the story referred to?

II. ANSWERS.

1. 'Essay' is a name denoting a species of composition which attempts to define (if necessary) some moral, political, or other topic; to argue upon it methodically, and illustrate it; and to deduce its proper value or importance.

The word has changed its meaning considerably since Bacon's time; as it then denoted merely a few scattered thoughts or suggestions, designed to prompt and aid further reflection.

2. Of the fruits and the manifold uses of Friendship, Bacon specifies the following:

i. The ease and discharge of the fulness and swellings of the heart, which passions of all kinds occasion: true friends being participes curarum, who double each other's joys, and halve each other's griefs.

ii. The opening of the understanding through communicating and discoursing with another; and the preventing, by faithful counsel, a man's being misled by his own self-esteem, prejudice, or passion.

iii. Aid and bearing a part in all actions and occasions; especially when modesty would restrain a man from pleading his own merits, or when some personal relationship might hinder such freedom of acting as things themselves require.

3. Bacon views the causes of Atheism to be:

i. A little philosophy, dealing with second causes scattered, which may dispose a man to rest in them, and so incline his mind to disown the great First Cause.

ii. A corrupt natural wish that there should be no God to take account of human conduct.

* The student should notice that it is 'Essay,' not 'an Essay,' of which a definition is required. Let care always be taken to give pertinent answers. We have answered several of the questions more fully than candidates generally can be expected to do. Very creditable industry and judgment may be shown with less than half the quantity of matter here introduced.

iii. The searing of the conscience by long, familiar, and hypocritical handling of holy things, without feeling them.

iv. The great diversity of religious sects,

v. Scandal of priests.

vi. Custom of profane scoffing in holy matters.

vii. Learned times; specially with peace and prosperity.

Bacon has omitted to notice as causes of Atheism :

A. The condition of the world, as seeming to indicate that it has no moral governor.

B. The apparent inconsistencies in the Bible.

C. An abuse of speculation, going beyond the qualities of material or spiritual existence, and aiming to ascertain what matter itself, or spirit itself, is an occupation of the mind which can only proceed upon conjectures and suppositions, and which has sometimes led to atheism.

4. Pythagoras is mentioned, in the Essay on Friendship, as author of the proverb, Cor ne edito.

Prodicus is mentioned, in the Essay on Seeming Wise, as one who, for the purpose of ridicule, is made by Plato to deliver a speech consisting of distinctions from beginning to end.

Cyrus is mentioned, in the Essay on Honour and Reputation, as one of those Princes who were distinguished as Conditores imperiorum. Justinian, in the same Essay, as one of those Second Founders, or Perpetui Principes, who were Lawgivers, and continued after death to govern by their ordinances.

Apollonius of Tyana is mentioned, in the Essay on Empire, as having been asked by Vespasian, What was Nero's overthrow? and as having answered, Nero could touch and tune the harp well; but, in government, sometimes he used to wind the pins too high, sometimes to let them down too low. The same Apollonius is also referred to, in the Essay on Friendship, as one of those who falsely and feignedly sequestered themselves from society.

Albert Durer is censured, in the Essay on Beauty, for aiming at geometrical proportion in his representation of the human form.

Cosmo, Duke of Florence, is mentioned, in the Essay on Revenge, with reference to 'a desperate saying' of his, that we are enjoined to forgive our enemies, but nowhere enjoined to forgive our friends. He is also mentioned in the Essay on Youth and Age, as one who was of a reposed nature in youth.

Louis XI. is mentioned, in the Essay on Friendship, as one who would not communicate his secrets with anyone, and whose closeness was his tormentor.

5. To choose the right sort of people to plant with, viz. gardeners, ploughmen, smiths, carpenters, &c., with some apothecaries, surgeons, cooks, and bakers.

To supply a sufficient quantity of biscuit, meal, flour, &c., to serve until bread may be had; and also a good store of salt, and of such animals for food as are least subject to diseases, and multiply fastest.

To take immediate advantage of all kinds of vegetable food which the country itself yields ready to hand.

To consider and provide for such vegetable food as grows there speedily, and within the year.

To regulate the consumption of food by rations.

To devote the main part of the ground to the production of a common stock of sustenance.

To take advantage of such other commodities as the country naturally yields, such as wood, iron, drugs, &c., to help to defray the expense of the plantation; but not give much attention to mining.

To entrust the government of the plantation to one person, assisted by a few counsellors, who should be noblemen and gentlemen, rather than merchants.

To impose no custom dues on traffic for a considerable time.

To add people from time to time, but not to exceed the number that can be conveniently maintained.

To begin building near the sea or a river, but to continue building upwards from it rather than along it.

To treat sensibly and humanely the savage people of the country (if any).

6. i. Of Delays. It is wise to time well the beginnings of things. The ripeness or unripeness of the occasion should be well considered. Danger when slighted sometimes deceives men who could have well withstood it, if they had not delayed beyond the proper time. It is often better to meet danger halfway than to delay till it comes near; for with delay we may become less capable of prevailing. On the other hand, it is unsafe to imagine danger nearer than it is, and to waste one's means in premature attempts to avert it; or to provoke a speedier approach of what threatens, by declaring opposition too soon. This is the other extreme. When delay would be salutary, and when it would be hurtful, should be duly weighed. We should secretly watch for the right time to begin, and act promptly when we have begun.

ii. Of Innovations.—Innovations are the births of Time, and at first unshapely. Yet the innovation of the man who first brings honour to his family is generally better than all after attempts of imitation to make the once novel virtue customary and familiar. That which is