The Essays of Lord Bacon: With Critical and Illustrative Notes ...

Front Cover
Longmans, Green, 1873 - 234 pages

From inside the book

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 195 - Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business.
Page 5 - Certainly it is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.
Page 195 - Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.
Page 196 - ... is good for the stone and reins ; shooting for the lungs and breast ; gentle walking for the stomach ; riding for the head ; and the like. So if a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin : if his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen ; for they are cymini sectores : if he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another,...
Page 41 - MEN in great place are thrice servants ; servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business ; so as they have no freedom, neither in their persons, nor in their actions, nor in their times. It is a strange desire to seek power and to lose liberty ; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self.
Page 4 - The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense; the last was the light of reason ; and his sabbath work, ever since, is the illumination of his Spirit.
Page 106 - But little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth. For a crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.
Page 21 - Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes ; and Adversity is not without comforts and hopes. We see in needle-works and embroideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground. Judge therefore of the pleasure of the heart, by the pleasure of the eye.
Page 113 - Heraclitus saith well, in one of his enigmas, " Dry light is ever the best," and certain it is, that the light that a man receiveth by counsel from another, is drier and purer than that which cometh from his own understanding and judgment; which is ever infused and drenched in his affections and customs.
Page 38 - You may observe that amongst all the great and worthy persons (whereof the memory remaineth, either ancient or recent) there is not one that hath been transported to the mad degree of love: which shows that great spirits and great business do keep out this weak passion.

Bibliographic information