his books of Analogy, and dedicated them to Tully. This made the late lord St. Alban entitle his work Novum Organum which though by the most of superficial men, who cannot get beyond the title of nominals, it is not penetrated, nor understood, it really openeth all defects of learning whatsoever, and is a book

Qui longum noto scriptori proroget ævum.

My conceit of his person was never increased toward him by his place, or honours: but I have and do reverence him, for the greatness that was only proper to himself, in that he seemed to me ever, by his work, one of the greatest men, and most worthy of admiration, that had been in many ages. In his adversity I ever prayed, that God would give him strength; for greatness he could not want. Neither could I condole in a word or syllable for him, as knowing no accident could do harm to virtue, but rather help to make it manifest.

LXXXI.

De Corruptela Morum.-There cannot be one colour of the mind, another of the wit. If the mind be staid, grave, and composed, the wit is so; that vitiated, the other is blown and deflowered. Do we not see, if the mind languish, the members are dull? Look upon an effeminate person, his very gait confesseth him. If a man be fiery, his motion is so; if angry, it is troubled and violent. So that we may conclude wheresoever manners and fashions are corrupted, language is. language is. It imitates the public riot. The excess of feats and apparel are the notes of a sick state; and the wantonness of language, of a sick mind.

s Horat. de Art. Poetica.

LXXXII. 1

De rebus mundanis.—If we would consider what our affairs are indeed, not what they are called, we should find more evils belonging to us, than happen to us. How often doth that, which was called a calamity, prove the beginning and cause of a man's happiness? and, on the contrary, that which happened or came to another with great gratulation and applause, how it hath lifted him but a step higher to his ruin? as if he stood before, where he might fall safely.

LXXXIII.

Vulgi Mores.-Morbus comitialis.-The vulgar are commonly ill-natured, and always grudging against their governors: which makes that a prince has more business and trouble with them, than ever Hercules had with the bull, or any other beast; by how much they have more heads than will be reined with one bridle. There was not that variety of beasts in the ark, as is of beastly natures in the multitude; especially when they come to that iniquity to censure their sovereign's actions. Then all the counsels are made good, or bad, by the events: and it falleth out, that the same facts receive from them the names, now of diligence, now of vanity, now of majesty, now of fury; where they ought wholly to hang on his mouth, as he to consist of himself, and not others' counsels.

LXXXIV.

Princeps.-After God, nothing is to be loved of man like the prince: he violates nature, that doth it not with his whole heart. For when he hath put on the care of the public good, and common safety, I am a wretch, and put off man, if I do not reverence and honour him, in whose charge all things divine

and human are placed. Do but ask of nature, why all living creatures are less delighted with meat and drink that sustains them, than with venery that wastes them? and she will tell thee, the first respects but a private, the other a common good, propagation.

LXXXV.

De eodem.-Orpheus' Hymn.-He is the arbiter of life and death: when he finds no other subject for his mercy, he should spare himself. All his punishments are rather to correct than to destroy. Why are prayers with Orpheus said to be the daughters of Jupiter, but that princes are thereby admonished that the petitions of the wretched ought to have more weight with them, than the laws themselves.

LXXXVI.

De opt. Rege Jacobo.-It was a great accumulation to his majesty's deserved praise, that men might openly visit and pity those, whom his greatest prisons had at any time received, or his laws condemned.

LXXXVII.

De Princ. adjunctis.-Sed verè prudens haud concipi possit Princeps, nisi-simul et bonus.-Lycurgus. Sylla.-Lysander.-Cyrus.-Wise, is rather the attribute of a prince, than learned or good. The learned man profits others rather than himself; the good man, rather himself than others: but the prince commands others, and doth himself. The wise Lycurgus gave no law but what himself kept. Sylla and Lysander did not so; the one living extremely dissolute himself, inforced frugality by the laws; the other permitted those licenses to others, which himself abstained from. But the prince's prudence is his

chief art and safety. In his counsels and deliberations he foresees the future times: in the equity of his judgment, he hath remembrance of the past, and knowledge of what is to be done or avoided for the present. Hence the Persians gave out their Cyrus to have been nursed by a bitch, a creature to encounter it, as of sagacity to seek out good; shewing that wisdom may accompany fortitude, or it leaves to be, and puts on the name of rashness.

LXXXVIII. √√

De Malign. Studentium.-There be some men are born only to suck out the poison of books: Habent venenum pro victu; imò, pro deliciis. And such are they that only relish the obscene and foul things in poets; which makes the profession taxed. But by whom? Men that watch for it; and (had they not had this hint) are so unjust valuers of letters, as they think no learning good but what brings in gain. It shews they themselves would never have been of the professions they are, but for the profits and fees. But if another learning, well used, can instruct to good life, inform manners, no less persuade and lead men, than they threaten and compel, and have no reward; is it therefore the worst study? I could never think the study of wisdom confined only to the philosopher; or of piety to the divine; or of state to the politic: but that he which can feign a commonwealth (which is the poet) can govern it with counsels, strengthen it with laws, correct it with judgments, inform it with religion and morals, is all these. We do not require in him mere elocution, or an excellent faculty in verse, but the exact knowledge of all virtues, and their contraries, with ability to render the one loved, the other hated, by his proper embattling them. The philosophers did insolently, to challenge only to themselves that which the greatest

generals and gravest counsellors never durst. For
such had rather do, than promise the best things.

LXXXIX.

Controvers. Scriptores.-More Andabatarum qui clausis oculis pugnant.-Some controverters in divinity are like swaggerers in a tavern, that catch that which stands next them, the candlestick, or pots; turn every thing into a weapon: oft-times they fight blindfold, and both beat the air. The one milks a he-goat, the other holds under a sieve. Their arguments are as fluxive as liquor spilt upon a table, which with your finger you may drain as you will. Such controversies, or disputations (carried with more labour than profit) are odious; where most times the truth is lost in the midst, or left untouched. And the fruit of their fight is, that they spit one upon another, and are both defiled. These fencers in religion I like not.

XC.

Morbi.-The body hath certain diseases, that are with less evil tolerated, than removed. As if to cure a leprosy a man should bathe himself with the warm blood of a murdered child: so in the church, some errors may be dissimuled with less inconvenience than they can be discovered.

XCI.

Factantia intempestiva.-Men that talk of their own benefits, are not believed to talk of them, because they have done them; but to have done them, because they might talk of them. That which had been great, if another had reported it of them, vanisheth, and is nothing, if he that did it speak of it. For men, when they cannot destroy the deed, will yet be glad to take advantage of the boasting, and lessen it. * Story : Con

Cf. Hower, Ca

Aman 15,2:1