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a company of knaves and fools, and there's half- | sir," said the apprentice, "but if Joseph's misa-crown for you, I will never stand changing of tress had been as handsome as mine is, he could money." not have forborne."

22. A witty rogue coming into a lace shop, said he had occasion for some lace, choice whereof being showed him, he at last pitched upon one pattern, and asked them how much they would have for so much as would reach from ear to ear, for so much he had occasion for; they told him for so much so some few words passing between them, he at last agreed, and told down his money for it, and began to measure on his own head, thus saying, "One ear is here, and the other is nailed to the pillory in Bristol, and I fear you have not so much of this lace by you at present as will perfect my bargain; therefore this piece of lace shall suffice at present in part of payment, and provide the rest with all expedition."

23. A woman being suspected by her husband for dishonesty, and being by him at last pressed very hard about it, made him quick answer with many protestations, "That she knew no more of what he said than the man in the moon:" Now the captain of the ship called "The Moon" was the very man she so much loved.

24. An apprentice of London being brought before the chamberlain by his master, for the sin of incontinency, even with his own mistress; the chamberlain thereupon gave him many Christian exhortations, and at last he mentioned and pressed the chastity of Joseph when his mistress tempted him with the like crime of incontinency. "Ay,

25. When my Lord President of the Council was newly advanced to the Great Seal, Gondomar came to visit him; my lord said, "That he was to thank God and the king for that honour; but yet, so he might be rid of the burden, he could very willingly forbear the honour. And that he formerly had a desire, and the same continued with him still, to lead a private life." Gondomar answered that he would tell him a tale, "Of an old rat that would needs leave the world: and acquainted the young rats that he would retire into his hole, and spend his days solitarily; and would enjoy no more comfort: and commanded them, upon his high displeasure, not to offer to come in unto him. They forbore two or three days; at last, one that was more hardy than the rest, incited some of his fellows to go in with him, and he would venture to see how his father did; for he might be dead. They went in, and found the old rat sitting in the midst of a rich Parmesan cheese." So he applied the fable after his witty manner.

26. Mr. Houland, in conference with a young student, arguing a case, happened to say, “I would ask you but this question." The student presently interrupted him to give him an answer. Whereunto Mr. Houland gravely said; "Nay, though I ask you a question, yet I did not mean you should answer me, I mean to answer myself."

ORNAMENTA RATIONALIA,*

A SUPPLY (BY THE PUBLISHER)

OF

CERTAIN WEIGHTY AND ELEGANT SENTENCES,

SOME MADE, OTHERS COLLECTED BY THE LORD BACON; AND BY HIM PUT UNDER THE ABOVESAID TITLE; AND AT PRESENT NOT TO BE FOUND.

A COLLECTION OF SENTENCES OUT OF THE MIMI OF PUBLIUS; ENGLISHED BY THe publisher.

1. "ALEATOR, quanto in arte est melior, tanto

est nequior."

A gamester, the greater master he is in his art, the worse man he is.

2. "Arcum, intensio frangit; animum, remissio." Much bending breaks the bow; much unbending, the mind.

*Tenison's Baconiana, page 60.

3. "Bis vincit, qui se vincit in victoria." He conquers twice, who upon victory overcomes himself.

4. "Cum vitia prosint, peccat, qui recte facit." If vices were upon the whole matter profitable, the virtuous man would be the sinner. 5. "Bene dormit, qui non sentit quod male dor miat."

He sleeps well, who feels not that he sleeps | 22. “In vindicando, criminosa est celeritas." In taking revenge, the very haste we make is criminal.

ill.

6. "Deliberare utilia, mora est tutissima."

To deliberate about useful things is the safest 23. "In calamitoso risus etiam injuria est." delay. When men are in calamity, if we do but laugh we offend.

7. "Dolor decrescit, ubi quo crescat non habet."

The flood of grief decreaseth, when it can swell no higher.

8. "Etiam innocentes cogit mentiri dolor."

Pain makes even the innocent man a liar. 9. Etiam celeritas in desiderio, mora est." Even in desire, swiftness itself is delay. 10. "Etiam capillus unus habet umbram suam." The smallest hair casts a shadow.

11. "Fidem qui perdit, quo se servat in reliquum ?"

He that has lost his faith, what has he left to
live on?

12. Formosa facies muta commendatio est."
A beautiful face is a silent commendation.
13. "Fortuna nimium quem fovet, stultum facit."
Fortune makes him a fool, whom she makes
her darling.

14. "Fortuna obesse nulli contenta est semel."
Fortune is not content to do a man but one ill
turn.

15. Facit gratum fortuna, quam nemo videt." The fortune which nobody sees, makes a mañ happy and unenvied.

16. "Heu! quam miserum est ab illo lædi, de quo non possis queri."

O! what a miserable thing it is to be hurt by such a one of whom it is in vain to complain.

17. "Homo toties moritur quoties amittit suos." A man dies as often as he loses his friends. 18. Hæredis fletus sub persona risus est."

The tears of an heir are laughter under a vizard.

24.

"Improbe Neptunum accusat, qui iterum naufragium facit."

He accuseth Neptune unjustly, who makes shipwreck a second time.

25. "Multis minatur, qui uni facit injuriam."

He that injures one, threatens an hundred. 26. "Mora omnis ingrata est, sed facit sapientiam."

27.

All delay is ungrateful, but we are not wise without it.

"Mori est felicis antequam mortem invocet." Happy he who dies ere he calls for death to take him away.

28. "Malus ubi bonum se simulat, tunc est pessimus."

29.

30.

An ill man is always ill; but he is then worst
of all when he pretends to be a saint.
"Magno cum periculo custoditur, quod mul-
tis placet."

Lock and key will scarce keep that secure,
which pleases everybody.

"Male vivunt qui se semper victuros putant." They think ill, who think of living always. 31. "Male secum agit æger, medicum qui hæredem facit."

32.

33.

That sick man does ill for himself, who makes his physician his heir.

"Multos timere debet, quem multi timent." He of whom many are afraid, ought himself

to fear many.

"Nulla tam bona est fortuna, de qua nil possis queri."

There is no fortune so good but it bates an

ace.

19. Jucundum nihil est, nisi quod reficit va- 34. "Pars beneficii est, quod petitur si bene rietas."

Nothing is pleasant, to which variety does not give a relish.

20. "Invidiam ferre, aut fortis, aut felix potest." He may bear envy, who is either courageous or happy.

21. "In malis sperare bonum, nisi innocens, nemo potest."

None but a virtuous man can hope well in ill circumstances.

neges."

It is part of the gift, if you deny genteely what is asked of you.

35. "Timidus vocat se cautem, parcum sordidus."

The coward calls himself a wary man; and the miser says he is frugal.

36. "O vita! misero longa, felici brevis."

O life! an age to him that is in misery; and to him that is happy, a moment.

A COLLECTION OF SENTENCES

OUT OF SOME OF THE WRITINGS OF THE LORD BACON.*

1. It is a strange desire which men have, to seek power, and lose liberty.

17. In great place ask counsel of both times: of the ancient time, what is best; and of the latter

2. Children increase the cares of life; but they time, what is fittest. mitigate the remembrance of death.

3. Round dealing is the honour of man's nature; and a mixture of falsehood is like allay in gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it.

18. As in nature things move more violently to their place, and calmly in their place: so virtue in ambition is violent; in authority, settled and calm.

19. Boldness in civil business is like pronun4. Death openeth the gate to good fame, and ex- ciation in the orator of Demosthenes: the first, tinguisheth envy. second, and third thing.

5. Schism in the spiritual body of the church is a greater scandal than a corruption in manners: as, in the natural body, a wound or solution of continuity is worse than a corrupt humour.

6. Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.

20. Boldness is blind: wherefore it is ill in counsel, but good in execution. For in counsel it is good to see dangers: in execution, not to see them, except they be very great.

21. Without good nature, man is but a better kind of vermin.

22. God never wrought miracle to convince

7. He that studieth revenge, keepeth his own atheism, because his ordinary works convince it. wounds green.

8. Revengeful persons live and die like witches: their life is mischievous, and their end is unfortunate.

9. It was a high speech of Seneca, after the manner of the Stoics, that the good things which | belong to prosperity are to be wished; but the good things which belong to adversity are to be admired. 10. He that cannot see well, let him go softly. 11. If a man be thought secret, it inviteth discovery as the more close air sucketh in the more open.

23. The great atheists indeed are hypocrites, who are always handling holy things, but without feeling; so as they must needs be cauterized in the end.

24. The master of superstition is the people. And in all superstition, wise men follow fools.

25. In removing superstitions, care would be had, that, as it fareth in ill purgings, the good be not taken away with the bad: which commonly is done when the people is the physician.

26. He that goeth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school,

12. Keep your authority wholly from your chil- and not to travel. dren, not so your purse.

13. Men of noble birth are noted to be envious towards new men when they rise: for the distance is altered; and it is like a deceit of the eye, that when others come on, they think themselves go back.

14. That envy is most malignant which is like Cain's, who envied his brother, because his sacrifice was better accepted, when there was nobody but God to look on.

15. The lovers of great place are impatient of privateness, even in age, which requires the shadow: like old townsmen, that will be still sitting at their street door, though there they offer age to

scorn.

27. It is a miserable state of mind, and yet it is commonly the case of kings, to have few things to desire, and many things to fear.

28. Depression of the nobility may make a king more absolute but less safe.

29. All precepts concerning kings are, in effect, comprehended in these remembrances: remember thou art a man; remember thou art God's vicegerent: the one bridleth their power, and the other their will.

30. Things will have their first or second agitation: if they be not tossed upon the arguments of counsel, they will be tossed upon the waves of fortune.

31. The true composition of a counsellor is,

16. In evil, the best condition is, not to will: rather to be skilled in his master's business than

the next not to can.

* Baconiana, page 65.

VOL. I.-17

his nature; for then he is like to advise him, and not to feed his humour.

129

32. Private opinion is more free, but opinion before others is more reverend.

52. Riches are the baggage of virtue; they cannot be spared, nor left behind, but they hin

33. Fortune is like a market, where many times der the march. if you stay a little the price will fall.

34. Fortune sometimes turneth the handle of the bottle, which is easy to be taken hold of; and after the belly, which is hard to grasp.

35. Generally it is good to commit the beginning of all great actions to Argus with an hundred eyes; and the ends of them to Briareus with an hundred hands; first to watch, and then to speed.

36. There is great difference betwixt a cunning man and a wise man. There be that can pack the cards, who yet cannot play well; they are good in canvasses and factions, and yet otherwise

mean men.

37. Extreme self-lovers will set a man's house on fire, though it were but to roast their eggs.

38. New things, like strangers, are more admired and less favoured.⚫

39. It were good that men, in their innovations, would follow the example of time itself, which indeed innovateth greatly, but quietly, and by degrees scarce to be perceived.

40. They that reverence too much old time, are but a scorn to the new.

41. The Spaniards and Spartans have been noted to be of small despatch. "Mi venga la muerte de Spagna;" Let my death come from Spain, for then it will be sure to be long a coming.

42. You had better take for business a man somewhat absurd, than over-formal.

43. Those who want friends to whom to open their griefs, are cannibals of their own hearts.

44. Number itself importeth not much in armies, where the people are of weak courage; for, as Virgil says, it never troubles a wolf how many the sheep be.

53. Great riches have sold more men than ever they have bought out.

54. Riches have wings, and sometimes they fly away of themselves, and sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more.

55. He that defers his charity till he is dead, is, if a man weighs it rightly, rather liberal of another man's than of his own.

56. Ambition is like choler; if it can move, it makes men active; if it be stopped, it becomes adust, and makes men melancholy.

57. To take a soldier without ambition, is to pull off his spurs.

58. Some ambitious men seem as skreens to princes in matters of danger and envy. For no man will take such parts, except he be like the seeled dove, that mounts and mounts, because he cannot see about him.

59. Princes and states should choose such ministers as are more sensible of duty than rising; and should discern a busy nature from a willing mind.

60. A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds; therefore let him seasonably water the one, and destroy the other.

61. If a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see fortune; for though she be blind, she is not invisible.

62. Usury bringeth the treasure of a realm or state into a few hands: for the usurer being at certainties, and others at uncertainties; at the end of the game most of the money will be in the box.

63. Beauty is best in a body that hath rather dignity of presence, than beauty of aspect. The beautiful prove accomplished, but not of great spirit; and study, for the most part, rather beha

64. The best part of beauty is that which a picture cannot express.

45. Let states that aim at greatness, take heedviour than virtue. how their nobility and gentry multiply too fast. In coppice woods, if you leave your stadles too thick, you shall never have clean underwood, but shrubs and bushes.

46. A civil war is like the heat of a fever; but a foreign war is like the heat of exercise, and serveth to keep the body in health.

65. He who builds a fair house upon an ill seat, commits himself to prison.

66. If you will work on any man, you must either know his nature and fashion, and so lead him; or his ends, and so persuade him; or his

47. Suspicions among thoughts, are like bats weaknesses and disadvantages, and so awe him; among birds, they ever fly by twilight.

or those that have interest in him, and so govern

48. Base natures, if they find themselves once him. suspected, will never be true.

49. Men ought to find the difference between saltness and bitterness. Certainly he that hath a satirical vein, as he maketh others afraid of his wit, so he had need be afraid of others' memory. 50. Discretion in speech is more than eloquence. 51. Men seem neither well to understand their riches nor their strength; of the former they believe greater things than they should, and of the 'atter much less. And from hence certain fatal pillars have bounded the progress of learning.

67. Costly followers (among whom we may reckon those who are importunate in suits) are not to be liked; lest, while a man maketh his train longer, he maketh his wings shorter.

68. Fame is like a river that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.

69. Seneca saith well, that anger is like rain, which breaks itself upon that which it falls. 70. Excusations, cessions, modesty itself well governed, are but arts of ostentation.

71. High treason is not written in ice, that [or grain is seen, which in a fouler stone is never when the body relenteth, the impression should perceived.

go away.

73. Hollow church papists are like the roots 72. The best governments are always subject of nettles, which themselves sting not; but yet to be like the fairest crystals, wherein every icicle they bear all the stinging leaves.

SHORT NOTES FOR CIVIL CONVERSATION.

BY SIR FRANCIS BACON.*

To deceive men's expectations generally (which | wanting true judgment; for in all things no man cautel) argueth a staid mind, and unexpected con- can be exquisite. stancy: viz. in matters of fear, anger, sudden joy or grief, and all things which may affect or alter the mind in public or sudden accidents, or suchlike. It is necessary to use a steadfast countenance, not wavering with action, as in moving the head or hand too much, which showeth a fantastical, light, and fickle operation of the spirit, and consequently like mind as gesture: only it is sufficient, with leisure, to use a modest action in either.

In all kinds of speech, either pleasant, grave, severe, or ordinary, it is convenient to speak leisurely, and rather drawingly, than hastily; because hasty speech confounds the memory, and oftentimes, besides unseemliness, drives a man either to a non-plus or unseemly stammering, harping upon that which should follow; whereas a slow speech confirmeth the memory, addeth a conceit of wisdom to the hearers, besides a seemliness of speech and countenance. To desire in discourse to hold all arguments, is ridiculous,

To have commonplaces to discourse, and to want variety, is both tedious to the hearers, and shows a shallowness of conceit: therefore it is good to vary, and suit speeches with the present occasions; and to have a moderation in all our speeches, especially in jesting of religion, state, great persons, weighty and important business, poverty, or any thing deserving pity.

A long continued speech, without a good speech of interlocution, showeth slowness: and a good reply, without a good set speech, showeth shallowness and weakness.

To use many circumstances, ere you come to the matter, is wearisome; and to use none at all, is but blunt.

Bashfulness is a great hinderance to a man, both of uttering his conceit, and understanding what is propounded unto him; wherefore it is good to press himself forwards with discretion, both in speech, and company of the better sort. "Usus promptos facit."

AN ESSAY ON DEATH.

BY THE LORD CHANCELLOR BACON.†

1. I HAVE often thought upon death, and I find it the least of all evils. All that which is past is as a dream; and he that hopes or depends upon time coming, dreams waking. So much of our life as we have discovered is already dead; and all those hours which we share, even from the breasts of our mother, until we return to our grandmother the earth, are part of our dying days; whereof even this is one, and those that succeed are of the same nature, for we die daily; and as others have given place to us, so we must in the end give way to others.

From the Remains.

| 2. Physicians in the name of death include all sorrow, anguish, disease, calamity, or whatsoever can fall in the life of man, either grievous or unwelcome: but these things are familiar unto us, and we suffer them every hour; therefore we die daily, and I am older since I affirmed it.

3. I know many wise men, that fear to die; for the change is bitter, and flesh would refuse to prove it: besides the expectation orings terror, and that exceeds the evil. But I do not believe, that any man fears to be dead, but only +Remains.

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