The essays, or, Counsels civil and moral and wisdom of the ancients of Francis Lord Verulam

Preface

Ix the early part of the year 1597 Lord Bacon's first publication appeared. It is a small 12mo. volume, entitled Essay es, Religious Meditations, Places of Perswasion and Disswasion. It is dedicated

'To M. Anthony Bacon, his deare Brother.

Lcuing and beloued Brother, I doe nowe like some that have an orcharde ill neighbored, that gather their fruit before it is ripe, to preuent stealing. These fragments of my conceites were going to print, To labour the staie of them had bin troublesome, and subiect to interpretation ; to let them passe had beene to aduenture the wrong they mought receiue by vntrue coppies, or by some garnishment, which it mought please any that should set them forth to bestow vpon them. Therefore I helde it best as they passed long agoe from my pen, without any further disgrace, then the weaknesse of the Author. And as I did euer hold, there mought be as great a vanitie in retiring and withdrawing mens conceites (except they bee of some nature) from the world, as in obtruding them : So in these particulars I haue played myself the Inquisitor, and find nothing to my vnderstanding in them contrarie or infectious to the b state of Religion, or manners, but rather (as I suppose) medecinable. Only I disliked now to put them out because they will be like the late new halfe-pence, which, though the siluer were good, yet the peeces were small. But since they would not stay with their Master, but would needes trauaile abroade, I haue preferred them to you that are next my selfe, Dedicating them, such as they are, to our loue, in the depth whereof (I assure you) I sometimes wish your infirmities translated vppon my selfe, that her Maiestie mought haue the seruice of so actiue and able a mind, and I mought be with excuse confined to these contemplations and studies for which I am fittest, so commend I you to the preseruation of the diuine maiestie : From my Chamber at Graies Inne, this 30 of Januarie, 1597. Your entire Louing Brother, Fran, Bacon/ The Essays, which are ten in number, abound with condensed thought and practical wisdom, neatly, pressly and weightily stated, and, like all his early works, are simple without imagery. They are written in his favourite style of aphorisms, although each Essay is apparently a continued work, and without that love of antithesis and false glitter to which truth and justness of thought are frequently sacrificed by the writers of maxims.

c ,.i, s^ccm^gdition, with a translation of the Meditat^es e ^rce y v^i^bYished in the next year; and another edition enlarged in 1612, when he

PREFACE. iii

was Solicitor-general, containing thirty-eight Essays ; and one still more enlarged in 1625, containing fifty-eight Essays, the year before his death.

The Essays in the subsequent editions are much augmented, according to his own words, "I always alter when I add, so that nothing is finished till all is finished," and they are adorned by happy and familiar illustration, as in the Essay of'" Wisdom for a Man's self," which concludes in the edition of 1625, with the following extract, not to be found in the previous edition : — " Wisdom for a man's self is in many branches thereof a depraved thing. It is the wisdom of rats, that will be sure to leave a house somewhat before it fall. It is the wisdom of the fox, that thrusts out the badger who digged and made room for him. It is the wisdom of crocodiles that shed tears when they would devour. But that which is specially to be noted is, that those which, as Cicero says of Pompey, are sui amantes sine rivali, are many times unfortunate. And whereas they have all their time sacrificed to themselves, they become in the end themselves sacrifices to the inconstancy of fortune, whose wings they thought by their self-wisdom to have pinioned."

So in the Essay upon Adversity, on which he had deeply reflected, before the edition of rko, when k first appeared, he says : u The virtue of prosperity is temperance, the virtue of adversity

IV PREFACE.

is fortitude, which in morals is the more heroica! virtue. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, Adversity is the blessing of the New, which carrieth the great benediction, and the clearer revelation of God's favour. Yet even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols ; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath laboured more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes ; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. We see in needleworks 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. Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed : for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.

The Essays were immediately translated into French and Italian, and into Latin by some of his friends, amongst whom were Hacket, Bishop of Lichfield, and his constant affectionate friend,

_ i ! 2IGi D9IUJ3Y J9DflJj 3

Ben Jonson.

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His own estimate of the value of this work is

thus stated in his letter to the Bishop of Winchester : "As for my Essays, and some other particulars of that nature, I count them but as the

PREFACE.

recreations of my other studies, and in that man-

ner purpose to continue them ; though 1 am not

ignorant that these kind of writings would, with

less pains and assiduity, perhaps yield more lustre

and reputation to my name than the others I have . , i ,, > 'Ox) to no! nxftb

m hand.

Although it was not likely that such lustre and reputation would dazzle him, the admirer of Phocion, who, when applauded, turned to one of his friends and asked, "What have I said amiss ?" although. popular judgment was not likely to mislead him who concludes his observations upon the objections to learning and the advantages of knowledge, by saying, "Nevertheless I do not pretend, and I know it will be impossible for me, by any pleading of mine, to reverse the judgment either of iEsop's cock that preferred the barley-corn before the gem; or of Midas, that being chosen judge between Apollo, president of the Muses, and Pan, god of the flocks, judged for plenty ; or of Paris, that judged for beauty and love against wisdom and power. For these things continue as they have been ; but so will that also continue whereupon learning hath ever relied and which faileth not, ' Justificata est sapientia a filiis suis :'." yet he seems to have undervalued this little work , which, for two centuries, has been favourably received by every lover of knowledge and of beauty,

and is now so well appreciated that a celebrated _ . „ i r . ■ tfH

Professor ot our own times truiv savs.: "The

i Jsflrto «n

PREFACE.

small volume to which he has given the title of ' Essays,' the best known and the most popular of all his works, is one of those where the superiority of his genius appears to the greatest advantage, the novelty and depth of his reflections often receiving a strong relief from the triteness of the subject. It may be read from beginning to end in a few hours, and yet after the twentieth perusal one seldom fails to remark in it something overlooked before. This, indeed, is a characteristic of all: Bacon s writings, and is only to be accounted for by the inexhaustible aliment they furnish to our own thoughts and the sympathetic activity they impart to our torpid faculties."

During his life six or more editions, which seem to have been pirated, were published ; and after his death, two spurious Essays " Of Death/' and b Of a King," the only: authentic Posthumous Essay being the Fragment of an Essay on Fame, which was published by his friend and chaplain Dr. Rawley.

This edition is a transcript of the edition of 1625, with, the Posthumous Essays. In the Life of Bacori*r there is a minute account of the different editions of the Essays and of their contents. They may shortly be stated as follows : First edition, 1597, genuine.

There are two copies of this edition in the Urn- *mna — H —

* By ; B. Motitagu. ■ Apperidi*, note 3 I.

PREFACE. Vll

versity Library at Cambridge: and there is Archbishop SancrofVs copy in Emanuel Library : there is a copy in the Bodleian, and I have a copy.

Second edition, 1598, genuine.

Third edition, 1606, pirated^

Fourth edition, entitled, " The Essaies of Sir Francis Bacon, Knight, the Kings Sollicker Generall. Imprinted at London by Iohn Beale, 1612," genuine. It was the intention of Sir Francis to have dedicated this edition to Henry Prince of Wales, but he was prevented by the death of the Prince on the 6th of November in that year. This appears by the following letter : *

To the most high and excellent Prince, Henry, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall and Earl of Chester.

It may please your Highness, — Having divided my life into the contemplative and active part, I am desirous -to give his Majesty and your Highness of the fruits of both, simple though they be. To write just treatises, require th leisure in the writer and leisure in the reader, and therefore are not so fit, neither in regard of your Highness's princely affairs nor in regard of my continual service; which is the cause that hath made me choose to write certain brief notes, set down rattier significantly than curiously, which I have called Essays. The word is late but the thing is ancient ; for Seneca's Epistles to Lucilius, if you mark

V1H PREFACE.

them well, are but essays, that is, dispersed meditations though conveyed in the form of epistles. These labours of mine, I know, cannot be worthy of your Highness, for what can be worthy of you ? But my hope is, they may be as grains of salt, that will rather give you an appetite than offend you with satiety. And although they handle those things wherein both men's lives and their persons are most conversant ; yet what I have attained I know not ; but I have endeavoured to make them not vulgar, but of a nature whereof a man shall find much in experience and little in books ; so as they are neither repetitions nor fancies. Bat, however, I shall most humbly desire your Highness to accept them in gracious part and to conceive, that if I cannot rest but must shew my dutiful and devoted affection to your Highness in these things which proceed from myself, I shall be much more ready to do it in performance of any of your princely commandments. And so wishing your Highness all princely felicity, T rest vour Highness most humble servant,

1612. " d In ° J Fk. Bacon.

sH bioJ It was dedicated as follows :

To my loving Brother, Sir John Constable, Knt. h My last Essaies I dedicated to my deare brother Master Anthony Bacon, who is with God. Looking amongst my papers tliis vacation, I found others of the same nature : which if I myselte shall not suffer to be lost, it seemeth the world

I' RE* ACE. IX

will not; by the often printing- of, the former. Missing my brother, I found you next ;. in respect of bond both of neare alliance, and of straight friendship and societie and particularly of communication in studies. Wherein I must acknowledge my selfe beholding to you. For as my businesse found rest in my contemplations ; so my contemplations ever found rest in your loving conference and judgment. So wishing you all good, I remaine your louing brother and friend,

Fra. Bacon.

Fifth edition, 1612, pirated. Sixth edition, 1613, pirated. Seventh edition, 1624, pirated. Eighth edition, 1624, pirated. Ninth edition, entitled, " The Essayes or Covnsels, Civiil and Morall, of Francis Lo. Vervlam, Viscovnt St. Alban. Newly enlarged. London, Printed by Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret and Richard Whitaker, and are to be sold at the signe of the King's head in Paul's Churchyard. 1625," genuine.

This edition is a small quarto of 340 pages ; it clearly was published by Lord Bacon, and in the next year, 1626, Lord Bacon died. The dedication is as follows, to the Duke of Buckingham :

To the Right Honorable my very good Lo. the Duke of Buckingham his Grace, Lo.HighAdmirall of England.

Excellent Lo. — Salomon saies, A good name is as a precious oyntment ; and I assure myselfe,, x mmmm

such wil your Grace's name bee, with posteritie. For your fortune and merit i both, haue beene eminent. And you haue planted tilings that are like to last. I, doe itiom publish my Essayed-; which, of all my other workes, have beene most currant : for that, as it seemes^they come home to mens businesse and bosomes. 3 Ihaue enlarged them both in number and weight, so that they are indeed a new work,,, I thought it therefore agreeable to my affection, and obligation to your Grace, to prefix your, name before them, both in English and in OLatine^ij Fori doe conceiue, that the Latine volume of them (being in the vniuersal language) may last as Jsong as bookes last,: My Instauration I dedicated to the king : my Historie of Henry the Seventh, (which I haue now also translated into Latine) and my portions of Naturall History, to the Prince: and these I dedicate to your Grace : being of the test fruits, that by the good encrease which God gives to my pen and labours, I could' yeeld. *< God leade your Grace bf the .hand. Your Graces most obliged and ■ -faith* full seruant, Fr. St. Alba^.

Of this edition Lord Bacon sent a copy to the Marquis Fiat, with the following* letter «*

O uo I

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lne same m English. ?

My Lord Ambassador, my Son,— Seeing that your Excellency makes and treats of marriages^ not only betwixt the Princes of France and England, but also betwixt their languages (for -you have caused my book of the Advancement of Learning to be. translated into French), I was much inclined to: make you a present of the last book which I published, and which ih ha4i in readiness for you. I was sometimes in dou&t ^hetta: I ought to have sent it to you, because it was written in the English tongue. But now, fbr [ fhat tffity'.feason, I send it to you. It is a recompilement of my Essays, Moral and Civil ; but in such manner enlarged |nd enriched both in number and

XII PREFACE.

weight, that it is in effect a new work. 1 kiss your hands, and remain your most affectionate friend and most humble servant, &c. luim ,

Of the translation of the Essays into Latin, Bacon speaks in the following: letter : —

M L «yu da , T . ■ ■

" To Mr. Tobie Mathew.-It is true my labours are now most set to have those works which I had formerly published, as that of Advancement of Learning, that of Henry VII., that of the Essays, being retractate and made more perfect, well translated into Latin by the help of some good pens which forsake me not. For these modern languages will, at one time or other, play the bankrupt with books ; and since I have lost much time with this age, I would be glad, as God shall give me leave, to recover it with posterity. For the Essay of Frie^ r1 :-hip, while I took your speech of it for a curse -quest, I took my promise for a compliment. But since you call for it, I shall perform it."

In his letter to Father Fulgentio, giving some account of his writings, he says, " The Novum Organum should immediately follow, but my Moral and Political writings step in between as being more finished. These are the History of King 1 Henrv VII., and the small book, which in your language you have called Saggi Morali, but I give it a graver title, that of Sermones Fideles, or Interiora Rerum, and these Essays will not

PREFACE. Xltl

only be enlarged in number, but still more in substance."

The nature of the Latin edition and of the Essays in general is thus stated by Archbishop Tenison :

" The Essays, or Counsels Civil and Moral, though a by-work also, do yet make up a book of greater weight by far than the apothegms : and coming home to men's business and bosoms, his lordship entertained this persuasion concerning them, that the Latin volume might last as long as books should last. His Lordship wrote them in the English tongue, and enlarged them as occasion served, and at last added to them the Colours of Good and Evil, which are likewise found in his book De Augmentis. The Latin translation of them was a work performed by divers hands ; by those of Dr. Hacket (late Bishop of Lichfield), Mr. Benjamin Jonson (the learned and judicious poet), and some others, whose names I once heard from Dr. Rawley, but I cannot now recall them, To this Latin edition, he gave the title of Sennones Fideles, after the manner of the Jews, who called the words Adages or Observations of the Wise, Faithful Sayings; that is, credible propositions worthy of firm assent and ready acceptance. And (as I think) he alluded mere particularly, in this title, to a passage in Ecclesiastes, where the Preacher saith that he scught to find out Verba Delectabilia (as Tremeh" ih the Hebrew),

XIV PREFACE.

pleasant words (that is, perhaps, his Book of Canticles ;) and Verba Fidelia (as the sarrie Tremellius), Faithful Sayings; meaning, it maybe, his Collection of Proverbs. In the next verse, he calls them words of the wise, and so many goads and nails given ' Ab eodem pastore/ from the same shepherd [of the flock of Israel.]"

In the year 1638, Rawley published in folio a volume containing amongst other works, " Sermones Fideles, ab ipso Honoratissimo Auctore, prseterquam in paueis, Latinitate donati." In his address to the reader he says : " Accedunt, quas prius Delibationes Civiles et Morales inscripserat : quas etiam in linguas plurimas modernas translatas esse novit ; sed eas postea, et numero et pondere, auxit ; in tantum, u't veluti opus novum videri possint ; quas mutato titulo, Sermones Fideles, sive Intercom Rerum, inscribi placuit. Addi etiam vomit." The title-page and dedication are annexed : ' " Sermones Fideles sive Interiora Rerum. Per Franciscum Baconum Baronem de Vervlamio, Vice- Comitem Sancti Albani. Londini Excusum typis Edwardi Griffin. Prostant ad Insignia Regia in Coemeterio D. Pauli, apud Richardum Whitakenim, 1638."

PREFACE. XV

In thenar 1618, Tte^'Bsf ^spfo^ether with the Wisdom : of the 1 Ancients, was translated into Italian, and dedicated to Cosmo de Medici, by Tobie Mathew; and in the following year the Essays were

XVI PREFACE.

translated into French by Sir Arthur Gorges, and printed in London.

WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS.

In the year 1609, as a relaxation from abstruse speculations, he published in Latin his interesting little work, " De Sapientia Veterum. ,,

This tract seems, in former times, to have been much valued. The fables, abounding with a union of deep thought and poetic beauty, are thirty-one in number, of which a part of " The Sirens, or Pleasures, " may be selected as a specimen.

In this fable he explains the common but erroneous supposition, that knowledge and the conformity of the will, knowing and acting, are convertible terms. — Of this error he, in his Essay of " Custom and Education," admonishes his readers, by saying, " Men's thoughts are much according to their inclination ; their discourse and speeches according to their learning and infused opinions, but their deeds are after as they have been accustomed ; iEsop's damsel, transformed from a cat to a woman, sat very demurely at the board-end till a mouse ran before her." — In the fable of the Sirens he exhibits the same truth, saying, " The habitation of the Sirens was in certain pleasant islands, from whence, as soon as out of their watch-tower they discovered any ships approaching, with their sweet tunes they would first entice

PREFACE. XVII

and stay them, and, having them in their power, would destroy them; and, so great were the mischiefs they did, that these isles of the syrens, even as far off as man can ken them, appeared all over white with the bones of unburied carcasses : by which it is signified that albeit the examples of afflictions be manifest and eminent, yet they do not sufficiently deter us from the wicked enticements of pleasure."

The following is the account of the different editions of this work : — The first was published in 1609. In February 27, 1610, Lord Bacon wrote to Mr. Mathew, upon sending his book De Sapientia Veterum :

" Mr. Mathew, — I do very heartily thank you for your letter of the 24th of August from Salamanca ; and in recompence therefore I send you a little work of mine that hath begun to pass the world. They tell me my Latin is turned into silver, and become current: had you been here, you should have been my inquisitor before it came forth; but, I think, the greatest inquisitor in Spain will allow it. But one thing you must pardon me if I make no haste to believe, that the world should be grown to such an ecstasy as to reject truth in philosophy, because the author dissenteth in religion ; no more than they do by Aristotle or Averroes. My great work goeth forward ; and after my manner, I alter even when I add. So that nothing is finished till all be finished.

XVlll PREFACE.

This I have written in the midst of a term and parliament; thinking no time so possessed, but that I should talk of these matters with so good and dear a friend. And so with my wonted wishes I leave you to God's goodness.

And in his letter to Father Fulgentio, giving some account of his writings, he says, " My Essays will not only be enlarged in number, but still more in substance. Along with them goes the little piece ' De Sapientia Veterum.' "

In the " Advancement of Learning" he says, " There remaineth yet another use of poesy parabolical, opposite to that which we last mentioned : for that tendeth to demonstrate and illustrate that which is taught or delivered, and this other to retire and obscure it : that is, when the secrets and mysteries of religion, policy, or philosophy, are involved in fables or parables. Of this in divine poesy we see the use is authorized. In heathen poesy we see the exposition of fables doth fall out sometimes with great felicity ; as in the fable that the giants being overthrown in their war against the gods, the Earth, their mother, in revenge thereof brought forth Fame :

' Illam Terra parens, ira irritata deorum, Extremam, ut perhibent, Coeo Enceladoque sororem Progenuit,'

expounded, that when princes and monarchs have .suppressed actual and open rebels, then the ma- 1

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lignity of the people, which is the mother "of rebellion, doth bring forth libels and slanders, and taxations of the state, which is of the same kind with rebellion, but more feminine. So in the fable, that the rest of the gods having conspired to bind Jupiter, Pallas called Briareus with his hundred hands to his aid, expounded, that monarchies need not fear any curbing of their absoluteness by mighty subjects, as long as by wisdom they keep the hearts of the people, who will be sure to come in on their side. So in the fable, that Achilles was brought up under Chiron the centaur, who was part a man and part a beast, expounded ingeniously, but corruptly by Machiavel, that it belongeth to the education and discipline of princes to know as well how to play the part of the lion in violence, and the fox in guile, as of the man in virtue and justice. Nevertheless, in many the like encounters, I do rather think that the fable was first, and the exposition then devised, than that the moral was first, and thereupon the fable framed. For I find it was an ancient vanity in Chrysippus, that troubled himself with great contention to fasten the assertions of the Stoics upon the fictions of the ancient poets ; but yet that all the fables and fictions of the poets were but pleasure and not figure, I interpose no opinion. Surely of those poets w T hich are now extant, even Homer himself, (notwithstanding he was made a kind of Scripture by the latter schools

XX PREFACE.

of the Grecians,) yet I should without any difficulty pronounce that his fables had no such inwardness in his own meaning; but what they might have upon a more original tradition, is not easy to affirm; for he was not the inventor of many of them/ '

In the treatise " De Augmentis," the same sentiments will be found with a slight alteration in the expressions. He says, " there is another use of parabolical poesy opposite to the former, which tendeth to the folding up of those things, the dignity whereof deserves to be retired and distinguished, as with a drawn curtain: that is, when the secrets and mysteries of religion, policy, and philosophy are veiled and invested with fables and parables. But whether there be any mystical sense couched under the ancient fables of the poets, may admit some doubt : and indeed for our part we incline to this opinion, as to think that there was an infused mystery in. many of the ancient fables of the poets. Neither doth it move us that these matters are left commonly to schoolboys and grammarians, and so are embased, that we should therefore make a slight judgment upon them : but contrariwise because it is clear that the writings which recite those fables, of all the writings of men, next to sacred writ, are the most ancient : and that the fables themselves are far more ancient than they (being they are alleged by those writers, not as excogitated by them, but

PREFACE. XXI

as credited and recepted before) seem to be, like a thin rarefied air, which from the traditions of more ancient nations, fell into the flutes of the Grecians."

Of this tract, Archbishop Tenison in his Baconiana, says, " In the seventh place, I may reckon his book De Sapientia Veterum, written by him in Latin, and set forth a second time with enlargement ; and translated into English by Sir Arthur Gorges : a book in which the sages of former times are rendered more wise than it may be they were, by so dextrous an interpreter of their fables. It is this book which Mr. Sandys means, in those words which he hath put before his notes, on the Metamorphosis of Ovid. ' Of modern writers, I have received the greatest light from Geraldus, Pontanus, Ficinus, Vives, Comes, Scaliger, Sabinus, Pierius, and the crown of the latter, the Viscount of St. Albans/

"It is true, the design of this book was instruction in natural and civil matters, either couched by the ancients under those fictions, or rather made to seem to be so by his lordship's wit, in the opening and applying of them. But because the first ground of it is poetical story, therefore let it have this place, till a fitter be found for it."

The author of Bacon's Life, in the Biographia Britannica, says, " That he might relieve himself a little from the severity of these studies, and as it

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were amuse himself with erecting a magnificent pavilion, while his great palace of philosophy was building : he composed and sent abroad in 1610, his celebrated treatise Of the Wisdom of the Ancients, in which he showed that none had studied them more closely, was better acquainted with their beauties, or had pierced deeper into their meaning. There have been very few books published, either in this or in any other nation, which either deserved or met with more general applause than this, and scarce any that are like to retain it longer, for in this performance Sir Francis Bacon gave a singular proof of his capacity to please all parties in literature, as in his political conduct he stood fair with all the parties in the nation. The admirers of antiquity were charmed with this discourse, which seems expressly calculated to justify their admiration ; and, on the other hand, their opposites were no less pleased with a piece, from which they thought they could demonstrate that the sagacity of a modern genius had found out much better meanings for the ancients than ever were meant by them."

And Mallet, in his life of Bacon, says, " In 1610 he published another treatise, entitled Of the Wisdom of the Ancients. This work bears the same stamp of an original and inventive genius with his other performances. Resolving not to tread in the steps of those who had gone bei

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