bewitch, but love and envy. They both have vehement wishes; they frame
themselves readily into imaginations and suggestions; and they come
easily into the eye, especially upon the presence of the objects;
which are the points that conduce to fascination, if any such thing
there be. We see likewise the Scripture calleth envy an evil eye; and
the astrologers call the evil influences of the stars evil aspects; so
that still there seemeth to be acknowledged, in the act of envy, an
ejaculation or irradiation of the eye. Nay some have been so curious
as to note that the times when the stroke or percussion of an envious
eye doth most hurt are when the party envied is beheld in glory or
triumph; for that sets an edge upon envy: and besides, at such times
the spirits of the person envied do come forth most into the outward
parts, and so meet the blow.
But leaving these curiosities (tho not unworthy to be thought on in
fit place), we will handle, what persons are apt to envy others; what
persons are most subject to be envied themselves; and what is the
difference between public and private envy.
A man that hath no virtue in himself, ever envieth virtue in others.
For men's minds will either feed upon their own good or upon others'
evil; and who wanteth the one will prey upon the other; and whoso is
out of hope to attain to another's virtue, will seek to come at even
hand by depressing another's fortune.
A man that is busy and inquisitive is commonly envious. For to know
much of other men's matters cannot be because all that ado may concern
his own estate; therefore it must needs be that he taketh a kind of
play-pleasure in looking upon the fortunes of others. Neither can he
that mindeth but his own business find much matter for envy. For envy
is a gadding passion, and walketh the streets, and doth not keep home:
_Non est curiosus, guin idem sit malevolus._[41]
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.
Deformed persons, and eunuchs, and old men, and bastards, are envious.
For he that can not possibly mend his own case will do what he can to
impair another's; except these defects light upon a very brave and
heroical nature, which thinketh to make his natural wants part of his
honor; in that it should be said, that an eunuch, or a lame man, did
such great matters; affecting the honor of a miracle; as it was in
Narses[42] the eunuch, and Agesilaus[43] and Tamberlanes,[44] that
were lame men.
The same is the case of men that rise after calamities and
misfortunes. For they are as men fallen out with the times; and think
other men's harms a redemption of their own sufferings.
They that desire to excel in too many matters, out of levity and
vainglory, are ever envious. For they can not want work; it being
impossible but many in some one of those things should surpass them.
Which was the character of Adrian[45] the Emperor; that mortally
envied poets and painters and artificers, in works wherein he had a
vein to excel.
Lastly, near kinsfolks, and fellows in office, and those that have
been bred together, are more apt to envy their equals when they are
raised. For it doth upbraid unto them their own fortunes, and pointeth
at them, and cometh oftener into their remembrance, and incurreth
likewise more into the note of others; and envy ever redoubleth from
speech and fame. Cain's envy was the more vile and malignant towards
his brother Abel, because when his sacrifice was better accepted there
was no body to look on. Thus much for those that are apt to envy.
Concerning those that are more or less subject to envy: First, persons
of eminent virtue, when they are advanced, are less envied. For their
fortune seemeth but due unto them; and no man envieth the payment of a
debt, but rewards and liberality rather. Again, envy is ever joined
with the comparing of a man's self; and where there is no comparison,
no envy; and therefore kings are not envied but by kings. Nevertheless
it is to be noted that unworthy persons are most envied at their first
coming in, and afterwards overcome it better; whereas contrariwise,
persons of worth and merit are most envied when their fortune
continueth long. For by that time, tho their virtue be the same, yet
it hath not the same luster; for fresh men grow up that darken it.
Persons of noble blood are less envied in their rising. For it seemeth
but right done to their birth. Besides, there seemeth not much added
to their fortune; and envy is as the sunbeams, that beat hotter upon a
bank or steep rising ground, than up a flat. And for the same reason
those that are advanced by degrees are less envied than those that are
advanced suddenly and _per saltum_ [at a bound].
Those that have joined with their honor great travels, cares, or
perils, are less subject to envy. For men think that they earn their
honors hardly, and pity them sometimes; and pity ever healeth envy.
Wherefore you shall observe that the more deep and sober sort of
politic persons, in their greatness, are ever bemoaning themselves,
what a life they lead; chanting a _quanta patimur_. Not that they feel
it so, but only to abate the edge of envy. But this is to be
understood of business that is laid upon men, and not such as they
call unto themselves. For nothing increaseth envy more than an
unnecessary and ambitious engrossing of business. And nothing doth
extinguish envy more than for a great person to preserve all other
inferior officers in their full rights and preeminences of their
places. For by that means there be so many screens between him and
envy.
Above all, those are most subject to envy, which carry the greatness
of their fortunes in an insolent and proud manner; being never well
but while they are showing how great they are, either by outward pomp,
or by triumphing over all opposition or competition; whereas wise men
will rather do sacrifice to envy, in suffering themselves sometimes of
purpose to be crossed and overborne in things that do not much concern
them. Notwithstanding, so much is true, that the carriage of greatness
in a plain and open manner (so it be without arrogancy and vain glory)
doth draw less envy than if it be in a more crafty and cunning
fashion. For in that course a man doth but disavow fortune; and
seemeth to be conscious of his own want in worth; and doth but teach
others to envy him.
Lastly, to conclude this part; as we said in the beginning that the
act of envy had somewhat in it of witchcraft, so there is no other
cure of envy but the cure of witchcraft; and that is, to remove the
_lot_ (as they call it) and to lay it upon another. For which
purpose, the wiser sort of great persons bring in ever upon the stage
somebody upon whom to derive the envy that would come upon themselves;
sometimes upon ministers and servants; sometimes upon colleagues and
associates; and the like; and for that turn there are never wanting
some persons of violent and undertaking nature, who, so they may have
power and business, will take it at any cost.
Now, to speak of public envy. There is yet some good in public envy,
whereas in private there is none. For public envy is as an ostracism,
that eclipseth men when they grow too great. And therefore it is a
bridle also to great ones, to keep them within bounds.
This envy, being in the Latin word _invidia_, goeth in the modern
languages by the name of _discontentment_; of which we shall speak in
handling sedition. It is a disease in a state like to infection. For
as infection spreadeth upon that which is sound, and tainteth it; so
when envy is gotten once into a state, it traduceth even the best
actions thereof, and turneth them into an ill odor. And therefore
there is little won by intermingling of plausible actions. For that
doth argue but a weakness and fear of envy, which hurteth so much the
more, as it is likewise usual in infections; which if you fear them,
you call them upon you.
This public envy seemeth to beat chiefly upon principal officers or
ministers, rather than upon kings and estates themselves. But this is
a sure rule, that if the envy upon the minister be great, when the
cause of it in him is small; or if the envy be general in a manner
upon all the ministers of an estate; then the envy (tho hidden) is
truly upon the state itself. And so much of public envy or
discontentment, and the difference thereof from private envy, which
was handled in the first place.
We will add this in general, touching the affection of envy; that of
all other affections it is the most importune and continual. For of
other affections there is occasion given but now and then; and
therefore it was well said, _Invidia festos dies non agit_:[46] a for
it is ever working upon some or other. And it is also noted that love
and envy do make a man pine, which other affections do not, because
they are not so continual. It is also the vilest affection, and the
most depraved; for which cause it is the proper attribute of the
devil, who is called _the envious man, that soweth tares amongst the
wheat by night_; as it always cometh to pass, that envy worketh
subtilly, and in the dark; and to the prejudice of good things, such
as is the wheat.
VII
OF GOODNESS AND GOODNESS OF NATURE
I take goodness in this sense, the affecting of the weal of men, which
is that the Grecians call _philanthropia_; and the word _humanity_ (as
it is used) is a little too light to express it. Goodness I call the
habit, and goodness of nature the inclination. This of all virtues and
dignities of the mind is the greatest; being the character of the
Deity: and without it man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing; no
better than a kind of vermin. Goodness answers to the theological
virtue charity, and admits no excess, but error. The desire of power
in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess
caused man to fall: but in charity there is no excess; neither can
angel or man come in danger by it. The inclination to goodness is
imprinted deeply in the nature of man; insomuch that if it issue not
towards men, it will take unto other living creatures; as it is seen
in the Turks, a cruel people, who nevertheless are kind to beasts, and
give alms to dogs and birds; insomuch as Busbechius[47] reporteth, a
Christian boy in Constantinople had like to have been stoned for
gagging in a waggishness a long-billed fowl. Errors indeed in this
virtue of goodness or charity may be committed. The Italians have an
ungracious proverb, _Tanto buon che val niente_.[48] And one of the
doctors of Italy, Nicholas Machiavel,[49] had the confidence to put in
writing, almost in plain terms, _That the Christian faith had given up
good men in prey to those that are tyrannical and unjust_. Which he
spake, because indeed there was never law or sect or opinion did so
much, magnify goodness as the Christian religion doth.
Therefore, to avoid the scandal and the danger both, it is good to
take knowledge of the errors of an habit so excellent. Seek the good
of other men, but be not in bondage to their faces or fancies; for
that is but facility or softness; which taketh an honest mind
prisoner. Neither give thou Æsop's cock a gem, who would be better
pleased and happier if he had had a barley-corn. The example of God
teacheth the lesson truly: _He sendeth his rain and maketh his sun to
shine upon the just and unjust_; but He doth not rain wealth, nor
shine honor and virtues, upon men equally. Common benefits are to be
communicate with all; but peculiar benefits with choice. And beware
how in making the portraiture thou breakest the pattern. For divinity
maketh the love of ourselves the pattern; the love of our neighbors
but the portraiture. _Sell all thou hast, and give it to the poor, and
follow me_: but sell not all thou hast, except thou come and follow
me; that is, except thou have a vocation wherein thou mayest do as
much good with little means as with great; for otherwise in feeding
the streams thou driest the fountain.
Neither is there only a habit of goodness, directed by right reason;
but there is in some men, even in nature, a disposition towards it; as
on the other side there is a natural malignity. For there be that in
their nature do not affect the good of others. The lighter sort of
malignity turneth but to a crossness, or frowardness, or aptness to
oppose, or difficilness, or the like; but the deeper sort to envy and
mere mischief. Such men in other men's calamities are, as it were, in
season, and are ever on the loading part: not so good as the dogs that
licked Lazarus' sores; but like flies that are still buzzing upon
anything that is raw; _misanthropi_ [haters of men], that make it
their practise to bring men to the bough, and yet have never a tree
for the purpose in their gardens, as Timon[50] had. Such dispositions
are the very errors of human nature; and yet they are the fittest
timber to make great politics of; like to knee timber, that is good
for ships, that are ordained to be tossed; but not for building
houses, that shall stand firm. The parts and signs of goodness are
many. If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is
a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from
other lands, but a continent that joins to them. If he be
compassionate towards the afflictions of others, it shows that his
heart is like the noble tree that is wounded itself when it gives the
balm. If he easily pardons and remits offenses, it shows that his mind
is planted above injuries; so that he cannot be shot. If he be
thankful for small benefits, it shows that he weighs men's minds, and
not their trash. But above all, if he have St. Paul's perfection, that
he would wish to be an _anathema_ from Christ for the salvation of his
brethren, it shows much of a divine nature, and a kind of conformity
with Christ Himself.
VIII
OF STUDIES
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. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of
particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and
marshaling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. To spend
too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament,
is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor
of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience:
for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning,[51]
by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at
large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn
studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach
not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them,
won by observation. 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. Some books also may
be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would
be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books;
else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things.
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an
exact man.
And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory;
if he confer little, he had need have a present wit: and if he read
little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth
not. Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtile;
natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to
contend. _Abeunt studia in mores._[52] Nay, there is no stond or
impediment in the wit but may be wrought out by fit studies; like as
diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises. Bowling 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 again. If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences,
let him study the Schoolmen; for they are _cymini sectores_ [splitters
of hairs]. If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one
thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers'
cases. So every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.
IX
OF REGIMENT OF HEALTH
There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic: a man's own
observation, what he finds good of, and what he finds hurt of, is the
best physic to preserve health. But it is a safer conclusion to say,
_This agreeth not well with me, therefore I will not continue it_;
than this, _I find no offense of this, therefore I may use it._ For
strength of nature in youth passeth over many excesses, which are
owing a man till his age. Discern of the coming on of years, and think
not to do the same things still; for age will not be defied. Beware of
sudden change in any great point of diet, and if necessity inforce it,
fit the rest to it. For it is a secret in nature and state, that it is
safer to change many things than one. Examine thy customs of diet,
sleep, exercise, apparel, and the like; and try, in any thing thou
shalt judge hurtful, to discontinue it by little and little; but so,
as if thou dost find any inconvenience by the change, thou come back
to it again: for it is hard to distinguish that which is generally
held good and wholesome, from that which is good particularly, and fit
for thine own body.
To be free-minded and cheerfully disposed at hours of meat and of
sleep and of exercise, is one of the best precepts of long lasting. As
for the passions and studies of the mind; avoid envy; anxious fears,
anger fretting inwards; subtle and knotty inquisitions; joys and
exhilarations in excess; sadness not communicated. Entertain hopes;
mirth rather than joy; variety of delights, rather than surfeit of
them; wonder and admiration, and therefore novelties; studies that
fill the mind with splendid and illustrious objects, as histories,
fables, and contemplations of nature. If you fly physic in health
altogether, it will be too strange for your body when you shall need
it. If you make it too familiar, it will work no extraordinary effect
when sickness cometh. I commend rather some diet for certain seasons,
than frequent use of physic, except it be grown into a custom. For
those diets alter the body more, and trouble it less.
Despise no new accident in your body, but ask opinion of it. In
sickness, respect health principally; and in health, action. For those
that put their bodies to endure in health, may in most sicknesses,
which are not very sharp, be cured only with diet and tendering.
Celsus[53] could never have spoken it as a physician, had he not been
a wise man withal, when he giveth it for one of the great precepts of
health and lasting, that a man do vary and interchange contraries, but
with an inclination to the more benign extreme: use fasting and full
eating, but rather full eating; watching and sleep, but rather sleep;
sitting and exercise, but rather exercise; and the like. So shall
nature be cherished, and yet taught masteries. Physicians are some of
them so pleasing and conformable to the humor of the patient, as they
press not the true cure of the disease; and some other are so regular
in proceeding according to art for the disease, as they respect not
sufficiently the condition of the patient. Take one of a middle
temper; or if it may not be found in one man, combine two of either
sort; and forget not to call as well the best acquainted with your
body, as the best reputed of for his faculty.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 27: The selections here given from Bacon are all from the
"Essays"]
[Footnote 28: Cicero's meaning is that Rabirius was not prompted by
avarice so much as by a desire to obtain the means whereby he could do
good.]
[Footnote 29: This has commonly been translated as "He that maketh
haste to become rich shall not remain innocent."]
[Footnote 30: The meaning is in the sweat of another man's brow rather
than one's own.]
[Footnote 31: Sugar is one of the chief products of the Canary
Islands. These islands are supposed to be identical with those known
to the ancients as the Fortunate Islands.]
[Footnote 32: The remark of Tacitus means that Seneca took profitable
places of trust in such numbers that it was as if he had gathered them
in with a net.]
[Footnote 33: The meaning is that Severus passed his youth, not only
in errors, but that his youth was so full of them as to have been
almost one of madness.]
[Footnote 34: Hermogenes, a native of Tarsus, lived in the second
century A.D.]
[Footnote 35: Hortensius was a Roman orator of Cicero's time and an
early rival of his. The remark here quoted from Tully (Cicero) means
that Hortensius continued a line of action until it was not becoming.]
[Footnote 36: Livy's remark means that Scipio in old age was not equal
to himself in his youth in the things he performed.]
[Footnote 37: Now written Cosmo, or Cosimo. He became duke in 1537.]
[Footnote 38: Pertinax, the Roman emperor, was murdered by the
Pretorian Guards in 193 A.D. The guards were put to death by order of
Septimius Severus, his successor.]
[Footnote 39: Henry was murdered by a monk named Clement, who was put
to death for the crime.]
[Footnote 40: This refers to the refusal of Ulysses to wed a goddess,
preferring his own wife, who was no longer young.]
[Footnote 41: The meaning is that no man is possest by curiosity
unless some malevolence inspires him.]
[Footnote 42: Narses was the associate of Belisarius in command of the
Roman army in Italy in 538-539, and greatly distinguished himself as
the sole commander in later years.]
[Footnote 43: Agesilaus was a famous king of Sparta.]
[Footnote 44: Now commonly written Tamerlane, which stands for Timour
the Lame, Timour being his real name.]
[Footnote 45: Adrian, now commonly called Hadrian, emperor of Rome,
was born in 76, and died in 138.]
[Footnote 46: This saying has been translated "Envy keeps no
holidays."]
[Footnote 47: Busbechius, scholar and diplomat of Flanders, was born
in 1522 and died in 1592.]
[Footnote 48: The meaning is that one may be so good as to be good for
nothing.]
[Footnote 49: Machiavelli, the famous author of "The Prince."]
[Footnote 50: The reference is to Timon of Athens, a real person, who
is the subject of one of Shakespeare's plays.]
[Footnote 51: An early form of the word pruning, which once had a
wider meaning than now.]
[Footnote 52: The meaning is that manners are deeply influenced by
one's studies.]
[Footnote 53: Aulus Celsus, a Roman writer on medicine, who lived in
the first half of the first century A.D.]
SHAKESPEARE
Born in 1564; died in 1616; married Anne Hathaway in 1582;
went to London and became an actor in 1587; began to revise,
or write, plays in 1589; bought "New Place" at Stratford in
1597; retired from the theater in 1610; his plays first
collected in the Folio of 1623.
I
BRUTUS TO HIS COUNTRYMEN[54]
_Brutus._ Be patient till the last.
Romans, countrymen, and lovers! hear me for my cause, and be silent,
that you may hear; believe me for mine honor, and have respect to mine
honor, that you may believe; censure me in your wisdom, and awake your
senses, that you may the better judge. If there be any in this
assembly, any dear friend of Cæsar's, to him I say, that Brutus' love
to Cæsar was no less than his. If then that friend demand why Brutus
rose against Cæsar, this is my answer: Not that I lov'd Cæsar less,
but that I lov'd Rome more. Had you rather Cæsar were living and die
all slaves, than that Cæsar were dead, to live all freemen? As Cæsar
lov'd me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he
was valiant, I honor him; but as he was ambitious, I slew him. There
is tears for his love; joy for his fortune; honor for his valor; and
death for his ambition. Who is here so base that would be a bondman?
If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so rude that would
not be a Roman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so
vile that will not love his country? If any, speak; for him have I
offended. I pause for reply.
_All._ None, Brutus, none.
_Brutus._ Then none have I offended. I have done no more to Cæsar than
you shall do to Brutus. The question of his death is enroll'd in the
Capitol; his glory not extenuated, wherein he was worthy, nor his
offenses enforc'd, for which he suffered death.
--_Enter Antony (and others), with Cæsar's body._
Here comes his body, mourn'd by Mark Antony; who, tho he had no hand
in his death, shall receive the benefit of his dying, a place in the
commonwealth; as which of you shall not? With this I depart, that, as
I slew my best lover for the good of Rome, I have the same dagger for
myself, when it shall please my country to need my death.
II