Essex, who generously espoused his interests, was unable to procure him any lucrative or honourable appointment. Till the death of the Queen he remained comparatively obscure, but on the accession of James he was rapidly promoted; in 1607 he was made SolicitorGeneral, in 1613 Attorney-General, in 1617 Lord Keeper, and in 1618 was finally advanced to the dignity of Lord Chancellor. In the same year he was created Lord Verulam, and in 1621 was raised to the higher title of Viscount St Albans. A few weeks stripped him of all his honours: he was accused by the Parliament of bribery and corruption, and, on his own confession, was fined L.40,000, deprived of all his offices, and committed to the Tower. After a few days' imprisonment James set him at liberty, and mitigated his fine; but, overwhelmed with disgrace, he retired to his country-seat, where he spent the most of the remainder of his life in the pursuits of literature and science, till his death in 1626. Posterity, in admiration of his distinguished talents, have forgotten his corrupt selling of justice, his mean betrayal of his friend Essex, and his abject flattery of every despicable court-minion whose influence might promote his advancement, and have agreed to reverence him as the father of modern philosophy, who taught men to look for truth not in the ingenious theories of their own brain, but in the careful investigation of nature. His works are numerous and varied, but all of a high order of excellence; they are written in a grave and dignified style, less diffuse than that of most of his contemporaries, and highly impressive, but, except his "Essays," are not calculated to be extensively popular. The most important of his writings are his " Essays," first published in 1597, but enlarged in subsequent editions; the "Advancement of Learning," 1605, a publication which forms an era in the history of the human mind; the "Wisdom of the Ancients," 1610; the "Novum Organum," 1620; and the " History of the Reign of King Henry VII.," 1622.

1. OF BOLDNESS. 1 ("ESSAYS," NO. XII.)

It is a trivial grammar-school text, but yet worthy a wise man's consideration question was asked of Demosthenes, What was the chief part of an orator? He answered, Action. What next? Action. What next again? Action. He said it that knew it best, and had by nature himself no advantage in that he commended. A strange thing, that the part of an orator, which is but superficial, and rather the virtue of a player, should be placed so high above those other noble parts of invention, elocution, and the rest; nay, almost alone, as if it were all in all. But the reason is plain. There is in human nature generally more of the fool than of the wise; and therefore those faculties, by which the foolish part of men's minds is taken, are most potent. Wonderful like is the case of boldness in civil business. What first? Boldness. What second and third? Boldness. And yet boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness, far inferior to other parts. But nevertheless it doth fascinate, and bind

1 This was one of the Essays added by Bacon in the last edition, that of 1625.

hand and foot those that are either shallow in judgment or weak in courage, which are the greatest part, yea, and prevaileth with wise men at weak times; therefore we see it hath done wonders in popular states, but with senates and princes less; and more, ever upon the first entrance of bold persons into action, than soon after; for boldness is an ill keeper of promise. Surely, as there are mountebanks for the natural body, so are there mountebanks for the politick body: men that undertake great cures, and perhaps have been lucky in two or three experiments, but want the grounds of science, and therefore cannot hold out; nay, you shall see a bold fellow many times do Mahomet's miracle. Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled: Mahomet called the hill to come to him again and again and when the hill stood still he was never a whit abashed, but said, "If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill." So these men, when they have promised great matters, and failed most shamefully, yet (if they have the perfection of boldness) they will but slight it over, and make a turn, and no more ado. Certainly, to men of great judgment, bold persons are a sport to behold; nay, and to the vulgar also, boldness hath somewhat of the ridiculous; for if absurdity be the subject of laughter, doubt you not but great boldness is seldom without some absurdity. Especially it is a sport to see when a bold fellow is out of countenance, for that puts his face into a most shrunken and wooden posture, as needs it must, for in bashfulness the spirits do a little go and come; but with bold men, upon like occasion, they stand at a stay, like a stale at chess, where it is no mate, but yet the game cannot stir; but this last were fitter for a satire than for a serious observation. This is well to be weighed, that boldness is ever blind, for it seeth not dangers and inconveniences; therefore it is ill in counsel, good in execution, so that the right use of bold persons is, that they never command in chief, but be seconds, and under the direction of others. For in counsel it is good to see dangers; and in execution not to see them, except they be very great.

2. OF DELAYS.2" ESSAYS," XXI.)

Fortune is like the market, where many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall. And again, it is sometimes like Sybilla's3 offer, which at first offereth the commodity at full, then consumeth part and part, and still holdeth up the price. For occasion (as it is in the common verse) turneth a bald noddle after she hath presented her locks in front, and no hold taken; or at least turneth the handle of the bottle first to be received, and after the belly, which is hard to clasp. There is surely no greater wisdom than well to time the 1 i.e., what in modern language is called stale male. 2 This is also one of the Essays added by Bacon in 1625. 8 Alluding to the well-known story of Tarquin and the sybil.

beginning and onsets of things. Dangers are no more light, if they once seem light; and more dangers have deceived men than forced them. Nay, it were better to meet some dangers half way, though they come nothing near, than to keep too long a watch upon their approaches; for if a man watch too long, it is odds he will fall asleep. On the other side, to be deceived with too long shadows (as some have been when the moon was low, and shone on their enemies' back), and so to shoot off before the time; or to teach dangers to come on by over early buckling towards them, is another extreme. The ripeness or unripeness of the occasion (as we said) must ever be well weighed ; and generally it is good to commit the beginnings of all great actions to Argus, with his hundred eyes; and the ends to Briareus, with his hundred hands,-first to watch, and then to speed. For the helmet of Pluto, which maketh the politick man go invisible, is secrecy in the counsel, and celerity in the execution. For when things are once come to the execution, there is no secrecy comparable to celerity; like the motion of a bullet in the air, which flieth so swift as it outruns the eye.

3. OF STUDIES.(" ESSAYS," L.)

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 marshalling 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 humour of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience, for natural abilities are like natural plants that need pruning 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

1 This Essay, first printed in 1597, was enlarged in 1612, and again in 1625.

;

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 mathematicks subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Studies exercise influence upon the morals; nay, there is no stond2 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 mathematicks; 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 difference, let him study the schoolmen, for they are hair-splitters; if he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyer's cases. So every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.

4. INTERPRETATION OF THE FABLE OF PAN.- 166 WISDOM OF THE 193 ANCIENTS, FABLE VI. PAN, OR NATURE.)

The ancients have exquisitely described nature under the person of Pan, whose original they leave doubtful. But, howsoever begotten, the Parca (they say) were his sisters. He is portrayed in this guise on his head a pair of horns that reach to heaven, his body rough and hairy, his beard long and shaggy, his shape biformed, above like a man, below like a beast, his feet like goat's hoofs, bearing these ensigns of his jurisdiction, to wit, in his left hand a pipe of seven reeds, and in his right a sheep-hook, or a staff crooked at the upper end, and his mantle made of a leopard's skin. His dignities and offices were these: he was the god of hunters, of shepherds, and of all rural inhabitants; chief president also of hills and mountains, and, next to Mercury, the ambassador of the gods. Moreover, he was accounted the leader and commander of the nymphs, which were always wont to dance the rounds and frisk about him; he was accosted by the Satyrs and the old Sileni." He had power also to strike men with terrors, and those especially vain and superstitious, which are called panic fears.

This (if any be) is a noble tale, as being laid out and big with the secrets and mysteries of nature.

1 I have ventured thus to translate the fragment of a line from Ovid, which Bacon here uses," abeunt studia in mores.' Heroid. xv. 83.

2 i.e., stand, want, weakness.

3 In this, the most ingenious of all his works, Bacon interprets the most important of the ancient fables, so as to extract from them the lessons of hidden wisdom which they were intended to convey. It embraces thirty-one fables; that of Pan (from which the extract given above is abridged) being the most admired. It was written in Latin, but translated into English by Bacon's friend, Sir Arthur Gorges, in 1619.

4 The fates who presided over the destinies of human life.

5 Accosted is here used in its original sense, the meaning being, "the Satyrs and the old Sileni were at his side."

• A name given to the Fauns and Satyrs, the drunken companions of Bacchus.

INTERPRETATION OF THE FABLE OF PAN.

81

Pan (as his name imports) represents and lays open the all of things or nature. Concerning his original, there are two only opinions that go for current; for either he came of Mercury, that is the Word of God, which the Holy Scriptures without all controversy affirm, and such of the philosophers as had any smack of divinity assented unto; or else from the confused seeds of things. The Destinies may well be thought the sisters of Pan or nature, because the beginnings, and continuances, and corruptions, and depressions, and dissolutions, and eminences, and labours, and felicities of things, and all the chances which can happen unto anything, are linked with the chain of causes natural.

Horns are attributed unto him, because horns are broad at the root and sharp at the ends, the nature of all things being like a pyramis, sharp at the top. For individual or singular things being infinite are first collected into species, which are many also; then from species into generals; and from generals (by ascending) are contracted into things or notions more general, so that at length nature may seem to be contracted into a unity. Neither is it to be wondered at that Pan toucheth heaven with his horns, seeing the height of nature or universal ideas do in some sort pertain to things divine, and there is a ready and short passage from metaphysic to natural theology.

The body of nature is elegantly and with deep judgment depainted hairy, representing the beams or operations of creatures; for beams are as it were the hairs and bristles of nature, and every creature is either more or less beamy; which is most apparent in the faculty of seeing, and no less in every virtue and operation that effectuates upon a distant object; for whatsoever works upon anything afar off, that may rightly be said to dart forth rays or beams. Moreover, Pan's beard is said to be exceeding long, because the beams or influences of celestial bodies do operate and pierce farthest of all, and the sun (when his higher half is shadowed with a cloud), his beams break out in the lower, and looks as if he were bearded.

Nature is also excellently set forth with a biformed body, with respect to the differences between superior and inferior creatures. For the one part, by reason of their pulcritude,' and equability of motion, and constancy, and dominion over the earth and earthly things, is worthily set out by the shape of man; and the other part, in respect of their perturbations and unconstant motions, and therefore needing to be moderated by the celestial, may be well fitted with the figure of a brute beast. This description of his body pertains also to the participation of species, for no natural being seems to be simple, but as it were participating and compounded of two. As, for example, man hath something of a beast, a beast something of a plant, a plant something of an inanimate body; so that all natural things are in very deed biformed, that is to say, compounded of a superior and inferior species.

It is a witty allegory, that some of the feet of a goat, by reason

1 i.e., beauty.

F