rather men should ask and wonder why he had no statue, than why he had a statue.

A certain friend of Sir Thomas More, taking great pains about a book, which he intended to publish (being well conceited of his own wit, which no man else thought worthy of commendation),, brought it to Sir Thomas More to peruse it, and pass his judgment upon it, which he did; and finding nothing therein worthy the press, he said to him, with a grave countenance, that if it were in verse, it would be more worthy. Upon which words, he went immediately and turned it into verse, and then brought it to Sir Thomas again; who, looking thereon, said soberly, "Yes, marry, now it is somewhat; for now it is rhyme; whereas before, it was neither rhyme nor reason.'

Sir Henry Wotton used to say, that critics were like brushers of noblemen's clothes.

Phocion the Athenian (a man of great severity, and no ways flexible to the will of the people), one day, when he spake to the people, in one part of his speech, was applauded; whereupon, he turned to one of his friends, and asked, “What have I said amiss?"

Diogenes was one day in the market-place, with a candle in his hand, and being asked what he sought? he said, he sought a man.

Queen Elizabeth was entertained by my Lord Burleigh at Theobalds; and at her going away, my lord obtained of the queen, to make seven knights. They were gentlemen of the country, of my lord's friends and neighbours. They were placed in a rank, as the queen should pass by the hall; and to win antiquity of knighthood, in order as my lord favoured, though, indeed, the more principal gentlemen were placed lowest. The queen was told of it, and said nothing; but when she went along, she passed them all by, as far as the skreen, as if she had forgot it; and when she came to the skreen, she seemed to take herself with the manner, and said, "I had almost forgot what I promised." With that she turned back, and knighted the lowest first, and so upward. Whereupon Mr. Stanhope, of the privy-chamber, a while after told her, "Your Majesty was too fine for my Lord Burleigh.”

She answered, "I have but fulfilled the Scripture: the first shall be last, and the last first."

Bion was sailing, and there fell out a great tempest, and the mariners that were wicked and dissolute fellows called upon the gods; but Bion said to them, "Peace, let them not know you are here."

The Turks made an expedition into Persia; and because of the strait jaws of the mountains of Armenia, the bashaw consulted which way they should get in. One that heard the debate said, "Here's much ado how you shall get in; but I hear nobody take care how you should get out.'

Philip, king of Macedon, maintained arguments with a musician, in points of his art, somewhat peremptorily; but the musician said to him, "God forbid, Sir, your fortune were so hard, that you should know these things better than myself."

Pace the fool was not suffered to come at Queen Elizabeth, because of his bitter humour. Yet at one time, some persuaded the queen that he should come to her ; undertaking for him, that he should keep within compass; so he was brought to her, and the queen said, "Come on, Pace, now we shall hear of our faults." Saith Pace, "I do not use to talk of that that all the town talks of."

if

After the defeat of Cyrus the younger, Falinus was sent by the king to the Grecians (who had for their part rather victory than otherwise), to command them to yield their arms; which, when it was denied, Falinus said to Clearchus, "Well, then, the king lets you know, that if you remove from the place where you are now encamped, it is war; you stay, it is truce. What shall I say you will do?" Clearchus answered, "It pleaseth us, as it pleaseth the king." "How is that?" saith Falinus. Saith Clearchus, "If we remove, war; if we stay, truce:" and so would not disclose his purpose.

Nero was wont to say of his master Seneca, that his style was like mortar without lime.

A seaman coming before the judges of the Admiralty for admittance into an office of a ship bound for the Indies, was by one of the judges much slighted, as an insufficient person

for that office he sought to obtain; the judge telling him, that he believed he could not say the points of his compass. The seaman answered, that he could say them, under favour, better than he could say his Paternoster. The judge replied, that he would wager twenty shillings with him upon that. The seaman taking him up, it came to trial; and the seaman began, and said all the points of his compass very exactly; the judge likewise said his Paternoster; and when he had finished it, he required the wager according to agreement, because the seaman was to say his compass better than he his Paternoster, which he had not performed. "Nay, I pray sir, hold," quoth the seaman, "the wager is not finished, for I have but half done:" and so he immediately said his compass backward very exactly; which the judge failing of in his Paternoster, the seaman carried away the prize.

Sir Fulke Grevil had much and private access to Queen Elizabeth, which he used honourably, and did many men. good yet he would say merrily of himself, that he was like Robin Goodfellow; for when the maids spilt the milk-pans, or kept any racket, they would lay it upon Robin: so what tales the ladies about the queen told her, or other bad offices that they did, they would put it upon him.

Cato said, the best way to keep good acts in memory, was to refresh them with new.

Aristippus said, he took money of his friends, not so much to use it himself, as to teach them how to bestow their money.

A strumpet said to Aristippus, that she was with child by him; he answered, "You know that no more, than if you went through a hedge of thorns, you could say, this thorn pricked me.'

Democritus said, that truth did lie in the profound pits, and when it was got, it needed much refining.

Diogenes said of a young man that danced daintily, and was much commended, "The better, the worse.'

Diogenes seeing one that was a bastard casting stones among the people, bade him take heed he hit not his father.

Plutarch said well, "It is otherwise in a commonwealth of

men than of bees; the hive of a city or kingdom is in best condition, when there is least of noise or buzz in it.”

The same Plutarch said of men of weak abilities set in great place, that they were like little statues set on great bases, made to appear the less by their advancement.

He said again, "Good fame is like fire: when you have kindled it, you may easily preserve it; but if you once extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again."

Queen Elizabeth seeing Sir Edward in her garden, looked out at her window, and asked him in Italian, "What does a man think of when he thinks of nothing?" Sir Edward (who had not had the effect of some of the queen's grants so soon as he had hoped and desired) paused a little, and then made answer, 66 'Madam, he thinks of a woman's promise." The queen shrunk in her head, but was heard to say, "Well, Sir Edward, I must not confute you. Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor."

When any great officer, ecclesiastical or civil, was to be made, the queen would inquire after the piety, integrity, and learning of the man. And when she was satisfied in these qualifications, she would consider of his personage. And upon such an occasion she pleased once to say to me, "Bacon, how can the magistrate maintain his authority when the man is despised?"

In eighty-eight, when the queen went from Temple-bar along Fleet-street, the lawyers were ranked on one side, and the companies of the city on the other; said Master Bacon to a lawyer that stood next to him, "Do but observe the courtiers; if they bow first to the citizens, they are in debt; if first to us, they are in law."

A Grecian captain advising the confederates that were united against the Lacedæmonians, touching their enterprise, gave opinion, that they should go directly upon Sparta, saying, that the state of Sparta was like rivers; strong when they had run a great way, and weak toward their head.

One was examined upon certain scandalous words spoken against the king. He confessed them, and said, "It is true, I spake them, and if the wine had not failed, I had said much more."

Charles the Bald allowed one, whose name was Scottus, to sit at the table with him for his pleasure. Scottus sate on the other side of the table. One time the king being merry with him, said to him, "What is there between Scot and Sot ?" Scottus answered, "The table only.”

There was a marriage made between a widow of great wealth, and a gentleman of great house, that had no estate or means. Jack Roberts said, that marriage was like a black pudding; the one brought blood, and the other brought suet and oatmeal.

Diogenes was asked in a kind of scorn, What was the matter, that philosophers haunted rich men, and not rich men philosophers? He answered, "Because the one knew what they wanted, the other did not."

Demetrius, king of Macedon, had a petition offered him divers times by an old woman, and answered, he had no Leisure. Whereupon, the woman said aloud, "Why, then, give over to be king."

When King Edward the Second was amongst his torturers, who hurried him to and fro, that no man should know where he was, they set him down upon a bank; and one time, the more to disguise his face, shaved him, and washed him with cold water of a ditch by. The king said, "Well, yet I will have warm water for my beard;" and so shed abundance of tears.

King James was wont to be very earnest with the country gentlemen to go from London to their country houses. And sometimes he would say thus to them: "Gentlemen, at London, you are like ships at sea, which show like nothing; but in your country villages, you are like ships in a river, which look like great things."

Count Gondomar sent a compliment to my Lord St. Alban, wishing him a good Easter. My lord thanked the messenger, and said, he could not at present requite the count better than in returning him the like; that he wished his lordship a good Passover.

This did not happen to Demetrius, but to Philip, king of Macedon. Bacon repeats the anecdote in the first book of the Novum Organum, but without stating any name.-Ed