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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28200	The essays, or councils, civil and moral, of Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban with a table of the colours of good and evil, and a discourse of The wisdom of the ancients : to this edition is added The character of Queen Elizabeth, never before printed in English.; Essays. Selections	Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626.; Gorges, Arthur, Sir, 1557?-1625.; Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626. Of the colours of good and evil.; Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626. Character of Queen Elizabeth.; Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626. De sapientia veterum. English.	1696 (1696)	Wing B296; ESTC R15973	195,963	328

Henry the Seventh of England who depressed his Nobility whereupon it came to pass that his times were full of Difficulties and Troubles for the Nobility though they continued loyal unto him yet did they not co-operate with him in his business so that in effect he was fain to do all things himself For their Second Nobles There is not much danger from them being a Body dispersed They may sometimes discourse high but that doth little hurt Besides they are a counterpoize to the higher Nobility that they grow not too potent and lastly being the most immediate in Authority with the Common People they do best temper popular Commotions For their Merchants They are Vena porta and if they flourish not a Kingdom may have good Limbs but will have empty Veins and nourish little Taxes and Imposts upon them do seldom good to the Kings Revenue for that he wins in the Hundred he looseth in the Shire the particular Rates being increased but the total bulk of Trading rather decreased For their Commons There is little danger from them except it be where they have great and potent Heads or where you meddle with the point of Religion or their Customs or means of Life For their Men of War It is a dangerous State where they live and remain in a Body and are used to Donatives whereof we see examples in the Janizaries and Pretorian Bands of Rome But Trainings of Men and Arming them in several places and under several Commanders and without Donatives are things of Defence and no danger Princes are like to Heavenly Bodies which cause good or evil times and which have much Veneration but no Rest All Precepts concerning Kings are in effect comprehended in those two Remembrances Memento quod es Homo and Memento quod es Deus or Vice Dei the one bridleth their Power and the other their Will XX. Of Counsel THE greatest trust between Man and Man is the trust of Giving Counsel For in other confidences Men commit the parts of Life their Lands their Goods their Children their Credit some particular Affair but to such as they make their Counsellors they commit the whole by how much the more they are obliged to all faith and integrity The wisest Princes need not think it any diminution to their Greatness or derogation to their Sufficiency to rely upon Counsel God himself is not without but hath made it one of the great Names of his blessed Son The Counsellor Solomon hath pronounced that in Counsel is Stability 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 and be full of inconstancy doing and undoing like the reeling of a drunken man Solomon's Son found the force of Counsel as his Father saw the necessity of it For the beloved Kingdom of God was first rent and broken by ill Counsel upon which Counsel there are set for instruction the two marks whereby Bad Counsel is for ever best discerned that it was young Counsel for the Persons and violent Counsel for the Matter The ancient times do set forth in figure both the incorporation and inseparable conjunction of Counsel with Kings and the wise and politick use of Counsel by Kings the one in that they say Jupiter did marry Metis which signifieth Counsel whereby they intend that Soveraignty is married to Counsel the other in that which followeth which was thus They say after Jupiter was married to Metis she conceived by him and was with Child but Jupiter suffered her not to stay till she brought forth but eat her up whereby he became himself with Child and was delivered of Pallas Armed out of his Head which monstrous Fable containeth a secret of Empire how Kings are to make use of their Council of State That first they ought to refer matters unto them which is the first begetting or impregnation but when they are elaborate moulded and shaped in the Womb of their Council and grow ripe and ready to be brought forth that then they suffer not their Council to go through with the resolution and direction as if it depended on them but take the matter back into their own hands and make it appear to the World that the Decrees and final Directions which because they come forth with Prudence and Power are resembled to Pallas Armed proceeded from themselves And not only from their Authority but the more to add reputation to themselves from their Head and Device Let us now speak of the Inconveniencies of Counsel and of the Remedies The Inconveniences that have been noted in calling and using Counsel as three First the revealing of Affairs whereby they become less secret Secondly the weakning of the Authority of Princes as if they were less of themselves Thirdly the danger of being unfaithfully Counselled and more for the good of them that Counsel than of him that is Counselled For which Inconveniencies the Doctrine of Italy and practice of France in some Kings times hath introduced Cabinet Councils a Remedy worse than the Disease As to Secrecy Princes are not bound to communicate all matters with all Counsellors but extract and select Neither is it necessary that he that consulteth what he should do should declare what he will do But let Princes beware that the unsecreting of their Affairs comes not from themselves And as for Cabinet Counsels it may be their Motto Plenus rimarum sum One futile Person that maketh it his glory to tell will do more hurt than many that know it their duty to conceal It is true there be some Affairs which require extream Secrecy which will hardly go beyond one or two Persons beside the King Neither are those Counsels unprosperous for besides the Secrecy they commonly go on constantly in one Spirit of Direction without distraction But then it must be a prudent King such as is able to grind with a Hand-mill and those Inward Counsellors had need also be wise Men and especially true and trusty to the King's ends as it was with King Henry the Seventh of England who in his greatest business imparted himself to none except it were to Morton and Fox For weakning of Authority The Fable sheweth the Remedy Nay the Majesty of King 's is rather exalted than diminished when they are in the Chair of Counsel Neither was there ever Prince bereaved of his dependencies by his Counsel except where there hath been either an over-greatness in one Counsellor or an over-strict combination in divers which are things soon found and holpen For the last Inconvenience that Men will Counsel with an Eye to themselves Certainly Non inveniet fidem super terram is meant of the nature of times and not of all particular Persons There be that are in nature faithful and sincere and plain and direct not crafty and involved Let Princes above all draw to themselves such natures Besides Counsellors are not commonly so united but that one Counsellor keepeth

Centinel over another so that if any do Counsel out of faction or private ends it commonly comes to the King's Ear. But the best Remedy is if Princes know their Counsellors as well as their Counsellors know them Principis est virtus maxima nosse suos And on the other side Counsellors should not be too speculative into their Soveraigns Person The true composition of a Counsellor is rather to be skill'd in their Masters business than in his Nature for then he is like to advise him and not to feed his humour It is of singular use to Princes if they take the Opinions of their Counsel both separately and together For private opinion is more free but opinion before others is more reverend In private Men are more bold in their own humours and in consort Men are more obnoxious to others humours therefore it is good to take both And of the inferiour sort rather in private to preserve freedom of the greater rather in consort to preserve respect It is vain for Princes to take Counsel concerning Matters if they take no Counsel likewise concerning Persons for all Matters are as dead Images and the life of the execution of Affairs resteth in the good choice of Persons Neither is it enough to consult concerning Persons secundum genera as in an Idea or Mathematical Description what the kind and character of the Person should be for the greatest errors are committed and the most judgment is shewn in the choice of Individuals It was truly said Optimi Consiliarii mortui Books will speak plain when Counsellors blanch Therefore it is good to be conversant in them especially the Books of such as themselves have been Actors upon the Stage The Councils at this day in most places are but familiar meetings where matters are rather talked on than debated And they run too swift to the Order or Act of Counsel It were better that in Causes of weight the Matter were propounded one day and not spoken ●ill the next day In nocte Consilium So was it done in the Commission of Union between England and Scotland which was a grave and orderly Assembly I commend set days for Petitions for it gives both the Suitors more certainty for their attendance and it frees the meetings for matters of Estate that they may Hoc agere In choice of Committees for ripening Business for the Council it is better to chuse indifferent Persons than to make an Indifferency by putting in those that are strong on both sides I commend also standing Commissions as for Trade for Treasure for War for Suits for some Provinces For where there be divers particular Councils and but one Council of State as it is in Spain they are in effect no more than standing Commissions save that they have greater Authority Let such as are to inform Councils out of their particular Professions as Lawyers Sea-men Mint-men and the like be first heard before Committees and then as occasion serves before the Council And let them not come in multitudes or in a Tribunitious manner for that is to clamour Councils not to inform them A long Table and a square Table or Seats about the Walls seem things of Form but are things of Substance for at a long Table a few at the upper end in effect sway all the business but in the other Form there is more use of the Counsellors Opinions that sit lower A King when he presides in Council let him beware how he opens his own inclination too much in that which he propoundeth for else Counsellors will but take the wind of him and instead of giving Free Counsel sing him a Song of Placebo XXI Of Delays FORTUNE is like the Market where many times if you can stay a little the Price will fall And again it is sometimes like Sibylla's 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 Beginnings 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 othe● side to be deceived with two 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 extream 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 flyeth so swift as it out-runs the Eye XXII Of Cunning. VVE take Cunning for a Sinister or Crooked Wi●dom And certainly there is great difference between a Cunning Man and a Wise Man not only in point of Honesty but in point of Ability There be that can pack the Cards and yet cannot play well so there are some that are good in Canvasses and Factions that are otherwise Weak Men. Again it is one thing to understand Persons and another thing to understand Matters for many are perfect in Mens Humours that are not greatly capable of the real part of Business which is the Constitution of one that hath studied Men more than Books Such Men are fitter for Practice than for Counsel and they are good but in their own Alley turn them to new men and they have lost their Aim so as the old Rule to know a Fool from a Wise man Mitte ambos nudos ad ignotos videbis doth scarce hold for them And because these Cunning Men are like Haberdashers of small Wares it is not amiss to set forth their shop It is a point of Cunning to wait upon him with whom you speak with your eye as the Jesuits give it in precept For there may be many wise men that have secret Hearts and transparent Countenances Yet this would be done with a demure Abasing of your eye sometimes as the Jesuits also do use Another is that when you have any thing to obtain of present dispatch you entertain and amuse the party with whom you deal with some other

of them foul Parsimony is one of the best and yet is not innocent for it withholdeth Men from works of Liberality and Charity The Improvement of the ground is the most natural obtaining of Riches for it is our Great Mothers Blessing the Earths but it is slow and yet where the Men of great wealth do stoop to Husbandry it multiplieth Riches exceedingly I knew a Nobleman of England that had the greatest Audits of any Man in my time A great Grasier a great Sheep-Master a great Timber-Man a great Collier a great Corn-Master a great Lead-Man and so of Iron and a number of the like points of Husbandry so as the Earth seemed a Sea to him in respect of the perpetual Importation It was truly observed by One that himself came very hardly to a little Riches and very easily to great Riches for when a Mans stock is come to that that he can expect the Prime of Markets and overcome those bargains which for their greatness are few Mens money and be Partner in the industries of Younger Men he cannot but encrease mainly The Gains of ordinary Trades and Vocations are honest and furthered by two things chiefly by Diligence and by a good Name for good and fair dealing But the Grains of Bargains are of a more doubtful Nature when Men shall wait upon others Necessity broke by Servants and Instruments to draw them on put off others cunningly that would be better Chapmen and the like practises which are crafty and naught As for the Chopping of Bargains when a Man buys not to hold but to sell over again that commonly grindeth double both upon the Seller and upon the Buyer Sharings do greatly inrich if the Hands be well chosen that are trusted Usury is the certainest means of Gain though one of the worst as that whereby a Man doth eat his Bread In sudore vultus alieni And besides doth plow upon Sundays But yet certain though it be it hath Flaws for that the Scriveners and Brokers do válue unsound Men to serve their own turn The Fortune in being the first in an Invention or in a Privilege doth cause sometimes a wonderful overgrowth in Riches as it was with the first Sugar-Man in the Canaries therefore if a Man can play the true Logician to have as well Judgment as Invention he may do great matters especially if the Times be fit He that resteth upon Gains Certain shall hardly grow to great Riches and he that puts all upon Adventures doth oftentimes break and come to Poverty It is good therefore to guard Adventures with Certainties that may uphold losses Monopolies and Coemption of Wares for Resale where they are not restrained are great means to enrich especially if the Party have intelligence what things are like to come into request and to store himself before-hand Riches gotten by Service though it be of the best Rise yet when they are gotten by Flattery feeding Humours and other servile Conditions they may be placed amongst the Worst As for fishing for Testaments and Executorships as Tacitus saith of Seneca Testamenta Orbos tanquam Indagine capi it is yet worse by how much men submit themselves to meaner persons than in Service Believe not much them that seem to despise Riches for they despise them that despair of them and none worse when they come to them Be not Penny-wise Riches have Wings and sometimes they fly away of themselves sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more Men leave their Riches either to their Kindred or to the Publick and moderate Portions prosper best in both A great State left to an Heir is as a Lure to all the Birds of prey round about to seize on him if he be not the better established in Years and Judgment Likewise glorious Gifts and Foundations are like Sacrifices without Salt and but the Painted Sepulchres of Alms which soon will putrefie and corrupt inwardly Therefore measure not thine advancements by quantity but frame them by measure and defer not Charities till death For certainly if a man weigh it rightly he that doth so is rather liberal of another mans than of his own XXXV Of Prophecies I MEAN not to speak of Divine Prophecies nor of Heathen Oracles nor of Natural Predictions but only of Prophecies that have been of certain Memory and from hidden Causes Saith the Pythonissa to Saul To morrow thou and thy Son shall be with me Homer hath these Verses At domus Aeneae cunctis dominabitur oris Et nati natorum qui nascentur ab illis A Prophecy as it seems of the Roman Empire Seneca the Tragedian hath these Verses Venient Annis Secula seris quibus Oceanus Vincula rerum laxet ingens Pateat Tellus Tiphysque novos Detegat orbes nec sic terris Ultima Thule A Prophecy of the Discovery of America The Daughter of Polycrates dreamed that Jupiter bathed her Father and Apollo anointed him and it came to pass that he was Crucified in an open Place where the Sun made his Body run with Sweat and the Rain washed it Philip of Macedon dreamed he sealed up his Wife's Belly whereby he did expound is that his Wife should be barren But Aristander the South-Sayer told him his Wife was with Child because Men do not use to seal Vessels that are empty A Phantasm that appeared to M. Brutus in his Tent said to him Philipps iterum me videbis Tiberius said to Galba Tu quoque Galba degustabis Imperium In Vespasian's time there went a Prophecy in the East that those that should come forth of Judea should reign over the World Which though it may be was meant of our Saviour yet Tacitus expounds it of Vespasian Domitian dreamed the night before he was slain that a Golden Head was growing out of the Nape of his Neck And indeed the succession that followed him for many years made Golden Times Henry the Sixth of England said of Henry the Seventh when he was a Lad and gave him Water This is the Lad that shall enjoy the Crown for which we strive When I was in France I heard from one Doctor Pena that the Queen Mother who was given to curious Arts caused the King her Husband's Nativity to be Calculated under a false Name And the Astrologer gave a Judgment that he should be killed in a Duel at which the Queen laughed thinking her Husband to be above Challenges and Duels But he was slain upon a Course at Tilt the Splinters of the Staff of Mongomery going in at his Bever The trivial Prophecy that I heard when I was a Child and Queen Elizabeth was in the Flower of her Years was When Hempe is spun England 's done Whereby it was generally conceived that after the Princes had Reigned which had the principal Letters of that Word Hempe which were Henry Edward Mary Philip and Elizabeth England should come to utter Confusion which thanks be to God is verified in the Change of the Name for that the King's

him throughout his Dominions But upon the very first Calamity that hapned unto this Nation whereunto he was fled for Succour King Daunus enters into a conceit with himself that he had entertained a wicked Guest into his Family and a Man odious to the Goddess and an Impugner of their Divinity that had dared with his Sword to assault and wound that Goddess who in their Religion they held it Sacrilege so much as to touch Therefore that he might expiate his Countrey 's Guilt nothing respecting the Duties of Hospitality when the Bonds of Religion tied him with a more reverend regard suddenly slew Diomedes commanding withal that his Trophies and Statues should be abolished and destroyed Neither was it safe to lament this miserable Destiny but even his Companions in Arms whilst they mourned at the Funeral of their Captain and filled all the places with Plaints and Lamentations were suddenly metamorphosed into Birds like unto Swans who when their Death approacheth sing melodious and mournful Hymns This Fable hath a most rare and singular Subject For in any of the Poetical Records wherein the Heroes are mentioned we find not that any one of them besides Diomedes did ever with his Sword offer Violence to any of the Deities And indeed the Fable seems in him to represent the nature and fortune of Man who of himself doth propound and make this as the end of all his Actions to worship some Divine Power or to follow some Sect of Religion though never so vain and superstitious and with Force and Arms to defend the same For although those bloody Quarrels for Religion were unknown to Ancients the Heathen Gods not having so much as a touch of that Jealousie which is an Attribute of the true God yet the Wisdom of the Antient Times seems to be so copious and full as that what was not known by Experience was yet comprehended by Meditations and Fictions They then that endeavour to reform and convince any Sect of Religion though vain corrupt and infamous shadowed by the Person of Venus not by the force of Argument and Doctrine and Holiness of Life and by the weight of Examples and Authority but labour to extirpate and root it out by Fire and Sword and Tortures are encouraged it may be thereunto by Pallas that is by the Acrity of Prudence and Severity of Judgment by whose Vigour and Efficacy they see into the Falsity and Vanity of these Errors And by this their hatred of Pravity and good zeal to Religion they purchase to themselves great Glory and by the Vulgar to whom nothing moderate can be grateful are esteemed and honoured as the only Supporters of Truth and Religion when others seem to be luke-warm and full of Fear Yet this Glory and Happiness doth seldom endure to the end seeing every violent-Prosperity if it prevent not alteration by an untimely Death grows to be unprosperous at last For if it happen that by a change of Government this banished and depressed Sect get strength and so bear up again then these zealous Men so fierce in opposition before are condemned their very Names are hateful and all their Glory ends in Obloquy In that Diomedes is said to be murthered by his Host it gives us to understand that the difference of Religion breeds Deceit and Treachery even among nearest Acquaintance Now in that Lamentation and Mourning was not tolerated but punished it puts us in mind that let there be never so nefarious an Act done yet there is some place left for Commiseration and Pity that even those that hate Offences should yet in Humanity commiserate Offenders and Pity their distress it being the Extremity of Evil when Mercy is not suffered to have commerce with Misery Yea even in the cause as well of Religion as Impiety many Men may be noted and observed to have been compassionate But on the contrary the complaints and moans of Diomedes's Followers that is of Men of the same Sect and Opinion are wont to be shrill and loud like Swans or the Birds of Diomedes In whom also that part of the Allegory is excellent to signifie that the last Words of those that suffer Death for Religion like the Songs of dying Swans do wonderfully work upon the Minds of Men and strike and remain a long time in their Senses and Memories DAEDALVS or Mechanick MEchanical Wisdom and Industry and in it unlawful Science perverted to wrong ends is shadowed by the Ancients under the Person of Daedalus a Man ingenious but execrable This Daedalus for murthering his fellow-servant that emulated him being banished was kindly entertained during his Exile in many Cities and Princes Courts For indeed he was the Raiser and Builder of many goodly Structures as well in honour of the Gods as the Beauty and Magnificence of Cities and other publick places but for his Works of Mischief he is most notorious It is he that framed the Engine which Pasiphae used to satisfie her Lust in company with a Bull so that by his wretched Industry and pernicious Device that Monster Minotaur the destruction of so many hopeful Youths took his accursed and infamous beginning and studying to cover and increase one Mischief with another for the security and preservation of this Monster he invented and built a Labyrinth a Work for intent and use most nefarious and wicked for Skill and Workmanship famous and excellent Afterwards that he might not be noted only for Works of Mischief but be sought after as well for Remedies as for Instruments of Destruction he was the Author of that ingenious device concerning the Clew of Thread by which the Labyrinth was made passable without any let This Daedalus was persecuted by Minos with great Severity Diligence and Inquiry but he always found the means to avoid and escape his Tyranny Lastly he taught his Son Icarus to fly but the Novice in Ostentation of this Art soaring too high fell into the Sea and was drowned The Parable seems to be thus In the beginning of it may be noted that kind of Envy or Emulation that lodgeth and wonderfully sways and domineers amongst excellent Artificers there being no kind of People more reciprocally tormented with bitter and deadly Hatred than they The Banishment also of Daedalus a punishment inslicted on him against the Rules of Policy and Providence is worth the noting For Artificers have this Prerogative to find entertainment and welcome in all Countries so that Exile to an excellent Workman can hardly be termed a punishment whereas other Conditions and States of Life can scarce live out of their own Countrey The admiration of Artificers is propagated and increased in foreign and strange Nations seeing it is a natural and unbred disposition of Men to value their own Countrey-men in respect of Mechanical Works less than Strangers Concerning the use of Mechanical Arts that which follows is plain The Life of Man is much beholden to them seeing many Things conducing to the Orna●ent of Religion to the Grace of Civil