Selected quad for the lemma: king_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
king_n	edward_n	england_n	year_n	23,637	5	4.8786	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

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

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

who being at the highest want matter of desire which makes their minds more languishing and have many Representations of Perils and Shadows which makes their minds the less clear And this is one reason also of that effect which the Scripture speaketh of That the King's heart is inscrutable For multitude of Jealousies and lack of some predominant desire that should marshal and put in order all the rest maketh any Mans heart hard to find or sound Hence it comes likewise that Princes many times make themselves Desire and set their Hearts upon Toys sometimes upon a Building sometimes upon erecting of an Order sometimes upon the advancing of a Person sometimes upon obtaining excellency in some Art or Feat of the Hand as Nero for playing on the Harp Domitian for Certainty of the Hand with the Arrow Commodus for playing at Fence Caracalla for driving Chariots and the like This seemeth incredible unto those that know not the principal That the mind of Man is more cheared and refreshed by profiting in small things than by standing at a stay in great We see also that the Kings that have been fortunate Conquerours in their first years it being not possible for them to go forward infinitely but that they must have some check or arrest in their Fortunes turn in their latter years to be Superstitious and Melancholy as did Alexander the Great Dioclesian and in our memory Charles the Fifth and others For he that is used to go forward and findeth a stop falleth out of his own favour and is not the thing he was To speak now of the true Temper of Empire It is a thing rare and hard to keep for both Temper and Distemper consist of Contraries But it is one thing to mingle Contraries another to interchange them The Answer of Apollonius to Vespasian is full of excellent Instruction Vespasian asked him What was Nero 's over-throw He answered Nero could touch and tune the Harp well but in Government sometimes he used to wind the pins too high sometimes to let them down too low And certain it is that nothing destroyeth Authority so much as the unequal and untimely interchange of Power Pressed too far and Relaxed too much This is true that the Wisdom of all these latter Times in Princes Affairs is rather fine Deliveries and Shiftings of Dangers and Mischiefs when they are near than solid and grounded Courses to keep them aloof But this is but to try Masteries with Fortune and let men beware how they neglect and suffer matter of Trouble to be prepared for no man can forbid the spark nor tell whence it may come The difficulties in Princes Business are many and great but the greatest difficulty is often in their own mind For it is common with Princes saith Tacitus to will Contradictories Sunt plerumque Regum voluntates vehementes inter se contrariae For it is the Solecism of Power to think to Command the end and yet not endure the means Kings have to deal with their Neighbours their Wives their Children their Prelates or Clergie their Nobles their Second Nobles or Gentlemen their Merchants their Commons and their Men of War And from all these arise Dangers if Care and Circumspection be not used First For their Neighbours There can no general Rule be given the occasions are so variable save one which ever holdeth which is that Princes do keep due Centinel that none of their Neighbours do over-grow so by increasing of Territory by imbracing of Trade by Approaches or the like as they become more able to annov them than they were This is generally the work of standing Counsels to foresee and to hinder it During that Triumvirate of King's King Henry the 8th of England Francis the 1st King of France and Charles the 5th Emperour there was such a Watch kept that none of the Three could win a Palm of Ground but the other Two would straight-ways balance it either by Confederation or if need were by a War and would not in any wise take up Peace at Interest And the like was done by that League which Guicciardine saith was the Security of Italy made between Ferdinando King of Naples Lorenzius Medices and Ludovicus Sforza Potentate the one of Florence the other of Milain Neither is the opinion of some of the School-men to be received That a War cannot justly be made but upon a precedent Injury or Provocation For there is no question but a just Fear of an imminent Danger though there be no Blow given is a lawful Cause of a War For their Wives There are cruel examples of them Livia is infamed for the poysoning of her Husband Rolaxana Solyman's Wife was the destruction of that renowned Prince Sultan Mustapha and otherwise troubled his House and Succession Edward the Second of England his Queen had the principal hand in the deposing and murther of her Husband This kind of danger is then to be feared chiefly when the Wives have Plots for the raising of their own Children or else that they be Advoutresses For their Children The Tragedies likewise of dangers from them have been many And generally the entring of Fathers into suspicion of their Children hath been ever unfortunate The destruction of Mustapha that we named before was so fatal to Solyman's Line as the Succession of the Turks from Solyman until this day is suspected to be untrue and of strange blood for that Selymus the second was thought to be supposititious The destruction of Crispus a young Prince of rare towardness by Constantinus the Great his Father was in like manner fatal to his House for both Constantinus and Constance his Son died violent Deaths and Constantius his other Son did little better who died indeed of Sickness but after that Julianus had taken Arms against him The destruction of Demetrius Son to Philip the Second of Macedon turned upon the Father who died of Repentance And many like Examples there are but few or none where the Fathers had good by such distrust except it were where the Sons were up in open Arms against them as was Selymus the first against Bajazet and the three Sons of Henry the Second King of England For their Prelates When they are proud and great there is also danger from them as it was in the times of Anselmus and Thomas Becket Arch-Bishops of Canterbury who with their Crosiers did almost try it with the Kings Sword and yet they had to deal with stout and haughty Kings William Rufus Henry the First and Henry the Second The danger is not from the State but where it hath a dependance of Foreign Authority or where the Church-men come in and are elected not by the collation of the King or particular Patrons but by the People For their Nobles To keep them at a distance it is not amiss but to depress them may make a King more absolute but less safe and less able to perform any thing that he desires I have noted it in my History of King

Style is no more of England but of Britain There was also another Prophecy before the Year of 88. which I do not well understand Three shall be seen upon a day Between the Baugh and the May The Black Feet of Norway When that is come and gone England build Houses of Lime and Stone For after Wars shall you have none It was generally conceived to be meant of the Spanish Fleet that came in 88. For that the King of Spain's Sirname as they say is Norway The Prediction of Regiomontanus Octogessimus octavus mirabilis Annus Was thought likewise accomplished in the sending of that great Fleet being the greatest in strength though not in number that ever swam upon the Sea As for Cleon's Dream I think it was a Jest It was That he was devoured of a long Dragon and it was expounded of a Maker of Sausages that troubled him exceedingly There are numbers of the like kind especially if you include Dreams and Predictions of Astrology But I have set down these few only of certain credit for example My judgment is that they ought all to be despised and ought to serve but for winter-talk by the fire-side Though when I say Despised I mean it as for belief for otherwise the spreading or publishing of them is in no sort to be Despised for they have done much mischief And I see many severe Laws made to suppress them That that have given them grace and some credit consisteth in three things First That Men mark when they hit and never mark when they miss as they do generally also of Dreams The second is That probable Conjectures or obscure Traditions many times turn themselves into Prophecies while the Nature of Man which coveteth Divination thinks it no peril to foretell that which indeed they do but collect As that of Seneca's Verse For so much was then subject to Demonstration that the Globe of the Earth had great Parts beyond the Atlantick which might be probably conceived not to be all Sea And adding thereto the Tradition in Plato's Timaeus and his Atlanticus it might encourage one to turn it to a Prediction The third and Last which is the Great one is That almost all of them being infinite in number have been Impostures and by idle and crafty Brains meerly contrived and feigned after the Event past XXXVI Of Ambition AMBITION is like Choler which is an Humour that maketh Men Active Earnest full of Alacrity and Stirring if it be not stopped but if it be stopped and cannot have its way it becometh a dust and thereby Malign and Venomous So Ambitious Men if they find the way open for their Rising and still get forward they are rather Busie than Dangerous but if they be checkt in their desires they become secretly discontent and look upon Men and Matters with an Evil Eye and are best pleased when things go backward which is the worst property in a Servant of a Prince or State Therefore it is good for Princes if they use Ambitious Men to handle it so as they be still Progressive and not Retrograde which because it cannot be without inconvenience it is good not to use such Natures at all For if they rise not with their Service they will take order to make their Service fall with them But since we have said it were good not to use Men of Ambitious Natures except it be upon necessity it is fit we speak in what cases they are of necessity Good Commanders in the Wars must be taken be they never so Ambitious for the use of their Service dispenseth with the rest and to take a Soldier without Ambition is to pull off his Spurs There is also great use of Ambitious Men in being Skreens to Princes in matters of danger and Envy for no man will take that part except he be like a seeld Dove that mounts and mounts because he cannot see about him There is use also of Ambitious Men in pulling down the greatness of any Subject that over-tops as Tiberius used Macro in pulling down of Sejanus Since therefore they must be used in such cases there resteth to speak how they are to be bridled that they may be less Dangerous There is less Danger of them if they be of mean Birth than if they be Noble and if they be rather harsh of Nature than Gracious and Popular and if they be rather new raised than grown cunning and fortified in their Greatness It is counted by some a weakness in Princes to have Favourites but it is of all others the best remedy against Ambitious Great Ones For when the way of pleasuring and displeasuring lieth by the Favourite it is impossible any other should be Over-great Another means to curb them is to balance them by others as proud as they But then there must be some middle Counsellors to keep things steady for without that Ballast the Ship will roul too much At the least a Prince may animate and inure some meaner Persons to be as it were Scourges to Ambitious Men. As for the having of them obnoxious to ruine if they be of fearful Natures it may do well but if they be stout and daring it may precipitate their Designs and prove dangerous As for the pulling of them down if the Affairs require it and that it may not be done with fafety suddenly the only way is the enterchange continually of Favours and disgraces whereby they may not know what to expect and be as it were in a Wood. Of Ambitions it is less harmful the Ambition to prevail in great things than that other to appear in every thing for that breeds confusion and mars business But yet it is less Danger to have an Ambitious Man stirring in business than great in dependences He that seeketh to be eminent amongst able Men hath a great task but that is ever good for the Publick but he that plots to be the only Figure amongst Cyphers is the decay of an whole Age. Honour hath three things in it The Vantage Ground to do good the approach to Kings and Principal Persons and the raising of a Man 's own Fortune He that hath the best of these Intentions when he aspireth is an honest Man and that Prince that can discern of these Intentions in another that aspireth is a wise Prince Generally let Princes and States chuse such Ministers as are more sensible of Duty than of Rising and such as love Business rather upon Conscience than upon Bravery and let them discern a busie Nature from a willing Mind XXXVII Of Masks and Triumphs THESE Things are but Toys to come amongst such serious Observations But yet since Princes will have such things it is better they should be graced with Elegancy than daubed with Cost Dancing to Song is a thing of great State and Pleasure I understand it that the Song be in Choire placed aloft and accompanied with some broken Musick and the Ditty fitted to the Device Acting in Song especially in Dialogues hath an