Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients

400 Under this name he alludes to the Critias of Plato, in which an imaginary “terra incognita” is discoursed of under the name of the “New Atlantis.” It has been conjectured from this by some, that Plato really did believe in the existence of a continent on the other side of the globe.

401 Hot and fiery.

402 With the eyes closed or blindfolded.

403 He was a favorite of Tiberius, to whose murder by Nero he was said to have been an accessary. He afterwards prostituted his own wife to Caligula, by whom he was eventually put to death.

404 Liable to.

405 Chirpings like the noise of young birds.

406 Jewels or necklaces.

407 Spangles, or O’s of gold or silver. Beckmann says that these were invented in the beginning of the seventeenth century. See Beckmann’s Hist. of Inventions (Bohn’s Stand. Lib.), vol. i. p. 424.

408 Or antic-masques. These were ridiculous interludes dividing the acts of the more serious masque. These were performed by hired actors, while the masque was played by ladies and gentlemen. The rule was, the characters were to be neither serious nor hideous. The “Comus” of Milton is an admirable specimen of a masque.

409 Turks.

410 “He is the best asserter of the liberty of his mind, who bursts the chains that gall his breast, and at the same moment ceases to grieve.”—This quotation is from Ovid’s Remedy of Love, 293.

411 “My soul has long been a sojourner.”

412 “The wish is father to the thought,” is a proverbial saying of similar meaning.

413Vide Disc. Sop. Liv. iii. 6.

414 Jacques Clement, a Dominican friar, who assassinated Henry III. of France, in 1589. The sombre fanatic was but twenty-five year of age; and he had announced the intention of killing with his own hands the great enemy of his faith. He was instigated by the Leaguers, and particularly by the Duchess of Montpensier, the sister of the Duke of Guise.

415 He murdered Henry IV. of France, in 1610.

416 Philip II. of Spain having, in 1582, set a price upon the head of William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, the leader of the Protestants, Jaureguy attempted to assassinate him, and severely wounded him.

417 He assassinated William of Nassau, in 1584. It is supposed that this fanatic meditated the crime for six years.

418 A resolution prompted by a vow of devotion to a particular principle or creed.

419 He alludes to the Hindoos, and the ceremony of Suttee, encouraged by the Brahmins.

420 Flinching.—Vide Cic. Tuscul. Disp. ii. 14.

421 “Every man is the architect of his own fortune.” Sallust, in his letters “De Republicâ Ordinandâ,” attributes these words to Appius Claudius Cæcus, a Roman poet whose works are now lost. Lord Bacon, in the Latin translation of his Essays, which was made under his supervision, rendered the word “poet” “comicus;” by whom he probably meant Plautus, who has this line in his “Trinummus” (Act ii, sc. 2): “Nam sapiens quidem pol ipsus fingit fortunam sibi,” which has the same meaning, though in somewhat different terms.

422 “A serpent, unless it has devoured a serpent, does not become a dragon.”

423 Or “desenvoltura,” implying readiness to adapt one’s self to circumstances.

424 Impediments, causes for hesitation.

425 “In that man there was such great strength of body and mind, that, in whatever station he had been born, he seemed as though he should make his fortune.”

426 “A versatile genius.”

427 “A little of the fool.”

428 “Thou carriest Cæsar and his fortunes.”—Plut. Vit. Cæls. 38.

429 “The Fortunate.” He attributed his success to the intervention of Hercules, to whom he paid especial veneration.

430 “The Great.”—Plut. Syll. 34.

431 A successful Athenian general, the son of Conon, and the friend of Plato.

432 Fluency, or smoothness.

433 Lord Bacon seems to use the word in the general sense of “lending money upon interest.”

434 “Drive from their hives the drones, a lazy race.”—Georgics, b. iv. 168.

435 “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread.”—Gen. iii. 19.

436 “In the sweat of the face of another.”

437 In the middle ages the Jews were compelled, by legal enactment, to wear peculiar dresses and colors; one of these was orange.

438 “A concession by reason of hardness of heart.” He alludes to the words in St. Matthew xix. 8.

439 See note to Essay xix.