Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients

121 From in and video,—“to look upon;” with reference to the so-called “evil eye” of the envious.

122 “Envy keeps no holidays.”

123 See St. Matthew xiii. 25.

124 Beholden.

125 He iniquitously attempted to obtain possession of the person of Virginia, who was killed by her father Virginius, to prevent her from falling a victim to his lust. This circumstance caused the fall of the Decemviri at Rome, who had been employed in framing the code of laws afterwards known as “The Laws of the Twelve Tables.” They narrowly escaped being burned alive by the infuriated populace.

126 “We are a sufficient theme for contemplation, the one for the other.”—Sen. Epist. Mor. 1. 7. (A. L. l. iii. 6.) Pope seems, notwithstanding this censure of Bacon, to have been of the same opinion with Epicurus:—

“Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,

The proper study for mankind is man.”

Essay on Man, Ep. ii. 1. 2.

Indeed, Lord Bacon seems to have misunderstood the saying of Epicurus, who did not mean to recommend man as the sole object of the bodily vision, but as the proper theme for mental contemplation.

127 Amare et sapere vix Deo conceditur.—Pub. Syr. Sent. 15. (A. L. ii. proœ. 10.)

128 He refers here to the judgment of Paris, mentioned by Ovid in his Epistles, of the Heroines.

129 Montaigne has treated this subject before Bacon, under the title of De l’incommodité de la Grandeur. (B. iii. ch. vii.)

130 “Since you are not what you were, there is no reason why you should wish to live.”

131 “Death presses heavily upon him, who, well known to all others, dies unknown to himself.”—Sen. Thyest. ii. 401.

132 “And God turned to behold the works which his hands had made, and he saw that everything was very good.”—See Gen. i. 31.

133 “As a matter of course.”

134 Too great easiness of access.

135 Predilections that are undeserved.

136 Proverbs xxviii. 21. The whole passage stands thus in our version: “He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. To have respect of persons is not good; for, for a piece of bread, that man will transgress.”

137 “By the consent of all he was fit to govern, if he had not governed.”

138 “Of the emperors, Vespasian alone changed for the better after his accession.”—Tac. Hist. i. 49, 50 (A. L. ii. xxii. 5).

139 Plut. vit. Demosth. 17, 18.

140 It is not improbable that this passage suggested Pope’s beautiful lines in the Essay on Man, Ep. i. 125-28.

“Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes,

Men would be angels, angels would be gods.

Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell,

Aspiring to be angels, men rebel.”

141 Auger Gislen Busbec, or Busbequius, a learned traveller, born at Comines, in Flanders, in 1522. He was employed by the Emperor Ferdinand as ambassador to the Sultan Solyman II. He was afterwards ambassador to France, where he died, in 1592. His “Letters” relative to his travels in the East, which are written in Latin, contain much interesting information. They were the pocket companion of Gibbon, and are highly praised by him.

142 In this instance the stork or crane was probably protected, not on the abstract grounds mentioned in the text, but for reasons of state policy and gratitude combined. In Eastern climates the cranes and dogs are far more efficacious than human agency in removing filth and offal, and thereby diminishing the chances of pestilence. Superstition, also, may have formed another motive, as we learn from a letter written from Adrianople, by Lady Montagu, in 1718, that storks were “held there in a sort of religious reverence, because they are supposed to make every winter the pilgrimage to Mecca. To say truth, they are the happiest subjects under the Turkish government, and are so sensible of their privileges, that they walk the streets without fear, and generally build their nests in the lower parts of the houses. Happy are those whose houses are so distinguished, as the vulgar Turks are perfectly persuaded that they will not be that year attacked either by fire or pestilence.” Storks are still protected, by municipal law, in Holland, and roam unmolested about the market-places.

143 Nicolo Machiavelli, a Florentine statesman. He wrote “Discourses on the first Decade of Livy,” which were conspicuous for their liberality of sentiment, and just and profound reflections. This work was succeeded by his famous treatise, “Il Principe,” “The Prince;” his patron, Cæsar Borgia, being the model of the perfect prince there described by him. The whole scope of this work is directed to one object—the maintenance of power, however acquired. Though its precepts are no doubt based upon the actual practice of the Italian politicians of that day, it has been suggested by some writers that the work was a covert exposure of the deformity of the shocking maxims that it professes to inculcate. The question of his motives has been much discussed, and is still considered open. The word “Machiavellism” has, however, been adopted to denote all that is deformed, insincere, and perfidious in politics. He died in great poverty, in the year 1527.

144Vide Disc. Sop. Liv. ii. 2.

145 St. Matthew v. 45. “For he maketh his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”

146 This is a portion of our Saviour’s reply to the rich man who asked him what he should do to inherit eternal life: “Then Jesus beholding him, loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow me.”—St. Mark x. 21.

147 See St. Luke xvi. 21.

148 Timon of Athens, as he is generally called (being so styled by Shakspeare in the play which he has founded on his story), was surnamed the “Misanthrope,” from the hatred which he bore to his fellow-men. He was attached to Apemantus, another Athenian of similar character to himself, and he professed to esteem Alcibiades, because he foresaw that he would one day bring ruin on his country. Going to the public assembly on one occasion, he mounted the rostrum, and stated that he had a fig-tree, on which many worthy citizens had ended their days by the halter; that he was going to cut it down for the purpose of building on the spot, and therefore recommended all such as were inclined, to avail themselves of it before it was too late.

149 A piece of timber that has grown crooked, and has been so cut that the trunk and branch form an angle.

150 He probably here refers to the myrrh-tree. Incision is the method usually adopted for extracting the resinous juices of trees; as in the India-rubber and gutta-percha trees.

151 “A votive,” and, in the present instance, a “vicarious offering.” He alludes to the words of St. Paul in his Second Epistle to Timothy ii. 10: “Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sake, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.”

152 Consideration of, or predilection for, particular persons.