Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients

310 Plut. Vit. J. Cæs. 64.

311 Cic. Philip. xiii. 11.

312 “These things, by reason of our friendship, I have not concealed from you.”—Vide Tac. Ann. iv. 40.

313 Dio Cass. lxxv.

314 Such infamous men as Tiberius and Sejanus hardly deserve this commendation.

315 Philip de Comines.

316 Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, the valiant antagonist of Louis XI. of France. De Comines spent his early years at his court, but afterwards passed into the service of Louis XI. This monarch was notorious for his cruelty, treachery, and dissimulation, and had all the bad qualities of his contemporary, Edward IV. of England, without any of his redeeming virtues.

317 Pythagoras went still further than this, as he forbade his disciples to eat flesh of any kind whatever. See the interesting speech which Ovid attributes to him in the fifteenth book of the Metamorphoses. Sir Thomas Browne, in his Pseudoxia (Browne’s Works, Bohn’s Antiq. ed. vol. i. p. 27, et seq.), gives some curious explanations of the doctrines of this philosopher.—Plut. de Educat. Puer. 17.

318 Tapestry. Speaking hypercritically, Lord Bacon commits an anachronism here, as Arras did not manufacture tapestry till the middle ages.

319 Plut. Vit. Themist. 28.

320 Ap. Stob. Serm. v. 120.

321 James i. 23.

322 He alludes to the recommendation which moralists have often given, that a person in anger should go through the alphabet to himself, before he allows himself to speak.

323 In his day, the musket was fixed upon a stand, called the “rest,” much as the gingals or matchlocks are used in the East at the present day.

324 From debts and incumbrances.

325 Plut. Vit. Themist. ad init.

326 “Equal to business.”

327 He alludes to the following passage, St. Matthew xiii. 31: “Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; which indeed is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.”

328 Virg. Ecl. vii. 51.

329 Vide. A. L. i. vii. 11.

330 He was vanquished by Lucullus, and finally submitted to Pompey.—Plut. Vit. Lucull. 27.

331 He alludes to the prophetic words of Jacob on his death-bed, Gen. xlix. 9, 14, 15: “Judah is a lion’s whelp; ... he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion.... Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens: And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.”

332 Sums of money voluntarily contributed by the people for the use of the sovereign.

333 Young trees.

334 “A land strong in arms and in the richness of the soil.”—Virg. Æn. i. 535.

335 He alludes to the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, which is mentioned Daniel iv. 10; “I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth: the leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all; the beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and all flesh was fed of it.”

336 “Right of citizenship.”

337 “Right of trading.”

338 “Right of intermarriage.”

339 “Right of inheritance.”

340 “Right of suffrage.”

341 “Right of honors.”

342 Long since the time of Lord Bacon, as soon as these colonies had arrived at a certain state of maturity, they at different periods revolted from the mother country.

343 The laws and ordinances promulgated by the sovereigns of Spain were so called. The term was derived from the Byzantine empire.

344 Qualifications.

345 Attend to.

346 For a short or transitory period.

347 Be in a hurry.

348 It was its immense armaments that in a great measure consumed the vitals of Spain.

349 “Pompey’s plan is clearly that of Themistocles; for he believes that whoever is master of the sea will obtain the supreme power.”—Ad Att. x. 8.