Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients

FOOTNOTES:

1 By B. Montagu. Appendix, note 3, 1.

2 Baconiana, 201.

3 Bacon’s Apophthegms.

4 It is not surprising that ladies then received an education rare in our own times. It should be remembered that in the sixteenth century Latin was the language of courts and schools, of diplomacy, politics, and theology; it was the universal language, and there was then no literature in the modern tongues, except the Italian; indeed all knowledge, ancient and modern, was conveyed to the world in the language of the ancients. The great productions of Athens and Rome were the intellectual all of our ancestors down to the middle of the sixteenth century.

5 Prospetto delle Memorie aneddote dei Lincei da F. Cancellieri. Roma, 1823. This fact is quoted by Monsieur Cousin, in a note to his Fragments de Philosophie CartÉsienne.

6 Sir Robert Cecil.

7 Gray’s Inn is one of the four Inns or companies for the study of law.

8 King’s or Queen’s Counsel are barristers that plead for the government; they receive fees but no salary; the first were appointed in the reign of Charles II. Queen’s Counsel extraordinary was a title peculiar to Bacon, granted, as the patent specially states, honoris causa.

9 Letter to Lord Burleigh.

10 The Solicitor-General is a law-officer inferior in rank to the Attorney-General, with whom he is associated in the management of the law business of the crown. He pleads also for private individuals, but not against government. He has a small salary, but very considerable fees. The salary in Bacon’s time was but seventy pounds.

11 Bacon was, like other courtiers, in the habit of presenting the Queen with a New Year’s gift. On one occasion, it was a white satin petticoat embroidered with snakes and fruitage, as emblems of wisdom and beauty. The donors varied in rank from the Lord Keeper down to the dust-man.

12 Essays.

13 The Attorney-General is the public prosecutor on behalf of the Crown, where the state is actually and not nominally the prosecutor. He pleads also as a barrister in private causes, provided they are not against the government. As he receives a fee for every case in which the government is concerned, his emoluments are considerable; but he has no salary. His official position secures to him the best practice at the bar. The salary was, in Bacon’s time, but 81l. 6s. 8d. per annum; but the situation yielded him six thousand pounds yearly.

14 Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy.

15 Essay xvi.

16 Decisions being given against the parties is no proof of uncorruptness; it is always the party who loses his suit that complains; the gainer receives the price of his bribe, and is silent.

17 The exactions of his servants appear to have been very great; their indulgence in every kind of extravagance, and the lavish profuseness of his own expenses, were the principal causes of his ruin. Mallet relates that one day, during the investigation into his conduct, the Chancellor passed through a room where several of his servants were sitting; as they arose from their seats to greet him, “Sit down, my masters,” exclaimed he, “your rise hath been my fall.”

18 Essay xi.

19 Macaulay’s Essays.

20 He was not, as has been erroneously supposed, stripped of his titles of nobility; this was proposed; but it was negatived by the majority formed by means of the bishops.

21 The Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles the First, was before he ascended the throne the patron of Bacon, who said of him in his will, “my most gracious sovereign, who ever when he was prince was my patron.”

22 The Seasons.

23 Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England.

24 Bracton is one of the earliest writers of English law. He flourished in the thirteenth century. The title of his work is De Legibus et Consuetudinibus AngliÆ, first printed in 1569.

25 The woods on his estate of Gorhambury.

26 Of the Interpretation of Nature.

27 Ibid.

28 New Atlantis.

29 Advancement of Learning.

30 Edinburgh Review.

31 Essays.

32 Advancement of Learning.

33 Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy.

34 Tattler, No. 267.

35 Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries.

36 Montaigne says, in his author’s address to the reader:—

“Ie veulx qu’on m’y veoye en ma faÇon simple, naturelle et ordinaire, sans estude et artifice; car c’est moi que je peinds.” He says again elsewhere: “Ie n’ay pas plus faict mon livre, que mon livre m’a faict; livre consubstantiel À son aucteur, d’une occupation propre, membre de ma vie, non d’une occupation et fin tierce et estrangiere, comme touts aultres livres.” (Livre ii. ch. xviii.)

37 Introduction to the EncyclopÆdia.

38 Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries.

39 Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries.

40 No. 267.

41 Essays.

42 He refers to the following passage in the Gospel of St. John, xviii. 38: “Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.”

43 He probably refers to the “New Academy,” a sect of Greek philosophers, one of whose moot questions was, “What is truth?” Upon which they came to the unsatisfactory conclusion, that mankind has no criterion by which to form a judgment.

44 Perhaps he was thinking of St. Augustine.—See Aug. Confess. i. 25, 26.

45 “The wine of evil spirits.”

46 Genesis i. 3: “And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.”

47 At the moment when “The Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”—Genesis ii. 7.

48 Lucretius, the Roman poet and Epicurean philosopher, is alluded to.—Lucret. ii. init. Comp. Adv. of Learning, i. 8, 5.

49 He refers to the sect which followed the doctrines of Epicurus. The life of Epicurus himself was pure and abstemious in the extreme. One of his leading tenets was, that the aim of all speculation should be to enable men to judge with certainty what course is to be chosen, in order to secure health of body and tranquillity of mind. The adoption, however, of the term “pleasure,” as denoting this object, has at all periods subjected the Epicurean system to great reproach; which, in fact, is due rather to the conduct of many who, for their own purposes, have taken shelter under the system in name only, than to the tenets themselves, which did not inculcate libertinism. Epicurus admitted the existence of the Gods, but he deprived them of the characteristics of Divinity, either as creators or preservers of the world.

50 Lord Bacon has either translated this passage of Lucretius from memory or has purposely paraphrased it. The following is the literal translation of the original: “’Tis a pleasant thing, from the shore, to behold the dangers of another upon the mighty ocean, when the winds are lashing the main; not because it is a grateful pleasure for any one to be in misery, but because it is a pleasant thing to see those misfortunes from which you yourself are free: ’tis also a pleasant thing to behold the mighty contests of warfare, arrayed upon the plains, without a share in the danger; but nothing is there more delightful than to occupy the elevated temples of the wise, well fortified by tranquil learning, whence you may be able to look down upon others, and see them straying in every direction, and wandering in search of the path of life.”

51 Michael de Montaigne, the celebrated French Essayist. His Essays embrace a variety of topics, which are treated in a sprightly and entertaining manner, and are replete with remarks indicative of strong native good sense. He died in 1592. The following quotation is from the second book of the Essays, c. 18: “Lying is a disgraceful vice, and one that Plutarch, an ancient writer, paints in most disgraceful colors, when he says that it is ‘affording testimony that one first despises God, and then fears men;’ it is not possible more happily to describe its horrible, disgusting, and abandoned nature; for, can we imagine anything more vile than to be cowards with regard to men, and brave with regard to God?”

52 St. Luke xviii. 8: “Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith upon the earth?”

53 A portion of this Essay is borrowed from the writings of Seneca. See his Letters to Lucilius, B. iv. Ep. 24 and 82.

54 “The array of the death-bed has more terrors than death itself.” This quotation is from Seneca.

55 He probably alludes to the custom of hanging the room in black where the body of the deceased lay, a practice much more usual in Bacon’s time than at the present day.

56 Tacit. Hist. ii. 49.

57 Ad Lucil. 77.

58 “Reflect how often you do the same things; a man may wish to die, not only because either he is brave or wretched, but even because he is surfeited with life.”

59 “Livia, mindful of our union, live on, and fare thee well.”—Suet. Aug. Vit. c. 100.

60 “His bodily strength and vitality were now forsaking Tiberius, but not his duplicity.”—Ann. vi. 50.

61 This was said as a reproof to his flatterers, and in spirit is not unlike the rebuke administered by Canute to his retinue.—Suet. Vespas. Vit. c. 23.

62 “I am become a Divinity, I suppose.”

63 “If it be for the advantage of the Roman people, strike.”—Tac. Hist. i. 41.

64 “If aught remains to be done by me, dispatch.”—Dio Cass. 76, ad fin.

65 These were the followers of Zeno, a philosopher of Citium, in Cyprus, who founded the Stoic school, or “School of the Portico,” at Athens. The basis of his doctrines was the duty of making virtue the object of all our researches. According to him, the pleasures of the mind were preferable to those of the body, and his disciples were taught to view with indifference health or sickness, riches or poverty, pain or pleasure.

66 “Who reckons the close of his life among the boons of nature.” Lord Bacon here quotes from memory; the passage is in the tenth Satire of Juvenal, and runs thus:—

“Fortem posce animum, mortis terrore carentem,
Qui spatium vitÆ extremum inter munera ponat
NaturÆ”—

“Pray for strong resolve, void of the fear of death, that reckons the closing period of life among the boons of nature.”

67 He alludes to the song of Simeon, to whom the Holy Ghost had revealed, “that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” When he beheld the infant Jesus in the temple, he took the child in his arms and burst forth into a song of thanksgiving, commencing, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.”—St. Luke ii. 29.

68 “When dead, the same person shall be beloved.”—Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 14.

69 “Behold, he is in the desert.”—St. Matthew xxiv. 26.

70 “Behold, he is in the secret chambers.”—Ib.

71 He alludes to 1 Corinthians xiv. 23: “If, therefore, the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?”

72 Psalm i. 1: “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”

73 This dance, which was originally called the Morisco dance is supposed to have been derived from the Moors of Spain; the dancers in earlier times blackening their faces to resemble Moors. It was probably a corruption of the ancient Pyrrhic dance, which was performed by men in armor, and which is mentioned as still existing in Greece, in Byron’s “Song of the Greek Captive:”—

“You have the Pyrrhic dance as yet.”

Attitude and gesture formed one of the characteristics of the dance. It is still practised in some parts of England.—Rabelais, Pantag. ii. 7.

74 2 Kings ix. 18.

75 He alludes to the words in Revelation, c. iii. v. 14, 15, 16: “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot.—I will spue thee out of my mouth.” Laodicea was a city of Asia Minor. St. Paul established the church there which is here referred to.

76 St. Matthew xii. 30.

77 “In the garment there may be many colors, but let there be no rending of it.”

78 “Avoid profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science, falsely so called.”—1 Tim. vi. 20.

79 He alludes to the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, significant of the limited duration of his kingdom.—See Daniel ii. 33, 41.

80 Mahomet proselytized by giving to the nations which he conquered, the option of the Koran or the sword.

81 “To deeds so dreadful could religion prompt.” The poet refers to the sacrifice by Agamemnon, the Grecian leader, of his daughter Iphigenia, with the view of appeasing the wrath of Diana.—Lucret. i. 95.

82 He alludes to the massacre of the Huguenots, or Protestants, in France, which took place on St. Bartholomew’s day, August 24, 1572, by the order of Charles IX. and his mother, Catherine de Medici. On this occasion about 60,000 persons perished, including the Admiral De Coligny, one of the most virtuous men that France possessed, and the main stay of the Protestant cause.

83 More generally known as “The Gunpowder Plot.”

84 Isa. xiv. 14.

85 Allusion is made to the “caduceus,” with which Mercury, the messenger of the Gods, summoned the souls of the departed to the infernal regions.

86 “The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”—James i. 20.

87 He alludes to Cosmo de Medici, or Cosmo I., chief of the Republic of Florence, the encourager of literature and the fine arts.

88 Job ii. 10.—“Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”

89 By “public revenges,” he means punishment awarded by the state with the sanction of the laws.

90 He alludes to the retribution dealt by Augustus and Anthony to the murderers of Julius CÆsar. It is related by ancient historians, as a singular fact, that not one of them died a natural death.

91 Henry III. of France was assassinated in 1599, by Jacques Clement, a Jacobin monk, in the frenzy of fanaticism. Although Clement justly suffered punishment, the end of this bloodthirsty and bigoted tyrant may be justly deemed a retribution dealt by the hand of an offended Providence; so truly does the Poet say:—

“neque enim lex Æquior ulla

Quam necis artifices arte perire suÂ.”

92 Sen. Ad Lucil. 66.

93 Ibid. 53.

94 Stesichorus, Apollodorus, and others. Lord Bacon makes a similar reference to this myth in his treatise “On the Wisdom of the Ancients.” “It is added with great elegance, to console and strengthen the minds of men, that this mighty hero (Hercules) sailed in a cup or ‘urceus,’ in order that they may not too much fear and allege the narrowness of their nature and its frailty; as if it were not capable of such fortitude and constancy; of which very thing Seneca argued well, when he said, ‘It is a great thing to have at the same time the frailty of a man, and the security of a God.’”

95 Funereal airs. It must be remembered that many of the Psalms of David were written by him when persecuted by Saul, as also in the tribulation caused by the wicked conduct of his son Absalom. Some of them, too, though called “The Psalms of David,” were really composed by the Jews in their captivity at Babylon; as, for instance, the 137th Psalm, which so beautifully commences, “By the waters of Babylon there we sat down.” One of them is supposed to be the composition of Moses.

96 This fine passage, beginning at “Prosperity is the blessing,” which was not published till 1625, twenty-eight years after the first Essays, has been quoted by Macaulay, with considerable justice, as a proof that the writer’s fancy did not decay with the advance of old age, and that his style in his later years became richer and softer. The learned critic contrasts this passage with the terse style of the Essay of Studies (Essay 50), which was published in 1597.

97 Tac. Ann. v. 1.

98 Tac. Hist. ii. 76.

99 A word now unused, signifying the “traits,” or “features.”

100 A truth.—A. L. II. xxiii. 14.

101 Proverbs x. 1: “A wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.”

102 Petted—spoiled.

103 This word seems here to mean “a plan,” or “method,” as proved by its results.

104 Ends in.

105 There is considerable justice in this remark. Children should be taught to do what is right for its own sake, and because it is their duty to do so, and not that they may have the selfish gratification of obtaining the reward which their companions have failed to secure, and of being led to think themselves superior to their companions. When launched upon the world, emulation will be quite sufficiently forced upon them by stern necessity.

106 “Select that course of life which is the most advantageous; habit will soon render it pleasant and easily endured.”

107 His meaning is, that if clergymen have the expenses of a family to support, they will hardly find means for the exercise of benevolence toward their parishioners.

108 “He preferred his aged wife Penelope to immortality.” This was when Ulysses was entreated by the goddess Calypso to give up all thoughts of returning to Ithaca, and to remain with her in the enjoyment of immortality.—Plut. Gryll. 1.

109 “May have a pretext,” or “excuse.”

110 Thales, Vide Diog. Laert. i. 26.

111 So prevalent in ancient times was the notion of the injurious effects of the eye of envy, that, in common parlance, the Romans generally used the word “prÆfiscini,”—“without risk of enchantment,” or “fascination,” when they spoke in high terms of themselves. They supposed that they thereby averted the effects of enchantment produced by the evil eye of any envious person who might at that moment possibly be looking upon them. Lord Bacon probably here alludes to St. Mark vii. 21, 22: “Out of the heart of men proceedeth—deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye.” Solomon also speaks of the evil eye, Prov. xxiii. 6, and xxviii. 22.

112 To be even with him.

113 “There is no person a busybody, but what he is ill-natured too.” This passage is from the Stichus of Plautus.

114 Narses superseded Belisarius in the command of the armies of Italy, by the orders of the Emperor Justinian. He defeated Totila, the king of the Goths (who had taken Rome), in a decisive engagement, in which the latter was slain. He governed Italy with consummate ability for thirteen years, when he was ungratefully recalled by Justin the Second, the successor of Justinian.

115 Tamerlane, or Timour, was a native of Samarcand, of which territory he was elected emperor. He overran Persia, Georgia, Hindostan, and captured Bajazet, the valiant Sultan of the Turks, at the battle of Angora, 1402, whom he is said to have inclosed in a cage of iron. His conquests extended from the Irtish and Volga to the Persian Gulf, and from the Ganges to the Grecian Archipelago. While preparing for the invasion of China, he died, in the 70th year of his age, A. D. 1405. He was tall and corpulent in person, but was maimed in one hand, and lame on the right side.

116 Spartian Vit. Adrian, 15.

117 Comes under the observation.

118 “By a leap,” i. e. over the heads of others.

119 “How vast the evils we endure.”

120 He probably alludes to the custom of the Athenians, who frequently ostracized or banished by vote their public men, lest they should become too powerful.

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. prooe. 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.

144 Vide 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.

153 The Low Countries had then recently emancipated themselves from the galling yoke of Spain. They were called the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands.

154 This passage may at first sight appear somewhat contradictory; but he means to say, that those who are first ennobled will commonly be found more conspicuous for the prominence of their qualities, both good and bad.

155 Consistent with reason and justice.

156 The periods of the Equinoxes.

157 “He often warns, too, that secret revolt is impending, that treachery and open warfare are ready to burst forth.”—Virg. Georg. i. 465.

158 “Mother Earth, exasperated at the wrath of the Deities, produced her, as they tell, a last birth, a sister to the giants Coeus, and Enceladus.”—Virg. Æn. iv. 179.

159 “Great public odium once excited, his deeds, whether good or whether bad, cause his downfall.” Bacon has here quoted incorrectly, probably from memory. The words of Tacitus are (Hist. B. i. C. 7): “Inviso semel principe, seu bene, seu male, facta premunt,”—“The ruler once detested, his actions, whether good or whether bad, cause his downfall.”

160 “They attended to their duties; but still, as preferring rather to discuss the commands of their rulers, than to obey them.”—Tac. Hist. ii. 39.

161 He alludes to the bad policy of Henry the Third of France, who espoused the part of “The League,” which was formed by the Duke of Guise and other Catholics for the extirpation of the Protestant faith. When too late he discovered his error, and finding his own authority entirely superseded, he caused the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal De Lorraine, his brother, to be assassinated.

162 “The primary motive power.” He alludes to an imaginary centre of gravitation, or central body, which was supposed to set all the other heavenly bodies in motion.

163 “Too freely to remember their own rulers.”

164 “I will unloose the girdles of kings.” He probably alludes here to the first verse of the 45th chapter of Isaiah: “Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates.”

165 “Hence devouring usury, and interest accumulating in lapse of time; hence shaken credit, and warfare, profitable to the many.”—Lucan. Phars. i. 181.

166 “Warfare profitable to the many.”

167 “To grief there is a limit, not so to fear.”

168 “Check,” or “daunt.”

169 This is similar to the proverb now in common use: “’Tis the last feather that breaks the back of the camel.”

170 The state.

171 Though sumptuary laws are probably just in theory, they have been found impracticable in any other than infant states. Their principle, however, is certainly recognized in such countries as by statutory enactment discountenance gaming. Those who are opposed to such laws upon principle, would do well to look into Bernard Mandeville’s “Fable of the Bees,” or “Private Vices Public Benefits.” The Romans had numerous sumptuary laws, and in the Middle Ages there were many enactments in this country against excess of expenditure upon wearing apparel and the pleasures of the table.

172 He means that they do not add to the capital of the country.

173 At the expense of foreign countries.

174 “The workmanship will surpass the material.”—Ovid, Met. B. ii. l. 5.

175 He alludes to the manufactures of the Low Countries.

176 Like manure.

177 Sometimes printed engrossing, great pasturages. By engrossing, is meant the trade of engrossers—men who buy up all that can be got of a particular commodity, then raise the price. By great pasturages is meant turning corn land into pasture. Of this practice great complaints had been made for near a century before Bacon’s time, and a law passed to prevent it.—See Lord Herbert of Cherbury’s History of Henry VIII.

178 The myth of Pandora’s box, which is here referred to, is related in the Works and Days of Hesiod. Epimetheus was the personification of “Afterthought,” while his brother Prometheus represented “Forethought,” or prudence. It was not Epimetheus that opened the box, but Pandora—“All-gift,” whom, contrary to the advice of his brother, he had received at the hands of Mercury, and had made his wife. In their house stood a closed jar, which they were forbidden to open. Till her arrival, this had been kept untouched; but her curiosity prompting her to open the lid, all the evils hitherto unknown to man flew out and spread over the earth, and she only shut it down in time to prevent the escape of Hope.

179 “Sylla did not know his letters, and so he could not dictate.” This saying is attributed by Suetonius to Julius CÆsar. It is a play on the Latin verb dictare, which means either “to dictate,” or “to act the part of Dictator,” according to the context. As this saying was presumed to be a reflection on Sylla’s ignorance, and to imply that by reason thereof he was unable to maintain his power, it was concluded by the Roman people that CÆsar, who was an elegant scholar, feeling himself subject to no such inability, did not intend speedily to yield the reins of power.—Suet. Vit. C. Jul. CÆs. 77, i. and Cf. A. L. i. vii. 12.

180 “That soldiers were levied by him, not bought.”—Tac. Hist. i. 5.

181 “If I live, there shall no longer be need of soldiers in the Roman empire.”—Flav. Vop. Vit. Prob. 20.

182 “And such was the state of feeling, that a few dared to perpetrate the worst of crimes; more wished to do so; all submitted to it.”—Hist. i. 28.

183 He probably alludes to the legends or miraculous stories of the saints; such as walking with their heads off, preaching to the fishes, sailing over the sea on a cloak, &c. &c.

184 This is a book that contains the Jewish traditions, and the rabbinical explanations of the law. It is replete with wonderful narratives.

185 This passage not improbably contains the germ of Pope’s famous lines:—

“A little learning is a dangerous thing;

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.”

186 A philosopher of Abdera; the first who taught the system of atoms, which was afterwards more fully developed by Democritus and Epicurus.

187 He was a disciple of the last-named philosopher, and held the same principles; he also denied the existence of the soul after death. He is considered to have been the parent of experimental philosophy, and was the first to teach, what is now confirmed by science, that the Milky Way is an accumulation of stars.

188 Spirit.

189 Psalm xiv. 1, and liii. 1.

190 To whose (seeming) advantage it is; the wish being father to the thought.

191 “It is not profane to deny the existence of the deities of the vulgar; but, to apply to the divinities the received notions of the vulgar, is profane.”—Diog. Laert. x. 123.

192 He alludes to the native tribes of the continent of America and the West Indies.

193 He was an Athenian philosopher, who, from the greatest superstition, became an avowed atheist. He was proscribed by the Areiopagus for speaking against the gods with ridicule and contempt, and is supposed to have died at Corinth.

194 A Greek philosopher, a disciple of Theodorus the atheist, to whose opinions he adhered. His life was said to have been profligate, and his death superstitious.

195 Lucian ridiculed the follies and pretensions of some of the ancient philosophers; but though the freedom of his style was such as to cause him to be censured for impiety, he hardly deserves the stigma of atheism here cast upon him by the learned author.

196 “It is not for us now to say, ‘Like priest like people,’ for the people are not even so bad as the priest.” St. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, preached the second Crusade against the Saracens, and was unsparing in his censures of the sins then prevalent among the Christian priesthood. His writings are voluminous, and by some he has been considered as the latest of the fathers of the Church.

197 “A superior nature.”

198 “We may admire ourselves, conscript fathers, as much as we please; still, neither by numbers did we vanquish the Spaniards, nor by bodily strength the Gauls, nor by cunning the Carthaginians, nor through the arts the Greeks, nor, in fine, by the inborn and native good sense of this our nation, and this our race and soil, the Italians and Latins themselves; but through our devotion and our religious feeling, and this, the sole true wisdom, the having perceived that all things are regulated and governed by the providence of the immortal Gods, have we subdued all races and nations.”—Cic. de. Harus. Respon. 9.

199 The justice of this position is, perhaps, somewhat doubtful. The superstitious man must have some scruples, while he who believes not in a God (if there is such a person), needs have none.

200 Time was personified in Saturn, and by this story was meant its tendency to destroy whatever it has brought into existence.—Plut. de Superstit. x.

201 The primary motive power.

202 This Council commenced in 1545, and lasted eighteen years. It was convened for the purpose of opposing the rising spirit of Protestantism, and of discussing and settling the disputed points of the Catholic faith.

203 Irregular or anomalous movements.

204 An epicycle is a smaller circle, whose centre is in the circumference of a greater one.

205 To account for.

206 Synods, or councils.

207 At the present day called attachÉs.

208 He probably means the refusing to join on the occasion of drinking healths when taking wine.

209 Something to create excitement.

210 “The heart of kings is unsearchable.”—Prov. v. 3.

211 Commodus fought naked in public as a gladiator, and prided himself on his skill as a swordsman.

212 Making a stop at, or dwelling too long upon.

213 After a prosperous reign of twenty-one years, Diocletian abdicated the throne, and retired to a private station.

214 After having reigned thirty-five years, he abdicated the thrones of Spain and Germany, and passed the last two years of his life in retirement at St. Just, a convent in Estremadura.

215 Philost. vit. Apoll. Tyan. v. 28.

216 “The desires of monarchs are generally impetuous and conflicting among themselves.”—Quoted rightly, A. L. ii. xxii. 5, from Sallust (B. J. 113).

217 He was especially the rival of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, and was one of the most distinguished sovereigns that ever ruled over France.

218 An eminent historian of Florence. His great work, which is here alluded to, is, “The History of Italy during his own Time,” which is considered one of the most valuable productions of that age.

219 Spoken badly of. Livia was said to have hastened the death of Augustus, to prepare the accession of her son Tiberius to the throne.

220 Solyman the Magnificent was one of the most celebrated of the Ottoman monarchs. He took the Isle of Rhodes from the Knights of St. John. He also subdued Moldavia, Wallachia, and the greatest part of Hungary, and took from the Persians Georgia and Bagdad. He died A. D. 1566. His wife Roxolana (who was originally a slave called Rosa or Hazathya), with the Pasha Rustan, conspired against the life of his son Mustapha, and by their instigation this distinguished prince was strangled in his father’s presence.

221 The infamous Isabella of Anjou.

222 Adulteresses.

223 He, however, distinguished himself by taking Cyprus from the Venetians in the year 1571.

224 He was falsely accused by his brother Perseus of attempting to dethrone his father, on which he was put to death by the order of Philip, B. C. 180.

225 Anselm was Archbishop of Canterbury in the time of William Rufus and Henry the First. Though his private life was pious and exemplary, through his rigid assertion of the rights of the clergy he was continually embroiled with his sovereign. Thomas À Becket pursued a similar course, but with still greater violence.

226 The great vessel that conveys the blood to the liver, after it has been enriched by the absorption of nutriment from the intestines.

227 This is an expression similar to our proverb, “Penny-wise and pound-foolish.”

228 A subdivision of the shire.

229 The Janizaries were the body-guards of the Turkish sultans, and enacted the same disgraceful part in making and unmaking monarchs, as the mercenary PrÆtorian guards of the Roman Empire.

230 “Remember that thou art a man.”

231 “Remember that thou art a God.”

232 “The representative of God.”

233 Isaiah ix. 6: “His name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

234 Prov. xx. 18: “Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war.”

235 The wicked Rehoboam, from whom the ten tribes of Israel revolted, and elected Jeroboam their king.—See 1 Kings xii.

236 Hesiod, Theog. 886.

237 The political world has not been convinced of the truth of this doctrine of Lord Bacon; as cabinet councils are now held probably by every sovereign in Europe.

238 “I am full of outlets.”—Ter. Eun. I. ii. 25.

239 That is, without a complicated machinery of government.

240 Master of the Rolls and Privy Councillor under Henry VI., to whose cause he faithfully adhered. Edward IV. promoted him to the See of Ely, and made him Lord Chancellor. He was elevated to the See of Canterbury by Henry VII., and in 1493 received the Cardinal’s hat.

241 Privy Councillor and Keeper of the Privy Seal to Henry VII., and, after enjoying several bishoprics in succession, translated to the See of Winchester. He was an able statesman, and highly valued by Henry VII. On the accession of Henry VIII. his political influence was counteracted by Wolsey; on which he retired to his diocese, and devoted the rest of his life to acts of piety and munificence.

242 Before mentioned, relative to Jupiter and Metis.

243 Remedied.

244 “He shall not find faith upon the earth.” Lord Bacon probably alludes to the words of our Saviour, St. Luke xviii. 8: “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith upon the earth?”

245 He means to say, that this remark was only applicable to a particular time, namely, the coming of Christ. The period of the destruction of Jerusalem was probably referred to.

246 “’Tis the especial virtue of a prince to know his own men.”

247 In his disposition, or inclination.

248 Liable to opposition from.

249 “According to classes,” or, as we vulgarly say, “in the lump.” Lord Bacon means that princes are not, as a matter of course, to take counsellors merely on the presumption of talent, from their rank and station; but that, on the contrary, they are to select such as are tried men, and with regard to whom there can be no mistake.

250 “The best counsellors are the dead.”

251 “Are afraid” to open their mouths.

252 “Night-time for counsel.”—?? ???t? ????. Gaisf. Par. Gr. B. 359.

253 On the accession of James the Sixth of Scotland to the throne of England in 1603.

254 A phrase much in use with the Romans, signifying, “to attend to the business in hand.”

255 A tribunitial or declamatory manner.

256 “I’ll follow the bent of your humor.”

257 The Sibyl alluded to here is the CumÆan, the most celebrated, who offered the Sibylline Books for sale to Tarquin the Proud.

“At this time, an unknown woman appeared at court, loaded with nine volumes, which she offered to sell, but at a very considerable price. Tarquin refusing to give it, she withdrew and burnt three of the nine. Some time after she returned to court, and demanded the same price for the remaining six. This made her looked upon as a mad woman, and she was driven away with scorn. Nevertheless, having burnt the half of what were left, she came a third time, and demanded for the remaining three the same price which she had asked for the whole nine. The novelty of such a proceeding, made Tarquin curious to have the books examined. They were put, therefore, into the hands of the augurs, who, finding them to be the oracles of the Sybil of CumÆ, declared them to be an invaluable treasure. Upon this the woman was paid the sum she demanded, and she soon after disappeared, having first exhorted the Romans to preserve her books with care.”—Hooke’s Roman History.

258 Bald head. He alludes to the common saying: “Take time by the forelock.”

259 PhÆd. viii.

260 Hom. Il. v. 845.

261 Packing the cards is an admirable illustration of the author’s meaning. It is a cheating exploit, by which knaves, who, perhaps, are inferior players, insure to themselves the certainty of good hands.

262 “Send them both naked among strangers, and then you will see.”

263 This word is used here in its primitive sense of “retail dealers.” It is said to have been derived from a custom of the Flemings, who first settled in this country in the fourteenth century, stopping the passengers as they passed their shops, and saying to them, “Haber das, herr?”—“Will you take this, sir?” The word is now generally used as synonymous with linen-draper.

264 To watch.

265 State.

266 Discussing matters.

267 He refers to the occasion when Nehemiah, on presenting the wine, as cup-bearer to King Artaxerxes, appeared sorrowful, and, on being asked the reason of it, entreated the king to allow Jerusalem to be rebuilt.—Nehemiah ii. 1.

268 This can hardly be called a marriage, as, at the time of the intrigue, Messalina was the wife of Claudius; but she forced Caius Silius, of whom she was deeply enamored, to divorce his own wife, that she herself might enjoy his society. The intrigue was disclosed to Claudius by Narcissus, who was his freedman, and the pander to his infamous vices; on which Silius was put to death. Vide Tac. Ann. xi. 29, seq.

269 To speak in his turn.

270 Be questioned upon.

271 Kept on good terms.

272 Desire it.

273 “That he did not have various hopes in view, but solely the safety of the emperor.” Tigellinus was the profligate minister of Nero, and Africanus Burrhus was the chief of the PrÆtorian Guards.—Tac. Ann. xiv. 57.

274 As Nathan did, when he reproved David for his criminality with Bathsheba.—2 Samuel xii.

275 Use indirect stratagems.

276 He alludes to the old Cathedral of St. Paul, in London, which, in the sixteenth century, was a common lounge for idlers.

277 Movements, or springs.

278 Chances, or vicissitudes.

279 Enter deeply into.

280 Faults, or weak points.

281 “The wise man gives heed to his own footsteps; the fool turneth aside to the snare.” No doubt he here alludes to Ecclesiastes xiv. 2, which passage is thus rendered in our version: “The wise man’s eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness.”

282 Mischievous.

283 It must be remembered that Bacon was not a favorer of the Copernican system.

284 “Lovers of themselves without a rival.”—Ad. Qu. Fr. iii. 8.

285 Remedy.

286 Adapted to each other.

287 Injures or impairs.

288 A thing suspected.

289 He probably alludes to Jeremiah vi. 16: “Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.”

290 That is, by means of good management.

291 It is supposed that he here alludes to Sir Amyas Paulet, a very able statesman, and the ambassador of Queen Elizabeth to the court of France.

292 Quotations.

293 Apologies.

294 Boasting.

295 Prejudice.

296 2 Tim. iii. 5.

297 “Trifles with great effort.”

298 “With one brow raised to your forehead, the other bent downward to your chin, you answer that cruelty delights you not.”—In Pis. 6.

299 “A foolish man, who fritters away the weight of matters by finespun trifling on words.”—Vide Quint. x. 1.

300 Plat. Protag. i. 337.

301 Find it easier to make difficulties and objections than to originate.

302 One really in insolvent circumstances, though to the world he does not appear so.

303 He here quotes from a passage in the Politica of Aristotle, book i. “He who is unable to mingle in society, or who requires nothing, by reason of sufficing for himself, is no part of the state, so that he is either a wild beast or a divinity.”

304 Epimenides, a poet of Crete (of which Candia is the modern name), is said by Pliny to have fallen into a sleep which lasted 57 years. He was also said to have lived 299 years. Numa pretended that he was instructed in the art of legislation by the divine nymph Egeria, who dwelt in the Arician grove. Empedocles, the Sicilian philosopher, declared himself to be immortal, and to be able to cure all evils. He is said by some to have retired from society that his death might not be known, and to have thrown himself into the crater of Mount Ætna. Apollonius of Tyana, the Pythagorean philosopher, pretended to miraculous powers, and after his death a temple was erected to him at that place. His life is recorded by Philostratus; and some persons, among whom are Hierocles, Dr. More, in his Mystery of Godliness, and recently Strauss, have not hesitated to compare his miracles with those of our Saviour.

305 “A great city, a great desert.”

306 Sarsaparilla.

307 A liquid matter of a pungent smell, extracted from a portion of the body of the beaver.

308 “Partakers of cares.”

309 Plutarch (Vit. Pomp. 19) relates that Pompey said this upon Sylla’s refusal to give him a triumph.

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.

350 Encomiums.

351 St. Matthew vi. 27; St. Luke xii. 25.

352 The effects of which must be felt in old age.

353 Of benefit in your individual case.

354 Any striking change in the constitution.

355 Take medical advice.

356 Incline rather to fully satisfying your hunger.

357 Celsus de Med. i. 1.

358 To hope the best, but be fully prepared for the worst.

359 “Suspicion is the passport to faith.”

360 A censure of this nature has been applied by some to Dr. Johnson, and possibly with some reason.

361 To start the subject.

362 Requires to be bridled.

363 He quotes here from Ovid: “Boy, spare the whip, and tightly grasp the reins.”—Met. ii. 127.

364 One who tests or examines.

365 The galliard was a light active dance, much in fashion in the time of Queen Elizabeth.

366 Hits at, or remarks intended to be applied to, particular individuals.

367 A slight or insult.

368 A sarcastic remark.

369 The old term for colonies.

370 He perhaps alludes covertly to the conduct of the Spaniards in extirpating the aboriginal inhabitants of the West India Islands, against which the venerable Las Casas so eloquently but vainly protested.

371 Of course, this censure would not apply to what is primarily and essentially a convict colony; the object of which is to drain the mother country of its impure superfluities.

372 Times have much changed since this was penned, tobacco is now the staple commodity, and the source of “the main business” of Virginia.

373 To labor hard.

374 Marshy; from the French marais, a marsh.

375 Gewgaws, or spangles.

376 He alludes to Ecclesiastes v. 11, the words of which are somewhat varied in our version: “When goods increase, they are increased that eat them; and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?”

377 “The rich man’s wealth is his strong city.”—Proverbs x. 15; xviii. 11.

378 “In his anxiety to increase his fortune, it was evident that not the gratification of avarice was sought, but the means of doing good.”

379 “He who hastens to riches will not be without guilt.” In our version the words are: “He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.”—Proverbs xxviii. 22.

380 Pluto being the king of the infernal regions, or place of departed spirits.

381 Rent-roll, or account taken of income.

382 Wait till prices have risen.

383 “In the sweat of another’s brow.” He alludes to the words of Genesis iii. 19: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.”

384 Planter of sugar-canes.

385 “Wills and childless persons were caught by him, as though with a hunting-net.”—Tacit. Ann. xiii. 42.

386 “Pythoness,” used in the sense of witch. He alludes to the witch of Endor, and the words in Samuel xxviii. 19. He is, however, mistaken in attributing these words to the witch: it was the spirit of Samuel that said, “To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me.”

387 “But the house of Æneas shall reign over every shore, both his children’s children, and those who shall spring from them.”—Æn. iii. 97.

388 “After the lapse of years, ages will come in which Ocean shall relax his chains around the world, and a vast continent shall appear, and Tiphys shall explore new regions, and Thule shall be no longer the utmost verge of earth.”—Sen. Med. ii. 375.

389 He was king of Samos, and was treacherously put to death by Oroetes, the governor of Magnesia, in Asia Minor. His daughter, in consequence of her dream, attempted to dissuade him from visiting Oroetes, but in vain.—Herod. iii. 124.

390 Plut. Vit. Alex. 2.

391 “Thou shalt see me again at Philippi.”—Appian Bell. Civ. iv. 134.

392 “Thou, also, Galba, shalt taste of empire.”—Suet. Vit. Gall. 4.

393 Hist. v. 13.

394 Suet. vit. Domit. 23.

395 Catherine de Medicis, the wife of Henry II. of France, who died from a wound accidentally received in a tournament.

396 James I. being the first monarch of Great Britain.

397 “The eighty-eighth will be a wondrous year.”

398 “Aristophanes, in his Comedy of the Knights, satirizes Cleon, the Athenian demagogue. He introduces a declaration of the oracle, that the Eagle of hides (by whom Cleon was meant, his father having been a tanner), should be conquered by a serpent, which Demosthenes, one of the characters in the play, expounds as meaning a maker of sausages. How Lord Bacon could for a moment doubt that this was a mere jest, it is difficult to conjecture. The following is a literal translation of a portion of the passage from The Knights (l. 197): “But when a leather eagle with crooked talons shall have seized with its jaws a serpent, a stupid creature, a drinker of blood, then the tan-pickle of the Paphlagonians is destroyed; but upon the sellers of sausages the deity bestows great glory, unless they choose rather to sell sausages.”

399 This is a very just remark. So-called strange coincidences, and wonderful dreams that are verified, when the point is considered, are really not at all marvellous. We never hear of the 999 dreams that are not verified, but the thousandth that happens to precede its fulfilment is blazoned by unthinking people as a marvel. It would be a much more wonderful thing if dreams were not occasionally verified.

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.

413 Vide 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.

440 Hold.

441 The imaginary country described in Sir Thomas More’s political romance of that name.

442 Regulation.

443 Be paid.

444 Our author was one of the earliest writers who treated the question of the interest of money with the enlightened views of a statesman and an economist. The taking of interest was considered, in his time, immoral.

Laws on this matter are extremely ancient. Moses forbids the Jews to require interest of each other. “Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury:

“Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury.”—Deut. xxiii. 19, 20.

Among the Greeks, the rate of interest was settled by agreement between the borrower and the lender, without any interference of the law. The customary rate varied from ten to thirty-three and one third per cent.

The Romans enacted laws against usurious interest; but their legal interest, admitted by the law of the Twelve Tables, was, according to some, twelve per cent., or, to others, one twelfth of the capital, i.e. eight and one third per cent. Justinian reduced it to six per cent.

In England, the legal rate of interest was, in Henry the Eighth’s reign, ten per cent. It was reduced, in 1624, to eight per cent. It was further diminished, in 1672, to six per cent. And definitively, in 1713, fixed at five per cent., the ordinary rate of interest throughout Europe. In France, the rates of interest have been nearly similar at the same periods.

445 “He passed his youth full of errors, of madness even.”—Spartian. Vit. Sev.

446 He was nephew of Louis the Twelfth of France, and commanded the French armies in Italy against the Spaniards. After a brilliant career, he was killed at the battle of Ravenna, in 1512.

447 Joel ii. 28, quoted Acts ii. 17.

448 He lived in the second century after Christ, and is said to have lost his memory at the age of twenty-five.

449 “He remained the same, but with the advance of years was not so becoming.”—Cic. Brut. 95.

450 “The close was unequal to the beginning.” This quotation is not correct; the words are: “Memorabilior prima pars vitÆ quam postrema fuit,”—“The first part of his life was more distinguished than the latter.”—Livy xxxviii. ch. 53.

451 By the context, he would seem to consider “great spirit” and “virtue” as convertible terms. Edward IV., however, has no claim to be considered as a virtuous or magnanimous man, though he possessed great physical courage.

452 Features.

453 “The autumn of the beautiful is beautiful.”

454 By making allowances.

455 Rom. i. 31; 2 Tim. iii. 3.

456 “Where she errs in the one, she ventures in the other.”

457 Spies.

458 Solyman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Turks.

459 Site.

460 Knoll.

461 Have a liking for cheerful society. Momus being the god of mirth.

462 Eats up.

463 Plut. Vit. Lucull. 39.

464 A vast edifice, about twenty miles from Madrid, founded by Philip II.

465 Esth. i. 5; “The King made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king’s palace.”

466 The cylinder formed by the small end of the steps of winding stairs.

467 The funnel of a chimney.

468 Where to go.

469 Bow, or bay, windows.

470 Flush with the wall.

471 Antechamber.

472 Withdrawing-room.

473 Watercourses.

474 Pine trees.

475 Kept warm in a greenhouse.

476 The damson, or plum of Damascus.

477 Currants.

478 An apple that is gathered very early.

479 A kind of quince, so called from “cotoneum,” or “cydonium,” the Latin name of the quince.

480 The fruit of the cornel-tree.

481 The warden was a large pear, so called from its keeping well. Warden-pie was formerly much esteemed in this country.

482 Perpetual spring.

483 Flowers that do not send forth their smell at any distance.

484 A species of grass of the genus argostis.

485 The blossoms of the bean.

486 Bring or lead you.

487 Impeding.

488 Causing the water to fall in a perfect arch, without any spray escaping from the jet.

489 Lilies of the valley.

490 In rows.

491 Insidiously subtract nourishment from.

492 To consider or expect.

493 Love, are pleased with.

494 It is more advantageous to deal with men whose desires are not yet satisfied, than with those who have gained all they have wished for, and are likely to be proof against inducements.

495 In the sense of the Latin “gloriosus,” “boastful,” “bragging.”

496 Professions or classes.

497 Weakness, or indecision of character.

498 He probably alludes to the ancient stories of the friendship of Orestes and Pylades, Theseus and PirithoÜs, Damon and Pythias, and others, and the maxims of the ancient philosophers. Aristotle considers that equality in circumstances and station is one requisite of friendship. Seneca and Quintus Curtius express the same opinion. It seems hardly probable that Lord Bacon reflected deeply when he penned this passage, for between equals, jealousy, the most insidious of all the enemies of friendship, has the least chance of originating. Dr. Johnson says: “Friendship is seldom lasting but between equals, or where the superiority on one side is reduced by some equivalent advantage on the other. Benefits which cannot be repaid, and obligations which cannot be discharged, are not commonly found to increase affection; they excite gratitude indeed, and heighten veneration, but commonly take away that easy freedom and familiarity of intercourse, without which, though there may be fidelity, and zeal, and admiration, there cannot be friendship.”—The Rambler, No. 64.

499 In such a case, gratitude and admiration exist on the one hand, esteem and confidence on the other.

500 Lowering, or humiliating.

501 Referees.

502 Disgusted.

503 Giving no false color to the degree of success which has attended the prosecution of the suit.

504 To have little effect.

505 To this extent.

506 Of the information.

507 “Ask what is exorbitant, that you may obtain what is moderate.”

508 This formed the first essay in the earliest edition of the work.

509 Attentively.

510 Vapid: without taste or spirit.

511 “Studies become habits.”

512 “Splitters of cummin-seeds;” or, as we now say, “splitters of straws,” or “hairs.” Butler says of Hudibras:—

“He could distinguish and divide

A hair ’twixt south and southwest side.”

513 Causes one side to preponderate.

514 “The common father.”

515 “As one of us.” Henry the Third of France, favoring the league formed by the Duke of Guise and Cardinal De Lorraine against the Protestants, soon found that, through the adoption of that policy, he had forfeited the respect of his subjects.

516 See a note to Essay 15.

517 Of Castile. She was the wife of Ferdinand of Arragon, and was the patroness of Columbus.

518 The words in our version are: “He that observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.—Ecclesiastes xi. 1.

519 Exact in the extreme. Point-de-vice was originally the name of a kind of lace of very fine pattern.

520 “Appearances resembling virtues.”

521 “A good name is like sweet-smelling ointment.” The words in our version are, “A good name is better than precious ointment.—Ecclesiastes vii. 1.

522 “Disregarding his own conscience.”

523 “To instruct under the form of praise.”

524 “The worst kind of enemies are those who flatter.”

525 A pimple filled with “pus,” or “purulent matter.” The word is still used in the east of England.

526 The words in our version are: “He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him.”—Proverbs xxvii. 14.

527 In other words, to show what we call an esprit de corps.

528 Theologians.

529 2 Cor. xi. 23.

530 “I will magnify my apostleship.” He alludes to the words in Romans xi. 13: “Inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office.”

531 Vaunting, or boasting.

532 Noise. We have a corresponding proverb: “Great cry and little wool.”

533 A high or good opinion.

534 Vide Liv. xxxvii. 48.

535 By express command.

536 “Those who write books on despising glory, set their names in the title-page.” He quotes from Cicero’s “TusculanÆ Disputationes,” b. i. c. 15, whose words are; “Quid nostri philosophi? Nonne in his libris ipsis, quos scribunt de contemnendÂ gloriÂ, sua nomina inscribunt.”—“What do our philosophers do? Do they not, in those very books which they write on despising glory, set their names in the title-page?”

537 Pliny the Younger, the nephew of the elder Pliny, the naturalist.

538 “One who set off every thing he said and did with a certain skill.” Mucianus was an intriguing general in the times of Otho and Vitellius.—Hist. xi. 80.

539 Namely, the property of which he was speaking, and not that mentioned by Tacitus.

540 Apologies.

541 Concessions.

542 Plin. Epist. vi. 17.

543 Boastful.

544 “All fame emanates from servants.”—Q. Cic. de Petit. Consul. v. 17.

545 “Founders of empires.”

546 He alludes to Ottoman, or Othman I., the founder of the dynasty now reigning at Constantinople. From him, the Turkish empire received the appellation of “Othoman,” or “Ottoman” Porte.

547 “Perpetual rulers.”

548 Surnamed the Peaceful, who ascended the throne of England A. D. 959. He was eminent as a legislator, and a rigid assertor of justice. Hume considers his reign “one of the most fortunate that we meet with in the ancient English history.”

549 These were a general collection of the Spanish laws, made by Alphonso X. of Castile, arranged under their proper titles. The work was commenced by Don Ferdinand his father, to put an end to the contradictory decisions in the Castilian courts of justice. It was divided into seven parts, whence its name “Siete Partidas.” It did not, however, become the law of Castile till nearly eighty years after.

550 “Deliverers,” or “preservers.”

551 “Extenders,” or “defenders of the empire.”

552 “Fathers of their country.”

553 “Participators in cares.”

554 “Leaders in war.”

555 Proportion, dimensions.

556 “Equal to their duties.”

557 “To expound the law.”

558 “To make the law.”

559 The Mosaic law. He alludes to Deuteronomy xxvii. 17. “Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor’s landmark.”

560 “A righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled fountain and a corrupt spring.”—Proverbs xxv. 26.

561 “Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth.”—Amos v. 7.

562 “He who wrings the nose strongly brings blood.” Proverbs xxx. 33: “Surely, the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood; so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife.”

563 “He will rain snares upon them.” Psalm xi. 6: “Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and an horrible tempest.”

564 Strained.

565 “It is the duty of a judge to consider not only the facts, but the circumstances of the case.”—Ovid. Trist. I. i. 37.

566 Pliny the Younger, Ep. B. 6, E. 2, has the observation: “Patientiam ... quÆ pars magna justitiÆ est;” “Patience, which is a great part of justice.”

567 Is not successful.

568 Makes him to feel less confident of the goodness of his cause.

569 Altercate, or bandy words with the judge.

570 “Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles!”—St. Matthew vii. 16.

571 Plundering.

572 “Friends of the court.”

573 “Parasites,” or “flatterers of the court.”

574 Which were compiled by the decemvirs.

575 “The safety of the people is the supreme law.”

576 “Mine.”

577 “Yours.”

578 He alludes to 1 Kings x. 19, 30: “The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round behind; and there were stays on either side on the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the stays. And twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps.” The same verses are repeated in 1 Chronicles ix. 18, 19.

579 “We know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully.”—1 Timothy i. 8.

580 A boast.

581 In our version it is thus rendered: “Be ye angry, and sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath.”—Ephesians iv. 26.

582 Sen. De Ira i. 1.

583 “In your patience possess ye your souls.”—Luke xvi. 19.

584 “And leave their lives in the wound.” The quotation is from Virgil’s Georgics, iv. 238.

585 Susceptibility upon.

586 “A thicker covering for his honor.”

587 Pointed and peculiarly appropriate to the party attacked.

588 “Ordinary abuse.”

589 “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done, is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? It hath been already of old time, which was before us.”—Ecclesiastes i. 9, 10.

590 In his PhÆdo.

591 “There is no remembrance of former things: neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come, with those that shall come hereafter.”—Ecclesiastes i. 11.

592 “And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.”—1 Kings xvii. 1. “And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.”—1 Kings xviii. 1.

593 Confined to a limited space.

594 The whole of the continent of America then discovered is included under this name.

595 Limited.

596 Vide Plat. Tim. iii. 24, seq.

597 Mach. Disc. Sop. Liv. ii. 2.

598 Sabinianus of Volaterra was elected Bishop of Rome on the death of Gregory the Great, A. D. 604. He was of an avaricious disposition, and thereby incurred the popular hatred. He died in eighteen months after his election.

599 This Cicero speaks of as “the great year of the mathematicians.” “On the Nature of the Gods,” B. 4, ch. 20. By some it was supposed to occur after a period of 12,954 years, while, according to others, it was of 25,920 years’ duration.—Plat. Tim. iii. 38, seq.

600 Conceit.

601 Observed.

602 A curious fancy or odd conceit.

603 The followers of Arminius, or James Harmensen, a celebrated divine of the 16th and 17th centuries. Though called a heresy by Bacon, his opinions have been for two centuries, and still are, held by a large portion of the Church of England.

604 A belief in astrology, or at least the influence of the stars was almost universal in the time of Bacon.

605 Germany.

606 Charlemagne.

607 When led thither by Alexander the Great.

608 Striking.

609 Application of the “aries,” or battering-ram.

610 This fragment was found among Lord Bacon’s papers, and published by Dr. Rawley in his Resuscitatio.

611 Tac. Hist. ii. 80.

612 CÆs. de Bell. Civ. i. 6.

613 Tac. Ann. i. 5.

614 Vide Herod. viii. 108, 109.

615 Varro distributes the ages of the world into three periods; viz: the unknown, the fabulous, and the historical. Of the former, we have no accounts but in Scripture; for the second, we must consult the ancient poets, such as Hesiod, Homer, or those who wrote still earlier, and then again come back to Ovid, who, in his Metamorphoses, seems, in imitation perhaps of some ancient Greek poet, to have intended a complete collection, or a kind of continued and connected history of the fabulous age, especially with regard to changes, revolutions, or transformations.

616 Most of these fables are contained in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Fasti, and are fully explained in Bohn’s Classical Library translation.

617 Homer’s Hymn to Pan.

618 Cicero, Epistle to Atticus, 5.

619 Ovid, Metamorphoses, b. ii.

620 This refers to the confused mixture of things, as sung by Virgil:—

“Namque canebat uti magnum per inane coacta
Semina terrarumque animÆque marisque fuissent;
Et liquidi simul ignis; ut his exordia primis
Omnia, et ipse tener mundi concreverit orbis.”—
Ecl. vi. 81.

621 This is always supposed to be the case in vision, the mathematical demonstrations in optics proceeding invariably upon the assumption of this phenomenon.

622

“Torva leÆna lupum sequitur, lupus ipse capellam:
Florentem cytisum sequitur lasciva capella.”
Virgil, Ecl. ii. 63.

623 Ovid, Rem. Amoris, v. 343. Mart. Epist.

624 Psalm xix. 1.

625 Syrinx, signifying a reed, or the ancient pen.

626 Ovid, Metam. b. iv.

627 Thus it is the excellence of a general, early to discover what turn the battle is likely to take; and looking prudently behind, as well as before, to pursue a victory so as not to be unprovided for a retreat.

628 It may be remembered that the Athenian peasant voted for the banishment of Aristides, because he was called the Just. Shakspeare forcibly expresses the same thought:—

“Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o’ nights:
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.”

If Bacon had completed his intended work upon “Sympathy and Antipathy,” the constant hatred evinced by ignorance of intellectual superiority, originating sometimes in the painful feeling of inferiority, sometimes in the fear of worldly injury would not have escaped his notice.

629 Thus we see that Orpheus denotes learning; Eurydice, things, or the subject of learning; Bacchus, and the Thracian women, men’s ungoverned passions and appetites, &c. And in the same manner all the ancient fables might be familiarly illustrated, and brought down to the capacities of children.

630

“Quod procul a nobis flectat Fortuna gubernans;

Et ratio potius quam res persuadeat ipsa.”

631 Proteus properly signifies primary, oldest, or first.

632 Bacon nowhere speaks with such freedom and perspicuity as under the pretext of explaining these ancient fables; for which reason they deserve to be the more read by such as desire to understand the rest of his works.

633 As she also brought the author himself.

634

“—————cadit Ripheus, justissimus unus,
Qui fuit ex Teucris, et servantissimus Æqui:
Diis aliter visum.”—Æneid, lib. ii.

635 Te autem mi Brute sicut debeo, amo, quod istud quicquid est nugarum me scire voluisti.

636

“Regina in mediis patrio vocat agmina sistro;
Necdum etiam geminos a tergo respicit angues.”
Æneid, viii. 696.

637 Ovid’s Metamorphoses, b. iii., iv., and vi.; and Fasti, iii. 767.

638 “Declinat cursus, aurumque volubile tollit.”

639 The author, in all his physical works, proceeds upon this foundation, that it is possible, and practicable, for art to obtain the victory over nature; that is, for human industry and power to procure, by the means of proper knowledge, such things as are necessary to render life as happy and commodious as its mortal state will allow. For instance, that it is possible to lengthen the present period of human life; bring the winds under command: and every way extend and enlarge the dominion or empire of man over the works of nature.

640 “All-gift.”

641 Viz: that by Pandora.

642

“Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas,
Quique metus omnes et inexorabile fatum
Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari.”
Georg. ii. 490.

643 De Augmentis Scientiarum, sec. xxviii. and supplem. xv.

644 An allusion which, in Plato’s writings, is applied to the rapid succession of generations, through which the continuity of human life is maintained from age to age; and which are perpetually transferring from hand to hand the concerns and duties of this fleeting scene. Ge????te? te ?a? ??t??f??te? pa?da?, ???ape? ?ap?da t?? ??? pa?ad?d??te? ?????? ?? ?????—Plato, Leg. b. vi. Lucretius also has the same metaphor:—

“Et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt.”

645 Eccles. xii. 11.

646 This is what the author so frequently inculcates in the Novum Organum, viz: that knowledge and power are reciprocal; so that to improve in knowledge is to improve in the power of commanding nature, by introducing new arts, and producing works and effects.

647

“Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento:
HÆ tibi erunt artes.”
Æneid, vi. 851.

648

“Sive recens tellus, seductaque nuper ab alta

Æthere, cognati retinebat semina coeli.”—Metam. i. 80.

649 Many philosophers have certain speculations to this purpose. Sir Isaac Newton, in particular, suspects that the earth receives its vivifying spirit from the comets. And the philosophical chemists and astrologers have spun the thought into many fantastical distinctions and varieties.—See Newton, Princip. lib. iii. p. 473, &c.

650 This policy strikingly characterized the conduct of Louis XIV., who placed his generals under a particular injunction, to advertise him of the success of any siege likely to be crowned with an immediate triumph, that he might attend in person and appear to take the town by a coup de main.

651 The one denoted by the river Achelous, and the other by Terpsichore, the muse that invented the cithara and delighted in dancing.

652

“Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus;
Rumoresque senum severiorum
Omnes unius estimemus assis.”—Catull. Eleg. v.

And again—

“Jura senes norint, et quod sit fasque nefasque
Inquirant tristes; legumque examina servent.”
Metam. ix. 550.

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