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comes youth well, but not age; so Tully saith of Hortensius, Idem manebat, neque idem decebat.1 The third is of such as take too high a strain at the first, and are magnanimous more than tract of years can uphold. As was Scipio Africanus, of whom Livy saith in effect, Ultima primis cedebant.2

XLIII

OF BEAUTY

Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set; and surely virtue is best in a body that is comely, though not of delicate features; and that hath rather dignity of presence than beauty of aspect. Neither is it almost seen, that very beautiful persons are otherwise of great virtue; as if nature were rather busy not to err, than in labor to produce excellency. And therefore they prove accomplished, but not of great spirit; and study rather behavior than virtue. But this holds not always: for Augustus Cæsar, Titus Vespasianus, Philip le Bel of France, Edward the Fourth of England, Alcibiades of Athens, Ismael the Sophy of Persia, were all high and great spirits; and yet the most beautiful men of their times. In beauty, that of favor is more than that of color; and that of decent and gracious

motion more than that of favor. That is the best part of beauty, which a picture cannot express; no nor the first sight of the life. There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. A man cannot tell whether Apelles or Albert Durer were the more trifler; whereof the one would make a personage by geometrical proportions; the other, by taking the best parts out of divers faces, to make one excellent. Such

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personages, I think, would please nobody but the painter that made them. Not but I think a painter may make a better face than ever was; but he must do it by a kind of felicity (as a musician that maketh an excellent air in music), and not by rule. A man shall see faces, that if you examine them part by part, you shall find never, a good; and yet altogether do well. If it be true that the principal part of beauty is in decent motion, certainly it is no marvel though persons in years seem many times more amiable; pulchrorum autumnus pulcher; for no youth can be comely but by pardon, and considering the youth as to make up the comeliness. (Beauty is as summer fruits, which are easy to corrupt, and cannot last) and for the most part it makes a dissolute youth, and an age a little out of countenance; but yet certainly again, if it light well, it maketh virtue shine, and vices blush.

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XLVII

OF NEGOTIATING

It is generally better to deal by speech than by letter; and by the mediation of a third than by a man's self.) Letters are good, when a man would draw an answer by letter back again; or when it may serve for a man's justification afterwards to produce his own letter; or where it may be danger to be interrupted, or heard. by pieces. To deal in person is good, when a man's face breedeth regard, as commonly with inferiors; or in tender cases, where a man's eye upon the countenance of him with whom he speaketh may give him a direction how far to go; and generally, where a man will reserve to himself liberty either to disavow or to expound. In choice of instruments, it

4 those who are beautiful have a beautiful autumn

is better to choose men of a plainer sort, that are like to do that that is committed to them, and to report back again faithfully the success, than those that are cunning to contrive out of other men's business somewhat to grace themselves, and will help the matter in report for satisfaction's sake. Use also such persons as affect the business wherein they are employed; for that quickeneth much; and such as are fit for the matter; as bold men for expostulation, fair-spoken men for persuasion, crafty men for inquiry and observation, froward and absurd men for business that doth not well bear out itself. Use also such as have been lucky, and prevailed before in things wherein you have employed them; for that breeds. confidence, and they will strive to maintain their prescription. It is better to sound a person with whom one deals afar off, than to fall upon the point at first; except you mean to surprise him by some short question. It is better dealing with men in appetite, than with those that are where they would be. If a man deal with another upon conditions, the start or first performance is all; which a man cannot reasonably demand, except either the nature of the thing be such, which must go before; or else a man can persuade the other party that he shall still need him in some other thing; or else that he be counted the honester man. All practice is to discover, or to work. Men discover themselves in trust, in passion, at unawares, and of necessity, when they would have somewhat done and cannot find an apt pretext. (If you would work any man, you must either know his nature and fashions, and so lead him;) or his ends, and so persuade him; or his weakness and disadvantages, and so awe him; or those that have interest in him, and so govern him. In dealing with cunning persons, we must ever consider their ends, to interpret their speeches; and it is good

to say little to them, and that which they least look for. (In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once; but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees.)

L

OF STUDIES

Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience:) for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning, by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn1 studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. (Read not to con

tradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider) Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.

1 despise

Some books also may be read

by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things. (Reading maketh a full man conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit: and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtile; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores.1 Nay, there is no stond or impediment in the wit but may be wrought out by fit studies; like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone and reins; 2 shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for the head; and the like. So if a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again. If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the Schoolmen; for they are cymini sectores. If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers' cases. So every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.

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anger.

Anger must be limited and confined both in race and in time. We will first speak how the natural inclination and habit to be angry may be attempered. and calmed. Secondly, how the particular motions of anger may be repressed, or at least refrained from doing mischief. Thirdly, how to raise anger or appease anger in another.

For the first; there is no other way but to meditate and ruminate well upon the effects of anger, how it troubles man's life. And the best time to do this is to look back upon anger when the fit is thoroughly over. Seneca saith well, That anger is like ruin, which breaks itself upon that it falls. The Scripture exhorteth us to possess our souls in patience. Whosoever is out of patience, is out of possession of his soul. Men must not turn bees;

... animasque in vulnere ponunt*

Anger is certainly a kind of baseness; as it appears well in the weakness of those subjects in whom it reigns;, children, women, old folks, sick folks. (Only men must beware that they carry their anger rather with scorn than with fear; so that they may seem rather to be above the injury than below it; which is a thing easily done, if a man will give law to himself in it)

For the second point; the causes and motives of anger are chiefly three. First, to be too sensible of hurt; for no man is angry that feels not himself hurt; and therefore tender and delicate persons must needs be oft angry; they have so many things to trouble them, which more robust natures have little sense of. The next is, the apprehension and construction of the injury offered to be, in the circumstances thereof, full of contempt: for contempt is that which putteth an edge upon anger, as much or more than

and put their lives in the sting

the hurt itself. And therefore when men are ingenious in picking out circumstances of contempt, they do kindle their anger much. Lastly, opinion of the touch of a man's reputation doth multiply and sharpen anger. Wherein the remedy is, that a man should have, as Consalvo was wont to say, telam honoris crassiorem.1 But in all refrainings of anger, it is the best remedy to win time; and to make a man's self believe, that the opportunity. of his revenge is not yet come, but that he foresees a time for it; and so to still himself in the meantime, and reserve it. To contain anger from mischief, though it take hold of a man, there be two things whereof you must have special caution. The one, of extreme bitterness of words, especially if they be aculeate 2 and proper; for communia maledicta 3 are

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nothing so much; and again, that in anger a man reveal no secrets; for that makes him not fit for society. The other, that you do not peremptorily break off, in any business, in a fit of anger; but howsoever you show bitterness, do not act anything that is not revocable.

For raising and appeasing anger in another; it is done chiefly by choosing of times, when men are frowardest and worst disposed, to incense them. Again, by gathering (as was touched before) all that you can find out to aggravate the contempt. And the two remedies are by the contraries. The former to take good times, when first to relate to a man an angry business; for the first impression is much; and the other is, to sever, as much as may be, the construction of the injury. from the point of contempt; imputing it to misunderstanding, fear, passion, or what you will.

THE CLASSICAL EPIC: PARADISE LOST

To compare Beowulf with Paradise Lost is to recognize the need for a two-fold division of the epic: the race epic, or "epic of growth," and the "epic of art," the work of an individual poet. Both treat of big events in an exalted manner and both are concerned with characters or personages sufficiently imposing to stand out conspicuously. In the one case, however, we have an epic evolving itself slowly. as it is passed around by oral tradition, the outcome of the story-telling habit in primitive society; in the other, a written epic carefully planned and executed by a poet who is consciously an artist in an enlightened age of reflection and culture. The Iliad and Beowulf represent the race epic; Virgil's Æneid and Milton's Paradise Lost are art forms, imitated from the older models.

John Milton was among the great English poets the one best fitted to compose an epic. As a young man he was earnest, serious minded, and strong willed, with a keen appreciation of artistic beauties and an imagination that soared into the realm of ideals. Leaving the University he continued to study eagerly and composed the so-called Minor Poems. In them he revealed the sensitiveness to tone and color, the mastery of form, and the depth of insight into life that are among his greatest gifts as a poet. When the Civil War drew him for a time from poetry into political life to aid the cause of Cromwell, he had the opportunity to know great men and to experience bitter conflicts and stirring scenes, the stuff of which epic poems are made.

With the Restoration (1660) Milton was forced to cease political activity and withdraw to the country. There, despite the handicap of blindness, he pressed on to carry out what had for years been his ambition, to "leave something so written to after times as they should not willingly let it die." Putting aside King Arthur as a subject, he chose a theme of universal interest, the Fall of Man, a theme that challenged his imagination and idealism. He wrote Paradise Lost (1667) "to justify the ways of God to man." It was a vast theme, conceived by a lofty imagination, and given eloquent expression by a poet who had a remarkable command of the varied music of English rhythms.

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