exspectes nisi quod tamen est dolendi modus, non est timendi. Doleas enim quantum scias accidisse, timeas quantum possit accidere.' Pliny, Epist. viii. 17, written, however, not about political discontentments or oppressions, but about an inundation of the Tiber. 1. 26. well balancing of trade] This is a point on which Bacon frequently insists. He lays it down in his Advice to Villiers, and gives the reasons for it in accordance with what is known as the Mercantile Theory of Trade. Conf. 'Let the foundation of a profitable trade be thus laid, that the exportation of home commodities be more in value than the importation of foreign; so shall we be sure that the stocks of the kingdom shall yearly increase, for then the balance of trade must be returned in money or bullion.' Letters and Life, vi, p. 22, and again p. 49. Bacon in his Life of 1. 27. cherishing of manufactures &c.] Henry VII mentions with general approval the laws which were passed for these ends, e. g. 'Another statute was made prohibiting the bringing in of manufactures of silk wrought by itself or mixt with any other thrid .... This law pointed at a true principle: That where foreign materials are but superfluities, foreign manufactures should be prohibited. For that will either banish the superfluity, or gain the manufacture.' Works, vi. 223. 'There were also made good and politic laws that Parliament . . . . for the employment of the procedures of foreign commodities, brought in by merchant strangers, upon the native commodities of the realm.' vi. 87. 1. 30. regulating of prices] 'He made also statutes. . . . for stinting and limiting the prices of cloth: one for the finer and another for the coarser sort. Which I note, both because it was a rare thing to set prices by statute, especially upon our home commodities: and because of the wise model of this act; not prescribing prices, but stinting them not to exceed a rate: that the clothier might drape accordingly as he might afford.' Works, vi. 96. Bacon finds especial fault with Henry VII for his exactions in not moderating taxes and tributes and the like; vi. 217, 218. On the multiplying of nobility and other degrees of quality' conf. note on Essay 29, p. 213, and Works, vi. 94, 95. P. 99, 1. 11. when more are bred scholars] So, more at length in the Advice concerning Sutton's estate: 'Concerning the Advancement of Learning, I do subscribe to the opinion of one of the wisest and greatest men of your kingdom: That for grammar schools there are already too many, and therefore no providence to add where there is excess. For the great number of schools which are in your Highness realm, doth cause a want and doth cause likewise an overflow, both of them inconvenient and one of them dangerous. For by means thereof they find want in the country and towns both of servants for husbandry and apprentices for trade: and on the other side there being more scholars bred than the state can prefer and employ, and the active part of that life not bearing a proportion to the preparative, it must needs fall out that many persons will be bred unfit for other vocations, and unprofitable for that in which they are brought up; which fills the realm full of indigent idle and wanton people, which are but materia rerum novarum.' Letters and Life, iv. 252. 1. 14. whatsoever is somewhere gotten is somewhere lost] Conf. Tês dè μεταβλητικῆς ψεγομένης δικαίως, οὐ γὰρ κατὰ φύσιν ἀλλ ̓ ἀπ ̓ ἀλλήλων ἐστίν. Arist. Pol. i, cap. 5, sec. 4. 'Lucrum sine damno alterius fieri non potest.' Publius Syrus, Fragmenta, De rerum vicissitudine, 1. 60. So too Montaigne (Essays, bk. i, chap. 21) lays it down as a universal truth that 'il ne se faict aucun profit qu'au dommage d'aultruy.' Bacon's statement is a legitimate inference from the mercantile theory. If wealth means gold and silver, a nation can become wealthy only at an exactly equivalent loss to all the rest of the world. 1. 19. materiam superabit opus] Adapted from Ovid, Metam., bk. ii. 5. 1. 22. best mines above ground] Conf. 'The Low Countries generally have three cities at least for one of ours, and those far more populous and rich.... Their chiefest loadstone, which draws all manner of commerce and merchandise, which maintains their present state, is not fertility of soil, but industry that enricheth them: the gold mines of Peru or Nova Hispania may not compare with them. They have neither gold nor silver of their own.... little or no wood, tin, lead, iron, silk, wool, any stuff at most or mettle, and yet Hungary Transilvania that brag of their mines, fertile England, cannot compare with them.' Burton, Anat. of Melancholy, vol. i, p. 77, ed. 1837. Bacon in his Advice to Villiers uses the same metaphor: 'In the next place, I beseech you to take into your serious consideration that Indian wealth, which this island and the seas thereof excel in, the hidden and rich treasure of fishing.... Half a day's sail with a good wind will shew the mineral and the miners.' Letters and Life, vi. p. 24. 1. 27. money is like muck] Conf. Apophthegms, 'Mr. Bettenham used to say; That riches were like muck; when it lay upon an heap it gave but a stench and ill odour; but when it was spread upon the ground then it was cause of much fruit.' Works, vii. 160. P. 100, 1. 2. trades of usury] Conf. 'The discommodities of usury are... that it bringeth the treasure of a realm or state into a few hands; for the usurer being at certainties and others at uncertainties, at the end of the game most of the money will be in the box; and ever a state flourisheth when wealth is more equally spread.' Essay 41. 1.3. ingrossing] The Statute Book of the 16th century contains many prohibitive Acts against buying to resell. The largest of these, the Act of 5 & 6 Edward VI, c. 14, against 'regrators, forestallers and ingrossers,' continued and made perpetual by 13 Eliz. c. 25, ordains, inter alia, 'that whatsoever person shall ingross or get into his hands, by buying contracting or promise-taking, any corn or grain, butter, cheese, fish or other dead victuals whatsoever within the realm of England to the intent to sell the same again shall be accepted reputed and taken an unlawful ingrosser; and it makes him, and other like offenders, punishable with imprisonment and forfeiture; and for the third offence with forfeiture pillory and imprisonment during the King's pleasure.' This statute was in force in Bacon's day. It was modified from time to time, most notably by 15 Charles II, c. 7, sec. 4, but it was left in full force, even then, against 'forestallers,' i.e. resellers in the same market within three months after buying. It was finally repealed in 1772, with all other like statutes, by 12 George III, cap. 71. But in spite of this, forestalling, regrating and engrossing were held by some judicial authorities to be still offences at common law. McCulloch (Smith's Wealth of Nations, fourth edition, note to p. 237) says that as late as 1800 an indictment was laid against a corn merchant for having sold thirty quarters of oats in the same market and on the same day at an advance of two shillings a quarter. The man was tried, Lord Kenyon summed up strongly against him, and he was found guilty, but the judges doubted whether such a sale was really punishable, and he was never brought up for judgment. 1. 3. great pasturages] In 1597 'Mr. Bacon made a motion against depopulation of towns and houses of husbandry, and for the maintenance of husbandry and tillage. And to this purpose he brought in two bills.... He said he had perused the preambles of former statutes, and by them did see the inconveniences of this matter, being then scarce out of the shell, to be now fully ripened. . . . And though it may be thought ill and very prejudicial to lords that have enclosed great grounds and pulled down even whole towns, and converted them to sheep pastures; yet considering the increase of people and the benefit of the commonwealth I doubt not but every man will deem the revival of former moth-eaten laws in this point a praise-worthy thing.... For enclosure of grounds brings depopulation, which brings forth first idleness, secondly decay of tillage, thirdly subversion of houses, and decrease of charity and charge to the poor's maintenance, fourthly the impoverishing the state of the realm.... And I should be sorry to see within this kingdom that piece of Ovid's verse prove true, "Jam seges est ubi Troja fuit;" so in England, instead of a whole town full of people, none but green fields, but a shepherd and a dog.' Letters and Life, ii. 82. The 'moth-eaten laws' had been passed from time to time in the reigns of former sovereigns, and in the first year of Elizabeth's reign. Bacon in his Life of Henry VII refers with praise to the earliest of them, viz. 4 Henry VII, cap. 19: 'Another statute was made of singular policy. ... Inclosures at that time began to be more frequent, whereby arable land... was turned into pasture. This bred a decay of people, and by consequence a decay of towns, churches, tithes and the like. . . . In remedying of this inconvenience the King's wisdom was admirable and the Parliament's at that time. Inclosures they would not forbid, for that had been to forbid the improvement of the patrimony of the kingdom; nor tillage they would not compel, for that was to strive with nature and utility.... The ordinance was, that all houses of husbandry, that were used with twenty acres of ground and upwards, should be maintained and kept up for ever; together with a competent proportion of land to be used and occupied with them, and in nowise to be severed from them,' &c. &c. Works, vi. 93. It is curious to remark that the statute which Bacon commended to Parliament in 1597, 39 Elizabeth cap. 2, did the two things which he praises Henry and his Parliament for not having tried to do. It ordained that arable land which had been turned to pasture during the Queen's reign should go back to arable,-a strife, in Bacon's words, 'with nature and utility,'-and that for the future no more should be done in that way, forbidding thereby the 'improvement of the patrimony of the kingdom.' 1. 13. The poets feign] Bacon tells this story a little varied in the Advancement of Learning, and insists on the part played by Pallas as the goddess of wisdom: 'So in the fable that the rest of the Gods having conspired to bind Jupiter, Pallas called Briareus with his hundred hands to his aid; expounded that monarchies need not fear any curbing of their absoluteness by mighty subjects, as long as by wisdom they keep the hearts of the people, who will be sure to come in on their side.' Works, iii. 345. This is an instance of what Mr. Spedding terms Bacon's habit of improving a quotation. It was not Pallas who either sent for Briareus or advised Jupiter to send for him; it was Thetis according to Homer; according to Hesiod it was Gaia. The part assigned to Pallas, if any, was that of one of the conspirators. Πολλάκι γάρ σεο πατρὸς ἐνὶ μεγάροισιν ἄκουσα Iliad i. 396. But in line 40o there is a var. lec., Φοίβος Απόλλων for Παλλάς Αθήνη, and the entire line is doubtful. Hesiod tells the story differently. The struggle was between the Gods, the descendants of Kronos, and the Titans, and it was by the aid of Briareus and his two brothers that it was ended in favour of the Gods. About the counsel of Pallas there is no word in either version. Hesiod, Theogon. 633, &c. 1. 24. Epimetheus] Bacon tells this well-known story, with the same incorrectness of detail, in his Wisdom of the Ancients, sec. 26 (Works, vi. 669), and interprets it at greater length. P. 102, 1. 3. Caesar] This is recorded by Suetonius, but only as one in a series of sayings and doings, each of them far more calculated to offend and alarm. 'Praegravant tamen cetera facta dictaque ejus, ut et abusus dominatione, et jure caesus existimetur. Non enim honores modo nimios recepit, ut continuum consulatum, perpetuam dictaturam, praefecturamque morum, insuper praenomen imperatoris, cognomen patris patriae, statuam inter reges, suggestum in orchestra; sed ampliora etiam humano fastigio decerni sibi passus est. ... Nec minoris impotentiae voces propalam edebat, ut T. Ampius scribit: Nihil esse rempublicam, adpellationem modo, sine corpore, ac speciem. Syllam nescisse literas, qui dictaturam deposuerit. Debere homines consideratius jam loqui secum, ac pro legibus habere quae dicat..... Verum praecipuam et inexpiabilem sibi invidiam hinc maxime movit: Adeuntes se cum pluribus honorificentissimisque decretis, universos patres conscriptos sedens pro aede Veneris Genetricis excepit.' More follows to the same effect. Suetonius, Julius Caesar, cap. 76-78. Bacon, in the Advancement of Learning, mentions the speech in the text among other speeches of Caesar 'admirable for vigour and efficacy,' and helping to prove the 'excellency of his learning.' Works, iii. 313. And he gives it a place in his Apophthegms. Works, vii. 144. 1.6. Galba] 'Nec deerant sermones senium atque avaritiam Galbae increpantium. Laudata olim et militari fama celebrata severitas ejus augebat aspernantes veterem disciplinam .... Accessit Galbae vox pro re publica honesta, ipsi anceps, legi a se militem non emi.' Tacitus, Hist. i. 5. 1. 8. Probus] Vopiscus, who is the chief authority on Probus, mentions a speech to something like this effect, among the causes of Probus' murder, but writing as a historian, he does not give it the prominence which Bacon gives it. Causae occidendi ejus hae fuere : Primum, quod nunquam militem otiosum esse perpessus est, siquidem multa opera militari manu perfecit; dicens annonam gratuitam militem comedere non debere. His addidit dictum ejus grave.... Quia totum mundum fecerat jam Romanum; Brevi, inquit, milites neces |