should say there was no such man at all as Plutarch, than that they should say that there was one Plutarch that would eat his children as soon as they were born; as the poets speak of Saturn: and, as the contumely is greater towards God, so the danger is greater towards men. Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation: all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men. Therefore atheism did never perturb 10 states; for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking no further; and we see the times inclined to atheism (as the time of Augustus Caesar) were civil times; but superstition hath been the confusion of many states, and bringeth in a new primum mobile that ravisheth all the spheres of government. The master of superstition is the people; and in all superstition wise men follow fools; and arguments are fitted to practice in a reversed order. It was gravely said by some of the prelates in the Council of Trent, where the doctrine of the schoolmen bare great 20 sway, that the schoolmen were like astronomers, which did feign eccentrics and epicycles, and such engines of orbs to save the phenomena, though they knew there were no such things; and, in like manner, that the schoolmen had framed a number of subtile and intricate axioms and theorems, to save the practice of the Church. The causes of superstition are, pleasing and sensual rites and ceremonies; excess of outward and pharisaical holiness; overgreat reverence of traditions, which cannot but load the Church; the stratagems of prelates for their own ambition and lucre; the favouring too much of good intentions, which openeth the gate to conceits and novelties; the taking an aim at divine matters by human, which cannot but breed mixture of imaginations: and, lastly, barbarous times, especially joined with calamities and disasters. Superstition, without a veil, is a deformed thing; for as it addeth de10 formity to an ape to be so like a man, so the similitude of superstition to religion makes it the more deformed: and as wholesome meat corrupteth to little worms, so good forms and orders corrupt into a number of petty observ ances. There is a superstition in avoiding superstition, when men think to do best if they go furthest from the superstition formerly received; therefore care would be had that (as it fareth in ill purgings) the good be not taken away with the bad, which commonly is done when the people is the reformer. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. P. 120, 1. I. It were better &c.] Conf. Bacon's Letter to Mr. Matthew: 'And I entreat you much sometimes to meditate upon the extreme effects of superstition in this last Powder Treason; ..... well justifying the censure of the heathen, that superstition is far worse than atheism; by how much it is less evil to have no opinion of God at all, than such as is impious towards his divine majesty and goodness.' Letters and Life, iv. p. 10. 1. 4. the reproach of the Deity] Conf. 'Superstitio error insanus est : amandos timet; quos colit violat. Quid enim interest utrum Deos neges an infames.' Seneca, Epist. 123. 1. 4. Plutarch saith well] Conf. 'Shall he who thinketh that there be no Gods at all be taken for a profane person and excommunicate? And shall not he who beleeveth them to be such as superstitious folke imagine them, be thought infected with more impious and a load] i. e. over-load, burden. Lat. non potest non onerare. e would be had] i. e. ought to be had. Lat. curae esse debet. So passim. wicked opinions? For mine own part, I would be better pleased and content if men should say of me thus: There neither is nor ever was in the world a man named Plutarch, than to give out of me and say: Plutarch is an unconstant man, variable, cholerick, full of revenge for the least occasion that is, or displeased or given to grieve for a small matter: who, if when you invite others to supper he be left out and not bidden, or if upon some businesse you be let and hindered so that you come not to his doore for to visit him, or otherwise do not salute and speake unto him friendly, will be ready to eat your heart with salt, or set upon you with his fangs and bite you, will not stick to catch up one of your little babes and worry him, or will keep some mischievous wild beast of purpose to put into your corne-fields, your vineyards or orchards, for to devoure and spoile all your fruits.' Plutarch, Morals, p. 219. P. 121, 1. 3. as the poets speak of Saturn] 'Reddita Saturno sors haec erat; Optime regum, A nato sceptris excutiere tuis. Ille suam metuens, ut quaeque erat edita, prolem Ovid, Fasti, iv. 197. Vide note on Essay 15, p. 104. This is not quite so. The facts, as 1. 15. a new primum mobile] 1. 18. It was gravely said &c.] narrated by Father Paul Sarpi, are that certain decrees had been put forth by the Council, involving abstruse and disputable views on divine influences as affecting the human will. These, which were received quietly in Rome, were freely discussed in Germany, where 'Fu da alcuni faceti detto, che si gli astrologi non sapendo le vere cause de' moti celesti, per salvare le apparenze hanno dato in eccentrici ed epicicli, non era maraviglia se volendo salvare le apparenze de' moti sopracelesti, si dava in eccentricità di opinioni.'.Vide Istoria del Concilio Tridentino, lib. ii. cap. 83 (vol. ii. p. 326 in the Mendrisio edition of 1835). The sense of the remark seems to be that, since astronomers had fallen upon the invention of eccentrics and epicycles to explain celestial phenomena which they had seen, it was no surprise that divines, dealing in the dark with unseen supercelestial subjects, should be betrayed into eccentricities of another sort. The humour lies in the use of eccentric in its special astronomical sense, and then in its ordinary sense. But it was said not gravely, but 'da alcuni faceti,' not by some of the prelates in the Council, but by outsiders at a distance, and it made no mention of the schoolmen, and had no reference to anything that touched upon the practice of the Church. 1. 22. eccentrics and epicycles] These belong to, or rather were adapted into, the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, founded by Ptolemy of Alexandria, in the first half of the second century. The first thing to be explained was the apparent diurnal movement of the sun and of the other heavenly bodies around the earth. That they moved in circles was an accepted tradition. But, if so, it was clear that the earth was not the exact centre about which they moved. The centre of their circles was assumed, therefore, to be fixed at a point outside the earth, so that the circles were thus 'eccentrics.' Then came a further difficulty. The planets did not keep close to the imaginary paths assigned to them, but had, each of them, real independent movements of their own. These movements were explained by the further theory that each planet, during its great daily circular course round the earth, was also moving in a smaller circle, the centre of which was placed in the circumference of the great circle; the great circle being itself considered to move, and to carry the appended lesser circle round with it. These smaller circles were thus circles upon a circle, or 'epicycles,' and by the help of these the whole observed phenomena, thus far, were taken in and accounted for, in other words, were 'saved.' The theory is fully explained in the Encyclopédie Dictionnaire, sub voc. Excentrique and Epicycle. 1. 22. engines of orbs] Lat. 'orbium machinas.' These words, followed, a little further on, by 'though they knew there were no such things,' would seem to imply that in Bacon's opinion the eccentrics and epicycles and all else were put forward by the astronomers as actual entities, and that the main objection to them was that they did not really exist, as the astronomers well knew. But conf. 'Neque illis qui ista proponunt admodum placet haec quae adducunt prorsus vera esse, sed tantummodo ad computationes et tabulas conficiendas commode supposita.' Works, iii. 735. 1. 22. to save the phenomena] i. e. so fully to account for all the phenomena that none of them had to be rejected or left out of account as irreconcilable with the theory. The phrase here follows Sarpi's 'per salvare le apparenze,' as Milton's use of the equivalent 'to save appearances' probably does (Par. Lost, viii. 82). It is (as Dr. Abbott, following Professor Mayor, points out) more than two thousand years old, being cited by Plutarch (ii. 932 a) from Cleanthes, who held that the Greeks ought to impeach the Samian Aristarchus for impiety, as shifting the hearth of the world, because in his efforts σwleiv тà paivóμeva ('à sauver les apparences,' Amyot) he assumed the fixity of the heavens and the double movement of the earth. Bacon's own views on astronomy, inclining more to the Ptolemaic than to the Copernican system, will be found at length in his Descriptio Globi Intellectualis and Thema Coeli. Works, iii. 725 et seq. 'They are,' says Mr. Spedding, in his learned preface to the Tracts, 'in truth views which it was natural for a man not well versed in the phenomena of the science to entertain and to promulgate.' P. 122, 1. 5. taking an aim] A matter of frequent censure with Bacon. Conf. e. g. 'Sacred Theology (which in our idiom we call Divinity) is grounded only upon the word and oracle of God, and not upon the light of nature.' Works, iii. 478. 1.9. as it addeth deformity &c.] Montaigne notes the likeness and insists on the deformity, but it pleases him to point his remark against the man rather than against the ape. Conf. Celles qui nous retirent le plus, ce sont les plus laides et les plus abjectes de toute la bande: car, pour l'apparence exterieure et forme de visage, ce sont les magots: Simia quam similis, turpissima bestia, nobis: pour le dedans et parties vitales, c'est le porceau.' Essais, lib. ii. chap. 12 (vol. ii. p. 202 in ed. 1802, Paris). XVIII. OF TRAVEL. TRAVEL, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. He that travelleth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel. That young men travel under some tutor or grave servant, I allow well; so that he be such a one that hath the language, and hath been in the country before; whereby he may be able to tell them what things are worthy to be seen in the country where they go, what acquaintances they are to seek, what exercises or discipline the place yieldeth ; for else young 10 men shall go hooded, and look abroad little. It is a strange thing, that in sea voyages, where there is nothing to be seen but sky and sea, men should make diaries; but in land travel, wherein so much is to be observed, for I allow well i. e. I approve. Lat. probo. Conf. This hope hath helped me to end this book: which if he allow I shall think my labour well imployed.' Preface to Ascham's Scholemaster. And Many in the depths of their corrupt principles may despise it, yet it will receive an open allowance.' Works, iii. 279. b yieldeth] i. e. produceth. Lat. quae denique studia et disciplinae ibi vigeant. |