signify such tears as are fained and spent only with intent to deceive or do harm.' Bullokar, English Expositor; sub voce crocodile. 'The crocodile's tears are never true, save when he is forced where saffron groweth . . . knowing himself to be all poison and it all antidote.' Fuller, Worthies, vol. i. p. 493 (ed. in 3 vols., London, 1840). 'It not only eats men, whom it weeps to see approaching, and then devours them (from whence comes that proverb, a Crocodile's Tears), but also other creatures whose fate it is to come near the river.' Baumgarten's Travels, bk. i. cap. 16. It is given in the Erasmi Adagia sub tit. Crocodili lachrymae: and is explained, 'de iis qui sese simulant graviter angi incommodo cujuspiam, cui perniciem attulerint ipsi, cuive magnum aliquod malum moliantur. Sunt qui scribant crocodilum, conspecto procul homine, lachrymas emittere atque eundem mox devorare . . . Alii narrant hanc esse crocodili naturam . . . reliquo devorato corpore, caput lachrymis effusis macerat, itaque devorat hoc quoque.' ... 1. 17. as Cicero says &c.] 'O Dii, quam ineptus! quam se ipse amans sine rivali.' Epist. ad Quintum Fratrem, lib. iii. 8. So Horace: 'Nullum ultra verbum aut operam insumebat inanem Epist. ad Pisones, 443. XXIV. OF INNOVATIONS. As the births of living creatures at first are ill-shapen, so are all innovations, which are the births of time; yet notwithstanding, as those that first bring honour into their family are commonly more worthy than most that succeed, so the first precedent (if it be good) is seldom attained by imitation; for ill to man's nature as it stands perverted, hath a natural motion strongest in continuance; but good, as a forced motion strongest at first. Surely every medicine is an innovation, and he that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest 10 b innovator; and if time of course a alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end? It is true, that what is settled by custom, though it be not good, yet at least it is fit; and those things which have long gone together, are as it were confederate within themselves; whereas new things piece not so well; but though they help by their utility, yet they trouble by their inconformity: beside, they are like strangers, more admired and less favoured". 10 All this is true if time stood still; which contrariwise moveth so round that a froward retention of custom is as turbulent a thing as an innovation; and they that reverence too much old times are but a scorn to the new. It were good therefore that men in their innovations would follow the example of time itself, which indeed innovateth greatly, but quietly and by degrees scarce to be perceived; for otherwise, whatsoever is new is unlooked for; and ever it mends some and pairs other; and he e for otherwise] The Latin gives illud enim pro certo habeas. The word otherwise does not seem to be used here in its ordinary sense. Whatever is new will, as the Latin declares, be unlooked for in any case. I incline, therefore, to take otherwise as equal here to in any wise. Bacon so uses it elsewhere. This colour is to be understood of gradus inceptionis a potentia ad actum, comparatus cum gradu ab actu ad incrementum. For otherwise major videtur gradus ab impotentia ad potentiam, quam a potentia ad actum.' Works, vii. 92. Conf. also, 'But three things must be looked into. The one, 4 that they be repressed in any insolency, which may tend either to disquiet the civil estate, or to scandalize our Church in fact, for otherwise all their doctrine doth it in opinion.' Letters and Life, vii. 449. And, Brutus boldly asked him what he was, a god or a man, and what cause brought him thither. The spirit aunswered him, I am thy evill spirit, Brutus, and thou shalt see me by the citie of Philippes. Brutus, being no otherwise afraid, replied againe unto it, Well, then, I shall see thee againe.' North's Plutarch, p. 1006. It seems clear, here, that Brutus was not afraid at all, in one wise or in another. The original is οὐ διαταραχθείς. f 1 pairs] i. e. impairs, injures. Lat. huic adjicere aliquid, illi eripere. Conf. No faith so fast, quoth she, but flesh does paire, Flesh may empaire, quoth he, but reason can repaire.' Fairie Queene, bk. i. canto 7. stanza 41. that is holpen takes it for a fortune and thanks the time; and he that is hurt, for a wrong, and imputeth it to the author. It is good also not to try experiments in states, except the necessity be urgent or the utility evident; and well to beware that it be the reformation that draweth on the change, and not the desire of change that pretendeth 1 the reformation; and lastly, that the novelty, though it be not rejected, yet be held for a suspect; and, as the Scripture saith, That we make a stand upon the ancient way, and then look about us, and discover what is the straight and 10 right way, and so to walk in it. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. P. 171, 1. 3. as those that first bring honour &c.] What this is intended to illustrate may be seen from a passage in the Antitheta. Works, i. 704 : Sicut qui nobilitatem in familiam introducunt digniores fere sunt posteris; ita novitates rerum plerumque praestant iis quae ad exempla fiunt.' The sense therefore is that, as originals are better than copies, so the first results of an innovation, ill-shapen as it always is, are commonly better than those which come afterwards when the innovation has been followed as a precedent and has thus become a settled rule. Innovations are said to be necessary, because circumstances change and because the tendency of things is, in Bacon's opinion, ever to the worse, so that from time to time some special remedy becomes requisite. The illustration implies that the 'first precedent'-the changed rule-had some greater merit of its own at first than afterwards. The argument, however, is that it has ceased to be as applicable as it was, so that to carry it out in practice does not bring about the same good results as formerly. The argument would be clear, if it were not obscured by the illustration. For the alleged tendency of things to the worse and for the agency of time in bringing this about, conf. e. g. 'The nature of men, as of all worldly things also, is most slippery and unconstant, running still headlong from good to evil and from evil to worse.' Bodin, Commonweal, iv. 2 (Knolles' trans.). to beware] For this use of beware, with a positive rule immediately following, conf. Only men must beware that they carry their anger rather with scorn than with fear.' Essay 57. h that pretendeth] This word may mean either to serve as a reason for or to serve as an excuse for. Conf. Essay 29, p. 210. The Lat. praetexat ties it down to the latter sense. 'Who knoweth not that time is truly compared to a stream, that carrieth down fresh and pure waters into that salt sea of corruption that environeth all human actions? And therefore if man shall not by his industry, virtue and policy, as it were with the oar, row against the stream and inclination of time, all institutions and ordinances, be they never so pure, will corrupt and degenerate.' Letters and Life, iii. 105. And, 'Cursus naturae continuus, instar fluminis labentis, etiam continuâ indiget remigatione vel velificatione in adversum.' Works, ii. 224. Probably imitated from Virgil: 'Sic omnia fatis In pejus ruere, ac retro sublapsa referri: Non aliter quam qui adverso vix flumine lembum Atque illum in praeceps prono rapit alveus amni.' 'Quotidie est deterior posterior dies.' Georg. i. 199-203. Publii Syri, Fragmenta, l. 59. 1.7. natural motion] e. g. the continually accelerated fall of a heavy body. 1. 8. forced motion] e. g. the flight of an arrow, continually less rapid and finally ceasing. On the distinction which Bacon makes here, he speaks elsewhere in terms of contemptuous condemnation. He says, e. g. in the De Principiis atque Originibus: 'Schola enim communis satis habet, si motum naturalem a violento distinguat . . . . . Verum parum proficiunt ad philosophiam hujusmodi speculationes. Ista enim natura, ars, violentia, compendia verborum sunt et nugae.' Works, iii. 118. And again, in the Thema Coeli : 'Sunt itaque axiomata sive potius placita nonnulla, quae a philosophis accepta, et in astronomiam translata, et male credita, artem corruperunt. Simplex autem erit rejectio et judicium nostrum, neque enim tempus refutationibus terere convenit. Horum . . . . . tertium est quod singulis corporibus naturalibus singuli competant motus proprii; et si plures inveniantur motus, omnes excepto uno sint aliunde, et ex movente aliquo separato. Quo falsius quicquid nec excogitari potest, cum universa corpora ex multiplici rerum consensu motibus etiam pluribus praedita sint.....; proprii autem rerum motus nulli sint nisi mensurae exactae et modi motuum communium.' Works, iii. 777. P. 172, 1. 11. froward retention &c.] Conf. 'Of the servile expressing antiquity in an unlike and an unfit subject, it is well said, “Quod tempore antiquum videtur, id incongruitate est maxime novum.” Works, iii. p. 402. 1. 15. the example of time itself] Conf. 'We ought then in the government of a well ordered estate and commonweale, to imitate and follow the great God of nature, who in all things proceedeth easily and little by little, who of a little seed causeth to grow a tree for height and greatnesse right admirable, and yet for all that insensibly.' Bodin, Commonweal, bk. iv. cap. 3 (Knolles' trans.). P. 173, 1.8. as the scripture saith] Jeremiah vi. 16. Given in the Advancement of Learning, as supplying a rule for dealing with novelty in science: State super vias antiquas, et videte quaenam sit via recta et bona, et ambulate in ea. Works, iii. p. 290. a XXV. OF DISPATCH. AFFECTED dispatch is one of the most dangerous things to business that can be: it is like that which the physicians call predigestion, or hasty digestion, which is sure to fill the body full of crudities and secret seeds of diseases. Therefore measure not dispatch by the times of sitting, but by the advancement of the business: and as in races, it is not the large stride or high lift that makes the speed; so in business, the keeping close to the matter, and not taking of it too much at once, procureth dispatch. It is the care of some only to come off speedily for the time, 10 or to contrive some false periods of business, because they may seem men of dispatch: but it is one thing to abbreviate by contracting, another by cutting off; and business so handled at several sittings or meetings goeth commonly backward and forward in an unsteady manner. e |