Cupids, statuas moving, and the like. As for angels, it is not comical enough to put them in anti-masques: and anything that is hideous, as devils, giants, is on the other side as unfit; but chiefly, let the music of them be recrea tive, and with some strange changes. Some sweet odours suddenly coming forth, without any drops falling, are, in such a company as there is steam and heat, things of great pleasure and refreshment. Double masques, one of men another of ladies, addeth state and variety; but all is nothing except the room be kept clear and neat. For justs and tourneys1 and barriers ", the glories of them are chiefly in the chariots, wherein the challengers make their entry; especially if they be drawn with strange beasts: as lions, bears, camels, and the like; or in the devices of their entrance, or in the bravery" of their liveries, or in the goodly furniture of their horses and armour. But enough of these toys. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. P. 269, 1. 9. Turning dances into figure &c.] There are several instances of this in Ben Jonson's Masques at Court. Conf. e. g. in the k justs] 'Justes, commeth of the French (Joustes. i. decursus) and signifieth with us, contentions betweene Martiall men by speares on horsbacke.' Cowell's Interpreter, sub voce 'Justes.' 1 tourneys] 'Turney (Torneamentum) commeth of the French (Tourney. i. Decursorium) ... and as I have heard it signifieth with us in England those combats that are made with arming swords on horsebacke. And I thinke the reason of the name to proceede from the French (Tourner. i. vertere) because it consisteth much in agilitie both of horse and man.' Cowell's Interpreter, sub voce Turney.' m barriers] Barriers, commeth of the French (barres) and signifieth with us that which the Frenchmen call (jeu de barres. i. palaestram) a martial sport or exercise of men, armed and fight ing together with short swords, within certain limits or lists, whereby they are severed from the beholders.' Cowell's Interpreter, sub voce Barriers.' n bravery] Fine appointmemt, showiness. Conf. With scarfs and fans, and double change of bravery.' Taming of the Shrew, iv. 3. ° furniture of their horses and armour] i. e. equipment. Conf. 'Neither was there anything more base and dishonest in the course of their life than to use furniture for horses (Lat. ephippiis uti).' Edmundes, Caesar, Comment. bk. iv. cap. 1. (trans.). And, Sometimes also soldiers were honoured with other gifts, as crownes, lances, furniture of horses, bracelets, lands,' &c. Segar, Honor Military and Civil, bk. i. 20. He was furnished like a hunter.' As You Like It, iii, 2, 10 Hymenaei: 'Here they danced forth a most neat and curious measure, full of subtlety and device. . . . The strains were all notably different, some of them formed into letters, very signifying to the name of the Bridegroom, and ended in the manner of a chain, linking hands.' And, 'Here they danced their last dances, full of excellent delight and change; and, in their latter strain, fell into a fair orb or circle.' And, in the Masque of Queens: 'After it, succeeded their third dance; than which a more numerous composition could not be seen: graphically disposed into letters, and honouring the name of the most sweet and ingenious prince, Charles, Duke of York.' XXXVIII. OF NATURE IN MEN. NATURE is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished. Force maketh nature more violent in the return; doctrine and discourse maketh nature less importune; but custom only doth alter and subdue nature. He that seeketh victory over his nature, let him not set himself too great nor too small tasks; for the first will make him dejected by often failings, and the second will make him a small proceeder, though by often prevailings : and at the first let him practise with helps, as swimmers 10 do with bladders or rushes; but after a time let him practise with disadvantages, as dancers do with thick shoes; for it breeds great perfection if the practice be harder than the use. Where nature is mighty, and therefore the victory hard, the degrees had need be, first to stay and arrest nature in time; like to him that would say over the four and twenty letters when he was angry; then to go less in quantity, as if one should, in forbearing wine, come from a discourse] Lat. praecepta. b importune] i. e. importunate. The Latin adds, sed non tollunt. ein time] i. e. in the matter of time. Lat. naturam sistere ad tempus aliquod. d drinking healths to a draught at a meal; and lastly, to discontinue altogether: but if a man have the fortitude and resolution to enfranchise himself at once, that is the best: Optimus ille animi vindex laedentia pectus Neither is the ancient rule amiss, to bend nature as a wand to a contrary extreme, whereby to set it right; understanding it where the contrary extreme is no vice. Let not a man force a habit upon himself with a perpetual con- 10 tinuance, but with some intermission: for both the pause reinforceth the new onset; and if a man that is not perfect be ever in practice, he shall as well practise his errors as his abilities, and induce one habit of both; and there is no means to help this but by seasonable intermissions. But let not a man trust his victory over his nature too far; for nature will lay buried a great time, and yet revive upon the occasion or temptation; like as it was with Esop's damsel, turned from a cat to a woman, who sat very demurely at the board's end till a mouse ran before her: 20 therefore let a man either avoid the occasion altogether, or put himself often to it that he may be little moved with it. A man's nature is best perceived in privateness, for there is no affectation; in passion, for that putteth a man out of his precepts; and in a new case or experiment, for there custom leaveth him. They are happy men whose natures sort with their vocations; otherwise they may say, Multum incola fuit anima mea, when they converse in those things they do not affect. In studies, whatsoever a man commandeth upon himself, let him set hours for it; but what- 30 soever is agreeable to his nature, let him take no care for any set times, for his thoughts will fly to it of themselves; d healths] i. e. large draughts. Lat. a majoribus haustibus. Fr. les carouces (i.e. les carrouses). Vide note on Essay 18. е sort] i. e. agree. Lat. congruit. T so as the spaces of other business or studies will suffice. A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds; therefore let him seasonably water the one and destroy the other. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. P. 272, 1. 1. seldom extinguished] Conf. 'Les inclinations naturelles s'aydent et fortifient par institution: mais elles ne se changent gueres et surmontent.' Montaigne, Essays, bk. iii. ch. 2. 1. 5. He that seeketh &c.] These are substantially the rules which Bacon lays down in the Advancement of Learning. Works, iii. 439. P. 273, 1. 5. Optimus ille &c.] Ovid, Remedia Amoris, 293. The words are 'optimus ille fuit vindex,' &c. ... 1. 7. the ancient rule] Σκοπεῖν δὲ δεῖ πρὸς ἃ καὶ αὐτοὶ εὐκατάφοροι ἐσμεν ἄλλοι γὰρ πρὸς ἄλλα πεφύκαμεν. . . . Εἰς τοὐναντίον δ ̓ ἑαυτοὺς ἀφέλκειν δεῖ· πολὺ γὰρ ἀπαγαγόντες τοῦ ἁμαρτάνειν εἰς τὸ μέσον ἥξομεν, ὅπερ οἱ τὰ διεστραμ μένα τῶν ξύλων ὀρθοῦντες ποιοῦσιν. Arist. Eth. Nicom. ii. cap. 9. sec. 4 and 5. So Montaigne : 'Pour dresser un bois courbe, on le recourbe au rebours.' Essays, bk. iii. ch. 10. 1. 8. understanding it &c.] The contrary extreme is necessarily a vice, but from the nature of the case it is not a vice in which there is any danger that the man will persist. Bacon probably had in his mind a passage in cap. 6, where Aristotle speaks of certain classes of actions as always vicious in whatever degree of excess or moderation they are performed: Ὡς ἂν πράττηται ἁμαρτάνεται. 1. 12. and if a man that is not perfect &c.] Cicero puts this advice into the mouth of Crassus: 'Fallit eos quod audierunt, dicendo homines ut dicant efficere solere. Verè enim etiam illud dicitur: PERVERSÈ DICERE HOMINES PERVERSÈ DICENDO FACILLIMÈ CONSEQUI. Quamobrem in istis ipsis exercitationibus, etsi utile est etiam subito saepe dicere, tamen illud utilius, sumpto spatio ad cogitandum paratius atque accuratius dicere.' Cic. de Orat. i. 33. 1. 18. with Aesop's damsel] Conf. 'Aesopi fabulae graecolatinae.' Neveletus, Fab. 172. But the fiasco came, not at table, but in the marriage chamber. 'Cum in thalamo vero considerent,' &c. 1. 27. Multum incola fuit anima mea] Ps. cxx. 6, Vulgate. The pointing differs in the Vulgate from that of the English versions. In the Vulgate the words, as Bacon quotes them, are complete. Verse 7 continues: 'Cum his qui oderunt pacem eram pacificus.' The so as the spaces, &c.] The Latin renders this by prout negotia et studia cetera permittunt. But we get a better sense by taking as here (as in many = places elsewhere) that. The passage will then mean-so that, without setting apart any fixed hours, he may trust himself to find time and opportunity in the intervals of other business, Septuagint points as the Vulgate does: cxix. 6, Hoλλà tapwênσev n ψυχή μου μετὰ τῶν μισούντων τὴν εἰρήνην (7) ἤμην εἰρηνικός, κ.τ.λ. The quotation is one which Bacon elsewhere uses to describe his own case. It is one of his stock phrases, and he uses it with grand effect for very different occasions. He writes, e. g. in a letter to Sir Thomas Bodley, after his fall from high place: 'I think no man may more truly say with the Psalm, Multum incola fuit anima mea, than myself. For I do confess, since I was of any understanding, my mind hath in effect been absent from that I have done . . . knowing myself by inward calling to be fitter to hold a book than to play a part, I have led my life in civil causes; for which I was not very fit by nature, and more unfit, by the preoccupation of my mind.' Letters and Life, iii. 253. Again in a private prayer, written in 1621, and termed by Addison the devotion of an angel rather than a man: 'Besides my innumerable sins, I confess before thee that I am a debtor to thee for the gracious talent of thy gifts and graces, which I have neither put into a napkin, nor put it (as I ought) to exchangers where it might have made best profit: but misspent it in things for which I was least fit: so as I may truly say, my soul hath been a stranger in the course of my pilgrimage.' Letters and Life, vii. 230. In an earlier letter to the King, written in 1612, asking for employment in state business, he uses the same phrase with a drift exactly the opposite : 'I may truly say with the Psalm, Multum incola fuit anima mea; for my life hath been conversant in things wherein I take little pleasure.' Letters and Life, iv. 281. The complaint here is that he had not been allowed to play a part in civil affairs. It is the sense only which shifts. The language and posture are, in either case, magnificent. XXXIX. OF CUSTOM AND EDUCATION. MEN'S thoughts are much according to their inclination: their discourse and speeches according to their learning and infused opinions; but their deeds are after as they have been accustomed: and, therefore, as Macciavel well noteth (though in an evil-favoured instance) there is no trusting to the force of nature nor to the bravery of words, infused opinions] Lat. opiniones quas imbiberunt. a |