opinion, and opinion brings on substance. In military commanders and soldiers, vain glory is an essential point; for as iron sharpens iron, so by glory one courage sharpeneth another. In cases of great enterprise upon charge and adventure, a composition of glorious natures doth put life into business; and those that are of solid and sober natures have more of the ballast than of the sail. In fame of learning, the flight will be slow without some feathers of ostentation: Qui de contemnendâ gloriâ libros 10 scribunt, nomen suum inscribunt. Socrates, Aristotle, Galen, were men full of ostentation: certainly vain glory helpeth to perpetuate a man's memory; and virtue was never so beholding to human nature as it received his due at the second hand. Neither had the fame of Cicero, Seneca, Plinius Secundus, borne her age so well if it had not been joined with some vanity in themselves; like unto varnish, that makes seelings not only shine but last. But all this while, when I speak of vain glory, I mean not of that property that Tacitus doth attribute to Mucianus, Omnium 20 quae dixerat feceratque, arte quâdam ostentator: for that proceeds not of vanity, but of natural magnanimity and discretion; and, in some persons, is not only comely, but gracious: for excusations, cessions, modesty itself well governed, are but arts of ostentation; and amongst those arts there is none better than that which Plinius Secundus seelings] i. e. wainscotings or floorings. Lat. ligna. Cotgrave, Dictionary, gives lambris, and menuiserie, as the French equivalents. The old spelling has been retained, as the modern form, ceilings,' has come to be used too exclusively for the inner roof, and would suggest therefore a sense improper to the text. cessions] Lat. concessiones tempestivae. The French cessions de place does not give the full sense. A show of yielding to the judgment or opinion of another is more probably what Bacon means. speaketh of, which is to be liberal of praise and commendation to others in that wherein a man's self hath any perfection: for, saith Pliny very wittily, In commending another you do yourself right; for he that you commend is either superior to you in that you commend, or inferior: if he be inferior, if he be to be commended, you much more; if he be superior, if he be not to be commended, you much less. Glorious men are the scorn of wise men, the admiration of fools, the idols of parasites, and the slaves of their own vaunts. 10 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. P. 355, 1. 1. The fly sat &c.] 'What a dust do I raise! says the Fly upon the Coach-wheel: and what a rate do I drive at! says the same Fly again upon the Horse's Buttock.' L'Estrange, Fables of Aesop and others, cclxx. The above fable is assigned by L'Estrange to Abstemius. 1. 14. Titus Livius noteth] Bacon seems to be referring to the arguments addressed to various Greek states, to induce them to make war upon the Romans, through trust in the power of Antiochus; and addressed to Antiochus to induce him to enter on the affair, through trust in the help he would receive from the concurrent movement of the Aetolians, and of the others who had been stimulated through trust in him. Vide Bk. xxxv. caps. 12 and 17-18. P. 356, 1. 9. Qui de contemnenda &c.] Loosely and inappositely quoted from Cicero, Tusc. Disp. lib. i. cap. 15: 'Quid nostri philosophi ? nonne in his ipsis libris, quos scribunt de contemnenda gloria, nomina sua inscribunt?' 1. 10. Socrates] Bacon seems to be repeating here the erroneous judgment, which he expresses more fully in the Advancement of Learning: 'Scientiam dissimulando simulavit, for he used to disable his knowledge to the intent to enhance his knowledge.' Works, iii. 388. Aristotle] Conf. 'Aristotle. . . . came with a professed contradiction to all the world, and did put all his opinions upon his own authority and argument, and never so much as nameth an author but hidols of parasites] Lat. parasitis praedae et escae. That this is Bacon's meaning is clear from the Antitheta, on Gloria Vana. Conf. 'Thraso Gna thonis praeda,' Works, i. 696, and Terence, Eunuchus, last scene,' Hunc comedendum et deridendum vobis propino,' &c. to confute and reprove him.' Works, iii. 502. Aristotle's frequent dialectical passages fairly bear out these and other like remarks. As an estimate of Aristotle they are, of course, simply farcical. Galen.] In proof of Galen's ostentation, conf. e. g. the De Praenotione ad Posthumum, where he gives various detailed accounts of the wonderful cures which he had made, and remarks on the incompetence and jealousy of the rest of the medical profession. In cap 9, he speaks of his departure from Rome; the precautions he took to avoid its being interfered with; and the general consternation when the fact of his absence became known at court, γενομένου δὲ λόγου περὶ τῶν ἔργοις οὐ λόγοις ἐπιδεικνυμένων ἰατρικήν τε καὶ φιλοσοφίαν, οὐκ ὀλίγοι τῶν περὶ αὐτοὺς ὠνόμαζον ἐμὲ τοιοῦτον ὑπάρχειν. He then tells how he was consequently recalled by express imperial mandate (Paris, folio ed., 1679). The above fairly represents the general tone of Galen's writings about himself. It is the self-assertion of a man who has a genuine belief in himself and in his own powers. 1. 14. Cicero] Cicero's vanity is indisputable. That it has helped his fame is not so clear. 'O fortunatam natam me consule Romam. Antoni gladios potuit contemnere si sic Seneca] Seneca's good opinion of himself, and his firm belief that 'we are the wise,' can be seen in his writings passim. Conf. e. g. Ep. vii. and viii., where the marked distinction between the author and the rest of mankind is most clearly insisted upon. 1. 15. Plinius Secundus] The name Secundus is common to both Plinies. Bacon must be understood here to be speaking of the younger Pliny, as in the more distinct reference a few lines below. His Epistles contain frequent proofs of what Bacon stigmatizes as some vanity, certainly of an assertive self-respect, not offensive, not over-bearing, not undignified, but ample and very clearly marked. Conf. e. g. 'Frequenter agenti mihi evenit ut centumviri, cum diu se intra judicum auctoritatem gravitatemque tenuissent, omnes repente quasi victi coactique consurgerent laudarentque; frequenter e senatu famam, qualem maxime optaveram, rettuli: nunquam tamen majorem cepi voluptatem quam nuper ex sermone Corneli Taciti. . . . . . An, si Demosthenes jure laetatus est quod illum anus Attica ita noscitavit, OUTÓS ÉσTi Anμoo 0évns, ego celebritate nominis mei gaudere non debeo? Ego vero et gaudeo, et gaudere me dico.' Epist. ix. 23. He writes to a friend about one of his speeches: 'Sunt multa (non auderem nisi tibi dicere) elata, multa pugnacia, multa subtilia . . . . . Dedimus vela indignationi, dedimus irae, &c. In summa, solent quidam ex contubernalibus nostris existimare hanc orationem, iterum dicam, ut inter meas, άs vñèр Kτησipŵrtos esse; an vere tu facillime judicabis.' Ep. ..... vi. 33. Lamenting the death of Verginius Rufus he says, 'Ille mihi tutor relictus adfectum parentis exhibuit. Sic candidatum me suffragio ornavit; sic ad omnes honores meos ex secessibus accucurrit, cum jam pridem ejusmodi officiis renuntiasset: sic illo die quo sacerdotes solent nominare quos dignissimos sacerdotio judicant me semper nominavit.' Ep. ii. 1. 1. 19. Mucianus] 'Omnium quae diceret atque ageret arte quadam ostentator.' Hist. ii. 80. 1. 25. none better than that which Plinius Secundus speaketh of] This is put much too absolutely. Pliny is speaking of a private reading or recitation, which the company had received with marked silence and with no single sign of applause. This conduct he characterizes as insolent, and ill-mannered and offensive; and he suggests that the hearers, whether inferior or equal or superior to the reciting author, could have lost nothing by a more polite behaviour. His rule for the occasion is 'Sive plus sive minus sive idem praestas, lauda vel inferiorem vel superiorem vel parem: superiorem, quia, nisi laudandus ille non potes ipse laudari: inferiorem aut parem, quia pertinet ad tuam gloriam quam maximum videri quem praecedis vel exaequas. Pliny, Epist. vi. 17. On the rule, as Bacon lays it down with approval, conf. 'Every one of us ought most fully and warily to look unto ourselves, when we praise any one, that the said praises be pure and sincere, void of suspicion, that we do not respect and aim at an oblique self-love and speech of our own selves.' Plutarch, Morals, p. 255.. LV. OF HONOUR AND REPUTATION. a THE winning of honour is but the revealing of a man's virtue and worth without disadvantage; for some in their actions do woo and affect honour and reputation; which sort of men are commonly much talked of, but inwardly little admired: and some, contrariwise, darken their virtue a The winning &c.] The true winning of honour' is the reading of the unpublished MS. of 1612, quoted by Mr. Aldis Wright. This agrees with the Latin, Honoris et existimationis vera et jure optimo acquisitio ea est: ut quis, &c., and it agrees with the drift of the Essay, for Bacon is contrasting the true winning of honour with the undue seeking and affecting it on the one hand and with the insufficient regard to it on the other. in the show of it; so as they be undervalued in opinion. If a man perform that which hath not been attempted before, or attempted and given over, or hath been achieved but not with so good circumstance, he shall purchase more honour than by effecting a matter of greater difficulty or virtue wherein he is but a follower. If a man so temper his actions as in some one of them he doth content every faction or combination of people, the music will be the fuller. A man is an ill husband of his honour that 10 entereth into any action, the failing wherein may disgrace him more than the carrying of it through can honour him. Honour that is gained and broken upon another hath the quickest reflection, like diamonds cut with facets; and therefore let a man contend to excel any competitors of his in honour, in outshooting them, if he can, in their own bow. Discreet followers and servants help much to reputation: Omnis fama a domesticis emanat. Envy, which is the canker of honour, is best extinguished by declaring a man's self in his ends rather to seek merit than fame: 20 and by attributing a man's successes rather to divine providence and felicity than to his own virtue or policy. The true marshalling of the degrees of sovereign honour are these in the first place are conditores imperiorum, founders of states and commonwealths; such as were Romulus, Cyrus, Caesar, Ottoman, Ismael: in the second place are legisla tores, lawgivers; which are also called second founders or perpetui principes, because they govern by their ordinances after they are gone; such were Lycurgus, Solon, Justinian, Edgar, Alphonsus of Castile the Wise that made the 30 Siete Partidas: in the third place are liberatores or salva b purchase] i. e. acquire. Lat. adipiscetur. Conf. 'There is no man doth a wrong for the wrong's sake; but thereby to purchase himself profit or pleasure or honour or the like.' Essay 4, and note on passage. e broken upon another] This questionable metaphor is avoided in the Latin, honor qui comparativus est et alium praegravat, reflexionem habet maxime vividam. |