tores, such as compound the long miseries of civil wars, or deliver their countries from servitude of strangers or tyrants; as Augustus Caesar, Vespasianus, Aurelianus, Theodoricus, King Henry the Seventh of England, King Henry the Fourth of France: in the fourth place are propagatores or propugnatores imperii, such as in honourable wars enlarge their territories or make noble defence against invaders; and, in the last place are patres patriae, which reign justly and make the times good wherein they live; both which last kinds need no examples, they are 10 in such number. Degrees of honour in subjects are, first participes curarum, those upon whom princes do discharge the greatest weight of their affairs; their right hands, as we call them; the next are duces belli, great leaders; such as are princes' lieutenants and do them notable services in the wars the third are gratiosi, favourites; such as exceed not this scantling, to be solace to the sovereign and harmless to the people: and the fourth, negotiis pares; such as have great places under princes, and execute their places with sufficiency. There is an honour likewise which may 20 be ranked amongst the greatest, which happeneth rarely; that is, of such as sacrifice themselves to death or danger for the good of their country; as was M. Regulus, and the two Decii, NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. P. 360, 1. 13. like diamonds cut with facets] For honour so gained presents numerous points to the imagination. On the whole passage conf. 'Percy is but my factor, good my lord, To engross up glorious deeds on my behalf; And Bacon's private notes and d participes curarum] Vide note on Essay 27, p. 193. ⚫ scantling] i. e. measure. Lat. qui non ultra hoc potes sunt. French cette proportion. Conf. 'I saie that the I Henry IV, act iii. sc. 2. rules for his own guidance. 'To sworde of the targetiers, in regard of the use of that weapon, ought to be of a very short scantling.' Edmundes, Obs. on Caesar's Comment. lib. ii. cap. 10, obs. 2. winne credit comparate to ye Att(orney) in being more short, round and resolute.' Letters and Life, iv. p. 46. And again, 'To have in mynd and use ye Att. weakness.' p. 50. Further on we find a list of 'Hubb disadvant,' i. e. the points in which Sir Henry Hobart, the Attorney-General, was most weak and most laid himself open to the use which Bacon purposed to make of him. p. 92. 1. 17. Omnis fama] Nam fere omnis sermo ad forensem famam a domesticis emanat auctoribus.' Q. Cicero, de petitione consulatûs, cap. 5. 1. 18. best extinguished] So in Essay 40: 'All wise men, to decline the envy of their own virtues, use to ascribe them to Providence and Fortune.' 1. 23. in the first place are &c.] This first degree of honour is assigned by Bacon in a two-fold sense to King James: 'It seemeth God hath reserved to your Majesty's times two works, which amongst the acts of Kings have the supreme preeminence; the union and the plantation of kingdoms. For although it be a great fortune for a king to deliver or recover his kingdom from long continued calamities; yet in the judgment of those that have distinguished of the degrees of sovereign honour, to be a founder of estates or kingdoms excelleth all the rest.... Of which foundations there being but two kinds, the first that maketh one of more, the second that makes one of none,... it hath pleased the divine providence in singular favour to your Majesty, to put both these kinds of foundations or regenerations into your hand: the one in the union of the island of Britain, the other in the plantation of great and noble parts of the island of Ireland.' Letters and Life, iv. 116. On 'the judgment of those that have distinguished of the degrees of sovereign honour,' conf. 'Amongst all commendable men, those deserve esteem in the first place, who have taken care in laying the grounds of divine worship, and true Religion: the next belongs to them who have been the founders of Commonwealths or Kingdoms. After those are they famous that commanding over armies have enlarged either their kingdom or country. To these we may adjoin learned men. And because they are of different dignities, every one of them are valued according to their degree. And to all other men, whose number is infinite, we use to give that share of commendations which their art and skill deserves.' 'And truly a Prince aiming at Glory, would wish to be Lord of a disordered City, not to ruin it wholly as did Cæsar, but to recompose and restore it, as Romulus. And believe me the heavens cannot give men greater occasion of glory, nor men desire it.' Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, bk. i. cap. 10. Bacon's division in the Novum Organum is not that which he adopts in the Essay. Conf. 'Primo itaque videtur inventorum nobilium introductio inter actiones humanas longe primas partes tenere id quod antiqua saecula judicaverunt. Ea enim rerum inventoribus divinos honores tribuerunt: iis autem qui in rebus civilibus merebantur (quales erant urbium et imperiorum conditores, legislatores, patriarum a diuturnis malis liberatores, tyrannidum debellatores, et his similes) heroum tantum honores decreverunt. Atque certe si quis ea recte conferat, justum hoc prisci saeculi judicium reperiet.' His reasons for this judgment follow. Works, i. 221. 1. 25. Ottoman] Othman, or according to the Oriental orthography, Osman, is regarded as the founder of the Ottoman Empire; and it is from him that the Turks, who inhabit it, call themselves Osmanlis, the only national appellation which they recognise. His banner and his sabre are still preserved in the treasury of the empire; and the martial ceremony of girding on that sabre is the solemn rite, analogous to the coronations of Christendom, by which the Turkish Sultans are formally invested with sovereign power. Othman is commonly termed the first Sultan of his race; but neither he nor his two immediate successors assumed more than the title of Emir. He had, at the time of his death, reigned as an independent Emir twenty-seven years, and had been chief of his tribe for thirty-nine years of his life of sixty-eight. (A.D. 12881326.) His career fully displays the buoyant courage, the subtle watchfulness, the resolute decision, the strong common sense, and the power of winning and wielding the affections and energies of other men, which are the usual attributes of the founders of empires.' Creasy, Hist. of the Ottoman Turks, cap. 1. Ismael] 'Shah Ismail was the first of the Suffavean monarchs. ... We are informed of no particulars of his life till he had attained the age of fourteen, when (A.D. 1499) he put himself at the head of his adherents, and marched against the great enemy of his family, the ruler of Shirwan, whom he defeated.' After a series of like successes, each of them adding some new district to the provinces under his rule, he became in less than four years 'the acknowledged sovereign of the kingdom of Persia.... It would be tedious to enter into a minute detail of the actions of Ismail. He was occupied, for some years after he ascended the throne, in subjugating those provinces of Persia which continued to resist his authority. When that object was accomplished he attacked and took Bagdad and its surrounding territories, &c. . . . The Persians dwell with rapture on the character of Ismail, whom they deem not only the founder of a great dynasty, but the person to whom that faith, in which they glory, owes its establishment as a national religion.' Malcolm, Hist. of Persia, vol. i. cap. 14. 1. 28. Lycurgus, Solon.] Bacon mentions these, joining Minos with them, in his proposition to the King on the amendment of the laws of England. For the laws of Lycurgus, Solon, Minos, and others of ancient time, they are not the worse because grammar scholars speak of them.' Justinian] 'Justinian the Emperor, by commissions directed to divers persons learned in the laws, reduced the Roman laws from vastness of volume and a labyrinth of uncertainties, unto that course of the civil law which is now in use.' 1. 29. Edgar] 'Edgar the Saxon King, collected the laws of this kingdom, and gave them the strength of a faggot bound, which formerly were dispersed.' Letters and Life, vi. 66. Eadgar was only a boy of fourteen, and throughout his reign the actual direction of affairs lay in the hands of Dunstan, whose elevation to the see of Canterbury set him at the head of the Church as of the State. The noblest tribute to his rule lies in the silence of our chroniclers. His work indeed was a work of settlement, and such a work was best done by the simple enforcement of peace. During the years of rest in which the stern hand of the primate enforced justice and order, Northman and Englishman drew together into a single people.... The same vigorous rule, which secured rest for the country during these years of national union, told on the growth of material prosperity. Commerce sprang into a wider life.... The laws of Aethelred, which provide for the protection and regulation of foreign trade, only recognise a state of things which grew up under Eadgar.' Green, Hist. of English People, bk. i. chap. 4. Alphonsus &c.] 'This last great work was undertaken by Alfonso in 1256 and finished either in 1263 or 1265. It was originally called by Alfonso himself "El Setenario," from the title of the code undertaken by his father, but it is now called "Las Siete Partidas,” or the seven parts, from the seven divisions of the work itself.... Though by far the most important legislative monument of its age, (it) did not at once become the law of the land. It was not till 1348, two years before the death of Alfonso the Eleventh, and above sixty after that of their author, that the contest with the local authorities was over, and the Partidas were finally proclaimed and established, as of binding authority in all the territories held by the kings of Castile and Leon. But from that period the great code of Alfonso has been uniformly respected. It is, in fact, a sort of Spanish common law, which, with the decisions under it, has been the basis of Spanish jurisprudence ever since.' Ticknor, Hist. of Spanish Literature, Period i. cap. 3. Every soldier who goes into P. 361, 1. 21. which happeneth rarely] battle earns what Bacon terms a rare and special honour, none the less if he escapes without a scratch. He risks his life for his country. Conf. the reply of the Spartan prisoner: πολλοῦ ἂν ἄξιον εἶναι τὸν ἄτρακτον εἰ τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς διεγίγνωσκε. Thucy. 1V. 40. LVI. OF JUDICATURE. JUDGES ought to remember that their office is jus dicere and not jus dare; to interpret law, and not to make law or give law; else will it be like the authority claimed by the Church of Rome, which, under pretext of exposition of Scripture, doth not stick to add and alter, and to pronounce that which they do not find, and by show of antiquity to introduce novelty. Judges ought to be more learned than witty, more reverend than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue. Cursed (saith the law) is he that 10 removeth the landmark. The mislayer of a meere stone b is to blame; but it is the unjust judge that is the capital remover of landmarks, when he defineth amiss of lands and property. One foul sentence doth more hurt than many foul examples; for these do but corrupt the stream, the other corrupteth the fountain: so saith Salomon, Fons turbatus et vena corrupta est justus cadens in causâ suâ coram adversario. The office of judges may have reference unto the parties that sue, unto the advocates that plead, unto the clerks and ministers of justice underneath them, and to the 20 sovereign or state above them. First, for the causes or parties that sue. There be (saith the Scripture) that turn judgment into wormwood; and a Judges ought to be &c.] Lat. Judicem oportet esse potius eruditum quam ingeniosum; venerabilem quam gratiosum; magisque deliberativum quam confidentem. For 'advised' = deliberate, conf. Let him be rather advised in his answers than forwards to tell stories.' Essay 18, p. 128, and Letters are more natural than orations and public speeches, and more advised than conferences or present speeches.' Works, iii. 342. ba meere stone] i. e. a boundary stone. Lat. lapidem fines distinguentem. French qui change les limites. Conf. That you contain the jurisdic tion of the court within the ancient merestones, without removing the mark.' Letters and Life, vi. 202. So Swift, Voyage to Laputa, in his account of the struldbrugs, says, 'Neither are they allowed to be witnesses in any cause, civil or criminal, not even for the decision of meers and bounds,' |