and do well. Public revenges * are for_the_most part fortunate; as that for the death of Cæsar; † for the death of Pertinax; for the death of Henry the Third of France; and many more. But in private revenges it is not so; nay, rather vindictive persons live the life of witches; who, as they are mischievous, so end they unfortunate.

OF ADVERSITY. ‡

It was a high speech of Seneca (after the manner of the Stoics), that the good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired: -"Bona rerum secundarum optabilia, adversarum mirabilia." Certainly, if miracles be the

*The spirit of resentment is commoner than that of revenge; the one is a sudden passion, the other a prolonged enmity. A French philosopher says that men are as prone to forget injuries as they are to forget benefits, because the constant study to either avenge evil or recompense good appears to them a slavery, to which they find it difficult to submit.

† Revenges here mean vindications by punishment.

"Thus the whirligig of Time brings in his revenges."

-Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night." Act. v., sc. I.

Revenge is the earmark of savage condition and nature, as magnanimity of soul or gentleness of heart is that of culture, piety and civilization. Revenge is the nurse of anarchy in the State, forgiveness the bond of harmony in the family.

“How happy might we be, and end our time with blessed days and sweet content, if we could contain ourselves, and, as we ought to do, put up injuries, learn humility, meekness, patience, forget and forgive.” — Burton's “Anatomy of Melancholy."

This essay first appeared in the edition of 1625. The author had experienced the extremes of good and bad fortune. He had sinned, suffered and repented, and wrote as much from the heart as from the head.

command over nature, they appear most in adversity. It is yet a higher speech of his than the other (much too high for a heathen, *) “It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man, and the security of a god;' "Vere magnum habere fragilitatem hominis, securitatem dei." This would have done better in poesy, where transcendencies are more allowed; and the poets, indeed, have been busy with it; for it is in effect the thing which is figured in that strange fiction of the ancient poets, which seemeth not to be without mystery; nay, and to have some approach to the state of a Christian, "that Hercules, when he went to unbind Prometheus (by whom human nature is represented), sailed the length of the great ocean in an earthen pot or pitcher, lively describing Christian resolution, that saileth in the frail bark of the flesh through the waves of the world.”

*"Much too high for a heathen." This parenthetical sneer is surprising, coming from Bacon, who was so familiar with the farreaching thoughts and lofty aspirations of philosophers, to whom neither the light of the law-the Old Testament, - nor the light of the promise—the New Testament, - had come. St. Paul, Romans ii., 14, 15, regarded the heathen with different eyes, and confronts the Gentile with the light of nature and its corollary, moral responsibility. "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, those having not the law are a law unto themselves; which show the work of the law written in their hearts." It was the bigoted theologian who summarily disposed of those to whom Moses and the prophets never spoke to whom the promise of the cross

never came.

Old Sir Thomas Brown quaintly, plaintively yet dubiously appeals from the narrowness of man's judgment to the broadness of God's justice: "There is no salvation to those that believe not in Christ; that is, say some, since his nativity, and, as divinity affirmeth, before, also; which makes me much apprehend the end of those honest worthies and philosophers which died before his incarnation. It is hard to place those souls in hell whose worthy lives do teach us virtue on earth. Metbaks among those many subdivisions there might have been some limbo left for them."

But, to speak in a mean, the virtue of prosperity is temperance, the virtue of adversity is fortitude, which in morals is the more heroical virtue. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, adversity is the blessing of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction, and the clearer revelation of God's favour. Yet even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. We see in needleworks and embroideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground: judge, therefore, of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye. Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed, * or crushed for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.

OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN.

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears; they cannot utter the one, nor they will not utter the other. Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter: they increase the cares of life, but they mitigate the remembrance of † death. The perpetuity by

* Among Bacon's "Apothegms" we find the following: "Mr. Bettenham said that virtuous men were like herbs and spices that give not their sweet smell till they be broken and crushed."

† Bacon was himself childless, and does not speak with the same authority on this subject as on those where his experience supplemented observation. When, in this essay, he extends his observation beyond the close relation of parent and child, and generalizes, his opinions, in all probability, meet with less antago

generation is common to beasts; but memory, merit, and noble works, are proper to men: and surely a man shall see the noblest works and foundations * have proceeded from childless men, which have sought to express the images of their minds, where those of their bodies have failed; so the care of posterity is most in them that have no posterity. They that are the first raisers of their houses are most indulgent towards their children, beholding them as the continuance, not only of their kind, but of their work; and so both children and creatures.

The difference in affection of parents towards their several children, is many times unequal, and sometimes unworthy, especially in the mother; as Solomon saith, "A wise son rejoiceth the father, but an ungracious son shames the mother." A man shall see, where there is a house full of children, one or two of the eldest respected, and the youngest made wantons; † but in the midst some that are as it

nism. Thus, when he deprecates the breeding of jealous emulation, he addresses himself to the relation of brothers and sisters; the same sound doctrine is applicable to the relation of schoolmates; and when he advises the parent to determine for the child its life pursuit, he enters the arena of the social philosopher and pedagogue.

Remembrance here means the notice of something absent.

"Let your remembrance still apply to Banquo."— Shakespeare.

Probably its use is explained in the last sentence of this paragraph. The first raisers of houses, i. e. families of rank, do not look upon their inevitable death as destructive of their life-work; and although, while indulging in self-gratulation, they recall or remember that they, too, shall surely die, the idea is softened by beholding in their children their successors who will perpetuate their name.

*Foundations, meaning establishments of a charitable kind. Pope speaks of the wealth of the childish miser:

"Or wanders, heaven-directed, to the poor."

Wantons, i. e. spoiled children.

were forgotten, who, many times, nevertheless, prove the best. The illiberality of parents, in allowance towards their children, is an harmful error, and makes them base; acquaints them with shifts; makes them sort* with mean company; and makes them surfeit more when they come to plenty : and therefore the proof is best when men keep their authority towards their children, but not their purse.

Men have

a foolish manner (both parents, and schoolmasters, and servants), in creating and breeding an emulation between brothers during childhood, which many times sorteth to discord when they are men, and disturbeth families. The Italians make little difference between children and nephews, or near kinsfolk; but, so they be of the lump, they care not, though they pass not through their own body; and, to say truth, in nature it is much a like matter; insomuch that we see a nephew sometimes resembleth an uncle, or a kinsman, more than his own parent, as the blood happens. Let parents choose betimes the vocations and courses they mean their children should take, for then they are most flexible; and let them not too much apply themselves to the disposition of their children, as thinking they will take best to that which they have most mind to. † It is true, that if the affection, or aptness of the children be extraordinary, then it is good not to cross it; but generally the precept is

*This doctrine will be thought heterodox by some, and perhaps comes as much from the heart as the head. Bacon, when on the threshold of manhood, was in straightened circumstances, soon made the acquaintance of money-lenders, and the aid which he asked of his mother was promised with conditions incompatible with his self-esteem.

The word sort means associate; the word sorteth, further on, means happen, come to.

†The tendency of modern education is to encourage the natural bent of the mind.

"No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en ;

In brief, sir, study what you most affect."

-Shakespeare.