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NOTES ON ESSAY XXIV.

1. ‘innovations'—the introduction of changes or novelties into anything established by custom.

The naturally conservative tendencies of mankind have made the word innovation almost always synonymous with a change for the worse. Bacon's reference below to medicine as 'an innovation,' is so apologetic, that it can hardly be regarded as an exception to the rule.

2. births'-offspring, young. The word birth, commonly used to denote the act of coming into life, is here used for that which is born.

3.

4.

5.

'Poets are far rarer births than kings'-BEN JONSON. 'seldom attained by imitation'-i.e. the excellence of that which comes first is seldom equalled by what follows.

Bacon's belief, according to what he says immediately afterwards, is, that man's nature is so perverse and depraved that nothing but evil can have a permanently strong influence over him; and that goodness is never natural to him (being 'a forced motion'), and its influence gets weaker and weaker. This is a very gloomy, and, it is to be hoped, incorrect doctrine: the truth seems to be that both good and evil impulses act at first with more energy and violence, but that afterwards the impulses become moulded into habits ('in continuance'), which are far stronger, but work with less violence.

of course'-in its natural course.

it is fit' other things have settled down in conformity with it, and though in theory it may seem indefensible, yet in practice it is found to work very well.

Thus the system of purchase in the army was in theory thoroughly unsound, and yet it worked well, and gave to the army the inestimable advantage of thoroughly excellent and high-class officers.

And the pocket-boroughs,' as part of a supposed system of election of members of Parliament, were a great scandal, but there can be no doubt that in very many instances they were the means of sending to Parliament men of greater abilities, higher statesmanship, and larger and more solid knowledge of political affairs, than many of those who are now returned by a system of thoroughly popular election.

6. piece not so well '—do not fit in so exactly with other pieces. 7. 'admired'—wondered at.

'You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting,

With most admir'd disorder'-Shakespeare's Macbeth, III, iv.

8. 'froward retention'-obstinate retaining (of things which

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IO. scorn'-laughing-stock, object of scorn.

II. 'pairs '-impairs, injures. So pairer is an obsolete word for injurer, and pairment for injury.

The verbs pair and impair seem used as synonymous by Spenser. They have different origin, pair in this sense being connected with French pire, Latin pejor, and impair with Latin par, paris.

'Despair breeds not (quoth he) where faith is staid.
No faith so fast (quoth she) but flesh does paire.

Flesh may empaire (quoth he), but reason can repaire'

-Faerie Queene, vii, 41.

12. 'holpen '—now obsolete; but certainly more euphonious than the modern word helped, which moreover is ambiguous, the same form standing for past tense and perfect participle. 'fortune '--stroke of good luck.

13.

14. pretendeth '—is used as a pretext for.

15. 'suspect'-person under suspicion. If a novelty is forced on you, yet you should regard it as a thing untried, and of whose fitness it is well to be suspicious.

We also use convict for a convicted person; content (House of Lords) for a contented person; and graduate for a person who has graduated.

16. Quoted, but not accurately, from Jer. vi, 16.

ANALYSIS OF ESSAY XXIV.

I. Considerations

A. In favour of innovations:

I. They are necessitated by the course of time.
2. They are better than imitations.

3. They are suitable for the cure of new evils.

B. Against them:

I. They remove things which, if not good, are yet fit.
2. And substitute things that are strange and less
favoured.

II. The true mode of innovation:

I. To change very gradually, as time does.

2. To change, only on urgent necessity or evident utility.
3. To beware that the reformation gives the desire for change,
not vice versâ.

4. Though not always rejecting novelty, yet always to
suspect it.

K

XXV. OF DISPATCH. (1612.)

AFFECTED Dispatch1 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,2 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,3 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, or to contrive some false periods of business,5 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. I knew a wise man that had it for a by-word, when he saw men hasten to a conclusion, 'Stay a little, that we may make an end the sooner.'"

On the other side, true Dispatch is a rich thing; for time is the measure of business, as money is of wares; and business is bought at a dear hand where there is small Dispatch. The Spartans and Spaniards have been noted to be of small Dispatch: Mi venga la muerte de Spagna;'-'Let my death come from Spain;' for then it will be sure to be long in coming.

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Give good hearing to those that give the first information in business, and rather direct them in the beginning, than interrupt them in the continuance of their speeches; for he that is put out of his own order will go forward and backward, and be more tedious while he waits upon 10 his memory, than he could have been if he had gone on in his own course; but sometimes it is seen that the Moderator11 is more troublesome than the Actor.

Iterations 12 are commonly loss of time; but there is no such gain of time as to iterate often the state of the

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question; for it chaseth away many a frivolous speech as it is coming forth. Long and curious 13 speeches are as fit for Dispatch as a robe, or mantle, with a long train, is for a race. Prefaces, and passages, 14 and excusations,1 and other speeches of reference to the person, are great wastes of time; and though they seem to proceed of modesty, they are bravery.16 Yet beware of being too material when there is any impediment, or obstruction in men's wills; 17 for pre-occupation of mind ever requireth preface of speech, like a fomentation to make the unguent 18 enter.

Above all things, order and distribution, and singling out of parts, is the life of Dispatch; so as the distribution be not too subtile: 19 for he that doth not divide will never enter well into business; and he that divideth too much will never come out of it clearly. To choose time, is to save time; and an unseasonable motion 20 is but beating the air. There be three parts of business : the preparation; the debate, or examination; and the perfection. Whereof, if you look for Dispatch, let the middle only be the work of many, and the first and last the work of few. The proceeding, upon somewhat conceived in writing,21 doth for the most part facilitate Dispatch; for though it should be wholly rejected, yet that negative is more pregnant of direction 22 than an indefinite, as ashes are more generative than dust.

NOTES ON ESSAY XXV.

1. 'Affected Dispatch '-i.e. a great desire to make haste. Affected is from the verb to affect, which means to wish for, aim at, seek after. See note 4, Essay I.

Bacon's meaning coincides with that of the proverb, ‘More haste, less speed.'

2. 'crudities'—undigested food; food not brought by the stomach into a proper form for giving nourishment.

3. 'lift'-the lifting of the feet in walking or running.

4. for the time'-as regards the time, i.e. only to have the business over quickly; not to do it well, but to get rid of it as soon as possible.

5.

'contrive some false periods of business'—pretend the business is done when really it is not done.

6. 'contracting'-compressing; keeping to the point; preventing the business from straying off from the real matter at issue. To break off a matter before it is really finished is designated by Bacon 'cutting off;' and he says that business so treated cannot but be delayed, because time is wasted in resuming it at the next meeting or sitting.

7. In his Apophthegms Bacon says: 'Sir Amyas Paulet, when he saw too much haste made in any matter, was wont to say,

8.

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Stay a while that we may make an end the sooner.

Sir Aymas Paulet was Queen Elizabeth's ambassador at the court of France; with him Bacon was placed in 1576 by his father.

time is the measure of business'—it is to business just what money is to trade-the standard by which it is measured. 9. at a dear hand '-expensively, at a high price. Cf. the expressions second-hand, on hand.

10. 'waits upon '-attends upon, waits for (while he is trying to recollect what your interruption has driven from his memory).

II.

'Moderator'-examiner, questioner; or, the one who presides at an examination. The word is still used in this sense at the universities, and at Oxford one of the public examinations is called Moderations.

The word Actor is also a term of university origin for examinee the one who is performing his 'act' or exercise before taking his degree.

12. 'iterations'-repeatings; saying the same thing over and over again. We commonly intensify the word by a prefix-reiteration.

13.

Bacon says that these repetitions are commonly a waste of time, but that it is a great gain of time to reiterate continually what is the precise point under consideration, so as to check rambling and impertinent speeches. 'curious'-elaborate; carefully designed not to throw light upon the matter in hand, but to draw attention to their own cleverness.

14. ‘passages'—perhaps = quotations, anecdotes; or, irrelevant passages introduced in passing from one part of a subject to another.

15. 'excusations'-apologies, personal explanations.

16. bravery'-bragging, ostentation.

17. Yet carefully avoid coming bluntly to the point when you have to deal with prejudice (pre-occupation') in your hearers, and they are disposed to resent your words; in such a case an irrelevant preamble is sometimes useful.

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