murdering princes,44 butchery of people, and subversion of states and governments? Surely this is to bring down the Holy Ghost, instead of the likeness of a dove, in the shape of a vulture or raven; and to set out of the bark of a Christian Church a flag of a bark of pirates and assassins; therefore it is most necessary that the Church by doctrine and decree, princes by their sword, and all learnings, both Christian and moral, as by their Mercury rod,45 do damn, and send to hell for ever those facts 46 and opinions tending to the support of the same; as hath been already in good part done. Surely in councils concerning religion, that counsel of the Apostle would be 47 prefixed, Ira hominis non implet justitiam Dei:' and it was a notable observation of a wise father, and no less ingenuously 48 confessed, that those which held and persuaded pressure of consciences, were commonly interested therein themselves for their own ends.

NOTES ON ESSAY III.

1. 'band'-really the same word as bond, and derived from the verb to bind, like bundle, bondage, woodbine. Bacon compares religion to a cord or belt encircling human society and keeping it compactly together (just as in Col. iii, 14: Above all things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness'), and says that it is fortunate, therefore, when the belt or band itself is sound and entire, and holds well together.

2. 'happy thing'-fortunate or desirable condition, or, as we sometimes say, a lucky thing. We have the same use in a happy expression (i.e. an expression fortunately occurring to us at the right moment), and a happy day (i.e. a day on which we ourselves are fortunate).

3. ‘jealous '—¿.e. not tolerating preference given to any other; vigilant in guarding and exacting what is due. The word may be used in reference to one's self or others; thus Elijah says, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts' -1 Kings xix, 10.

4. heresies and schisms.' Heresies are false doctrines that have been explicitly condemned and repudiated by the authority of the Church; schisms are separations and dissensions which result therefrom. The same distinction is involved in the Litany, from all false doctrine, heresy, and schism.' 'scandals' -causes of offence.

5.

6. solution of continuity '-i.e. a severance of parts of the body

·

that ought to be joined; an open wound or sore.

7. Behold, He is in the desert:' another saith, 'Behold, He is in the secret chambers'-Matt. xxiv, 26. In the parenthesis

which follows, the conventicles' correspond to in deserto, and an outward face of a Church' to in penetralibus.

8. doctor'-teacher. The reference is to St Paul and his words, I Cor. xiv, 23.

9. 'propriety of whose vocation'-the precise and explicit terms in which his work as an apostle was defined to him at his call-Acts ix, 15.

10. 'special care of '-peculiar anxiety for (those who were not Jews, like himself).

II. 'vouched'-adduced; called to witness.

12. a master of scoffing.' He refers to Rabelais, a famous French wit and satirist (A. D. 1483-1553), and his romance, an extravagant satire, called The Lives, Heroic Deeds, and Sayings of Gargantua and Pantagruel.

The Morris-dance, i.e. the Morisco dance, or Moorish dance, is probably so called because it was introduced into England from Spain by the Moors. It still survives in England in the popular May-day festivities performed by diverse, i.e. incongruous, characters grotesquely representing Robin Hood, Maid Marian, Friar Tuck.

13. politics'-politicians.

14. 'it'-i.e. peace. The antecedent to the pronoun is which, which again has for its antecedent the substantive peace. 15. 'importeth exceedingly '—we should say is exceedingly important.

16. 'zealants'-an obsolete and hybrid form of zealots, the root being Greek and the termination Latin.

17. the matter '-i.e. the real point at issue; they do not desire peace but to get followers."

18. Contrariwise.'

He here mentions the other extreme of persons who would give up everything, essentials as well as things of no consequence, and who would settle all differences by compromise (‘accommodate points'), being careless and apathetic like the Laodiceans (Rev. iii, 14), and anxious above all things not to offend any one.

19. witty'-clever.

20.

22.

'arbitrament '-decision by arbitration; award of arbitrators. 21. 'league'-basis of common action against the enemies of religion. 'cross clauses'-contradictory statements. He does not mean that the two utterances of our Lord here quoted really contradict each other, but only that on the surface they appear to do so; the one referring to points of essential and irreconcilable difference, the other to matters of indifference, with regard to which men may be allowed to have their own opinions.

23. 'merely'-entirely, exclusively. See note 16, Essay II. 24. 'less partially '-more fairly and impartially. Thus we often use the adjective partial to denote unfair and unjust preference for some one above others.

25. 'model'-plan, pattern; ideal which I should like to see carried out.

'When we mean to build,

We first survey the plot, then draw the model'—2 King Henry IV.

26. 'There may be variety in the garment, but let there not be rending of it.' The quotation is from St Bernard.

The distinction he calls attention to is, that unity is real oneness of spirit, while uniformity is oneness of appearance. 27. For example, many of the metaphysical refinements which have been introduced into theology. The useless and endless discussions caused by such terms as transubstantiation, predestination, and others, which belong not to theology but to philosophy, and have introduced needless and harassing complications into questions that are otherwise, and when viewed practically, very simple.

28. Thus two persons may disagree and quarrel on the question whether a certain action was right, when it appears plainly to a candid observer that they both allow the action to have been perfectly legal and allowable, but at the same time unkind or unadvisable.

Warm discussions might be carried on as to whether Napoleon I was a great man, or whether the Government of England is Republican or not, by persons who agree perfectly as to the facts but disagree as to the meaning which they attach to the terms used.

The courteous use of the word misunderstanding as synonymous with quarrel is an expression which concedes what Bacon here is contending for.

29. 'distance of judgment '-the separation which renders it impossible for us to completely understand and appreciate each other, and therefore makes us incompetent judges of each other's words and actions.

30. 'accepteth of both '. -sees the truth and right of both contending parties.

31. Avoid profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called'—1 Tim. vi, 20.

32. but'-only.

33. 'implicit 'really existing but not recognised; discoverable

but not apparent.

34. pieced--patched.

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35. muniting-strengthening; fortifying against attack (Latin

munio).

36. 'overt'-open; opposite to covert, i.e. hidden.

37. practice'-plotting, conspiracy.

38. Doubtless Bacon here refers to the papal excommunication against Queen Elizabeth.

39.

'which '—i.e. government. He seems to refer to Rom. xiii, I, 2: 'The powers that be are ordained of God.'

40. Such a course is really dashing the first Table of the Decalogue against the second, and thus breaking them both, on the plea of duty to God urging men to forget their duty to each other. 41. So many wrongs could religion induce to.' Agamemnon was chosen by the Greeks to conduct the famous expedition against Troy. To stay a pestilence and remove a calm which prevented his departure, he consented to offer up his daughter Iphigenia as a sacrifice.

42. The massacre of St Bartholomew in Paris (1572), and the Gunpowder Plot (1605).

43. He means that the religious persecutor is guilty of the greatest possible and the most horrible blasphemy, because he brings God in (i.e. represents Him as upon a stage before spectators) in a character which is foully false, and ascribes to Him motives which are utterly abhorrent to Him.

44. murdering princes.' He refers to the assassination of Henry III of France by a Dominican friar in 1589.

45.

Mercury rod '-the caduceus with which Mercury summoned to hell the souls of the departed.

46. facts'-deeds. Latin facta.

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47. would be '-ought to be; requires to be. 'The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God'—James i, 20.

48. 'ingenuously '-honestly, frankly.

ANALYSIS OF ESSAY III.

I. Dissensions in religion are naturally confined to those who worship a jealous God.

II. The fruits of unity:

1. Scandal is avoided (external).

2. Peace is secured (internal).

III. Bounds of unity to be defined

1. Not by the extreme of over-much zeal (Jehu),

2. Nor by the other extreme of laxity (Laodiceans),

3. But by making a careful and impartial distinction between things essential and things indifferent, for—

(a.) Needless discussion may be caused on trivial

matters,

(b.) Or on important matters when dealt with in a trivial manner.

IV. Unity is false when

1. Based on ignorance.

2. Based on the ignoring of real differences.

V. Means of unity:

1. Spiritual authority,

2. Temporal authority, lawful.

3. Persecution ('Mahomet's sword'), unlawful.

IV. OF REVENGE. (1625.)

REVENGE1 is a kind of wild justice,2 which the more man's nature runs to the more ought law to weed it out: for as for the first wrong it doth but offend the law, but the revenge of that wrong putteth the law out of office.3 Certainly, in taking Revenge a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince's part to pardon: and Solomon, I am sure, saith, It is the glory of a man to pass by an offence.'5 That which is past is gone and irrevocable, and wise men have enough to do with things present and to come; therefore they do but trifle with themselves that labour in past matters. 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; therefore why should I be angry with a man for loving himself better than me? And if any man should do wrong merely out of ill-nature, why, yet it is but like the thorn or brier, which prick and scratch, because they can do no other.

The most tolerable sort of Revenge is for those wrongs which there is no law to remedy; but then, let a man take heed the Revenge be such as there is no law to punish, else a man's enemy is still beforehand, and it is two for one. Some, when they take Revenge, are desirous the party should know whence it cometh: this is the more generous; for the delight seemeth to be not so much in doing the hurt as in making the party repent: but base and crafty cowards are like the arrow that flieth in the dark.

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Cosmus, Duke of Florence, had a desperate saying against perfidious or neglecting friends, as if those wrongs were unpardonable. You shall read' (saith he) that we

C