OF FACTION [CAP: 9] MANY haue a newe wisdome, otherwise called a fond opinion, that for a Prince to governe his estate, or for a greate person to governe his proceedings according to the respect of factions is the principall parte of pollicie: whereas contrariwise the chiefest wisdome is either in ordering those thinges wch are generall, and wherein men of severall factions doe nevertheles agree; or in dealing wth corrispondent persons one by one: but I say not that the consideration of factions is to be neglected: meane men must adheare, but greate men that haue strength in themselues were better to maintaine themselues indifferent, and neutrall: yet euen in beginners to adheare so moderately as he be a man of the one faction, wch is passablest wth the other commonly giveth best waye: the lower, and weaker faction is the firmer in condition: when one of the factions is extinguished, the remaining subdivideth, wch is good for a second: it is commonly seene that men once placed take in wth the contrary faction to that by wch they enter: the traitor in factions lightly goeth away wth it, for when matters haue stuck long in ballancing the winning of some one man casteth them, and he getteth all the thankes. I OF NEGOATIATING CAP: 10 T is better generally to deale by speeche, then by letters, and by the mediation of a third, then by ones selfe: tres are good, when a man would drawe an aunswere by letter backe againe, or when it may serue for a mans Iustification afterwardes to produce his owne tre: to deale in person is good, where a mans face breedes regarde, as commonly wth inferiours: in choise of Instruments it is better to choose men of a plainer sorte, that are likely to doe that wch is committed vnto them, and to report back againe faithfully the successe; then they that are cunning to contriue out of other mens busines somewhat to grace themselues, and will helpe the matter in reporte for satisfactions sake: It is better to sounde a person wth whome one dealeth a far of, then to fall vpon the pointe at first, except you meane to surprize him by some short question: It is better dealing wth men of appetite, then wth those who are where they would be: if a man deale wth another vpon conditions, the start, or first performaunce is all, wch a man cannot reasonably demaunde, except either the nature of the thing be such, wch must goe before, or else a man can perswade the other party that he shall neede him in some other thing, or else that he be counted the honester man: all practise is to discover, or to make men discover themselues in trust, in passion, at vnawares, and of necessity, where they would haue somewhat donne, and cannot finde an apt pretext: If you would worke any man, you must either knowe his nature, and fashions, and so leade him: or his endes, and so win him; or his weaknesses, or disadvauntages, and so awe him, or those that haue interest in him, and so governe him: In dealing wth cunning persons, we must ever consider their endes, to interpret their speaches, and it is good to say litle vnto them, and that wch they least looke for. FINIS. NOTES ESSAY I p. I [1] John xviii. 38. [3] Giddinesse: Lat. cogitationum vertigine. [4] to fix a Beleefe: Lat. fide fixa aut axiomatibus constantibus constringi. [7] discoursing: Lat. ventosa et discursantia. quæ ex ea inventa cogitationibus imponitur captivitas. bably Lucian in his Philopseudes. [13] Lat. [15] Pro [13] Imagi[16] full p. 2 [5] Candlelights: Lat. tædæ lucernæque nocturnæ. nations as one would: Lat. imaginationes ad libitum. of.. Indisposition: Lat. languoris pleni. [17] It is not certain to whom Bacon alludes. He uses the same expression again in the Advancement of Learning (11. 22, § 14): "Did not one of the fathers in greate indignation call Poesy vinum Demonum, because it increaseth temptations, perturbations, and vaine opinions?" There is a passage in one of Jerome's letters to Damasus (Ep. 146) in which he says: "Dæmonum cibus est carmina poetarum," and possibly Bacon might have had this in his mind and quoted from memory. But an allusion in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy (Democritus to the reader, p. 103, ed. 1813) makes it probable that a saying of Augustine's is referred to. "Fracastorius, a famous poet, freely grants all poets to be mad; so doth Scaliger; and who doth not? (Aut insanit homo, aut versus facit, Hor. Sat. 7, 1. 2. Insanire lubet, i.e. versus componere, Virg. Ecl. 3. So Servius interprets) all poets are mad, a company of bitter satyrists, detractors, or else parasitical applauders: and what is poetry itself, but (as Austin holds) vinum erroris ab ebriis doctoribus propinatum?" This is from Augustine's Confess. 1. 16. The origin of the expression is probably the calicem dæmoniorum of the Vulgate of I Cor. x. 20. [20] The Latin omits "with:" licet Poesis mendacii [29] Beleefe: Lat. receptionem cum assensu. [30] Enioying: Lat. fruitio et amplexus. p. 3 [6] The Poet: Lucretius. "Sect" were the Epicureans. Adv. of L. 1. 8, § 5. tantum umbra sit. beautified: Lat. ornavit. The [8] Lucr. II. 1-10: quoted again in Suave mari magno turbantibus æquora ventis [25] cloare U |