3

mand 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 1 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 transcendences 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 thorough the waves of the world. But to speak in a mean: 5 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

1 In one] At once; together.

2 Vere magnum, &c.] Ad Lucil. 53. Bacon omits simul after habere; but, in his translation, represents it by the expression 'in one.' The ancient poets] Apollodorus, Stesichorus, &c.

4 Hercules, when he went, &c.] Compare our author's Wisdom of the Ancients (Prometheus): 'It is elegantly added, for the consolation and confirmation of men's minds, that this noble hero crossed the ocean in a cup or pan, lest, peradventure, they might too much fear that the straits and frailty of their nature will not be capable of this fortitude and constancy. Of which very thing Seneca well conceived, when he said, Magnum est habere simul fragilitatem hominis et securitatem Dei.'

5 But to speak in a mean] Lat. Verum ut a granditate verborum ad mediocritatem descendamus.

Prosperity is the blessing, &c.] Compare Deut. xxviii. 1-13, with Matt. v. 1-12.

David's harp, you shall hear as many hearselike' airs as carols: and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath laboured 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 needle-works and embroideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad2 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 where they are incensed, or crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.

VI. OF SIMULATION AND DISSIMULATION.

Dissimulation is but a faint kind of policy, or wisdom; for it asketh a strong wit and a strong heart to know when to tell truth, and to do it: therefore it is the weaker sort of politics that are the great dissemblers.

Tacitus saith, Livia sorted well with the arts of her hus

1 Hearse-like] Funereal.

2 Sad] Dull.

3 Incensed] Burnt; made to exhale perfume by burning.

Discover] Show. The concluding portion of this Essay, from 'Prosperity is the blessing,' was added in 1625, when the author was in his 65th year, and is referred to by Macaulay as a proof that Bacon's fancy did not decay with the approach of old age.

5 It asketh] It requires. So used again in the 10th and 33rd Essays. Compare Milton's Sams. Agon. 65, 'Each apart would ask a life to wail;' Shakspeare's Mids. N. Dr. i. 2, 'That will ask some tears in the true performing of it;' Chaucer's Merchant's Tale, 'And all this asketh leisure to enquere.'

Politics Politicians. Fr. politiques.

"Livia sorted well, &c.] Tacitus, Ann. v. I, 'Cum artibus mariti simulatione filii bene composita.' Sorted is suited.

band, and dissimulation of her son; attributing arts or policy to Augustus, and dissimulation to Tiberius. And again, when Mucianus encourageth Vespasian to take arms against Vitellius, he saith, We rise not against the piercing judgment of Augustus, nor the extreme caution or closeness of Tiberius.1 These properties of arts or policy, and dissimulation or closeness, are, indeed, habits and faculties several,2 and to be distinguished. For if a man have that penetration of judgment, as3 he can discern what things are to be laid open, and what to be secreted, and what to be showed at half lights, and to whom, and when (which, indeed, are arts of State, and arts of life, as Tacitus well calleth them), to him a habit of dissimulation is a hindrance and a poorness. But if a man cannot obtain to that judgment, then it is left to him generally to be close, and a dissembler. For where a man cannot choose or vary in particulars, there it is good to take the safest and wariest way in general; like the going softly by one that cannot well see. Certainly the ablest men that ever were, have had all an openness and frankness of dealing, and a name of certainty and veracity; but then they were like horses well managed; for they could tell

6

7

We rise not, &c.] Tacitus, Hist. ii. 76, 'Non adversus divi Augusti acerrimam mentem, nec adversus Tiberii cautissimam senectutem.'

2 Several] Of different minds.

3 As]

That, or as that.
Egregium publicum

As Tacitus well calleth them] Ann. iii. 70.

et bonas domi artes.'

5 Obtain to] Attain to. So in the Advancement, I., 'In the degrees of human honour amongst the heathen, it was the highest to obtain to a veneration and adoration as a God;' and Sir Ph. Sydney, in his Apology for Poetry, says, 'The poets have obtained to the high top of their profession.'

6 By] Past.

"A name of certainty] The credit of sincerity.

8 Well managed] Well trained. From the Fr. manége, a ridinghouse. Lat. Bene docti et domiti.

passing well1 when to stop or turn: and at such times when they thought the case indeed required dissimulation, if then they used it, it came to pass that the former opinion spread abroad of their good faith and clearness of dealing made them almost invisible.

There be three degrees of this hiding and veiling of a man's self. The first, closeness, reservation, and secrecy; when a man leaveth himself without observation, or without hold to be taken, what he is.2 The second, dissimulation in the negative: when a man lets fall signs and arguments,3 that he is not that he is. And the third, simulation in the affirmative; when a man industriously and expressly feigns and pretends to be that he is not.

For the first of these, secrecy: It is indeed the virtue of a confessor; and assuredly the secret man heareth many confessions; for who will open himself to a blab or a babbler? But if a man be thought secret, it inviteth discovery ;5 as the more close air sucketh in the more open and as, in confession, the revealing is not for worldly use, but for the ease of a man's heart; so secret men come to the knowledge of many things in that kind; while men rather discharge their minds than impart their minds. In few words, mysteries are due to secrecy. Besides (to say truth) nakedness is uncomely, as well in mind as body; and it addeth no small reverence to men's manners and actions, if they be not

1 Passing well] Surpassingly or exceedingly well; very readily. So Shakspeare, Two Gent. iv. 4, 'Is she not passing fair?' Oth. i. 3, "T was passing strange;' Ham. ii. 2, 'The which he loved passing well.'

2 Without observation, &c.] Without anything for observation, or without anything tangible as to what he is.

3 Arguments] Indications.

• Industriously] Laboriously; with painstaking.

5 Inviteth discovery] Encourages disclosure. To discover formerly often meant to reveal or show.

Discharge] Disburden; exonerate.

altogether open. As for talkers, and futile persons, they are commonly vain1 and credulous withal. For he that talketh what he knoweth will also talk what he knoweth not. Therefore set it down, that a habit of secrecy is both politic and moral. And in this part it is good that a man's face give his tongue leave to speak. For the discovery of a man's self by the tracts of his countenance, is a great weakness and betraying; by how much it is, many times, more marked and believed than a man's words.4

For the second, which is dissimulation; it followeth many times upon secrecy by a necessity: so that he that will be secret must be a dissembler in some degree. For men are too cunning to suffer a man to keep an indifferent carriage between both, and to be secret, without swaying the balance on either side. They will so beset a man with questions, and draw him on, and pick it out of him, that, without an absurd silence, he must show an inclination one way; or if he do not, they will gather as much by his silence as by his speech. As for equivocations, or oraculous speeches, they

Vain] Light; silly.

2 Moral] Right.

Give his tongue, &c.] Let speaking be reserved for his tongue only. Lat. Ut vultus suus linguæ officium non præripiat.

The discovery, &c.] The revealing of a man's self by the traits or features of his countenance, &c. This reminds us of the maxim in Sir Henry Wooton's Letter to the author of Comus: 'I pensieri stretti et il viso sciolto* will go safely over the whole world.' Compare the Advancement, II., 'That more trust be given to countenances and deeds than to words: and, in words, rather to sudden passages and surprised words than to set and purposed words. Neither let that be feared which is said, fronti nulla fides (Juvenal, Sat. ii. 8); which is meant of a general outward behaviour, and not of the private and subtile motions and labours of the countenance and gesture.'

5 Oraculous speeches] Ambiguous speeches, as the oracular responses often were ex. gr. that given to Pyrrhus, Aio te, Eacida, Romanos vincere posse, I say that you, grandson of Æacus, the Romans are able

The thoughts close and the countenance loose.