and Goodness ESSAY XIII. like to knee timber, that is good for ships that Of Goodness are ordained to be tossed, but not for building of Nature. houses that shall stand firm. The parts and signs of goodness are many. If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them. If he be compassionate towards the afflictions of others, it shows that his heart is like the noble tree that is wounded itself when it gives the balm. If he easily pardons and remits offences, it shows that his mind is planted above injuries, so that he cannot be shot. If he be thankful for small benefits, it shows that he weighs men's minds and not their trash. But above all, if he have St Paul's perfection, that he would wish to be an anathema from Christ for the salvation of his brethren, it shows much of a divine nature, and a kind of conformity with Christ himself. ESSAY XIV. We will speak of nobility first as a portion Of Nobility of an estate; then as a condition of particular persons. A monarchy, where there is no nobility at all, is ever a pure and absolute tyranny, as that of the Turks; for nobility ESSAY XIV. attempers sovereignty, and draws the eyes of Of Nobility. the people somewhat aside from the line royal. But for democracies, they need it not; and they are commonly more quiet and less subject to sedition than where there are stirps of nobles; for men's eyes are upon the business, and not upon the persons; or if upon the persons, it is for the business sake, as fittest, and not for flags and pedigree. We see the Switzers last well, notwithstanding their diversity of religion and of cantons; for utility is their bond, and not respects. The united provinces of the Low Countries in their government excel; for where there is an equality the consultations are more indifferent, and the payments and tributes more cheerful. A great and potent nobility addeth majesty to a monarch, but diminisheth power; and putteth life and spirit into the people, but presseth their fortune. It is well when nobles are not too great for sovereignty nor for justice; and yet maintained in that height, as the insolency of inferiors may be broken upon them before it come on too fast upon the majesty of kings. ESSAY XIV. A numerous nobility causeth poverty and inOf Nobility. convenience in a state, for it is a surcharge of expense; and besides, it being of necessity that many of the nobility fall in time to be weak in fortune, it maketh a kind of disproportion between honour and means. As for nobility in particular persons; it is a reverend thing to see an ancient castle or building not in decay, or to see a fair timbertree sound and perfect; how much more to behold an ancient noble family, which hath stood against the waves and weathers of time: for new nobility is but the act of power, but ancient nobility is the act of time. Those that are first raised to nobility are commonly more virtuous but less innocent than their descendants; for there is rarely any rising but by a commixture of good and evil arts; but it is reason the memory of their virtues remain to their posterity, and their faults die with themselves. Nobility of birth commonly abateth industry; and he that is not industrious, envieth him that is; besides, noble persons cannot go much higher; and he that standeth at a stay when others rise can hardly avoid motions of envy. On the other side, ESSAY XIV. nobility extinguisheth the passive envy from Of Nobility. others towards them, because they are in possession of honour. Certainly, kings that have able men of their nobility shall find ease in employing them, and a better slide into their business; for people naturally bend to them as born in some sort to command. and Troubles. Shepherds of people had need know the ESSAY XV. calendars of tempests in state, which are of Seditions commonly greatest when things grow to equality; as natural tempests are greatest about the periods of the equinoxes. And as there are certain hollow blasts of wind and secret swellings of seas before a tempest, so are there in states: 'He often warns, too, that secret revolt is impending, that treachery and open warfare are ready to burst forth.' Libels and licentious discourses against the state, when they are frequent and open; and in like sort false news, often running up and down, to the disadvantage of the state, and hastily embraced, are amongst the signs of troubles. Virgil, giving the pedigree of Fame, saith she was sister to the giants : ESSAY XV. 'Mother Earth, exasperated at the wrath of Of Seditions the deities, produced her, as they tell, a last birth, a sister to the giants Coeus and Enceladus.' and Troubles. As if fames were the relics of seditions past; but they are no less indeed the preludes of seditions to come. Howsoever he noteth it right, that seditious tumults and seditious fames differ no more but as brother and sister, masculine and feminine; especially if it come to that, that the best actions of a state, and the most plausible, and which ought to give greatest contentment, are taken in ill sense and traduced: for that shows the envy great, as Tacitus saith, 'the ruler once detested, his actions, whether good or whether bad, cause his downfall.' Neither doth it follow that because these fames are a sign of troubles, that the suppressing of them with too much severity should be a remedy of troubles; for the despising of them many times checks them best, and the going about to stop them doth but make a wonder long-lived. Also that kind of obedience which Tacitus speaketh of is to be held suspected: |
