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fit, 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 Briar, 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 defirous the Party fhould know whence it cometh; this is the more generous for the Delight feemeth to be, not fo much in doing the Hurt as in making the Party repent; but bafe and crafty Cowards are like the Arrow that flyeth in the Dark. Cofmus Duke of Florence, had a desperate Saying against Perfidious or Neglecting Friends, as if those Wrongs were unpardonable: You shall read (faith he) that we are commanded to forgive our Enemies; but you never read, that we are commanded to forgive our Friends.3 But yet the Spirit of Job was in a better tune; Shall we (faith he) take Good at God's Hands, and not be content to take Evil alfo? and fo of Friends in a proportion. This is certain, that a Man that ftudieth Revenge keeps his own Wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well. Public Revenges are for the most part fortunate: as that for the Death of Cæfar; for the Death of Perti

4

'The faying of Cofmo is related alfo in the Apophthegms, ed. 1625, P. 225, No. 206. Job ii. 10.

4

and many more.

nax; 5 for the Death of Henry the Third of France; But in private Revenges it is not fo; nay rather, Vindictive Perfons live the Life of Witches; who as they are mischievous, fo end they unfortunate.

v. Of Adverfity.

IT was a high Speech of Seneca (after the manner of the Stoics), That the

Dare to be wished; but the good Things,

good Things which belong to Profperity

that belong to Adverfity are to be admired. Bona Rerum Secundarum optabilia, Adverfarum mirabilia. Certainly, if Miracles be the command over Nature, they appear moft in Adverfity. 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 the Frailty of a Man, and the Security of a God. Verè magnum, habere Fragilitatem Hominis, Securitatem Dei. This would have done better in Poefy, where Tranfcendencies are more allowed. And the Poets, indeed, have been bufy with it: for it is, in effect, the thing which is figured in that ftrange Fiction of the Ancient Poets, which feemeth not to be without Mystery; nay, and to have fome approach to the State of a Chriftian: that Hercules, when he went to unbind Prometheus, (by whom Human Nature is represented)

5 Hift. Aug. Script. vol. i. p. 578, ed. 1671.
1 Senec. ad Lucil. 66.

[graphic]

2 Ib. id. 53.

failed the length of the great Ocean in an Earthen Pot or Pitcher: lively defcribing Christian Refolution, that faileth in the frail Bark of the Flesh, thorough the Waves of the World.3 But to speak in a Mean: The Virtue of Profperity is Temperance; the Virtue of Adversity is Fortitude; which in Morals is the more Heroical Virtue. Profperity is the Bleffing of the Old Testament; Adverfity is the Bleffing of the New; which carrieth the greater Benediction, and the clearer Revelation of God's Favour. Yet, even in the old Teftament, if you liften to David's Harp, you shall hear as many hearfe-like Airs, as Carols: and the Pencil of the Holy Ghoft hath laboured more in defcribing the Afflictions of Job than the Felicities of Solomon. Profperity is not without many Fears and Distastes; and Adverfity is not without Comforts and Hopes. We fee in Needleworks and Embroideries, it is more pleafing to have a lively Work upon a Sad and Solemn Ground, than to have a dark and melancholy Work upon a lightsome Ground: Judge, therefore, of the Pleafure of the Heart, by the Pleasure of the Eye. Certainly, Virtue is like precious Odours, most fragrant when they are incensed, or crushed; for Profperity doth best discover Vice, but Adversity doth beft discover Virtue.1

Apollod. Deor. Orig. 11. Comp. what he says of this fable in "The Wisdom of the Ancients."

4 Mr. Macaulay has cited this fine paffage (which, from the words "Profperity is the bleffing," was added in the edition of 1625,) as a proof that Bacon's fancy had not decayed in his later years, but had even become richer and fofter.

C

VI. Of Simulation and Dif-
fimulation.'

ISSIMULATION is but a faint kind of Policy, or Wisdom; for it asketh a ftrong Wit and a strong Heart to know when to tell Truth, and to do it therefore it is the weaker Sort of Politicks, that are the great Diffemblers.

2

Tacitus faith, Livia forted well with the Arts of her Hufband, and Diffimulation of her Son: attributing Arts or Policy to Auguftus, and Diffimulation to Tiberius. And again, when Mucianus encourageth Vefpafian to take Arms against Vitellius ; he faith, We rife not against the Piercing Judgement of Auguftus, nor the Extreme Caution or Closeness of Tiberius. These Properties of Arts or Policy, and Diffimulation or Closeness are, indeed, Habits and Faculties several, and to be diftinguished. For if a Man have that Penetration of Judgement, as he can discern what Things are to be laid open, and what to be fecreted, and what to be fhewed 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 Diffimulation is a Hindrance and a Poornefs. But if a Man cannot obtain to that Judgement, then it

1 See Antitheta, No. 32.

3 Tacit. Hift. ii. 76.

2 Tacit. Ann. v. i.

See Tacit. Ann. iii. 70. and Ruperti's note.

is left to him generally to be Clofe, and a Diffembler. 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 foftly by one that cannot well fee. Certainly the ableft 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 paffing well when to stop or turn: and at fuch times, when they thought the Case indeed required Disfimulation, 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 invifible.

There be three degrees of this Hiding and Veiling of a Man's Self. The first Closeness, Refervation, and Secrecy; when a Man leaveth himfelf without Obfervation, or without Hold to be taken what he is. The fecond Diffimulation in the Negative; when a Man lets fall Signs and Arguments, that he is not that he is. And the third, Simulation in the Affirmative; when a Man industriously, and expreffly 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 Confeffions; for who will open himself to a Blab or a Babbler? But if a Man be thought Secret, it inviteth Discovery; as the more Close Air fucketh in the more Open: and as in Confeffion, the Revealing is not for

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