5 M II. Of Death. EN fear Death as Children fear to go in the Dark: and as that Natural Fear in Children is encreased with Tales, fo is the other. Certainly, the Contemplation of Death, as the Wages of Sin and Paffage to another World, is holy and religious; but the Fear of it, as a Tribute due unto Nature, is weak. Yet in religious Meditations there is sometimes Mixture of Vanity and of Superstition. You fhall read, in fome of the Friars' Books of Mortification, that a Man fhould think with himfelf what the Pain is, if he have but his Finger's end preffed, or tortured, and thereby imagine what the Pains of Death are, when the whole Body is corrupted and diffolved; when many times Death paffeth with lefs pain than the Torture of a Limb; for the most vital parts are not the quickeft of Senfe. And by him that spake only as a Philofopher and Natural Man, it was well faid; Pompa Mortis magnis terret, quàm Mors ipfa. Groans and Convulfions, and a discoloured Face, and Friends weeping, and Blacks and Obfequies, and the like, fhew Death Terrible.' It is worthy It has been fuppofed that the reference here is to Seneca, but it is undoubtedly to Montaigne, whofe Eflays were evidently much in Bacon's mind. The Latin is merely a verfion of Montaigne's thought:-" Je croy à la vérité que ce font ces mines et appareils effroyables, de quoy nous l'entourons qui nous font plus de peur the observing, that there is no Paffion in the Mind of Man fo weak, but it mates and masters the Fear of Death: and therefore Death is no fuch terrible Enemy when a man hath so many Attendants about him, that can win the Combat of him. Revenge triumphs over Death; Love flights it; Honour afpireth to it; Grief flieth to it; Fear pre-occupateth it: nay, we read, after Otho the Emperor had flain himself, Pity (which is the tendereft of Affections) provoked many to die out of mere Compaffion to their Sovereign, and as the truest sort of Followers. Nay, Seneca adds, Nicenefs and Satiety; Cogita quàm diù eadem feceris; Mori velle, non tantùm Fortis, aut Mifer, fed etiam Faftidiofus poteft.3 A Man would die, though he were neither valiant nor miferable, only upon a weariness to do the fame thing so oft over and over. It is no less worthy to obferve, how little alteration in good Spirits the approaches of Death make; for they appear to be the fame Men till the laft Inftant. Auguftus Cæfar died in a Compliment: Livia, conjugii noftri memor vive, et vale. Tiberius in Diffimulation; as Tacitus faith of him; Jam Tiberium Vires, et Corpus, non Diffimulatio deferebant.5 Vefpafian in a Jeft; fitting upon the Stool, qu'elle: une toute nouvelle forme de vivre : les cris des mères, des femmes, et des enfans, la visitation des perfonnes eftonnés et transies, l'affiftance d'un nombre de valets pafles et éplorez, un chambre fans jours des cierges allumez: noftre chevet affiegé de Medecins et de Precheurs: fomme, toute horreur et tout effroy autour de nous. Nous voila deja enfevelis et enterrez."- MONTAIGNE, Effais, lib. i. c. 19. Que Philofopher, c'eft apprendre à mourir. 2 Tacit. Hift. ii. 49. 4 Sueton. Aug. Vit. c. 100. 3 Seneca ad Lucil. Epift. 77. Ut puto Deus fio. 8 Galba with a Sentence; Feri, fi ex re fit Populi Romani ;7 holding forth his Neck. Septimius Severus in Dispatch; Adefte, fi quid mihi reftat agendum ; and the like. Certainly the Stoics bestowed too much Coft upon Death, and by their great preparations made it appear more fearful. Better faith he, Qui Finem Vitæ extremum inter Munera ponit Nature. It is as Natural to Die, as to be Born; and to a little Infant perhaps, the one is as painful as the other. He that dies in an earnest pursuit is like one that is wounded in hot Blood; who, for the time, scarce feels the Hurt; and therefore a Mind fixed and bent upon fomewhat that is good doth avert the Dolours of Death. But above all, believe it, the sweetest Canticle is, Nunc dimittis; when a Man hath obtained worthy Ends and Expectations. Death hath this also, that it openeth the Gate to good Fame, and extinguisheth Envy : 10 Extinctus amabitur idem."1 • Sueton. Vefp. Vit. c. 23. 8 Dio. Caff. 76. ad fin. 7 Tacit. Hift. i. 41. 9 Juv. Sat. x. 357. It is fpatium vitæ in the poet. Lord Bacon has here quoted from memory, but has correctly given the sense of the paffage. Spatium extremum, finem, vita, mortem imminentem. Gifford renders it," That reckons death a bleffing." 10 With respect to this Effay compare the hints given in the rhe. torical common places entitled Exempla Antithetorum in the Sixth Book De Augmentis Scientiarum, Art. XII. “Vita.". 11 Hor. Ep. II. i. 14. 8 III. Of Unity in Religion. B ELIGION being the chief Band of human Society, it is a happy thing when itfelf is well contained within the true Band of Unity. The Quarrels and Divifions about Religion were evils unknown to the Heathen. The Reason was, because the Religion of the Heathen confifted rather in Rites and Ceremonies than in any conftant Belief: for you may imagine what kind of Faith theirs was, when the chief Doctors and Fathers of their Church were the Poets. But the true God hath this Attribute, that he is a Jealous God;1 and therefore his worship and Religion will endure no Mixture nor Partner. We fhall therefore speak a few words concerning the Unity of the Church; What are the Fruits thereof; what the Bounds; and what the Means? The Fruits of Unity (next unto the well Pleafing of God, which is all in all) are two; the One, towards thofe that are without the Church; the Other, towards thofe that are within. For the Former, it is certain, that Herefies and Schifms are of all others the greatest Scandals; yea more than Corruption of Manners. For as in the Natural Body a Wound or Solution of Continuity is worse than a corrupt Humour; fo in the Spiritual. 1 Exodus xx. 5. The So that nothing doth so much keep Men out of the Church, and drive Men out of the Church, as Breach of Unity; and therefore, whenfoever it cometh to that pass, that one faith, Ecce in Deferto; another faith, Ecce in penetralibus; that is, when fome Men feek Chrift in the Conventicles of Heretics, and others in an Outward Face of a Church, that Voice had need continually to found in Men's Ears, Nolite exire, Go not out. Doctor of the Gentiles (the Propriety of whose Vocation drew him to have a special care of those without) faith, If an Heathen come in, and hear you speak with feveral Tongues, will he not fay that you are mad?3 And certainly, it is little better, when Atheists and profane Persons do hear of so many Discordant and Contrary Opinions in Religion, it doth avert them from the Church, and maketh them to fit down in the Chair of the Scorners. It is but a light thing to be vouched in fo Serious a Matter, but yet it expreffeth well the Deformity. There is a Master of Scoffing, that, in his Catalogue of Books of a feigned Library, fets down this Title of a Book; The Morris-dance of Heretics. For indeed, every Sect of them hath a divers Pofture, or cringe, by themselves, which cannot but move Derifion in Worldlings and depraved Politickes,6 who are apt to contemn Holy Things. As for the Fruit towards thofe that are within, • Thus the original: the word was then used for politic persons. |