FRANCIS BACON SAID (TENTH PART)

 

                   FRANCIS BACON SAID

                             (TENTH PART)

1.     Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their  chief use for delight , is in privateness and retiring ; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those who are learned.

 

2.     To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience : for natural abilities are like natural plants that need proyning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.

 

3.     Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.

 

4.     Read no to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.

 

5.     Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed  and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are like distilled waters, flashy things.

 

6.     Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And therefore , if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he had read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not.

 

7.     Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend .

 

8.     Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for the head; and the like. So if a man’s wit be wandering, let him study mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again.

 

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G. R. Kanwal

3^rd November 2026

 

Note: No more extracts from Bacon’s Essays.                                                                                   -------

FRANCIS BACON SAID (NINTH PART)

 

FRANCIS BACON SAID

                        (NINTH PART)

1, Men’s thoughts are much according to their inclination; their discourse and speeches according to their learning and infused opinions; but their deeds are after as they have been accustomed.

 

2. A man that is young in years may be old in hours, if he have lost no time.  But that happeneth rarely. Generally, youth is like the first cogitations, not so wise as the second. For there is youth in thoughts, as well as in ages. And yet the invention of young men is more lively than that of old; and imaginations stream into their minds better, and as it were more divinely.

 

3. Beauty is as summer fruits, which are easy to corrupt, and cannot last; and for the most part it makes a dissolute youth, and an age a little out of countenance; but yet certainly again, if it light well, it maketh virtue shine, and vice blush.

 

4. Houses are built to live in, and not to look on; therefore let use be preferred before uniformity, except where both may be bad. Leave the goodly fabrics of houses, for beauty only, to the enchanted palaces of the poets, who build them with small cost. He that builds a fair house upon an ill seat , committeth himself to prison.  

 

5. God Almighty first planted a Garden. And indeed it is the purest of human pleasures. It is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man; without which buildings and palaces are but gross handyworks:  and a man shall ever see that when ages grow to civility and elegancy, men come to build stately than to garden finely; as if gardening were the greater perfection.

 

6. Costly followers are not to be liked; lest while a man maketh his train longer, he make his wings shorter. I reckon to be costly, not them alone which charge the purse, but which are wearisome and importune in suits.

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G.R. Kanwal

2^nd November 2026

 

FRANCIS BACON SAID (PART EIGHTH)

 

          FRANCIS BACON SAID

                         (PART EIGHTH)

1.     Entertain hopes; mirth rather than joy; variety of delights, rather than surfeit of them; wonder and admiration, and therefore novelties; studies that fill the mind with splendid and illustrious objects, as histories, fables, and contemplations of nature.

2.     Suspicions amongst thoughts are like bats amongst birds, they ever fly by twilight. Certainly they are to be repressed, or at the least well guarded : for they cloud the mind; they leese (old English meaning lose)friends ; they check with business, whereby business cannot go on currently and constantly.

3.     Of great riches there is no real us, except it be in the distribution; the rest is but conceit. So saith Salomon, where much is, there are many to consume it ; and what hath the owner but the sight of it with his eyes.

4.     Be not penny-wise; riches have wings, and sometimes they fly away of themselves, sometimes they must be sent flying to bring in more. Men leave their riches either to their kindred, or to the public; and moderate portions prosper best in both.

5.     Ambition is like choler; which is an humour that maketh men active, earnest, full of alacrity, and stirring, if it be not stopped. But if it be stopped , and cannot have his way, it becometh adust, and thereby malign and venomous. So ambitious men, if they find the way open for their rising, and still get forward, they are rather busy than dangerous; but if they be checked  in their desires,, they become secretly discontent, and look upon men and matters with an evil eye, and are best pleased when things go backward; which is the worst property in a servant of a prince or state.

6.     Nature is often hidden; sometimes overcome; seldom                  extinguished. Force maketh nature more violent in the return; doctrine and discourse maketh nature less importune; but custom only doth alter and subdue nature. He that seeketh victory over nature, let him not set himself too great nor too small tasks; for the first will make him dejected by often failings; and the second will make him a small proceeder, though by often prevailings.

G. R. Kanwal

1^st November 2026

FRANCIS BACON SAID (SEVENTH PART)

 

 

                             FRANCIS BACON SAID

                                 (SEVENTH PART)

1.    A man cannot speak to his son but as a father; to his wife but

as a husband ; to his enemy but upon terms; whereas  a friend may speak as  the case requires, and not as it sorteth with the person. But to enumerate these things were endless; I have given the rule, where a man cannot fitly play his own part; if he have not a friend, he may quit the stage.

 

2.     Riches are for spending, and spending for honour and good actions. Therefore extraordinary expense must be limited by the worth of the occasion; for voluntary undoing may be as well for a man’s country as for the kingdom of heaven. But ordinary expenses ought to be limited by a man’d estate; and governed with such regard , as it be within his compass;  and not subject to deceit and abuse of servants; and ordered to the best show, that the bills may be less than the estimation abroad.

 

3       . It never troubles a wolf how many the sheep be.

 

4.      No body can be healthful without exercise, neither natural body nor polit; and certainly to a kingdom or estate, a just and honourable war in the true exercise.

 

5.    A civil war indeed is like the heat of a fever; but a foreign war is like the heat of exercise, and serveth to keep the body              in health; for in a slothful peace, both courages will effeminate and manners corrupt.

 

6.    There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic ; a man’s own observation, what he finds good of, and what he finds hurt of, is the best physic to preserve health. But it is a safer conclusion to say, this agreeth not well with me, therefore I will not continue it; than this, I find no offence of this, therefore I may use it. For strength of nature in youth passeth over many excesses, which are owing a man till his age. Discern the coming on of years, and think not to do the same things still; for age will not be defied. Beware of sudden change in any great point of diet, and if necessity enforce it, fit the rest of it. For it is a secret both in nature and state, that it is safer to change many things than one.

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G.R.Kanwal

31 October 2026

                           

FRANCIS BACON SAID (PART SIX)

 

                                FRANCIS BACON SAID

                                                (PART SIX)

1.     Princes many times make themselves desires, and set their hearts upon toys; sometimes upon a building; sometimes upon erecting an order; sometimes upon the advancing of a person; sometimes upon obtaining excellency in some art or feat of the hand.

2.     Kings have to deal with their neighbours, their wives, their children, their prelates or clergy; their nobles, their second –nobles or gentlemen , their merchants, their commons, and their men of war; and from all these arise dangers, if care and circumspection be not used.

3.     Princes are like to heavenly bodies, which cause good or evil times; and which have much veneration, but no rest. All precepts concerning kings are in effect comprehended in those two remembrances : Remember that you are a man, and Remember that you are a God, or God’s vice-regent: the one bridleth their power, and the other their will.

4.     The chief virtue of a ruler is to know his subjects.

5.     Fortune is like the market ; where many time, if you can stay a little, the price will fall.

6.     An ant is a wise creature for itself, but it is a shrewd thing in an orchard or garden.  And certainly men that are great lovers of themselves waste the public. Divide with reason between self-love and society; and be so true to thyself, as thou be not false to others, especially to thy king and country.

7.     Wisdom for a man’s self is, in many branches thereof, a depraved thing. It is the wisdom of rats, that will be sure to leave a house somewhat before it fall. It is the wisdom of the fox, that thrusts out the badger, who digged and made room for him. It is in the wisdom of crocodiles, that shed tears when they would devour. But that which is specially to be noted is, that those which are many times unfortunate.  And whereas they have all their time sacrificed to themselves, they become in the  end themselves sacrifices to the inconstancy of fortune; whose wings they thought by their self-wisdom to have pinioned.   

8.     It hath been an opinion that the French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are. But however it be between nations , certainly it is so between man and man. For as the Apostle saith of godliness, having a show of godliness, but denying the power thereof; so certainly there are in point of wisdom and sufficiency, that do nothing or little very solemnly.

9.     Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.

10.                         A principal fruit of friendship is the ease and discharge of the fullness and swellings of the heart, which passions of all kinds do cause and induce.

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G. R. Kanwal

30 October 2026

 

 

FRANCIS BACON SAID (PART FIVE)

 

 FRANCIS BACON SAID

                             (PART FIVE)

1.    The scripture saith, The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God; so as he rather saith it by rote to himself, as that he would have, than that he can thoroughly believe it, or be persuaded of it. For none deny there is God, but those for whom it maketh that there were no God. It appeareth in nothing more, that atheism is rather in the lip than in the heart of man, than by this; that atheists will ever be talking of that their opinion, as if they fainted in it within themselves, and would be glad to be strengthened by the consent of others.

2.    It were better to have no opinion of God at all, than such an opinion as is unworthy of him. For the one is unbelief, the other is contumely: and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity.

3.     Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not ; but superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men.

4.    Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. He that travelleth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel.

5.    The things to be seen and observed are, the courts of princes, especially when they  give audience to ambassadors; the courts of justice, while they sit and hear causes; and so of consistories ecclesiastic; the churches and monasteries, with the monuments which are therein extant; and the walls of fortifications of cities and towns, and so the havens and harbours; antiquities and ruins; libraries; colleges, disputations, and lectures, where they are; shipping and navies; houses and gardens of state and pleasure, near great cities; armories; arsenals; magazines; exchanges; burses; warehouses; exercises of horsemanship, fencing, training of soldiers, and the like; comedies, and whereunto the better sorts of persons do resort; treasuries of jewels and robes; cabinets and rarities; and, to conclude, whatsoever is memorable in the places where they go.

6.    When a traveller returneth home, let him not leave the countries where he hath travelled altogether behind him; but maintain a correspondence by letters with those of his acquaintance which are of most worth. And let his travel appear rather in his discourse than in his apparel or gesture; and in his discourse let him be rather advised in his answers, than forward to tell stories. And let it appear that he doth not change his country manners for those foreign parts; but only prick in some flowers of that he hath learned abroad into the customs of his own country.

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G.R. Kanwal

29 October 2026

FRANCIS BACON SAID (PART FOUR)

 

FRANCIS BACON SAID

                                            (PART FOUR)

1.     The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall; but in charity there is no excess; neither can angel or man come in danger by it.

2.     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 them balm.

3.     Common benefits are to be communicate with all; but peculiar benefits with choice. And beware how in making the portraiture thou breakest the pattern. For divinity maketh the love of ourselves the pattern; the love of our neighbours , but the portraiture. .Sell all thou hast, and give it to the poor and follow me: But sell not all thou hast, except thou come and follow me; that is, except thou have a vocation wherein thou mayest do as much good with little means as with great; for otherwise in feeding the streams thou driest the fountain.

4.       A great and potent nobility addeth majesty  to a monarch, but diminisheth power; and putteth life  and spirit into the people, and presseth their fortune.

5.     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.

6.     There is a limit to suffering, but not to fear.

7.      The cord breaketh at the last by the weakest pull.

8.     The causes and motives of seditions are, innovation in religion’ taxes; alteration of laws and customs; breaking of privileges; general oppression; advancement of unworthy persons; strangers; dearths; disbanded soldiers; factions grow desperate; and whoever, in offending people, joineth and knitteth them in a common cause. The first remedy or prevention is to remove by all means possible that material cause of sedition, which is, want of poverty in the estate.

9.     Above all things, good policy is to be used that the treasure and monies in a state be not gathered into few hands. For otherwise a state may have a great stock, and yet starve.     

10.            Certainly, the politic and artificial nourishing and entertaining of hopes, and carrying men from hopes to hopes, is one of the best antidotes against the poison of discontentments.

                                                                 

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G.R. Kanwal

28 Occtober 2026