LEARNING FROM FRANCIS BACON
(PART THREE)
For
introduction see Part One along with some extracts from the Essays. Part Two carries more extracts. Today
in Part Three some quotations are being
further added. This process will continue for further parts.
1.
Unmarried
men are best friends, best masters, best servants ; but not always best
subjects. For they are light to run away; and almost all fugitives are of that
condition.
2.
Wives
are young men’s mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men’s nurses; so
as a man may have a quarrel to marry, when he will.
3.
There
is in man’s nature a secret inclination and motion towards love of others,
which, if it be not spent upon someone or a few, doth naturally spread itself
towards many, and maketh men become humane and charitable, as it is seen
sometime in friars.
4.
Nuptial
love maketh mankind; friendly love perfecteth it; but wanton love corrupteth
and embaseth it.
5.
Men
in great place are thrice servants; servants of the sovereign or state,
servants of fame, and servants of business. So as they have no freedom, neither
in their persons, nor in their actions, nor in their times.
6.
It
is a strange desire to seek power and to lose liberty : or to seek power over
others and to lose power over a man’s self.
7.
The
vices of authority are chiefly four : delays, corruption, roughness, and
facility.
8.
It
is most true that was anciently spoken. A
place showeth the man. And it showeth some to the better, and some to the
worse.
9.
All
rising to great place is by a winding stair; and if there be factions, it is
good to side a man’s self while he is in the rising, and to balance himself when
he is placed.
10.
This is well to be weighed, that boldness is
ever blind, for it seeth not dangers and inconveniences. Therefore, it is ill
in counsel, good in execution.
*******
G. R. Kanwal
17th March 2026
No comments:
Post a Comment