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tutibus similes, serve best with them. Certainly fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swoln, and drowns things weighty and solid. But if persons of quality and judgment concur,1 then it is (as the Scripture saith), Nomen bonum instar unguenti fragrantis; [a good name like unto a sweet ointment.] It filleth all round about, and will not easily away. For the odours of ointments are more durable than those of flowers. There be so many false points 2 of praise, that a man may justly hold it a suspect. Some praises proceed merely of flattery; and if he be an ordinary flatterer, he will have certain common attributes, which may serve every man; if he be a cunning flatterer, he will follow the arch-flatterer, which is a man's self; and wherein a man thinketh best of himself, therein the flatterer will uphold him most: but if he be an impudent flatterer, look wherein a man is conscious to himself that he is most defective, and is most out of countenance in himself, that will the flatterer entitle him to perforce, spretâ conscientiâ. Some praises come of good wishes and respects, which is a form due in civility to kings and great persons, laudando præcipere; when by telling men what they are, they represent to them what they should be. Some men are praised maliciously to their hurt, thereby to stir envy and jealousy towards them; pessimum genus inimicorum laudantium; [the worst kind of enemies are they that praise; ] insomuch as it was a proverb amongst the Grecians, that he that was praised to his hurt, should

1 cum vulgo concurrunt.

2 conditiones fallaces.

8 a voluntate bonâ cum reverentiâ conjunctâ proficiscuntur.

4 humiliter moneas.

have a push rise upon his nose; as we say, that a blister will rise upon one's tongue that tells a lie. Certainly moderate praise, used with opportunity, and not vulgar, is that which doth the good.2 Salomon saith, He that praiseth his friend aloud, rising early, it shall be to him no better than a curse. Too much magnifying of man or matter doth irritate contradiction, and procure envy and scorn. To praise a man's self cannot be decent, except it be in rare cases; but to praise a man's office or profession, he may do it with good grace, and with a kind of magnanimity. The Cardinals of Rome, which are theologues, and friars, and schoolmen, have a phrase of notable contempt and scorn towards civil business: for they call all temporal business of wars, embassages, judicature, and other employments, sbirrerie, which is under-sheriffries; as if they were but matters for under-sheriffs and catchpoles though many times those under-sheriffries do more good than their high speculations.3 St. Paul, when he boasts of himself, he doth oft interlace, I speak like a fool; but speaking of his calling, he saith, magnificabo apostolatum meum: [I will magnify my mission.]

LIV. OF VAIN-GLORY.

It was prettily devised of Æsop; the fly sat upon the axle-tree of the chariot wheel, and said, What a dust do I raise! So are there some vain persons, that whatso1 tempestive irrogatos.

2 honori vel maxime esse.

8 ac si artes illæ memoratæ magis ejusmodi homines, quam in fastigio Cardinalatûs positos, decerent: et tamen (si res rite penderetur) speculativa cum civilibus non male miscentur.

ever goeth alone or moveth upon greater means, if they have never so little hand in it, they think it is they that carry it. They that are glorious must needs be factious; for all bravery stands upon comparisons.2 They must needs be violent, to make good their own vaunts. Neither can they be secret, and therefore not effectual; but according to the French proverb, Beaucoup de bruit, peu de fruit; Much bruit, little fruit. Yet certainly there is use of this quality in civil affairs. Where there is an opinion and fame to be created either of virtue or greatness, these men are good trumpeters. Again, as Titus Livius noteth in the case of Antiochus and the Etolians, There are sometimes great effects of cross lies;5 as if a man that negociates between two princes, to draw them to join in a war against the third, doth extol the forces of either of them above measure, the one to the other: and sometimes he that deals between man and man, raiseth his own credit with both, by pretending greater interest than he hath in either. And in these and the like kinds, it often falls out that somewhat is produced of nothing; for lies are sufficient to breed opinion, and opinion brings on substance. In militar commanders and soldiers, vain-glory is an essential point; for as iron sharpens iron, so by glory one courage sharpeneth another. In cases of great enterprise upon charge and

1 cum aliquid vel sponte procedit, vel manu potentiore cietur.

2 nulla ostentatio sine comparatione sui est.

8 ideoque opere ut plurimum destituuntur.

4 hujusmodi ingeniis.

5 mendacia reciproca, et ex utrâque parte.

6 So in the original. It is the form of the word which Bacon always

(I believe) uses.

7 non inutile est.

adventure,1 a composition of glorious natures doth put life into business; and those that are of solid and sober natures have more of the ballast than of the sail. In fame of learning, the flight will be slow without some feathers of ostentation. Qui de contemnendâ gloriâ libros scribunt, nomen suum inscribunt. [They that write books on the worthlessness of glory, take care to put their names on the title page.] Socrates, Aristotle, Galen, were men full of ostentation.2 Certainly vain-glory helpeth to perpetuate a man's memory; and virtue was never so beholding to human nature, as it received his due at the second hand. Neither had the fame of Cicero, Seneca, Plinius Secundus, borne her age so well, if it had not been joined with some vanity in themselves; like unto varnish, that makes ceilings not only shine but last. But all this while, when I speak of vain-glory, I mean not of that property that Tacitus doth attribute to Mucianus; Omnium, quæ dixerat feceratque, arte quâdam ostentator: [A man that had a kind of art of setting forth to advantage all that he had said or done:] for that proceeds not of vanity, but of natural magnanimity and discretion; 6 and in some persons is not only comely, but gracious. For excusations, cessions, modesty itself well governed, are but arts of ostentation. And amongst those arts there is none better than that which Plinius Secundus

1 quæ sumptibus et periculo privatorum suscipiuntur.

↑ (magna nomina) ingenio jactabundo erant.

8 Neque virtus ipsa tantum humanæ naturæ debet propter nominis sui celebrationem, quam sibi ipsi.

• and hunc usque diem viz durisset, aut saltem non tam vegeta.

3 vanitate et jacrrentiâ.

6 ez arte et prudentià, cum magnanimitate quâdam conjunctă.

↑ in aliquibus hominibus qui naturâ veluti comparati ad eam sunt.

T

speaketh of, which is to be liberal of praise and commendation to others, in that wherein a man's self hath any perfection. For saith Pliny very wittily, In commending another you do yourself right; for he that you commend is either superior to you in that you commend, or inferior. If he be inferior, if he be to be commended, you much more; if he be superior, if he be not to be commended, you much less. Glorious men are the scorn of wise men, the admiration of fools, the idols of parasites, and the slaves of their own vaunts.1

г

LV. OF HONOUR AND REPUTATION.

THE winning of Honour 2 is but the revealing of a man's virtue and worth without disadvantage. For some in their actions do woo and affect honour and reputation; which sort of men are commonly much talked of, but inwardly little admired. And some, contrariwise, darken their virtue in the shew of it; so as they be undervalued in opinion. If a man perform that which hath not been attempted before; or attempted and given over; or hath been achieved, but not with so good circumstance; he shall purchase more honour, than by effecting a matter of greater difficulty or virtue, wherein he is but a follower. If a man so temper his actions, as in some one of them he doth content every faction or combination of people, the music will be the fuller. A man is an ill husband of

1 parisitis prædæ et escæ; sibique ipsis et gloriæ vanæ mancipia.

2 Honoris et existimationis vera et jure optimo acquisitio ea est, ut quis, &c. Harl. MS. 5106. (for an account of which see Appendix No. II.) has "The true winning of honour:" which is probably the true reading.

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