A Fragment of an Effay of Fame, 364 An Effay touching Helps for the Intel lectual Powers, -368 A Civil Character of Julius Cæfar, 376 A Civil Character of Auguftus Cæfar, 388 A Civil Character of Henry VII. Parables, 390 414 451 LORD LORD BACON's ESSAYS. I. Of TRUT H. W HAT is TRUTH? faid fcoffing Pilate; and would not ftay for an Answer. Certain ly there are those, that delight in Giddinefs of Thought; and count it a Bondage, to be tied up to a fixt Belief, or Steadiness of Opinion; affecting the Ufe of Free-Will in Thinking, as well as in Acting. And though the Sects of Philofophers of that Kind be gone, yet there remain certain windy difcourfing Wits, which are of the fame Veins, though there be not fo VOL. I. B much much Blood in them, as was in those of the Antients. But it is not only the Difficulty and Labour, which Men undergo in finding out of TRUTH; nor again, that when it is found, it imposes a kind of Slavery upon Men's Thoughts, that brings Lies in Favour; but a natural, though corrupt, Love of the Lie it felf. One of the later School of the Grecians examineth the Matter, and is at a ftand, to think what should be in it, that Men fhould love a Lie, where neither it makes for Pleasure, as with Poets; nor for Advantage, as with the Merchant, but for the Lie's fake. But I know not how, this fame TRUTH (as being a naked and open Day-light) doth not fhew the Masquerades and Triumphs, the Farces and Fooleries of this World, half fo magnificently and advantagiously as Torches and Candle-Lights. TRUTH may perhaps come up to the Value of a Pearl, that fheweth best by Day; but it will never rife to the Price of a Diamond, or Carbuncle, that fhines brightest in varied Lights. A mixture of of a Lie doth ever add Pleafure. Doth any Man doubt, that if there were taken out of Men's Minds, vain Opinions, flattering Hopes, false Valuations of Things, Imaginations at Pleasure, and the like; but it would leave the Minds of a Number of Men poor dejected fhrunken Things, full of Melancholy and Languor, and uneasy and unpleafing to themselves? ONE of the Fathers, in great Severity, calls Poefie, the Wine of Devils, because it fills the Imagination with vain Things; though Poesie is but the Shadow of a Lie. But it is not the Lie, that paffes through the Mind, that does the Hurt; but the Lie that finks in, and fettles in it; fuch I mean as we fpake of before. But howfoever these Things are thus, in Men's depraved Judgments and Affections, yet TRUTH (which only doth judge it felf) teaches, that the Inquiry after TRUTH, which is the Lovemaking, or Wooing of it; the Knowledge of TRUTH, which is the Presence of it; and the Reception of, and Affent to TRUTH, which is the Enjoying of it; is the fovereign Good of Human Nature. THE first Creature of God, in the fix Days Works, was the Light of Sense; the laft, the Light of Reason; and his Sabbath-Work, ever fince, is the Illumination of his Spirit. First he breathed Light upon the Face of the Matter, or Chaos; next into the Face of Man; and still he breathes and inspires Light into the Face of his Chofen. The Poet that beautified the Sect, that was otherwife. inferior to the reft, faith yet excellently well: It is a Pleasure to ftand upon the Shore, and to fee Ships toft upon the Waves: A Pleafure to ftand at the Window of a Caftle, and to behold an Engagement, and the various Events thereof below. But no Pleasure is comparable to the ftanding upon the VantageGround of TRUTH; (a Hill not to be commanded, and where the Air is always clear and ferene;) and from thence to behold the Errors and Wandrings, the Mifts and Tempefts in the Vale beneath: Provided this Profpect be |