The Essays: Or Counsels, Civil and Moral of Francis Bacon ... Ed., with an Introduction and NotesA.C. McClurg & Company, 1900 - 275 pages |
Common terms and phrases
Æsop affections alleys amongst ancient Anthony Bacon atheism Augustus Cæsar Bacon Ben Jonson better beware body bold Cæsar cause Certainly Cicero command commonly counsel counsellors court cunning custom danger death discontentments discourse dissimulation doth edition enlarged envy factions fame favor fear fortune FRANCIS BACON fruit Galba garden give giveth goeth grace greatest ground hands hath honor hurt judge judgment Julius Cæsar kind kings Latin Latin translation less likewise maketh man's matter means men's mind motion mought nature ness never nobility noble Novum Organum opinion persons plantation Plutarch Pompey praise princes profanum religion remedy riches saith secret seditions seemeth servants Shakspere side sometimes sort speak speech superstition sure suspicion Tacitus things thou thought Tiberius tion true truth unto usury Vespasian virtue Vulgate whereby wherein whereof wisdom wise words
Popular passages
Page 40 - Doth any man doubt that if there were taken out of men's minds vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds of a number of men poor, shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves...
Page 40 - But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in and settleth in it, that doth the hurt such as we spake of before. But howsoever these things are thus in men's depraved judgments and affections, yet truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truths which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature.
Page 222 - 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...
Page 240 - 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...
Page 224 - And, because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes like the warbling of music) than in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that delight than to know what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air.
Page 45 - 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 somewhat 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.
Page 42 - To pass from theological and philosophical truth to the truth of civil business, it will be acknowledged, even by those that practise it not, that clear and round dealing is the honour of man's nature ; and that mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it.
Page 242 - So if a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics ; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again : if his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen ; for they are cymini sectores : if he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers' cases : so every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.
Page 101 - It is true that a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion ; for while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them confederate, and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity...
Page 105 - ... of a better nature than his own, could never attain. So man, when he resteth and assureth himself upon divine protection and favour, gathereth a force and faith which human nature in itself could not obtain. Therefore, as atheism is in all respects hateful, so in this, that it depriveth human nature of the means to exalt itself above human frailty.