The essays, or councils, civil and moral, of Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban with a table of the colours of good and evil, and a discourse of The wisdom of the ancients : to this edition is added The character of Queen Elizabeth, never before printed in English.

I. Of Truth. (Book 1)

WHAT is Truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be that delight in giddiness, and count it a Bon∣dage to fix a Belief; affecting free-will in thinking, as well as in acting. And though the Sects of Philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing Wits, which are of the same Veins, though there be not so much Blood in them, as was in those of the Ancients. But it is not only the dif∣ficulty and labour, which men take in finding out of Truth; nor again, that when it is found, it imposeth up∣on Mens thoughts, that doth bring Lyes in favour; but a natural, though corrupt Love, of the Lye it self. One of the later Schools of the Grecians examineth the matter, and is at a stand, to think what should be in it, that Men should love Lyes; where neither they make for pleasure, as with Poets, nor for Advantage, as with the Merchant, but for the Lyes sake. But I cannot tell. This same Truth is a Naked and Open day-light, that doth not shew the Masks, and Mummeries, and Triumphs of the World, half so stately and daintily as Candle-light. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a Pearl, that sheweth best by day; but it will not rise to the price of

a Diamond or Carbuncle, that sheweth best in varied Lights. A mixture of a Lye doth ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of Mens minds vain Opinions, flattering Hopes, false Va∣luations, 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? One of the Fathers in great severity called Poesie, Vinum Daemonum, because it filleth the Imagination, and yet it is but with the sha∣dow of a Lye. But it is not the Lye that passeth through the mind, but the Lye that sinketh in, and settleth in it, that doth the hurt, such as we spake of before. But howsoever these things are thus in Mens depraved judg∣ments and affections; yet Truth, which only doth judge it self, teacheth, that the enquiry 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 Truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the soveraign good of Humane Nature. The first Creature of God in the works of the Days, was Light of the Sense; the last was the Light of Reason; and his Sabbath-Work ever since, is the illu∣mination of his Spirit. First, he breathed light upon the face of the Matter or Chaos; then he breathed light in∣to the face of Man; and still he breatheth and inspireth light into the face of his Chosen. The Poet that beauti∣fied the Sect, that was otherwise inferiour to the rest, saith yet excellently well: It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see Ships tost upon the Sea; a pleasure to stand in the Window of a Castle, and to see a Battel, and the adventure thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage-ground of Truth: (an Hill not to be commanded, and where the Air is always clear and serene:) and to see the Errors, and Wandrings, and Mists, and Tempests in the Vale below: So always that this prospect be with Pity, and not with swelling or Pride. Cer∣tainly it is Heaven upon Earth, to have a Mans mind move in Charity, rest in Providence, and turn upon the Poles ••f Truth.

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 Mans nature, and that mixture of falshood is like allay in Coin of Gold and Silver, which may make the Metal work the better, but it em∣baseth it. For these winding and crooked courses are the goings of the Serpent, which goeth basely upon the Belly, and not upon the feet. There is no Vice that doth so cover a Man with shame, as to be found false and perfidious. And therefore Mountaigne saith prettily, when he enquired the reason, Why the word of the Lye should be such a disgrace, and such an odious charge: Saith he, If it be well weighed, To say that a Man lyeth, is as much as to say, that he is a Brave towards God, and a Coward towards Men. For a Lye faces God, and shrinks from Man. Surely the wickedness and Falshood, and breach of Faith, cannot possibly be so highly expressed, as in that it shall be the last Peal, to call the Judgments of God upon the Generations of Men; it being fore∣told, that when Christ cometh, He shall not find faith up∣on the Earth.