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.

NARCISSƲS, or, Self-Love.

THey say, that Narcissus was exceeding fair and beautiful▪ but wonderful proud and disdainful; wherefore despising all others in respect of himself, he leads a solitary Life in the Woods and Chases, with a few Followers, to whom he alone was all in all; a∣mongst the rest, there follows him the Nymph Ech••. During his Course of Life, it fata••ly so chanced, that he came to a clear Fountain, upon the Bank whereof he lay down to repose himself in the heat of the Day. And having espied the shadow of his own Face in the Water, was so besotted, and ravished with the con••••m∣plation and admiration thereof, that he by no mea••s possible could be drawn from beholding his Image in this Glass; insomuch, that by continua•• gazing there∣upon, he ••in••d away to nothing, and was at last tur∣ned into a F••ower of his own Name, which appears in the beginning of the Spring, and is sacred to the in∣fernal Powers, Pluto, Pr••s••••pin••, and the Furi••s.

This Fable seems to shew the Dispositions, and For∣tunes of those, who in respect either of their Beauty, or other Gift wherewith they are adorned, and graced by

Nature, without the help of industry, are so far besot∣ted in themselves, as that they prove the cause of their own destruction. For it is the property of Men infe∣cted with this Humour, not to come much abroad, or to be conversant in Civil Affairs, specially seeing those that are in pub••ick Place, must of necessity encounter with many Contempts, and Scorns, which may much deject, and trouble their Minds; and therefore they lead for the most part a solitary, private, and obscure Life, attended on with a few Followers, and those, such as will adore, and admire them, like an Echo flatter them in all their Sayings, and applaud them in all their Words. So that being by this Custom sedu∣ced, and puft up, and as it were, stupified with the admiration of themselves, they are possessed with so strange a Sloth add Idleness, that they grow in a man∣ner benumb'd, and defective of all vigour and alacrity. Elegantly doth this Flower, appearing in the beginning of the Spring, represent the likeness of these Men's Dis∣positions, who, in their youth do flourish, and wax fa∣mous; but being come to ripeness of years, they de∣ceive and frustrate the good hope that is conceived of them. Neither is it impertinent that this Flower is said to be consecrated to the infernal Deities, because Men of this disposition become unprofitable to all humane things: For whatsoever produceth no Fruit of it self, but passeth▪ and vanisheth as if it had never been, (like the way of a Ship in the Sea,) that the Ancients were wont to dedicate to the Ghosts, and Powers below.