The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England.

22 ESSAYS CIVIL AND MORAL.
and not respects. The united provinces of the "Illam Terra parens, ira irritata Deorurn,
Extremam (ut perhibent) Cceo Enceladoque sororem
Low Countries in their government excel; for Progenuit."
where there is an equality the consultations are
more indifferent, and the payments and tributes As if fames were the relics of seditions past;
more cheerful. A great and potent nobility but they are noless indeed the preludes of seditions
addeth majesty to a monarch, but diminisheth to come. Howsoever he noteth it right, that sepower, and putteth life and spirit into the people, ditious tumults and seditious fames differ no more
but presseth their fortune. It is well when nobles but as brother and sister, masculine and feminine;
are not too great for sovereignty nor for justice; especially if it come to that, that the best actions
and yet maintained in that height, as the insolen- of a state, and the most plausible, which ought to
cy of inferiors may be broken upon them before it give greatest contentment, are taken in ill sense,
come on too fast upon the majesty of kings. A and traduced: for that shows the envy great, as
numerous nobility causeth poverty and inconve- Tacitus saith, 1" conflata, magna invidia, seu bene,
nience in a state, for it is a surcharge of expense; seu male, gesta premunt." Neither doth it follow,
and besides, it being of necessity that many of the that because these fames are a sign of troubles,
nobility fall in time to be weak in fortune, it mak- that the suppressing of them with too much seeth a kind of disproportion between honour and verity should be a remedy of troubles; forthe demeans. spising of them many times checks them best,
As for nobility in particular persons, it is a re- and the going about to stop them doth but make
verend thing to see an ancient castle or building a wonder long lived. Also that kind of obedinot in decay, or to see a fair timber tree sound ence, which Tacitus speaketh of, is to be held susand perfect; how much more to behold an an- pected: ", Erant in officio, sed tamen qui mallent
cient noble family, which hath stood against the mandata imperantium interpretari, quam exequi;"
waves and weathers of time for new nobility is disputing, excusing, cavilling upon mandates and
but the act of power, but ancient nobility is the act directions, is a kind of shaking off the yoke, and
of time. Those that are first raised to nobility assay of disobedience; especially if in those disare commonly more virtuous, but less innocent, putings they which are for the direction speak
than their descendants; for there is rarely any ris- fearfully and tenderly, and those that are against
ing but by a commixture of good and evil arts; it audaciously.
but it is reason the memory of their virtues remain Also, as Machiavel noteth well, when princes,
to their posterity, and their faults die with them- that ought to be common parents, make themselves
selves. Nobility of birth commonly abateth in- as a party and lean to a side: it is, as a boat that
dustry; and he that is not industrious, envieth is overthrown by uneven weight on the one side;
him that is; besides noble persons cannot go as was well seen in the time of Henry the Third
much higher: and he that standeth at a stay when of France; for first himself entered league for the
others rise, can hardly avoid motions of envy. extirpation of the Protestants, and presently after
On the other side, nobility extinguisheth the the same league was turned upon himself: for
passive envy from others towards them, because when the authority of princes is made but an acthey are in possession of honour. Certainly, kings cessary to a cause, and that there be other bands
that have able men of their nobility shall find ease that tie faster than the band of sovereignty, kings
in employing them, and a better slide into their begin to be put almost out of possession.
business; for people naturally bend to them as Also, when discords, and quarrels, and factions,
born in some sort to command. are carried openly and audaciously, it is a sign the
reverence of government is lost; for the motions
XV. OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES. of the greatest persons in a government ought to
SHEPHERDS of people had need know the calen- be as the motions of the planets under "primur
dars and tempests in state, which are commonly mobile,"(according to the old opinion,) which is,
greatest when things grow to equality; as natural that every of them is carried swiftly by the hightempests are greatest about the equinoctia; and as est motion, and softly in their own motion; and,
there are certain hollow blasts of wind and secret therefore, when great ones in their own particular
swellin(rs of seas before a tempest, so are there in motion move violently, and, is Tacitus expresseth
states; it well, " liberius quam ut imperantium memi- Ille etiam cecos instare tumultus nissent," it is a sign the orbs are out of frame: for
S-epe monet, fraudesque operta tumescere bella." reverence is that wherewith princes are girt from
Libels and licentious discourses against the God, who threateneth the dissolving thereof; " solstate, when they are frequent and open; and in like vain cingula regum."
sort false news often running up and down, to the So when any of the four pillars of government
disadvantage of the state, and hastily embraced, are mainly shaken, or weakened, (which are reliare amongst the signs of troubles. Virgil, giv- gion, justice, counsel, and treasure,) men had
ing the pedigree of Fame, saith she was sister to need to pray for fair weather. But let us pass
the giants: from this part of predictions, (concerning which,