dolours of death. But above all, believe it, the sweetest canticle is Nunc dimittis "*-when a man hath obtained worthy ends and expectations. Death hath this also-that it openeth the gate to good fame, and extinguisheth envy. 'Extinetus amabitur idem.'†

The Third Essay, 'Of Unity in Religion,' is an enlargement of one which had appeared in the edition of 1612. It is longer than usual; but, one or two short passages will suffice as samples of the manner in which the subject is treated. Having remarked that "the fruits of unity, next unto the well-pleasing of God, which is all in all, are two; the one towards those that are without the church, the other towards those that are within;" the author proceeds :

For the former :—It is certain that heresies and schisms are of all others the greatest scandals, yea, more than corruption of manners. For as in the natural body a wound or solution of continuity is worse than a corrupt humour, so in the spiritual. So that nothing doth so much keep men out of the church, and drive men out of the church, as breach of unity; and therefore whensoever it cometh to that pass that one saith Ecce in deserto,' another saith Ecce in penetralibus; that is, when some men seek Christ in the conventicles of heretics, and others in an outward face of a church, that voice had need continually to sound in men's ears, 'Nolite exire,' Go not out. The doctor of the Gentiles (the propriety of whose vocation drew him to have a special care of those without) saith, 'If an heathen come in and hear you speak with several tongues, will he not say that you are mad? And certainly it is little better when atheists and profane persons do hear of so many discordant and contrary opinions in religion; it doth avert them from the church, and maketh them to sit down in the chair of the

scorners.

He afterwards gives the following advice in regard to the true rule or principle of unity :

Men ought to take heed of rending God's church by two

* Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace. The same person shall be beloved after death. Behold, he is in the desert.

§ Behold, he is in the secret chamber of the house.

kinds of controversies: the one is when the matter of the point controverted is too small and light, not worth the heat and strife about it, kindled only by contradiction. For, as it is noted by one of the fathers, Christ's coat indeed had no seam, but the church's vesture was of divers colours; whereupon he saith, 'In veste varietas sit, scissura non sit,* They be two thingsunity and uniformity. The other is when the matter of the point controverted is great, but it is driven to an over-great subtilty and obscurity, so that it becometh a thing rather ingenious than substantial. A man that is of judgment and understanding shall sometimes hear ignorant men differ, and know well within himself that those which so differ mean one thing, and yet they themselves would never agree. And if it come so to pass, in that distance of judgment which is between man and man, shall we not think that God above, that knows the heart, doth not discern that frail men, in some of their contradictions, intend the same thing, and accepteth of both.

Of the Fourth Essay, 'Of Revenge,' first printed in the edition of 1625, the following is the commence

ment:

Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out. For as for the first wrong, it doth but offend the law; but the revenge of that wrong putteth the law out of office. Certainly, in taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior-for it is a prince's part to pardon. And Solomon, I am sure, saith, 'It is the glory of a man to pass by an offence.' That which is past is gone, and irrecoverable; and wise men have enough to do with things present and to come; therefore they do but trifle with themselves that labour in past matters. There is no man doth a wrong for the wrong's sake, but thereby to purchase himself profit, or pleasure, or honour, or the like. Therefore why should I be angry with a man for loving himself better than me? And if any man should do wrong merely out of ill nature, why, yet it is but like the thorn or briar, which prick and scratch because they can do no other.

And here are the commencement and conclusion of

* There may be variety in the vesture, but let there be no division.

the Fifth, entitled 'Of Adversity,' which was also one of those added in the edition of 1625 :

It was a high speech of Seneca (after the manuer of the Stoics), That the good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired- Bona rerum secundarum optabilia, adversarum mirabilia.' Certainly if miracles be the command over nature, they appear most in adversity. It is yet a higher speech of his than the other (much too high for a heathen), It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god- Vere magnum habere fragilitatem hominis, securitatem Dei.' This would have done better in poesy, where transcendencies are more allowed. And the poets indeed have been busy with it; for it is in effect the thing which is figured in that strange fiction of the ancient poets, which seemeth not to be without mystery, nay, and to have some approach to the state of a Christian: That Hercules, when he went to unbind Prometheus (by whom human nature is represented), sailed the length of the great ocean in an earthen pot or pitcher; livelily describing Christian resolution that saileth in the frail bark of the flesh through the waves of the world. We see in

needle-works and embroideries it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground. Judge therefore of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye. Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.

The Sixth Essay, 'Of Simulation and Dissimulation,' was likewise new in 1625. The following are its most material or striking passages:—

Dissimulation is but a faint kind of policy or wisdom; for it asketh a strong wit and a strong heart to know when to tell truth, and to do it. Therefore it is the weaker sort of politics that are the great dissemblers.

Tacitus saith, 'Livia sorted well with the arts of her hus band and dissimulation of her son, attributing arts or policy to Augustus and dissimulation to Tiberius. And again, when Mucianus encourageth Vespasian to take arms against Vitellius he saith, We rise not against the piercing judgment of Augustus, nor the extreme caution or closeness of Tiberius.'

These properties of arts, or policy and dissimulation, or closeness, are indeed habits and faculties, several, and to be distinguished. For if a man have that penetration of judgment as he can discern what things are to be laid open, and what to be secreted, and what to be showed at half lights, and to whom, and when (which indeed are arts of state and arts of life, as Tacitus well calleth them), to him, a habit of dissimulation is a hindrance and a poorness: but if a man cannot attain to that judgment, then it is left to him generally to be close and a dissembler. For where a man cannot choose or vary in particulars, there it is good to take the safest and wariest way in general, like the going softly by one that cannot well see. Certainly the ablest men that ever were have had all an openness and frankness of dealing, and a name of certainty and veracity; but then they were like horses well managed, for they could tell passing well when to stop or turn: and at such times, when they thought the case indeed required dissimulation, if then they used it, it came to pass that the former opinion spread abroad of their good faith, and clearness of dealing, made them almost invisible. In few words, mysteries are due to secrecy. Besides, to say truth, nakedness is uncomely as well in mind as body; and it addeth no small reverence to men's manners and actions if they be not altogether open. As for talkers and futile persons, they are commonly vain and credulous withal; for he that talketh what he knoweth will also talk what he knoweth not. Therefore set it down, that a habit of secrecy is both politic and moral. And in this part it is good, that a man's face give his tongue leave to speak; for the discovery of a man's self, by the tracks of his countenance is a great weakness and betraying, by how much it is many times more marked and believed than a man's words.

....

In conclusion, those advantages which are considered to belong to the practice of Simulation and Dissimulation having been enumerated, it is added :—

The first,

There be also three disadvantages to set it even. that simulation and dissimulation commonly carry with them a show of fearfulness, which, in any business, doth spoil the feathers of round flying up to the mark. The second, that it puzzleth and perplexeth the conceits of many, that perhaps would otherwise co-operate with him, and makes a man walk almost alone to his own ends. The third and greatest is, that it

depriveth a man of one of the most principal instruments for action, which is trust and belief. The best composition and temperature is to have openness in fame and opinion, secrecy in habit, dissimulation in seasonable use, and a power to feign if there be no remedy.

Of the Seventh Essay, entitled' Of Parents and Children,' which is one of those first printed in 1612, it will be enough to give a few sentences at the beginning :—

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears; they cannot utter the one, nor they will not utter the other. Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter they increase the cares of life, but they mitigate the remembrance of death. The perpetuity by generation is common to beasts; but memory, merit, and noble works are proper to men: and surely a man shall see the noblest works and foundations have proceeded from childless men, which have sought to express the images of their minds where those of their bodies have failed. So the care of posterity is most in them that have no posterity.

We will transcribe the whole of the Eighth, entitled 'Of Marriage and Single Life,' also one of those first given in the collection of 1612:

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune, for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men, which both in affection and means have married and endowed the public. Yet it were great reason that those that have children should have greatest care of future times, unto which they know they must transmit their dearest pledges. Some there are, who, though they lead a single life, yet their thoughts do end with themselves, and account future times impertinencies. Nay, there are some others that account wife and children but as bills of charges. Nay more, there are some foolish, rich, covetous men, that take a pride in having no children, because they may be thought so much the richer. For perhaps they have heard some talk, 'Such an one is a great rich man ; and another except to it, 'Yea, but he hath a great charge of children,' as if it were an abatement to his riches. But the most ordinary cause of a single life is liberty, especi