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self, the latter in others towards him. All wise men to decline the envy of their own virtues, use to ascribe them to Providence and fortune; for so they may the better assume them: and besides, it is greatness in a man to be the care of the higher powers. So Cæsar said to the pilot in the tempest, Cæsarem portas, et fortunam ejus.* So Sylla chose the name of Felix, and not of Magnus. And it hath been noted, that those who ascribe openly too much to their own wisdom and policy end infortunate. It is written, that Timotheus the Athenian, after he had, in the account he gave to the state of his government, often interlaced his speech, and in this fortune had no part,' never prospered in anything he undertook afterwards. Certainly there be, whose fortunes are like Homer's verses, that have a slide and easiness more than the verses of other poets; as Plutarch saith of Timoleon's fortune, in respect of that of Agesilaus, or Epaminondas: and that this should be, no doubt it is much in a man's self.

The Forty-first, entitled "Of Usury," first appeared in the edition of 1625. By usury Bacon means simply taking interest for money; and, with all his penetration, he was not before his age in his views upon this and other questions of commerce and political economy, as may be seen both from the present essay, and more fully from his History of Henry the Seventh. He was too sagacious, however, to contend that the taking of interest for money could be altogether dispensed with or put down; and accordingly, after having here pointed out what he calls "the discommodities of usury," he proceeds :

On the other side, the commodities of usury are: first, that howsoever usury in some respect hindereth merchandizing, yet in some other it advanceth it: for it is certain, that the greatest part of trade is driven by young merchants, upon borrowing at interest: so as if the usurer either call in, or keep back his money, there will ensue presently a great stand of trade. The second is, that were it not for this easy borrowing upon interest, men's necessities would draw upon them a most sudden undoing, in that they would be forced to sell their means (be it lands or goods) far under foot; and so, whereas

* Thou bearest Cæsar, and his fortune too.

usury doth but gnaw upon them, bad markets would swallow them quite up. As for mortgaging or pawning, it will little mend the matter; for either men will not take pawns without use, or if they do, they will look precisely for the forfeiture. I remember a cruel monied man in the country that would say, 'The devil take this usury, it keeps us from forfeitures of mortgages and bonds.' The third and last is, that it is a vanity to conceive, that there would be ordinary borrowing without profit; and it is impossible to conceive the number of inconveniences that will ensue, if borrowing be cramped: therefore, to speak of the abolishing of usury is idle. All states have ever had it in one kind, or rate or other; so as that opinion must be sent to Utopia.

The Forty-second Essay, "Of Youth and Age," which is one of those published in 1612, must be given nearly in full :

A man that is young in years, may be old in hours, if he have lost no time, but that happeneth rarely. Generally youth is like the first cogitations, not so wise as the second; for there is a youth in thoughts as well as in ages: and yet the invention of young men is more lively than that of old, and imaginations stream into their minds better, and, as it were, more divinely. Natures that have much heat, and great and violent desires and perturbations, are not ripe for action till they have passed the meridian of their years; as it was with Julius Cæsar, and Septimius Severus, of the latter of whom it is said, 'Juventutem egit erroribus, imo furoribus plenam;'* and yet he was the ablest emperor almost of all the list. But reposed natures may do well in youth, as it is seen in Augustus Cæsar, Cosmus, Duke of Florence, Gaston de Fois, and others. On the other side, heat and vivacity in age is an excellent composition for business. Young men are fitter to invent than to judge, fitter for execution than for counsel, and fitter for new projects than for settled business. For the experience of age in things that fall within the compass of it, directeth them, but in new things abuseth them. The errors of young men are the ruin of business; but the errors of aged men amount but to this, that more might have been done or sooner. Young men in the conduct and manage of actions embrace more than they can hold, stir more than they can quiet, fly to the end without consideration of

*He spent his youth not merely in errors, but in madness.

the means and degrees, pursue some few principles which they have chanced upon absurdly, care not to innovate, which draws unknown inconveniences; use extreme remedies at first, and, that which doubleth all errors, will not acknowledge or retract them, like an unready horse, that will neither stop nor turn. Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success. Certainly it is good to compound employments of both; for that will be good for the present, because the virtues of either age may correct the defects of both, and good for succession, that young men may be learners, while men in age are actors; and lastly, good for external accidents, because authority followeth old men, and favour and popularity youth. But for the moral part perhaps youth will have the pre-eminence, as age hath for the politic. A certain Rabbin upon the text, 'Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams,' inferreth, that young men are admitted nearer to God than old, because vision is a clearer revelation than a dream. And certainly the more a man drinketh of the world, the more it intoxicateth; and age doth profit rather in the powers of understanding, than in the virtues of the will and affections. . . .

Of the Forty-third, entitled "Of Beauty," also published in 1612,the following is the most material portion :

Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set; and surely virtue is best in a body that is comely, though not of delicate features, and that hath rather dignity of presence, than beauty of aspect. Neither is it almost seen that very beautiful persons are otherwise of great virtue, as if nature were rather busy not to err, than in labour to produce excellency; and therefore they prove accomplished, but not of great spirit, and study rather behaviour than virtue. But this holds not always; for Augustus Cæsar, Titus Vespasianus, Philip le Bel of France, Edward the Fourth of England, Alcibiades of Athens, Ismael the Sophi of Persia, were all high and great spirits, and yet the most beautiful men of their times. . . . . . That is the best part of beauty which a picture cannot express, no nor the first sight of the life. There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion...

And here is the most striking part of the Forty-fourth,

entitled "Of Deformity," which likewise accompanied that on Beauty in the edition of 1612:—

Whosoever hath anything fixed in his person that doth induce contempt, hath also a perpetual spur in himself to rescue and deliver himself from scorn; therefore all deformed persons are extreme bold; first, as in their own defence as being exposed to scorn, but in process of time by a general habit. Also it stirreth in them industry, and especially of this kind to watch and observe the weakness of others, that they may have somewhat to repay. Again, in their superiors it quencheth jealousy towards them, as persons that they think they may at pleasure despise; and it layeth their competitors and emulators asleep, as never believing they should be in possibility of advancement till they see them in possession, so that upon the matter, in a great wit, deformity is an advantage to rising...

The two next Essays, which are intimately connected, and which both appeared first in 1625, although long, will scarcely admit of curtailment. They are among the most elaborate and interesting in the collection. The Forty-fifth, entitled "Of Building," after some introductory remarks, proceeds as follows:

I

You cannot have a perfect palace except you have two several sides, a side for the banquet as is spoken of in the book of Esther, and a side for the household; the one for feasts and triumphs and the other for dwelling. I understand both these sides to be not only returns but parts of the front, and to be uniform without, though severally partitioned within, and to be on both sides of a great and stately tower in the midst of the front, that as it were joineth them together on either hand. would have on the side of the banquet in front one only goodly room above stairs, of some forty foot high, and under it a room for a dressing or preparing place at times of triumphs; on the other side, which is the household side, I wish it divided at the first into a hall and a chapel (with a partition between), both of good state and biguess, and those not to go all the length, but to have at the further end a winter and a summer parlour, both fair; and under these rooms a fair and large cellar sunk under ground, and likewise some privy kitchens with butteries and pantries, and the like; as for the tower I would have it two stories of eighteen foot high apiece above the two wings, and a goodly leads upon the top railed with statues interposed; and the same tower to be divided into rooms as shall be

thought fit. The stairs likewise to the upper rooms, let them be upon a fair open newel and finely railed in with images of wood cast into a brass colour, and a very fair landing place at the top. But this to be, if you do not point any of the lower rooms for a dining place of servants, for otherwise you shall have the servants' dinner after your own, for the steam of it will come up as in a tunnel. And so much for the front, only I understand the height of the first stairs to be sixteen foot, which is the height of the lower room.

Beyond this front is there to be a fair court, but three sides of it of a far lower building than the front, and in all the four corners of that court fair staircases cast into turrets on the outside and not within the row of buildings themselves; but those towers are not to be of the height of the front, but rather proportionable to the lower building. Let the court not be paved, for that striketh up a great heat in summer and much cold in, winter, but only some side alleys with a cross, and the quarters to graze being kept shorn, but not too near shorn. The row of return on the banquet side let it be all stately galleries, in which galleries let there be three or five fine cupolas in the length of it, placed at equal distance, and fine coloured windows of several works. On the household side, chambers of presence and ordinary entertainments, with some bed chambers, and let all three sides be a double house without thorough lights on the sides, that you may have rooms from the sun both for forenoon and afternoon. Cast it also that you may have rooms both for summer and winter, shady for summer and warm for winter. You shall have sometimes fair houses so full of glass that one cannot tell where to become to be out of the sun or cold; for inbowed windows I hold them of good use, (in cities indeed upright do better in respect of the uniformity towards the street,) for they be pretty retiring places for conference, and besides they keep both the wind and the sun off, for that which would strike almost through the room doth scarce pass the window; but let them be but few, four in in the court on the sides only.

Beyond this court let there be an inward court of the same square and height, which is to be environed with the garden on all sides; and in the inside cloistered on all sides upon decent and beautiful arches as high as the first story. On the under story towards the garden let it be turned to a grotto, or place of shade or estivation, and only have opening and windows towards the garden, and be level upon the floor no whit sunken under ground to avoid all dampishness; and let there be