Bacon: His Writings, and His Philosophy |
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according Advancement ancient appear Bacon beginning better body Book called cause Church collection common continued death desire difference divine doth earth edition effect English entitled Essays example excellent experience fortune give given greater hand hath head heat History honour hope human imagination instances invention Italy kind king knowledge Latin learning least less light likewise living Lord Majesty man's manner matter means method mind motion nature never observed opinion original particular pass persons philosophy present prince principal published reason received respect rest sciences sense side speak speech spirit stand taken things third thought tion touching translation true truth turn understanding unto virtue whereof whole wind writings written
Popular passages
Page 38 - 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.
Page 36 - 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.
Page 27 - It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore and to see ships tossed upon the sea; a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle and to see a battle and the adventures thereof below; but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth" (a hill not to be commanded, and where the air is always clear and serene) "and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests in the vale below.
Page 49 - IT were better to have no opinion of God at all, than such an opinion as is unworthy of him; for the one is unbelief, the other is contumely: and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity. Plutarch saith well to that purpose:
Page 74 - GOD ALMIGHTY first planted a garden. And, indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures ; it is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man, without which buildings and palaces are but gross handiworks.
Page 26 - Certainly there be that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting free-will in thinking, as well as in acting.
Page 33 - It is worthy the observing, that there is no passion in the mind of man so weak, but it mates and masters the fear of death; and therefore death is no such terrible enemy when a man hath so many attendants about him that can win the combat of him. Revenge triumphs over death; love slights it; honour aspireth to it; grief flieth to it...
Page 80 - Reading maketh a full man ; conference a ready man ; and writing an exact man ; and, therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory ; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit ; and if he read little, he need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not.
Page 75 - And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes like the warbling of music), than in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that delight than to know what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air.
Page 52 - Wisdom for a man's self is, in many branches thereof, a depraved thing. It is the wisdom of rats, that will be sure to leave a house somewhat before it fall. It is the wisdom of the fox, that thrusts out the badger, who digged and made room for him. It is the wisdom of crocodiles, that shed tears when they would devour. But that which is specially to be noted is, that those which (as Cicero says of Pompey) are sui amantes sine rivali, are many times unfortunate.
Bibliographic information
| Title | Bacon: His Writings, and His Philosophy The masterpieces of English literature |
| Author | George Lillie Craik |
| Publisher | Richard Griffin, 1860 |
| Original from | Harvard University |
| Digitized | 19 Oct 2007 |
| Length | 715 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |