Bacon: His Writings, and His PhilosophyRichard Griffin, 1860 - 715 pages |
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Page 16
... pass by a jest , was nobly censorious [ censor- like ] . No man ever spake more neatly , more pressly , more weightily , or suffered less emptiness , less idle- ness , in what he uttered . No member of his speech but consisted of his ...
... pass by a jest , was nobly censorious [ censor- like ] . No man ever spake more neatly , more pressly , more weightily , or suffered less emptiness , less idle- ness , in what he uttered . No member of his speech but consisted of his ...
Page 20
... pass had been to adventure the wrong they might receive by untrue copies , or by some garnishment which it might please any that should set them forth to bestow upon them . " From this it may be inferred that , as was then common , they ...
... pass had been to adventure the wrong they might receive by untrue copies , or by some garnishment which it might please any that should set them forth to bestow upon them . " From this it may be inferred that , as was then common , they ...
Page 27
... pass from theological and philosophical truth to the truth of civil business , it will be acknowledged , even by those that practise it not , that clear and round dealing is the honour of man's nature , and that mixture of falsehood is ...
... pass from theological and philosophical truth to the truth of civil business , it will be acknowledged , even by those that practise it not , that clear and round dealing is the honour of man's nature , and that mixture of falsehood is ...
Page 28
... pass into common property , and cease to be recognisable as the thought of an indi- vidual . But it does not so happen . An original thought never loses its stamp of originality . If it has been struck out in an illiterate and ...
... pass into common property , and cease to be recognisable as the thought of an indi- vidual . But it does not so happen . An original thought never loses its stamp of originality . If it has been struck out in an illiterate and ...
Page 30
... passes on to the next . Yet the characteristic of his writing is pre - eminently wit , understood in the largest and highest sense , as the perception and exhibi- tion of things in their less obvious relations . Upon no topic is he ever ...
... passes on to the next . Yet the characteristic of his writing is pre - eminently wit , understood in the largest and highest sense , as the perception and exhibi- tion of things in their less obvious relations . Upon no topic is he ever ...
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Common terms and phrases
amongst ancient aphorisms Apophthegms appear Aristotle atheism Augmentis Augustus Cæsar axioms Bacon better body Book Cæsar called cause Church Cicero colour conceive Democritus discourse diurnal motion divers divine doctrine doth earth edition effect English entitled Essays excellent experience fortune give Glassford hand hath heat History honour House of York human imagination instances Instauratio Instauratio Magna Instauration invention Julius Cæsar kind king king's knowledge labour Lambert Simnell Latin learning light likewise Lord lordship Majesty maketh man's manner matter means men's ment mind motion natural philosophy nature never Novum Organum observed opinion persons philosophy prince published queen Rawley reason Resuscitatio saith sciences seemeth sense Sir Francis Bacon Spain speak speech spirit syllogism things thought tion touching translation true truth unto virtue wherein whereof wind wisdom words writings
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.