if they be never so ill used, yet you shall seldom see them complain but to set a good face on it.

9. Quod opera et virtute nostra partum est majus bonum; quod ab alieno beneficio, vel ab indulgentia fortunæ delatum est minus bonum.

The reasons are first the future hope, because in the favours of others or the good winds of fortune we have no state or certainty; in our endeavours or abilities we have. So as when they have purchased us one good fortune, we have them as ready and better edged and inured to procure another.

The forms be: You have won this by play: you have not only the water, but you have the receipt; you can make it again if it be lost, etc.

Next because these properties which we enjoy by the benefit of others carry with them an obligation, which seemeth a kind of burthen, whereas the other which derive from ourselves, are like the freest patents absque aliquo inde reddendo, and if they proceed from fortune or providence, yet they seem to touch us secretly with the reverence of the divine powers whose favours we taste, and therefore work a kind of religious fear and restraint, whereas in the other kind, that comes to pass which the Prophet spe kth, Lætantur et exultant, immolant plagis suis, et sacrificant reti suo.1

Thirdly because that which cometh unto us without our own virtue yieldeth not that commendation and reputation; for actions of great felicity may draw wonder, but praise less, as Cicero said to Cæsar: Quæ miremur habemus, quæ laudemus expectamus.

Fourthly because the purchases of our own industry are joined commonly with labour and strife which gives an edge and appetite, and makes the fruition of our desire more pleasant, Suavis cibus a venatu.

On the other side there be four counter colours to this colour rather than reprehensions, because they be as large as the colour itself. First because felicity seemeth to be a character of the favour and love of the divine powers, and accordingly worketh both confidence in ourselves and respect and authority from others. And this felicity extendeth to many casual things, whereunto the care or virtue of man cannot extend, and therefore seemeth to be a larger good, as when Casar said to the sailor, Cæsarem portas et fortunam ejus, if he had said, et virtutem ejus, it had been small comfort against a tempest, otherwise than if it might seem upon merit to induce fortune.

Next, whatsoever is done by virtue and industry seems to be done by a kind of habit and art, and therefore open to be imitated and followed, whereas felicity is inimitable: so we generally see that things of nature seem more excellent than things of art, because they be inimitable, for quod imitabile est potentia quadam vulgatum est.

Thirdly, felicity commendeth those things which cometh without our own labour, for they seem gifts, and the other seem pennyworths : whereupon Plutarch saith elegantly of the acts of Timoleon, who was so fortunate, compared with the acts of Agesilaus and Epaminondas,

1 Habukuk i. 15, 16.

That they were like Homer's verses, they ran so easily and so well, and therefore it is the word we give unto poesy, terming it a happy vein, because facility seemeth ever to come from happiness.

Fourthly, this same præter spem, vel præter expectatum, doth increase the price and pleasure of many things, and this cannot be incident to those things that proceed from our own care and compass.

10. Gradus privationis major videtur quam gradus diminutionis; et rursus gradus inceptionis major videtur quam gradus incrementi.

It is a position in the Mathematics that there is no proportion between somewhat and nothing, therefore the degree of nullity and quiddity or act seemeth larger than the degrees of increase and decrease, as to a monoculos it is more to lose one eye, than to a man that hath two eyes. So if one have lost divers children, it is more grief to him to lose the last than all the rest, because he is spes gregis. And therefore Sybilla when she brought her three books, and had burned two, did double the whole price of both the other, because the burning of that had been gradus privationis, and not diminutionis. This colour is reprehended first in those things the use and service whereof resteth in sufficiency, competency, or determinate quantity; as if a man be to pay one hundred pounds upon a penalty, it is more for him to want twelve pence, than after that twelve pence supposed to be wanting, to want ten shillings more; so the decay of a man's estate seems to be most touched in the degree when he first grows behind, more than afterwards when he proves nothing worth. And hereof the common forms are, Sera in fundo parsimonia, and as good never a whit, as never the better, &c. It is reprehended also in respect of that notion, Corruptio unius, generatio alterius, so that gradus privationis is many times less matter, because it gives the cause and motive to some new course. As when Demosthenes reprehended the people for harkening to the conditions offered by King Philip, being not honourable nor equal, he saith they were but aliments of their sloth and weakness, which, if they were taken away, necessity would teach them stronger resolutions. So Doctor Hector was wont to say to the dames of London, when they complained they were they could not tell how, but yet they could not endure to take any medicine, he would tell them, Their way was only to be sick, for then they would be glad to take any medicine.

Thirdly, this colour may be reprehended, in respect that the degree of decrease is more sensitive than the degree of privation; for in the mind of man, gradus diminutionis may work a wavering between hope and fear, and so keep the mind in suspense from settling and accommodating in patience, and resolution; hereof the common forms are, Better eye out than always ache, make or mar, &c.

For the second branch of this colour, it depends upon the same general reason: hence grew the common place of extolling the beginning of everything,

Dimidium facti qui bene cœpit habet.

This made the astrologers so idle as to judge of a man's nature and

destiny by the constellation of the moment of his nativity or conception. This colour is reprehended, because many inceptions are but as Epicurus termeth them, tentamenta, that is, imperfect offers and essays, which vanish and come to no substance without an iteration, so as in such cases the second degree seems the worthiest, as the bodyhorse in the cart, that draweth more than the fore-horse. Hereof the common forms are, The second blow makes the fray, The second word makes the bargain. Alter malo principium dedit, alter modum abstulit, etc. Another reprehension of this colour is in respect of defatigation, which makes perseverance of greater dignity than inception,2 for chance or instinct of nature may cause inception, but settled affection or judgment maketh the continuance.

Thirdly, this colour is reprehended in such things which have a natural course, and inclination contrary to an inception. So that the inception is continually evacuated and gets no start, as in the common form. Non progredi, est regredi, Qui non proficit, deficit: Running against the hill: Rowing against the stream, &c. For if it be with the stream or with the hill, then the degree of inception is more than all the rest.

Fourthly, this colour is to be understood of gradus inceptionis a potentia, ad actum comparatus; cum gradu ab actu ad incrementum : for otherwise, major videtur gradus ab impotentia ad potentiam, quam a potentia ad actum.

THE FIRST BOOK OF THE PROFICIENCE AND ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING,

To the KING.

THERE were under the law, excellent king, both daily sacrifices, and freewill offerings: the one proceeding upon ordinary observance, the other upon a devout cheerfulness in like manner there belongeth to kings from their servants, both tribute of duty, and presents of affection. In the former of these, I hope I shall not live to be wanting, according to my most humble duty, and the good pleasure of your majesty's employments: for the latter, I thought it more respective to make choice of some oblation, which might rather refer to the propriety and excellency of your individual person, than to the business of your crown and state.

Wherefore representing your majesty many times unto my mind, and beholding you not with the inquisitive eye of presumption, to discover that which the Scripture telleth me is inscrutable, but with the observant eye of duty and admiration : leaving aside the other parts of your virtue and fortune, I have been touched, yea, and possessed with an extreme wonder at those your virtues and faculties, which the philosophers call intellectual: the largeness of your capacity, the faithfulness of your memory, the swiftness of your apprehension, the penetration of your judgment, and the facility and order of your elocution and I have often thought, that of all the persons living, that I have known, your majesty were the best instance to make a man of Plato's opinion, that all knowledge is but remembrance, and that the mind of man by nature knoweth all things, and hath but her own native and original notions (which by the strangeness and darkness of this tabernacle of the body are sequestered) again revived and restored such a light of nature I have observed in your majesty, and such a readiness to take flame, and blaze from the least occasion presented, or the least spark of another's knowledge delivered. And as the Scripture saith of the wisest king, "That his heart was as the sands of the sea; "2 which though it be one of the largest bodies, yet it consisteth of the smallest and finest portions: so hath God given your majesty a composition of understanding admirable, being able to compass and comprehend the greatest matters, and nevertheless to touch and apprehend the least; whereas it should seem an impossibility in nature for the same instrument to make itself fit for great

1 Solomon.

2

1 Kings iv. 29: "Largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore."

K

and small works. And for your gift of speech, I call to mind what Cornelius Tacitus saith of Augustus Cæsar: "Augusto profluens, et quæ principem deceret, eloquentia fuit." For, if we note it well, speech that is uttered with labour and difficulty, or speech that savoureth of the affectation of art and precepts, or speech that is framed after the imitation of some pattern of eloquence, though never so excellent; all this has somewhat servile, and holding of the subject. But your majesty's manner of speech is indeed prince-like, flowing as from a fountain, and yet streaming and branching itself into nature's order, full of facility and felicity, imitating none, and inimitable by any. And as in your civil estate there appeareth to be an emulation and contention of your majesty's virtue with your fortune; a virtuous disposition with a fortunate regiment; a virtuous expectation, when time was, of your greater fortune, with a prosperous possession thereof in the due time; a virtuous observation of the laws of marriage, with most blessed and happy fruit of marriage; a virtuous and most Christian desire of peace, with a fortunate inclination in your neighbour princes thereunto so likewise in these intellectual matters, there seemeth to be no less contention between the excellency of your majesty's gifts of nature, and the universality and perfection of your learning. For I am well assured, that this which I shall say is no amplification at all, but a positive and measured truth; which is, that there hath not been since Christ's time any king, or temporal monarch, which hath been so learned in all literature and erudition, divine and human. For let a man seriously and diligently revolve and peruse the succession of the emperors of Rome, of which Cæsar the dictator, who lived some years before Christ, and Marcus Antoninus, were the best learned; and so descend to the emperors of Græcia, or of the West; and then to the lines of France, Spain, England, Scotland, and the rest, and he shall find this judgment is truly made. For it seemeth much in a king, if, by the compendious extractions of other men's wits and labours, he can take hold of any superficial ornaments and shows of learning, or if he countenance and prefer learning and learned men; but to drink indeed of the true fountains of learning, nay, to have such a fountain of learning in himself, in a king, and in a king born, is almost a miracle. And the more, because there is met in your majesty a rare conjunction, as well of divine and sacred literature, as of profane and human; so as your majesty standeth invested of that triplicity, which in great veneration was ascribed to the ancient Hermes: the power and fortune of a king, the knowledge and illumination of a priest, and the learning and universality of a philosopher. This propriety, inherent and individual attribute in your majesty, deserveth to be expressed, not only in the fame and admiration of the present time, nor in the history or tradition of the ages succeeding; but also in some solid work, fixed memorial, and immortal monument, bearing a character or signature, both of the power of a king, and the difference and perfection of such a king.

Therefore I did conclude with myself, that I could not make unto your majesty a better oblation, than of some treatise tending to that

1 Hermes Trismegistus, a priest and philosopher of Egypt in the age of Osiris.