Believe not much them that seem to despise riches: for they despise them that despair of them; and none worse, when they come to them. Be not penny-wise; riches have wings, and sometimes they fly away of themselves, sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more.

Men leave their riches either to their kindred, or to the public; and moderate portions prosper best in both. A great estate left to an heir, is as a lure to all the birds of prey round about to seize on him, if he be not the better stablished in years and judgment. Likewise, glorious gifts and foundations are like sacrifices without salt, and but the painted sepulchres of alms, which soon will putrefy and corrupt inwardly. Therefore measure not thine advancements by quantity, but frame them by measure. And defer not charities till death. For, certainly, if a man weigh it rightly, he that doth so is rather liberal of another man's than of his own.

XXXV.

OF PROPHECIES.

I MEAN not to speak of divine prophecies, nor of heathen oracles, nor of natural predictions; but only of prophecies that have been of certain memory, and from hidden causes. Saith the Pythonissa3 to Saul, To-morrow thou and thy sons shall be with me.1 Virgil hath these verses from Homer:

At domus Enea cunctis dominabitur oris,
Et nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis,

a prophecy, as it seems, of the Roman empire. Seneca the tragedian hath these verses:

Venient annis

Sæcula seris, quibus Oceanus
Vincula rerum laxct, et ingens
Pateat tellus, Tiphysque novos
Delegat orbes; nec sit terris
Ultima Thule:

a prophecy of the discovery of America. The daughter of Polycrates dreamed that Jupiter bathed her father, and Apollo anointed him. And it came to pass that he was crucified in an open place, where the sun made his body run with sweat, and the rain washed it. Philip of Macedon dreamed he sealed up his wife's belly; whereby he did expound it, that his wife should be barren: but Aristander the soothsayer told him his wife was with child, because men do not use to seal vessels that are empty. A phantasm that appeared to M. Brutus in his tent, said to him, Philippis iterum me videbis. Tiberius said to Galba: Tu quoque, Galba, degustabis imperium. In Vespasian's time

1 Ostentatious.

2 Lacking the true spirit.

3 Or Pythoness, because of having the spirit of Python or Apollo, which was divination, They were the words of Samuel, but perhaps repeated by the witch of Endor to Saul. 1 Sam. xxviii., 19.

there went a prophecy in the East, that those that should come forth of Judea should reign over the world; which, though it may be was meant of our Saviour, yet Tacitus expounds it of Vespasian. Domitian dreamed, the night before he was slain, that a golden head was growing out of the nape of his neck; and, indeed, the succession that followed him, for many years, made golden times. Henry VI. of England said of Henry VII. when he was a lad, and gave him water, This is the lad that shall enjoy the crown for which we strive.' When I was in France, I heard from one Dr. Pena, that the Queen Mother, who was given to curious arts, caused the king' her husband's nativity to be calculated under a false name, and the astrologer gave a judg ment that he should be killed in a duel; at which the queen laughed, thinking her husband to be above challenges and duels: but he was slain upon a course at tilt, the splinters of the staff of Montgomery going in at his beaver.3 The trivial prophecy which I heard when I was a child, and Queen Elizabeth was in the flower of her years, was : When hempe is spun, England's done:

whereby it was generally conceived that, after the princes had reigned which had the principal letters of that word hempe (which were Henry, Edward, Mary, Philip, and Elizabeth), England should come to utter confusion which, thanks be to God, is verified in the change of the name; for that the king's style is now no more of England, but of Britain. There was also another prophecy before the year of eightyeight, which I do not well understand:

There shall be seen upon a day,
Between the Baugh and the May,
The black fleet of Norway.
When that that is come and gone,

England build houses of lime and stone,

For after wars shall you have none.

It was generally conceived to be meant of the Spanish fleet that came in eighty-eight; for that the king of Spain's surname, as they say, is Norway. The prediction of Regiomontanus,

L

Octogesimus octavus mirabilis annus

3 Henry 6, Act 4, scene 6.

K. Hen. My lord of Somerset, what youth is that
Of whom you seem to have so tender care?
Som. My liege, it is young Henry, earl of Richmond.
K. Hen. Come hither. England's hope: [Lays his
hand on his head.] If secret powers
Suggest but truth to my divining thoughts,
This pretty lad will prove our country's bliss.
His looks are full of peaceful majesty :
His head by nature framed to wear a crown,
His hand to wield a sceptre; and himself
Likely in time to bless a regal throne.
Make much of him, my lords; for this is he
Must help you more than you are hurt by me.
Shakespeare.

2 Henry the Second.

3

1559.

4 There is an Isle of May in the Firth of Forth; the prophecy was most probably meant to refer to the real Norwegian fleet which had once been the dread of Scotland, but which never came again in war after James's 1st marriage with Anne of Denmark.

was thought likewise accomplished in the sending of that great fleet, being the greatest in strength, though not in number, of all that ever swam upon the sea. As for Cleon's dream, I think it was a jest. It was, that he was devoured of a long dragon ; and it was expounded of a maker of sausages, that troubled him exceedingly. There are numbers of the like kind, especially if you include dreams, and predictions of astrology; but I have set down these few only of certain credit, for example.

My judgment is, that they ought all to be despised, and ought to serve but for winter-talk by the fireside. Though when I say despised, I mean it as for belief: for otherwise, the spreading or publishing of them is in no sort to be despised. For they have done much mischief, and I see many severe laws made to suppress them. That that hath given them grace, and some credit, consisteth in three things. First, that men mark when they hit, and never mark when they miss; as they do, generally, of dreams. The second is, that probable conjectures, or obscure traditions, many times turn themselves into prophecies; while the nature of Man, which coveteth divination, thinks it no peril to foretell that which indeed they do but collect: as that of Seneca's verse. For so much was then subject to demonstration, that the globe of the earth had great parts beyond the Atlantic, which might be probably conceived not to be all sea: and adding thereto the tradition in Plato's Timæus and his Atlanticus, it might encourage one to turn it to a prediction. The third and last (which is the great one) is, that almost all of them, being infinite in number, have been impostures, and by idle and crafty brains, merely contrived and feigned, after the event passed.

XXXVI.

OF AMBITION.

AMBITION is like choler; which is an humour that maketh mer active, earnest, full of alacrity, and stirring, if it be not stopped; but if it be stopped, and cannot have his way, it becometh adust, and thereby malign and venomous. So ambitious men, if they find the way open for their rising, and still get forward, they are rather busy than dangerous; but if they be checked in their desires, they become secretly discontent, and look upon men and matters with an evil eye, and are best pleased when things go backward; which is the worst property in a servant of a prince or State. Therefore, it is good for princes, if they use ambitious men, to handle it so as they be still progressive and not retrograde; which, because it cannot be without inconvenience, it is good not to use such natures at all. For if they rise not with their service, they will take order to make their service fall with them.

But since we have said, it were good not to use men of ambitious natures, except it be upon necessity, it is fit to speak in what cases they are of necessity. Good commanders in the wars must be taken,

be they never so ambitious; for the use of their service dispenseth with the rest; and to take a soldier without ambition is to pull off his spurs. There is also great use of ambitious men in being screens to princes in matters of danger and envy; for no man will take that part except he be like a seeled1 dove, that mounts and mounts, because he cannot see about him. There is use also of ambitious men in pulling down the greatness of any subject that overtops; as Tiberius2 used Macro in the pulling down of Sejanus.

Since, therefore, they must be used in such cases, there resteth to speak how they are to be bridled, that they may be less dangerous. There is less danger of them if they be of mean birth, than if they be noble and if they be rather harsh of nature, than gracious and popular; and if they be rather new raised, than grown cunning and fortified in their greatness. It is counted by some a weakness in princes to have favourites, but it is, of all others, the best remedy against ambitious great ones. For when the way of pleasuring and displeasuring lieth by the favourite, it is impossible any other should be over great. Another means to curb them, is to balance them by others as proud as they. But then there must be some middle counsellors to keep things steady; for without that ballast, the ship will roll too much. At the least, a prince may animate and inure some meaner persons to be, as it were, scourges to ambitious men. As for the having of them obnoxious to ruin, if they be of fearful natures it may do well but if they be stout and daring, it may precipitate their designs, and prove dangerous. As for the pulling of them down, if the affairs require it, and that it may not be done with safety suddenly, the only way is, the interchange continually of favours and disgraces, whereby they may not know what to expect, and be, as it were, in a wood.

Of ambitions, it is less harmful, the ambition to prevail in great things, than that other, to appear in everything; for that breeds confusion, and mars business. But yet it is less danger to have an ambitious man stirring in business, than great in dependencies. He that seeketh to be eminent amongst able men, hath a great task, but that is ever good for the public. But he that plots to be the only figure amongst cyphers, is the decay of a whole age.

Honour hath three things in it; the vantage ground to do good, the approach to kings and principal persons, and the raising of a man's own fortunes. He that hath the best of these intentions, when he aspireth, is an honest man; and that prince that can discern of these intentions in another that aspireth, is a wise prince. Generally, let princes and States choose such ministers as are more sensible of duty than of rising, and such as love business rather upon conscience than upon bravery3; and let them discern a busy nature from a willing mind.

1 Seeling was fastening the dove's eyelids down by a fine thread passed through them. 2 Emperor of Rome. Sejanus was his too powerful minister. Macro was the tool of Tiberius for destroying him, but was afterwards an accessory to the Emperor's murder by Nero.

3 Ostentation.

XXXVII.

OF MASQUES AND TRIUMPHS.

THESE things are but toys, to come amongst such serious observations. But yet, since princes will have such things, it is better they should be graced with elegancy than daubed with cost.

Dancing to song is a thing of great state and pleasure. I understand it that the song be in quire, placed aloft,1 and accompanied with some broken music, and the ditty fitted to the device. Acting in song, especially in dialogues, hath an extreme good grace—I say acting, not dancing (for that is a mean and vulgar thing)—and the voices of the dialogue would be strong and manly (a bass and a tenor, no treble), and the ditty high and tragical, not nice or dainty. Several quires placed one over against another, and taking the voice by catches, anthemwise, give great pleasure. Turning dances into figure is a childish curiosity. And generally let it be noted, that those things which I here set down, are such as do naturally take the sense, and not respect petty wonderments. It is true, the alteration of scenes, so it be quietly and without noise, are things of great beauty and pleasure; for they feed and relieve the eye before it be full of the same object. Let the scenes abound with light, especially coloured and varied; and let the masquers, or any other that are to come down from the scene, have some motions upon the scene itself before their coming down; for it draws the eye strangely, and makes it with great pleasure to desire to see that it cannot perfectly discern. Let the songs be loud and cheerful, and not chirpings or pulings. Let the music likewise be sharp and loud, and well placed. The colours that show best by candlelight are white, carnation, and a kind of sea-water green; and oes, or spangs, as they are of no great cost, so they are of most glory. As for rich embroidery, it is lost and not discerned. Let the suits of the masquers be graceful, and such as become the person when the vizards are off, not after examples of known attires, Turks, soldiers, mariners. and the like. Let anti-masques not be long; they have been commonly of fools, satyrs, baboons, wild men. antiques, beasts, sprites, witches, Æthiopes, pigmies, turquets,5 nymphs, rustics, Cupids, statuas moving, and the like. As for angels, it is not comical enough to put them in anti-masques; and anything that is hideous, as devils, giants, is, on the other side, as unfit. But chiefly, let the music of them be recrea tive, and with some strange changes. Some sweet odours suddenly coming forth, without any drops falling, are, in such a company, as there is steam and heat, things of great pleasure and refreshment. Double masques, one of men, another of ladies, addeth state and variety. But all is nothing, except the room be kept clear and neat.

For justs, and tourneys, and barriers; the glories of them are chiefly

1 In the music gallery then placed at the end of the hall in great houses.

2 Music in parts; harmony.

8 Spangles-then of recent invention.

4 Figures in old fashioned costumes.
5 Turkish figures.