Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients · Francis Bacon
FOOTNOTES:
“You have the Pyrrhic dance as yet.” Attitude and gesture formed one of the characteristics of the dance. It is still practised in some parts of England.—_Rabelais, Pantag._ ii. 7. [74] 2 Kings ix. 18. [75] He alludes to the words in Revelation, c. iii. v. 14, 15, 16: “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot.—I will spue thee out of my mouth.” Laodicea was a city of Asia Minor. St. Paul established the church there which is here referred to. [76] St. Matthew xii. 30. [77] “In the garment there may be many colors, but let there be no rending of it.” [78] “Avoid profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science, falsely so called.”—1 _Tim._ vi. 20. [79] He alludes to the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, significant of the limited duration of his kingdom.—See _Daniel_ ii. 33, 41. [80] Mahomet proselytized by giving to the nations which he conquered, the option of the Koran or the sword. [81] “To deeds so dreadful could religion prompt.” The poet refers to the sacrifice by Agamemnon, the Grecian leader, of his daughter Iphigenia, with the view of appeasing the wrath of Diana.—_Lucret._ i. 95.
“Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes, Men would be angels, angels would be gods. Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell, Aspiring to be angels, men rebel.” [141] Auger Gislen Busbec, or Busbequius, a learned traveller, born at Comines, in Flanders, in 1522. He was employed by the Emperor Ferdinand as ambassador to the Sultan Solyman II. He was afterwards ambassador to France, where he died, in 1592. His “Letters” relative to his travels in the East, which are written in Latin, contain much interesting information. They were the pocket companion of Gibbon, and are highly praised by him. [142] In this instance the stork or crane was probably protected, not on the abstract grounds mentioned in the text, but for reasons of state policy and gratitude combined. In Eastern climates the cranes and dogs are far more efficacious than human agency in removing filth and offal, and thereby diminishing the chances of pestilence. Superstition, also, may have formed another motive, as we learn from a letter written from Adrianople, by Lady Montagu, in 1718, that storks were “held there in a sort of religious reverence, because they are supposed to make every winter the pilgrimage to Mecca. To say truth, they are the happiest subjects under the Turkish government, and are so sensible of their privileges, that they walk the streets without fear, and generally build their nests in the lower parts of the houses. Happy are those whose houses are so distinguished, as the vulgar Turks are perfectly persuaded that they will not be that year attacked either by fire or pestilence.” Storks are still protected, by municipal law, in Holland, and roam unmolested about the market-places.
“At this time, an unknown woman appeared at court, loaded with nine volumes, which she offered to sell, but at a very considerable price. Tarquin refusing to give it, she withdrew and burnt three of the nine. Some time after she returned to court, and demanded the same price for the remaining six. This made her looked upon as a mad woman, and she was driven away with scorn. Nevertheless, having burnt the half of what were left, she came a third time, and demanded for the remaining three the same price which she had asked for the whole nine. The novelty of such a proceeding, made Tarquin curious to have the books examined. They were put, therefore, into the hands of the augurs, who, finding them to be the oracles of the Sybil of Cumæ, declared them to be an invaluable treasure. Upon this the woman was paid the sum she demanded, and she soon after disappeared, having first exhorted the Romans to preserve her books with care.”—_Hooke’s Roman History._ [258] Bald head. He alludes to the common saying: “Take time by the forelock.” [259] Phæd. viii. [260] Hom. Il. v. 845. [261] Packing the cards is an admirable illustration of the author’s meaning. It is a cheating exploit, by which knaves, who, perhaps, are inferior players, insure to themselves the certainty of good hands.
If Bacon had completed his intended work upon “Sympathy and Antipathy,” the constant hatred evinced by ignorance of intellectual superiority, originating sometimes in the painful feeling of inferiority, sometimes in the fear of worldly injury would not have escaped his notice. [629] Thus we see that Orpheus denotes learning; Eurydice, things, or the subject of learning; Bacchus, and the Thracian women, men’s ungoverned passions and appetites, &c. And in the same manner all the ancient fables might be familiarly illustrated, and brought down to the capacities of children. “Quod procul a nobis flectat Fortuna gubernans; Et ratio potius quam res persuadeat ipsa.” [631] Proteus properly signifies primary, oldest, or first. [632] Bacon nowhere speaks with such freedom and perspicuity as under the pretext of explaining these ancient fables; for which reason they deserve to be the more read by such as desire to understand the rest of his works. [633] As she also brought the author himself. “—————cadit Ripheus, justissimus unus, Qui fuit ex Teucris, et servantissimus æqui: Diis aliter visum.”—_Æneid_, lib. ii. [635] Te autem mi Brute sicut debeo, amo, quod istud quicquid est nugarum me scire voluisti. “Regina in mediis patrio vocat agmina sistro; Necdum etiam geminos a tergo respicit angues.” _Æneid_, viii. 696. [637] Ovid’s Metamorphoses, b. iii., iv., and vi.; and Fasti, iii. 767. [638] “Declinat cursus, aurumque volubile tollit.”
“Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento: Hæ tibi erunt artes.” _Æneid_, vi. 851. “Sive recens tellus, seductaque nuper ab alta Æthere, cognati retinebat semina cœli.”—_Metam._ i. 80. [649] Many philosophers have certain speculations to this purpose. Sir Isaac Newton, in particular, suspects that the earth receives its vivifying spirit from the comets. And the philosophical chemists and astrologers have spun the thought into many fantastical distinctions and varieties.—See Newton, _Princip._ lib. iii. p. 473, &c. [650] This policy strikingly characterized the conduct of Louis XIV., who placed his generals under a particular injunction, to advertise him of the success of any siege likely to be crowned with an immediate triumph, that he might attend in person and appear to take the town by a _coup de main_. [651] The one denoted by the river Achelous, and the other by Terpsichore, the muse that invented the cithara and delighted in dancing. “Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus; Rumoresque senum severiorum Omnes unius estimemus assis.”—_Catull. Eleg._ v. And again— “Jura senes norint, et quod sit fasque nefasque Inquirant tristes; legumque examina servent.” _Metam._ ix. 550.
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