but as a rich man, as a judge, or as a senator, that he thus benefits his country.'

'Bad officers, treasurers, ambassadors, generals, and other false and corrupt servants, set a bias upon their bowl, of their own petty ends and envies, to the overthrow of their master's great and important affairs?'

It seems not to have occurred to Bacon that the mischief he so well describes could take place except from the selfish wisdom of persons entrusted with some employment, and sacrificing the interest of their employer to their own. But in truth, the greatest amount of evils of this class-that is, the sacrifice of public good to individual profit,—has arisen from the favour claimed by, and shown to, certain classes of men, in no official situation, who have persuaded the nation (and, doubtless, sometimes themselves also), that their own interest was that of the State. Both the Spaniards and the English prohibited their colonies from trading with any but the mother country; and also from manufacturing for themselves; though the colonists were fellow-citizens, and were virtually taxed for the profit, not of the State, but of certain manufacturers and merchants. For, if they had found the goods produced in the mother-country to be cheaper and better than they could make for themselves, or buy elsewhere, they would have supplied themselves with these of their own accord, without need of prohibiting laws; but whenever this was not the case-that is, whenever there was any occasion for such a law, it is plain they were paying an extra price, or buying inferior articles, for the profit of the manufacturers at home. Yet this never seemed to strike even the Americans themselves, or their advocates, at the time when the revolt broke out. It was only avowed taxation for the benefit of the government at home (which had laid out something for them) that they complained of.

And this did not arise from comparative indifference to the welfare of our colonial fellow-subjects; for the like sort of policy has been long pursued at home. We imported timber of inferior quality from Canada, when better was to be had at a tenth part of the distance, lest saw-mills in Canada, and timberships engaged in that trade, should suffer a diminution of profit;

though the total value of them all put together did not probably equal the annual loss sustained by the Public. And we pro

hibited the refining of sugar in the sugar colonies, and chose to import it in the most bulky and most perishable form, for the benefit of a few English sugar-bakers; whose total profits did not probably amount to as many shillings as the nation lost pounds.

And the land-owners maintained, till very lately, a monopoly against the bread-consumers, which amounted virtually to a tax on every loaf, for the sake of keeping up rents.

'Other selfishness,' says Mr. Senior, in his Lectures on Political Economy, may be as intense, but none is so unblushing, because none so much tolerated, as that of a monopolist claiming a vested interest in a public injury.' But, doubtless, many of these claimants persuaded themselves, as well as the nation, that they were promoting the public good.

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ESSAY XXIV. OF INNOVATIONS.

S the births of living creatures at first are ill-shapen, so are all innovations, which are the births of time: yet, notwithstanding, as those that first bring honour into their family are commonly more worthy than most that succeed, so the first precedent (if it be good) is seldom attained by imitation: for ill, to man's nature as it stands perverted, hath a natural motion, strongest in continuance; but good, as a forced motion, strongest at first. Surely every medicine is an innovation, and he that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils: for time is the greatest innovator; and if time of course alters things to1 the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end? It is true that what is settled by custom, though it be not good, yet at least it is fit; and those things which have long gone together, are, as it were, confederate with themselves; whereas new things piece not so well; but, though they help by their utility, yet they trouble by their inconformity; besides, they are like strangers, more admired, and less favoured. All this is true, if time stood still; which, contrariwise, moveth so round, that a froward retention of custom is as turbulent a thing as an innovation; and they that reverence too much old times, are but a scorn to the new. It were good, therefore, that men in their innovations, would follow the example of time itself, which indeed innovateth greatly, but quietly, and by degrees scarce to be perceived; for otherwise, whatsoever is new is unlooked for-and ever it mends some, and pairs others; and he that is holpen takes it for a fortune, and thanks the time; and he that is hurt, for a wrong, and imputeth it to the author. It is good also not to try

1 To. For.

'Marks and points out each man of us to slaughter.'-Ben Jonson.

2 Inconformity. Incongruity; discordance.

3 Round. Rapid. Sir Roger heard them on a round trot.'—Addison.

4 Pair. To impair.

"No faith so fast,' quoth she, ‘but flesh does paire.'

'Flesh may impaire,' quoth he, but reason can repaire."-Spenser.

'What profiteth it to a man if he wynne all the world, and do peyringe to his soul?'-Wickliff's Translation of Mark viii.

experiments in States, except the necessity be urgent, or the utility evident; and well to beware, that it be the reformation that draweth on the change, and not the desire of change that pretendeth1 the reformation: and lastly, that the novelty, though it be not rejected, yet be held for a suspect; and, as the Scripture saith, 'That we make a stand upon the ancient way, and then look about us, and discover what is the straight and right way, and so to walk in it.”

Lest that heavenly form, pretended

To hellish falsehood, snare them.'-Milton.

2 Suspect. Something suspicious. If the king ends the difference, and takes away the suspect.—Suckling.

3

Compare Jer. vi. 16.

ANNOTATIONS.

'Time is the greatest innovator.'

When Bacon speaks of time as an 'innovator,' he might have remarked, by the way-what of course he well knewthat though this is an allowable and convenient form of expression, it is not literally correct. Bishop Copleston, in the remark already referred to in the notes on 'Delays,' terms the regarding time as an agent one of the commonest errors; for, 'in reality time does nothing and is nothing. We use it,' he goes on to say, 'as a compendious expression for all those causes which act slowly and imperceptibly. But, unless some positive cause is in action, no change takes place in the lapse of one thousand years; as, for instance, in a drop of water enclosed in a cavity of silex. The most intelligent writers are not free from this illusion. For instance, Simond, in his Switzerland, speaking of a mountain-scene, says 'The quarry from which the materials of the bridge came, is just above your head, and the miners are still at work: air, water, frost, weight, and time.' Thus, too, those politicians who object to any positive enactments affecting the Constitution, and who talk of the gentle operation of time, and of our Constitution itself being the work of time, forget that it is human agency all along which is the efficient cause. Time does nothing.' Thus far Bishop Copleston.'

But we are so much influenced by our own use of language, that, though no one can doubt, when the question is put before him, that effects are produced not by time, but in time, we are accustomed to represent time as armed with a scythe, and mowing down all before him.

'New things are like strangers, more admired, and less

favoured!

Bacon has omitted to notice, in reference to this point, what nevertheless is well worth remarking as a curious circumstance, that there are in most languages proverbial sayings respecting it, apparently opposed to each other; as for instance, that men

1 Remains of Bishop Copleston.