'You were better take for business a man somewhat absurd than over-formal. By absurd' Bacon probably means what we express by 'inconsiderate;' what the French call 'étourdi.' The 'over-formal' often impede, and sometimes frustrate, business by a dilatory, tedious, circuitous, and (what in colloquial language is called) fussy way of conducting the simplest transactions. They have been compared to a dog, which cannot lie down till he has made three circuits round the spot. IT ESSAY XXVII. OF FRIENDSHIP. had been hard for him that spake it, to have put more truth and untruth together in few words, than in that speech, 'Whosoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or a god;" for it is most true, that a natural and secret hatred and aversation towards' society, in any man, hath somewhat of the savage beast; but it is most untrue, that it should have any character at all of the divine nature, except3 it proceed, not out of a pleasure in solitude, but out of a love and desire to sequester a man's self for a higher conversation; such as is found to have been falsely and feignedly in some of the heathens-as Epimenides, the Candian; Numa, the Roman; Empedocles, the Sicilian; and Apollonius, of Tyana; and truly, and really, in divers of the ancient hermits and holy fathers of the Church. But little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth; for a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love. The Latin adage meeteth with it a little: 'Magna civitas, magna solitudo," because in a great town friends are scattered, so that there is not that fellowship, for the most part, which is in less neighbourhoods; but we may go farther, and affirm most truly, that it is a mere and miserable solitude to want true friends, without which the world is but a wilderness; and, even in this scene also of solitude, whosoever, in the frame of his nature and affections, is unfit for friendship, he taketh it of the beast, and not from humanity.7 A principal fruit of friendship is the ease and discharge of the fulness of the heart, which passions of all kinds do cause 1 Aristotle, Eth., B. 8. 2 Aversation towards. Aversion to. There is such a general aversation in human nature towards contempt, that there is scarcely anything more exasperating.' -Government of the Tongue. 3 Except. Unless. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.'-John iii. 3. ་ 4 Conversation. Course of life. What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness.'-2 Pet. iii. 5A great city, a great solitude.' 6 Mere. Absolute. See Merely,' page 22. 7 Humanity. Human nature. 'Look to thyself; reach not beyond humanity.' -Sir Philip Sidney. and induce. We know diseases of stoppings and suffocations are the most dangerous in the body; and it is not much otherwise in the mind: you may take sarza' to open the liver, steel to open the spleen, flower of sulphur for the lungs, castoreum for the brain; but no receipt openeth the heart but a true friend, to whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, counsels, and whatsoever lieth upon the heart to oppress it, in a kind of civil shrift or confession. It is a strange thing to observe how high a rate great kings and monarchs do set upon this fruit of friendship whereof we speak,—so great, as they purchase it many times at the hazard of their own safety and greatness: for princes, in regard of the distance of their fortune from that of their subjects and servants, cannot gather this fruit, except, to make themselves capable thereof, they raise some persons to be as it were companions, and almost equals to themselves, which many times sorteth3 to inconvenience. The modern languages give unto such persons the name of favourites, or privadoes, as if it were matter of - grace or conversation; but the Roman name attaineth the true use and cause thereof, naming them 'participes curarum ;" for it is that which tieth the knot: and we see plainly that this hath been done, not by weak and passionate princes only, but by the wisest and most politic that ever reigned, who have oftentimes joined to themselves some of their servants, whom both themselves have called friends, and allowed others likewise to call them in the same manner, using the word which is received between private men. L. Sylla, when he commanded Rome, raised Pompey, after surnamed The Great, to that height that Pompey vaunted himself for Sylla's over-match; for when he had carried the consulship for a friend of his, against the pursuit of Sylla, and that Sylla did a little resent thereat, and began to speak great, Pompey turned upon him again, and in effect bade him be quiet; for that more men adored the sun rising than the sun 1 Sarza. Sarsaparilla. Sarza is both a tree and an herb.'-Ainsworth. 2 As. 46 To result; to issue in. 'Sort how it will, I shall have gold for all.'—Shakespere. 'Participators in our cares.' setting.' With Julius Cæsar, Decimus Brutus had obtained that interest, as he set him down in his testament for heir in remainder after his nephew; and this was the man that had power with him to draw him forth to his death; for when Cæsar would have discharged the senate, in regard of some ill presages, and especially a dream of Calpurnia, this man lifted him gently by the arm out of his chair, telling him he hoped he would not dismiss the senate till his wife had dreamed a better dream;2 and it seemed his favour was so great, as Antonius, in a letter, which is recited verbatim in one of Cicero's Philippics, called - him 'venefica,' witch,-as if he had enchanted Cæsar.3 Augustus raised Agrippa, though of mean birth, to that height, as,' when he consulted with Mecenas about the marriage of his daughter Julia, Mæcenas took the liberty to tell him, that he must either marry his daughter to Agrippa, or take away his life,-there was no third way, he had made him so great. With Tiberius Cæsar, Sejanus had ascended to that height as they two were termed and reckoned as a pair of friends. Tiberius, in a letter to him, saith,' Hæc pro amicitia nostra non occultavi;' and the whole senate dedicated an altar to Friendship, as to a goddess, in respect of the great dearness" of friendship between them two. The like, or more, was between Septimus Severus and Plautianus; for he forced his eldest son to marry the daughter of Plautianus, and would often maintain Plautianus in doing affronts to his son; and did write also, in a letter to the senate, by these words,' 'I love the man so well, as I wish he may over-live me.' Now, if these princes had been as a Trajan, or a Marcus Aurelius, a man might have thought that this had proceeded of an abundant goodness of nature: but being men so wise, of such strength and severity of mind, and so extreme lovers of themselves, as all these were, it proveth, most plainly, that they found their own felicity, though as great as ever happened to mortal men, but as a half piece, except they might 1 Plut. Vit. Pomp. 19. 3 Cic. Philip. xiii. II. 5 2 Plut. Vit. J. Cæs. 64. That. See page 23. 4 As. 5 'On account of our friendship, I have not concealed these things.'—Tacit. Ann. iv. 40. 6 Dearness. Fondness. He must profess all the dearness and friendship.'South. 7 Dion Cass. lxxv. 8 Overlive. Survive. Musidorus, who showed a mind not to overlive Prorus, prevailed.'-Sir. P. Sidney, 9 Of. From. See page 250. have a friend to make it entire; and yet, which' is more, they were princes that had wives, sons, nephews, yet all these could not supply the comfort of friendship. It is not to be forgotten what Comineus observeth of his first master, Duke Charles the Hardy-namely, that he would communicate his secrets with none; and, least of all, those secrets which troubled him most. Whereupon he goeth on, and saith, that towards his latter time, that closeness did impair and a little perish3 his understanding. Surely Comineus might have made the same judgment also, if it had pleased him, of his second master, Louis XI., whose closeness was indeed his tormentor.. The parable of Pythagoras is dark, but true, 'Cor ne edito'-eat not the heart. Certainly, if a man would give it a hard phrase, those that want friends to open themselves unto, are cannibals of their own hearts; but one thing is most admirable (wherewith I will conclude this first fruit of friendship), which is, that this communicating of a man's self to his friend, works two contrary effects, for it redoubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in halfs; for there is no man that imparteth his joys to his friend, but he joyeth the more, and no man that imparteth his griefs to his friend, but he grieveth the less. So that it is, in truth, of operation upon a man's mind of like virtue as the alchymists use to attribute to their stone for man's body, that it worketh all contrary effects, but still to the good and benefit of nature. But yet, without praying in aid of alchymists, there is a manifest image of this in the ordinary course of nature; for, in bodies, union strengtheneth and cherisheth any natural action, and, on the other side, weakeneth and dulleth any violent impression—and even so is it of minds. 2 Communicate with. Communicate to; impart to. He communicated those thoughts only with the Lord Digby.'-Clarendon. 3 Perish. To cause to decay; to destroy. 'Thy flinty heart, more hard than they, Might in thy palace perish, Margaret.'-Shakespere. 4 Plutarch, De Educat. Puer. 17. 5 Pray in aid. To be an advocate for. (A term in law for calling in one to help who has interest in a cause.) 'You shall find A conqueror that will pray in aid for kindness, 6 Of. With regard to. This quarrel is not now of fame and tribute, |