NOTE motions of the other heavenly bodies were caused by the revolutions of successive heavens, or spheres of space, enclosing the central earth at different distances. Nearest the earth were the spheres of the seven planets, the moon, Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Beyond these, as an eighth sphere, was the firmament of the fixed stars. This wheeled about diurnally, from east to west, carrying in it the fixed stars and with it all the interior spheres - which had also separate slower motions of their own. The ninth sphere, the Crystalline, accounted for the procession of the equinoxes. The tenth sphere, enclosing the universe from absolute infinity, was the Primum Mobile, or "First Movable." This system was generally accepted down to the close of the seventeenth century. A. thus interprets B.: "The motions of heaven are transferred to earth, when a man's heart has charity for his Primum Mobile, providence for Space, truth for his Poles." Cf. Essay xv, p. 45, 1. 1. 10 Truth of civil business: Lat. "truth or rather veracity." 11 Montaigne saith: Essays ii, 18: "To lie is an horrible-filthy vice, and which an ancient writer [Plutarch, Lives, iii, 233] setteth forth very shamefully when he saith that whosoever lieth, witnesseth that he contemneth God, and therewithal feareth men.' 12 Peal: cf. Macbeth, iii, 2, 43. Ere to black Hecate's summons The shard-born beetle with his drowsy hums ... 13 It being foretold: Luke xviii, 8. Does "faith" here mean "truthfulness"? II. OF DEATH 1 Books of mortification: the reference has not been traced. 2 Him that spake: Seneca, Epistles, iii, 3, 14. 3 Blacks: garments of mourning. Cf. "Ere blacks were bought for his own funeral." B. Jonson, Epigrams, 44, 3. 4 We read: Plutarch, Lives, vi, 339. 5 Seneca adds: Epistles, x, 1, 6. Seneca (a celebrated Stoic philosopher and dramatist, 4 B. C.-65), really quoted the words from an address by Four Stoic friend" to a young man who had called a council of his friends to help him decide whether or not he should commit suicide. 6 Augustus Cæsar: Suetonius, Augustus, xcix. 7 Tacitus saith: Annals, vi, 50. 8 Vespasian: Roman emperor, 70-79; cf. Suetonius, Vespasian, xxiii. 9 Galba: Roman emperor, 68-69; cf. Tacitus, History, i, 41; Plutarch, Lives, vi, 318; Suetonius, Galba, xx. NOTE 10 Septimius Severus: Roman emperor, 193-211; cf. Dion Cassius, lxvii, 17. 11 The Stoics: "This is certainly true about Seneca, who returns to the subject again and again with most minute and tedious iteration." R. The Stoics took their name from the "Painted Porch" (Stoa) at Athens, where Zeno taught at the end of the fourth century B. C. They believed that men should be unmoved by joy or grief or passion and should submit to the necessity which governed the world; and that the supreme thing to attain was virtue. 12 Better saith he: Juvenal, Satires, x, 358. The original has "space" instead of "close." 13 Nunc dimittis: Luke ii, 29. 14 Extinctus amabitur idem: Horace, Epistles, ii, 1, 14. III. OF UNITY IN RELIGION 1 The poets: this is true of the Greeks, but scarcely of the Romans. R. 2 A jealous God: Exodus xx, 3-6. 3 Ecce in deserto: Matthew xxiv, 26. 4 Doctor of the Gentiles: Paul, 1 Corinthians xiv, 23. 5 Sit down: Psalms i, 1. 6 Master of scoffing: Rabelais, Pantagruel, ii, 7. La morisque des héréticques was one of the books which_Pantagruel found in the library of St. Victor at Paris. In England, morris-dancing, with bells on the legs, was formerly common on May Day, Holy Thursday, and Whitsuntide. The dancers usually represented the characters of the Robin Hood legends. 7 Politics: here, as frequently, politicians. 8 Treaties: treatises; which word S. and A. substitute in the text. 9 Zealants: zealots; cf. Ital. zelante. 10 Is it peace: 2 Kings ix, 18, 19. 11 Laodiceans: Revelation iii, 14-16. 12 Cross clauses: Lat. "in those clauses which at first sight appear contradictory." Cf. Matthew xii, 30; Mark ix, 40. 13 One of the fathers: The Latin is quoted from St. Augustine, Commentary on Ps. xliv [xlv], 24; but it does not refer to Christ's coat. In several passages of St. Bernard is found the same fanciful interpretation. The illustration was a favorite with Bacon. 14 Shall we not think: modern usage regarding the negative is much more exact; in former times two negatives only strengthened an assertion. 15 Devita: 1 Timothy vi, 20. 16 Governeth the meaning: In Nov. Org., aph. lix, B. speaks of words reacting on the understanding, e. g. Fortune, Prime NOTE 17 Implicit: entangled. 18 Nebuchadnezzar's image: Daniel ii, 33, 41. 19 Two swords: Luke xxii, 38. 20 The first table: Exodus xxxii, 15, 16; xxxiv, 1-5, 29. 21 Lucretius: On the Nature of Things, i, 95. On their way to attack Troy, the Greeks, through the wrath of Artemis, were delayed at Aulis by contrary winds. To propitiate the goddess, Agamemnon, the Greek leader, sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia. Euripides wrote on the subject a great play, the Iphigenia at Aulis. 22 The massacre in France: the slaughter of Huguenots, instigated by Catherine de' Medici, which began on St. Bartholomew's Day, August 24, 1572. The number of victims was between twenty and thirty thousand. 23 The powder treason: the Gunpowder Plot, the object of which was the destruction of James I and the Parliament. It was foiled by the arrest of Guy Fawkes on November 5, 1605. 24 Epicure: Epicurean, a follower of Epicurus, who taught that pleasure is the highest good. 25 The Anabaptists: a sect which became prominent in the fifteenth century. Their refusal "to recognize the authority of the civil ruler, and their assertion of the equality of all men under an assumed divine illumination, explain and bear out Bacon's reference to them in the text. That he had especially in his mind the authors of the great Anabaptist outbreak at Munster (1534) appears from the edition of 1612, where he speaks of them as 'the madmen of Munster."" R. 26 When the devil said: an allusion to the fall of Lucifer; cf. Isaiah xiv, 12-14; and Paradise Lost, i, 27-81. 27 The likeness of a dove: Luke iii, 22. 28 Mercury rod: the caduceus, with which "he calls forth pale souls from Orcus, and sends others to sad Tartarus;" cf. Virgil, Eneid, iv, 242-244. 29 That counsel of the apostle: James i, 20. 30 A wise father: who, is not known. R. refers to Marcus Antonius de Dominis (1566-1624), archbishop of Spalatro, On the Ecclesiastical Republic, vii, 8, "That in promulgating and preserving the Christian faith external force is not to be employed;" Cyprian, Epistles, 41. 31 Interessed: the older form of interested; cf. Spenser, Faerie Queene, vii, 6, 33. IV. OF REVENGE 1 Solomon: Proverbs xix, 11. 2 No law to remedy: A. thinks the reference is to duelling (cf. Introduction, p. xvi) and compares: "As for the second defect pretended in our law, that it hath provided no NOTE remedy for lies and fillips, any lawgiver, if he had been asked the question, would have made Solon's answer: That he had not ordained any punishment for it, because he never imagined the world would have been so fantastical as to take it so highly." Life, iv, 406. 3 Cosmus: Cosmo de' Medici (1519-1574) became duke of Florence on the extinction of the elder branch of his family in 1537. "He administered the affairs of Florence with marked ability and success. The quotation in the text has not been traced. R. 4 Spirit of Job: Job ii, 10. 5 Cæsar: avenged by Antony and Augustus, the result being the consolidation of power under Augustus. 6 Pertinax: Roman emperor 126-193, murdered by the pretorians. The murderers were put to death by Septimius Severus. 7 Henry the Third (1551-1589): became king in 1574. He was murdered by the monk Jacques Clément, who was put to death on the spot; but how this revenge proved fortunate is not clear. V. OF ADVERSITY 1 Seneca: Epistles, lxvi. 2 A higher speech: Epistles, liii. 3 Strange fiction: for stealing fire from heaven Prometheus was chained to a rock on Mount Caucasus, where an eagle daily consumed his liver. Hercules killed the eagle and released the sufferer. There is no record of a voyage in an earthen pot; but when he brought Geryones's oxen from the island of Erythia, Hercules voyaged in a golden cup. "The voyage of Hercules especially, sailing in a pitcher to set Prometheus free, seems to present an image of God the Word [Christ] hastening in the frail vessel of the flesh to redeem the human race." Wisdom of the Ancients, xxvi. 4 To speak in a mean: Lat. "that we may come down from high-sounding to simple words." 5 Solomon: 1 Kings iii-x. VI. OF SIMULATION AND DISSIMULATION 1 Tacitus saith: Annals, v, 1. Cf. Essay lix, p. 180, 1. 1. 2 And again: History, ii, 70. 3 Tacitus well calleth them: probably Agricola, xxxix; cf. Annals, iii, 70. 4 Close air sucketh in: a comparison based on the old theory of the vacuum. It was Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647) who in 1643 discovered that this "suction" was only airpressure; cf. H. S. Williams, A History of Science, ii, 120, 121. NOTE 5 Discovery of a man's self: R. thinks B. here had in mind the Earl of Essex, of whom this was notoriously true. Cf.. the Lat. Adv. viii, Works, ix, 284–286. 6 No man can be secret: "The whole essay is a tribute to the new power of policy, which, since Machiavelli's time, was recognized as having deposed force; and policy, in the Elizabethan times, presupposed simulation and dissimulation. The devil knew not what he did when he made man politic; he crossed himself by 't: and I cannot but think, in the end, the villanies of man will set him clear.' Timon of Athens, iii, 3, 29. A politician was 'one that would circumvent God.' Hamlet, v, 1, 88." A. 7 Ure: use; not from Fr. heur, Lat. augurium, as A. supposes, but from Fr. cure, Lat. opera; cf. inure, manure. 8 Tell a lie: "Experience showeth, there are few men so true to themselves and so settled, but that sometimes . . they open themselves; specially if they be put to it with a counter-dissimulation, according to the proverb of Spain, Di mentira, y sacaras verdad, Tell a lie and find a truth." Adv. xxiii, 18. 9 Openness in fame and opinion: Lat. "a reputation for veracity." VII. OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN 1 And surely: cf. Essay viii, second sentence; also: "Childless she [Elizabeth] was indeed. a thing which has happened also to the most fortunate persons, as Alexander the Great, Julius Cæsar, Trajan, and others." B., To the Blessed Memory of Elizabeth. Washington was said to have been denied children that he might become the father of his country. 2 Difference in affection: R. thinks B. may have been thinking of himself. He was his father's favorite son; and his mother certainly held a somewhat unfavorable opinion of him. 3 As Solomon saith: Proverbs x, 1. In Adv. xxiii, 6, B. thus explains this: "Here is distinguished, that fathers have most comfort of the good proof of their sons; but mothers have most discomfort of their ill proof, because women have little discerning of virtue, but of fortune." 4 The precept: "Verily the precept of the Pythagoreans serveth to right good stead in this case [of exile] to be practised. Choose, say they, the best life: use and custom will make it pleasant enough unto thee." Plutarch, Morals, p. 273. VIII. OF MARRIAGE AND SINGLE LIFE 1 Impediments: is this true? Why or why not? 2 Dearest pledges: cf. "Ah! who hath reft,' quoth he, 'my dearest pledge?'" Milton, Lycidas, 107. |