NOTE

which had much influence on the ethical thought of Elizabethan England. The quotation is from his Discourses on Titus Livius, ii, 2 (Detmold's trans., ii, 232, 233). Machiavelli says that Christianity places the supreme happiness in humility and contempt for the world, and requires fortitude to enable us to suffer rather than achieve great deeds. These principles, he thinks, have made men feeble, and a prey to the evil-minded.

5 Æsop's cock: Plato, Phædrus, iii, 12; Bullokar's Æsop, 1585, fable 1. Cf. casting pearls before swine, Matthew vii, 6; and Adv. viii, 7.

6 He sendeth his rain: Matthew v, 5.

7 Sell all thou hast: Mark x, 21.

8 A disposition: Aristotle (Nichomachean Ethics, vi, 13) distinguishes between natural virtue and virtue proper; the latter is not produced without prudence.

9 Lazarus' sores: Luke xvi, 21.

10 Timon: a frank Athenian misanthrope. Cf. Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, v, 1, 208-215. B. means, "yet they do not, like Timon, openly profess their misanthropy."

11 Gives the balm: B. refers here to the frankincense tree, the aromatic gum resin (olibanum) from which was formerly much used for burning as incense. Pliny describes it in his Natural History, xii, 14.

12 St. Paul's perfection: cf. Romans ix, 3, where the Greek anathema is translated "accursed."

XIV. OF NOBILITY

1 Estate: Lat. rei publicæ, "state."

2 The Switzers: when B. wrote this (1625), the Swiss confederation, founded at the beginning of the fourteenth century, consisted of thirteen German districts and cities united by a somewhat lax federal bond. Two-fifths of the people are still Roman Catholics.

3 Respects: Lat. "dignity."

4 The Low Countries: the Netherlands and Flanders (now Belgium). Of their government Sir Thomas Overbury says: "They have upon occasion an assembly of the general states, like our Parliament. . Then is there besides a Council of State. . . And besides both these, every province and great town have particular councils of their own. To all which assemblies, as well of the general states as the rest, the gentry is called for order's sake, but the state indeed is democratical. Neither are the gentry so much engaged in the cause, the people having more advantages in a free state, they in a monarchy. Their care in government is very exact and particular, by reason that every one hath an immediate interest in the state; such is the equality of justice that it renders every man satis

NOTE

fied." Observations upon the Seventeen Provinces as They Stood A. D. 1609, pp. 3, 4.

5 The memory of their virtues: cf. the opposite statement of Antony, Julius Cæsar, iii, 2, 73, 74; also Henry VIII, iv, 2, 45. Which is nearer right?

XV. OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES

1 Calendars: Lat. prognostica, "weather indications." 2 Ille etiam: Virgil, Georgics, i, 464, 465.

3 Virgil: Æneid, iv, 178–180. B. means "that when princes and monarchs have suppressed actual and open rebels, then the malignity of people (which is the mother of rebellion) doth bring forth libels and slanders, and taxations of the state, which is of the same kind with rebellion, but more feminine." Wisdom of the Ancients, ix.

4 Tacitus saith: History, i, 7.

5 Tacitus speaketh of: History, ii, 39.

6 Machiavel: possibly a reference to Discourses on Livy, iii, 27, which treats of factions and the methods of dealing with them. The Italian translation substitutes for Machiavel the words "a writer."

7 Entered league: the League of the Holy Trinity, formed in 1575 for the defence of the Catholic faith; at its head was the house of Guise. It was supported by Henry III for a time in 1576. Under its influence the Parisians drove him out of the city in 1588.

8 Primum mobile: see Essay i, note 9.

9 Tacitus expresseth it: Annals, iii, 4.

10 Who threateneth: Isaiah xlv, 1; cf. Job xii, 18.

11 Estates: fortunes, as is evident from the previous line.

12 Lucan noteth: Pharsalia, i, 181; instead of rapidum Lucan wrote avidum, "greedy." Lucan lived 39-65.

13 The Civil War: between Cæsar and Pompey, in 49 B. c.; cf. Essay xxvii, note 13.

14 Of the belly: Lat. “which have their origin in the belly," i. e. in hunger.

15 Dolendi modus: Pliny, Epistles, viii, 17.

16 Mate: stupefy; cf. Essay ii, p. 8, 1. 20.

17 The cord breaketh; cf. "The last straw breaks the camel's back."

18 To be foreseen: Lat. "guarded against in advance." 19 Scholars: in his Advice concerning Sutton's Estate (Life, iv, 252) B. speaks in the same vein: he thinks there are already too many grammar schools; and the scholars they train, being unfit for other vocations, will become indigent and furnish material for revolutions.

20 Somewhere lost: based on the mercantile theory that wealth means gold and silver. This idea is found also in Aristotle, in Publius Syrus, and in Montaigne.

NOTE

21 Materiam superabit opus: cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses, ii, 5. 22 Mines above ground: Burton (Anatomy of Melancholy, ed. 1837, i, 77) uses the same figure in speaking of the industry of the Low Countrymen.

23 Usury: cf. Essay xli and note 1.

24 Ingrossing: speculating. Several laws against this were passed in the sixteenth century.

25 Great pasturages: cf. "For enclosure of grounds [for sheep pastures] brings depopulation, which brings forth first idleness, secondly decay of tillage, thirdly subversion of houses, and decrease of charity and charge to the poor's maintenance, fourthly the impoverishing the state of the realm." Speech against Enclosures, Life, ii, 82. In the reign of Henry VII (1485-1509) there began to be complaints of the changing of arable to pasture land, a result of the rapid development of the export trade in wool. Cf. More, Utopia.

26 Pallas: rather Thetis: cf. Iliad, i, 401–403.

27 Epimetheus: brother of Prometheus. The latter stole fire from heaven and taught men useful arts. To punish men, Zeus gave Pandora to Epimetheus for his wife. She brought with her a box containing every human ill. The box being opened, the ills escaped and only hope remained.

28 Cæsar: Suetonius, Caesar, lxxvi-lxxviii.

29 Galba: cf. Plutarch, Lives, vi, 309; Tacitus, History, i, 5. 30 Probus emperor of Rome 276-282; killed by mutinous soldiers. A speech like this is mentioned by the historian Flavius Vopiscus, Probus, 20.

31 Tacitus saith: History, i, 28, describing the temper of the Roman soldiers when Otho was proclaimed emperor in opposition to Galba, in 69.

XVI. OF ATHEISM

1 Legend: The Golden Legend, a collection of lives of saints and other stories written by James of Voragine, abp. of Genoa, in the thirteenth century, and translated by Caxton into English in 1483.

2 Talmud: the body of Jewish traditional laws and regulations of life explanatory of the written law of the Pentateuch. It contains 63 tracts, usually printed in twelve folio volumes.

3 Alcoran: the Koran, the sacred book of the followers of Mohammed; dates from about 610.

4 Leucippus: lived about 500 B. C. Founded the atomic philosophy, which Democritus, the Laughing Philosopher (460-357 B. c.), developed and Epicurus (342-270 B. c.) improved. Epicurus, while asserting the existence of gods, denied their interference with human affairs.

5 Mutable elements: earth, air, fire, water.

NOTE

6 Fifth essence: quintessence; cf. Introduction, p. viii.

7 Unplaced: Lat. "wandering without order and by chance." 8 The Scripture saith: Psalms xiv, 1; liii, 1.

9 Epicurus: cf. Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods, i, 44, sec. 123.

10 Non deos: Diogenes Laertius, x, 123.

11 The Indians: B. probably got this from Acosta, Natural History of the Indies, v, 3, trans. 1604.

12 The contemplative atheist: this passage as far as p. 53, 1. 16, was expanded from a passage in Essay xvii, ed. 1612.

13 Diagoras: of Melos, lived in the latter half of the fifth century B. C.; in 411 B. c. fled from Athens to escape a trial for atheism.

14 Bion: the philosopher, not the poet, died about 241 B. C.; famed for his wit. In his last illness he is said to have repented of his atheism. 15 Lucian: 120-200. A Greek satirist and free-thinker, called by some "the Blasphemer;" he effectively ridiculed the distorted Christianity of his day.

16 Bernard: abbot of Clairvaux, France (1091–1153). B. misquotes; the words attributed to Bernard are, "As the people are, so will the priest be; like layman, like par

son.

17 Cicero saith: On the Responses of the Soothsayers, ix, 19.

XVII. OF SUPERSTITION

1 No opinion: Plutarch, Morals (ed. Goodwin), i, 169, 179, expresses a similar opinion.

2 Plutarch: On Superstition, x, Morals, p. 266.

3 Saturn: the Greek Kronos, who devoured all his children, till at length Zeus was rescued by the substitution of a stone.

4 Augustus: Roman emperor 31 B. C.-14 A. D.

5 Civil: Lat. tranquilla," peaceful."

6 Primum mobile: see Essay i, note 9.

7 Council of Trent: held 1545-1563; condemned the leading doctrines of the Protestant Reformation concerning the Bible, original sin, and justification by faith.

8 Schoolmen: cf. Introduction, p. viii.

9 Eccentrics and epicycles: according to the Ptolemaic system (cf. Essay i, note 9), the planets moved in (a) circles the centres of which themselves moved in (b) circles. The (a) circles were called epicycles; the (b) circles, having their centre at a point outside the earth, were called eccentrics. A. 10 Save the phenomena: account for all of them, reconcile them with the theory. Cf. " save appearances;" a phrase Greek in origin.

11 Avoiding superstition: Plutarch (Morals, p. 268) speaks of those who, to avoid superstition, leap into atheism.

NOTE

XVIII. OF TRAVEL

1 Allow: approve: an obsolete sense of the word, derived from Lat. allaudare, "praise." The modern sense is derived from Lat. allocare, "let, concede."

2 Disputations: formal academic arguments of the sort still heard in our debating societies. Cf. Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield, xx.

3 Card: chart; note the etymology.

4 Adamant: lodestone; cf. Shakespeare, Midsummer Night's Dream, ii, 1, 195. Lat. "magnet.'

5 The life: Lat. "how the mouth, the countenance, and the lines and motions of the body correspond to the report." 6 Country manners: those of his own country. Cf. Ascham's complaint about the "Englishman Italianated," whom he describes in The Schoolmaster as bringing "home into England out of Italy the religion, the learning, the policy, the experience, the manners of Italy."

XIX. OF EMPIRE

1 Representations: B. speaks frequently of these in his Henry VII.

2 Scripture speaketh of: Proverbs xxv, 3.

3 Nero: emperor of Rome 54-68. Cf. Suetonius, vi, 20; Tacitus, Annals, xvi, 4.

4 Domitian: emperor 81-96. Cf. Suetonius, viii, 18.

5 Commodus: emperor 180-192; fought as a gladiator 735 times.

6 Caracalla: emperor 211-217. Dion Cassius says (lxxvii, 10): "He used to say that he drove a chariot in imitation of the sun, and gloried in it."

7 Alexander the Great: king of Macedon 336-323 в. c. His superstition is described by Plutarch, Lives, iv, 383.

8 Diocletian: emperor of Rome 284-305, when he abdicated. Though he lived till 313, there is no proof that he became either superstitious or melancholy.

9 Charles the Fifth: 1500-1558, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire 1519-1556. He spent his last years in the monastery of Yuste in Spain, devoted to the exercises of religion.

10 True temper: correct proportion; as Plutarch (Lives, v, 73) puts it, sometimes to yield to the people, but never to hesitate to correct offenders.

11 Apollonius: of Tyana in Cappadocia (4 B. C.-97 a. D.), a Pythagorean philosopher and reputed magician.

12 Vespasian: cf. Essay ii, note 8.

13 Matter of trouble: Plutarch (Lives, v, 4) speaks thus with reference to the growth of Cæsar's power.

14 Tacitus: not Tacitus but Sallust, Jugurthine War, cxiii. 15 Triumvirate: the alliance between Henry and Francio was