Men lay up a wrong done to them, and cherish it, and, as embers are raked up at night, rake it up, and then uncover it that it may burn the next day, and rake it up again, and uncover it again, and so keep it alive, and nourish it, till an opportunity comes for taking revenge and so wipe it out. This is as common in business as in anywhere else, except in political life, where abound little spites, and cutting remarks, and inuendoes, and scandal-bearings, and all manner of carrying and fetching. Life is full of these things. They are so small that it would seem as if they were too unimportant to be wicked; and yet, because they are so small and unimportant, they are often all the more wicked. When a man sacrifices his conscience for nothing, he is frequently more culpable than if he sacrificed it for some great thing; as, for instance, for something on which the foundation of his household, his character, or his estate rested. There is provocation for a man to lift himself up and take revenge under such circumstances; but where one, unprovoked, and because he has a relish for it, does spiteful things, and is perpetually looking on the unlovely side of human nature, and gives vent to ten thousand unamiable tendencies, there is no excuse nor palliation for him, and he is more wicked than the man who, being subjected to great wrongs, seeks to avenge those wrongs. And how persons professing to be Christians, can live in the state that some do in this regard, from week to week and from month to month, and call upon the name of God in the household, and sit at the Lord's table in the sanctuary, and partake of the body and blood of the great Sufferer, without being rebuked by their conscience, I cannot imagine. One would think, by the casuistry that is employed in this matter, that the peculiar temptation of society was too easy forgiving. I have heard it argued at our prayer-meetings and conference-meetings, in sober discussion, that it is not our duty to forgive till there is evidence of repentance and reformation. One would suppose that it was necessary to build a barrier against the tendency of men to forgive too readily. As if there was any danger in that direction! As if it was needful to argue that side at all! The great temptation, the universal fault of men, in this matter, is to seek revenge; to do wrong as the requital of wrong; to give blow for blow; to meet reviling with reviling. And there is no need of your going into a discussion, and arguing as though you were too prone to for

give. I think you might forgive for a thousand years, and not go wrong twice. The guard and watch needs to be on the other side."

1. Paragraph the Essay. Write an Analysis, and a Paraphrase of the Essay.

2. What English idiom is exemplified and defended in this Essay?

3. The remark of Miss Elizabeth Smith, and the correction of one of the words she uses? When do men of base natures find it especially difficult to forgive?

4. Aristotle's nice distinction between Resentment and Hatred? Como de Medici? The avenging of the death of Cæsar? Also, of the death of Pertinax? and also, of Henry III of France?

5. Define the word witch; state when and where belief in witchcraft prevailed; and describe that which was condemned by the law of Moses. The opinions and conduct of James in relation to witchcraft. Mr. Beecher's illustrations of the wide range of revengefulness?

6. Point out obsolete words and phrases, or those which have acquired a new signification since Bacon wrote.

7. Point out the Similes and other Figures in this Essay.

ESSAY V.

ADVERSITY.

[1] IT was a high speech of Seneca (after the manner of the Stoics), that the good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired: "Bona rerum

[1] Adversity: Some kinds of adversity are chiefly of the character of trials, and others of discipline. But Bacon does not advert to this difference. By 'discipline' is to be understood, any thing, that has a direct tendency to improvement, or to create some qualification that did not exist before; and by 'trial,' any thing that tends to ascertain what improvement has been made, or what qualities exist. Both effects may be produced at once; but we speak of the proper character of trial, and of discipline, as such. What is called 'proving a gun,' that is, loading it to the muzzle and firing it, does not at all tend to increase its strength, but only proves that it is strong. Proper hammering and tempering of the metal, on the other hand, tends to make it strong. Every kind of trial of moral character, if well endured, tends to fortify the good principle. On the other hand, every kind of improving process-religious study, good example, or whatever else if it does not leave you the better, will leave you the worse. Let no man flatter himself that any thing external will make him wise or virtuous, without his taking pains to learn wisdom or virtue from it.—Whately.

High speech: Synonyme? This is a fine example of the balanced sentence, wherein the clauses happily correspond to each other in structure. Seneca: a Stoic philosopher born at Corduba, about the beginning of the Christian era; educated carefully at Rome, and improved by extensive travel. He rose to high offices in the State, and became tutor to Nero when a youth. This position enabled him to become the possessor of enormous wealth, which, however, did not corrupt his morals or vitiate his disposition. He did not yield himself to the com

secundarum optabilia, adversarum mirabilia." Cer- [2] tainly, if miracles be the command over nature, they appear most in adversity. It is yet a higher speech [3] of this than the other (much too high for a heathen), "It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man, and the security of a God " "-" Vere magnum habere fragilitatem hominis, securitatem Dei." This [4] Iwould have done better in poesy, where transcendencies are more allowed; and the poets, indeed, have been

mon vices of flattery and ambition. "I had rather," said he to Nero, "offend you by speaking the truth, than please you by lying and flattery." He wrote extensively and excellently on moral subjects.

[2.] Most: the word is ambiguous. Add some qualifying word to make the meaning perfectly clear.

[3.] Much too high, &c.: The Stoical system bears great resemblance in some of its noble precepts to Christianity, which is best accounted for by supposing that it borrowed from Christianity; for it is said that it is only in the latest writers of this system that the resemblance of principle and sentiment is the greatest. It is comparatively faint in the writings of Cicero, who drew his materials from the Stoics, but strongest in those of Seneca and Epictetus and others, who wrote after Christianity had become widely diffused in the Roman empire.

[4.] This sentence should close at the end of the first member, the following connective being omitted in beginning Transcendencies: extravagancies; Ancient poets :

the next sentence.

elevation above what is true or real. Stesichorus, Apollodorus and others. The same myth is referred to by Bacon in his "Wisdom of the Ancients," in these terms: It is added, with great eloquence, for supporting and confirming the human mind, that the great hero [Hercules], who thus delivered him, sailed the ocean in a cup, or pitcher, to prevent fear or complaint; as if, through the narrowness of our nature, or a too great fragility thereof, we were absolutely incapable of that fortitude and constancy to which Seneca

busy with it; for it is in effect the thing which is figured in that strange fiction of the ancient poets, which seemeth not to be without mystery; nay, and to have some approach to the state of a Christian, "that Hercules, when he went to unbind Prometheus (by whom human nature is represented), sailed the length of the great ocean in an earthen pot or pitcher, lively describing Christian resolution, that saileth in the frail bark of the flesh through the waves of the world.” [5] But to speak in a mean, the virtue of prosperity is temperance, the virtue of adversity is fortitude, which [6] in morals is the more heroical virtue. Prosperity

finely alludes, when he says, 'It is a noble thing, at once to participate in the frailty of man, and the security of a God.'" -Page 255.

Bacon, in the same connection, expresses the opinion that the fiction concerning Prometheus exhibits a surprising correspondence with the Christian mysteries: in particular, the voyage of Hercules, made in a pitcher, to release Prometheus, bears an allusion to the 'Word of God' coming in the frail vessel of the flesh to redeem mankind.

Mystery: a secret or emblematic meaning.

Better, and besides.

Nay and:

Lively in a life-like manner.

word is not now used as an adverb.

The

[5.] It would improve this sentence by closing it with the word fortitude, and changing which into this, for the beginning of a new sentence. In a mean: in a style of moderation. ['Verum ut a granditate verborum ad mediocritatem descendamus.'-Latin Edition.]

"But no authority of gods or men

Allows of any mean in poetry.”—Roscommon.

The virtue of prosperity: Does this mean the moral quality which prosperity engenders, or that which befits and adorns prosperity?

[6.] Prosperity, &c.: See the remarks of Macauley on this fine passage, on a foregoing page, in the "Critical Estimates of