pernicious, is, that all proportion is lost; it were disproportion enough for the servant's good to be preferred before the master's; but yet it is a greater extreme when a little good of the servant shall carry things against the great good of the master's: and yet that is the case of bad officers, treasurers, ambassadors, gen 'By the fitness and proportionateness of these objective impressions upon their respective faculties,' &c.-Hale. It were disproportion, &c.: equivalent to, it were unsuitable enough. [Satis enim iniquum esset.-Lat. Ed.] carry things: Give an equivalent form. Shall And yet: Here Affairs: should begin a new sentence, leaving out and. &c. What change does modern usage require? Here the sentence should end, and the next begin with 'For,' &c., and ending with fortune. Bias upon their bowl: a weight upon the side of their bowl, or wooden ball; so that when rolled upon the bowling-green, it would not move in a direct line. The game of bowls was very popular with the higher ranks in the days of Charles I, and Charles II. 'Being ignorant that there is a concealed bias within the spheroid, which will in all probability swerve away.'-W. Scott. A bowl equally poised, and thrown upon a plain bowlinggreen, will necessarily run in a direct line.'-Bentley. "Madam, we'll play at bowls, 'Twill make me think the world is full of rubs, And that my fortune runs against the bias."—Shakesp. Model: measure; Envies desires resulting from envy. standard. Sell: barter or exchange. To sell a hurt, is a strong but singular expression, denoting the injury that is inflicted in consequence of what is obtained. And certainly: The sentence would begin better thus:-It is the nature, certainly, &c, Men many, &c.: an unpleasant alliteration, Change the expression. Respect: consideration. As: that. An: if. "There's the respect That makes calamity of so long life."-Shak. Their affairs: supply the word that is needed to remove the ambiguity. [Fortunam domini sui prodent.-Lat. Ed.] erals, and other false and corrupt servants; which set a bias upon their bowl, of their own petty ends and envies, to the overthrow of their master's great and important affairs; and, for the most part, the good such servants receive is after the model of their own fortune; but the hurt they sell for that good is after the model of their master's fortune: and certainly it is the nature of extreme self-lovers, as they will set an house on fire, an it were but to roast their eggs; and yet these men many times hold credit with their masters, because their study is but to please them, and profit themselves; and for either respect they will abandon the good of their affairs. Wisdom for a man's self is, in many branches [7] thereof, a depraved thing: it is the wisdom of rats that will be sure to leave a house some time before it fall: it is the wisdom of the fox that thrust out the badger who digged and made room for him; it is the wisdom of crocodiles, that shed tears when they would devour. But that which is specially to be noted is, that [8] Sui, &c.: [8.] Those which: Give present usage. 'Lovers of themselves without a rival.'-Cicero ad. Q. F. III, 8. Sacrificed to themselves: rendered homage to themselves (as sacrifices are made for the sake of paying honor to Deity); studied their own honor and advancement. Pinioned: Give the synonyme. The Latin Edition reads praæscidisse. Fortune: worshipped as a Deity by Greeks and Romans. She was supposed to exercise an arbitrary power over human affairs, distributing prosperity and adversity. The Romans represented her with a cornucopia, and the helm of a ship, to denote that she distributes riches, and directs the affairs of the world. Sometimes she is represented as blindfolded, to show that she acts without discernment, and as standing on a wheel to denote her inconstancy. Sometimes she is represented with wings upon her feet. Horace in his Odes, Bk. I, 35, beautifully refers to this Goddess, where he recommends "sui those which (as Cicero says of Pompey) are amantes sine rivali," are many times unfortunate; and whereas they have all their time sacrificed to themselves, they become in the end themselves sacrifices to the inconstancy of fortune, whose wings they thought by their self-wisdom to have pinioned. Augustus to her protection when he meditated a visit to Britain. "Fair Antium's goddess! whose sweet smile or frown Can raise weak mortals from the depth of wo, Or bring the lofty pride of triumph down And bid the bitter tear of funeral grief to flow!" Bacon, in this Essay, alludes to the Pagan idea of Fortune. It is a common practice to personify Fortune as a power which determines human success, though Divine Providence is the only governing power. ""Tis more by fortune than by merit."-Shak. "O Fortune, Fortune, all men call thee fickle."-Shak. In this Essay, there is considerable variety in sentences as to length. This is an important element in composition, and ought not to be neglected, especially in that which is intended to be printed. Prof. Henry Reed thus laments the tendency in our day to the predominant use of short sentences. He says:"In our reading of English prose, it is well worth while to study what has become a lost art. I mean what may be called the architecture of a long and elaborate sentence, with its continuous and well-sustained flow of thought and feeling, and, however interwoven, orderly and clear. This is to be sought chiefly in the great prose writers of former centuries. 'Read that page,' said Coleridge, pointing to one of them, 'you cannot alter one conjunction without spoiling the sense. It is a linked strain throughout. In your modern books, for the most part, the sentences in a page have the same connection with each other that marbles have in a bag: they touch without adhering.' Junius, waging his fierce, factious war, fought with those short pointed sentences, piercing his foes with them; and it has been said that nothing but Horne Tooke and a long sentence were an overmatch for him; and in our day, Macauley, waging his larger and more indiscrimate war, deals so exclusively with the same fashion of speech, that if you undertake to read his history aloud, your voice will crave a good old-fashioned, long sentence, as much as your heart may crave more of the repose and moderation of a deeper philosophy of history. This fashion of short sentences is mischievous, not only as a temptation to an indolent habit of reading (for it asks a much less sustained attention) but it is fatal to the fine rythm which English prose is capable of." 1. Make an Analysis, and divide into Paragraphs. Divide § 5 into two and § 6 into three or four periods. 2. State Bacon's mistake about ants. Aristotle's distinction between selflove and selfishness? To what does Bacon compare a man who makes himself the centre of his actions? 3. Explain the phrase bias upon the bowl. Bacon's description of 'extreme self-lovers?' What word does Bacon often make as synonymous with? To what docs Bacon compare the wisdom for a man's self? What error (judged by modern usage) does he fall into, in the use of which? What note-worthy thing does Bacon say of those who are 'lovers of themselves without a rival?' 4. Point out words or phrases that have, since Bacon's time, become obsolete, or changed their meaning. 5. The Pagan idea of Fortune? 6. Remarks upon the comparative length of sentences in older and in later writers? 7. Paraphrase the Essay. ESSAY XII. INNOVATIONS. [1] As 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, [2] strongest at first. Surely every medicine is an [1.] Ill-shapen: as Bacon says in his Antitheta:-'New births are deformed things.' Attained, &c.: reached in degree; equalled. Hath, &c.: moves naturally, without the application of extraneous force, and becomes stronger as it continues. [Processu invalescit.-Lat. Ed.] Forced : violent. Bacon (in his Antitheta) says:-'Let the ignorant square their actions by example.' 'As they who first derive honor to their family are commonly more worthy than those who succeed them, so innovations generally excel imitations.' So the first, &c.: [Ita rerum exemplaria et primordia (quando feliciter jacta sunt) imitationem ætatis sequentis, ut plurimum, superant.-Lat. Ed.] Strongest at first: [is] strongest, &c. [2.] Medicine: remedy. New evils: Bacon (Antitheta) says:-' Qui nova remedia fugit, nova mala operitur:' 'He who will not apply new remedies must expect new diseases.' may we not imitate Time?' Time, &c.: 'Novator maximus tempus : quidni igitur tempus imitemur?' i. e. 'Time is the greatest innovator; and why Of course in the common To the, &c. For is required by points out each man of us to manner of proceeding. modern taste. "Marks and slaughter.-Ben Jonson. : |