an instance of the violation of the plan which Bacon recom. mends in the next sentence, for the Spanish government insisted that all the exports from the colonies should be brought into the port of Seville alone. The student cannot do better than read this important essay of Lord Bacon in the light of the history contemporaneous with its writing. Every principle which Bacon lays down can be illustrated from the early history of Virginia, the colony which he seems especially to have had in view while writing it chapters ix and xxvi in Prescott's History of Ferdinand and Isabella (vol. ii) also afford very valuable help towards understanding it. 23. 'marish'-marshy, fenny, boggy. 24. 'still '-always. See note 6, Essay IX. 25. Trifles and Gingles'-toys and rattles, and other such trifles which civilised men have commonly used for conciliating savages, and opening intercourse with them. 26. Do not seek to gain influence over them by helping them in their unprovoked attacks upon their enemies; still it is a very good plan (not amiss') to afford them protection when they them selves are attacked. destitute'-used here as a verb transitive for desert. Bacon is certainly thinking of the fate of those who first attempted the colonisation of Virginia. In 1588 Sir Richard Greville settled 108 persons on the island of Roanoke, who suffered terrible hardship, and must all have inevitably perished if Sir Francis Drake had not fortunately arrived he following year and brought them back. In the same year Sir Richard Greville left fifty more settlers there; but when Governor White was sent out to them in 1587, he found nothing but the bones of one man. He, however, settled 115 more colonists there, but in 1590 when he visited Roanoke again with supplies and recruits, not a single vestige of them could be found, nor were they ever heard of afterwards. ANALYSIS OF ESSAY XXXIII. I. Plantations are 'ancient, primitive, and heroical.' 1. The displacing or extirpation of present inhabitants. 2. Looking for too speedy a return of profit. 3. Peopling it with wicked and criminal persons instead of with useful and skilled artisans. III. Objects to be kept in view in colonisation: A. For sustenance: 1. To make good use of the fruits already growing there. 2. To introduce (a.) Vegetables that yield the quickest crops. 3. To distribute the products obtained carefully and economically. B. For trade: 1. To develop and export necessaries rather than luxuries. 2. To rely upon agriculture rather than mining. C. For government: 1. A single governor, assisted with a council, and administering some form of martial law. 2. Temporary exemption from import and export duties. D. For health: 1. To avoid over-crowding. 2. To build on high grounds rather than on the banks of streams. 3. To have adequate store of salt. E. For general management: 1. To be conciliatory and just to natives. 2. To introduce women to the colony when it is settled and prosperous. 3. Never to desert a colony when once established. XXXIV. OF RICHES. (1612, greatly enlarged 1625.) I CANNOT call Riches better than the Baggage of Virtue ;1 the Roman word is better, impedimenta; for as the baggage is to an army, so is Riches to Virtue; it cannot be spared nor left behind, but it hindereth the march; yea, and the care of it sometimes loseth or disturbeth the victory. Of great Riches there is no real use, except it be in the distribution; the rest is but conceit;2 so saith Solomon, Where much is, there are many to consume it; and what hath the owner but the sight of it with his eyes?' The personal fruition3 in any man cannot reach to feel great Riches: there is a custody of them; or a power of dole and donative of them; or a fame of them; but no solid use to the owner. Do you not see what feigned prices are set upon little stones and rarities? and what works of ostentation are undertaken, because there might seem to be some use of great Riches? But then you will say, they may be of use to buy men out of dangers or troubles; as Solomon saith, Riches are as a stronghold in the imagination of the rich man; '5 but this is excellently expressed, that it is 'in imagination, and not always in fact: for, certainly, great Riches have sold more men than they have bought out. Seek not proud Riches, but such as thou mayest get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly; yet have no abstract nor friarly contempts of them; but distinguish, as Cicero saith well of Rabirius Posthumus, 'In studio rei amplificandæ apparebat, non avaritiæ prædam, sed instrumentum bonitati quæri.'9 Hearken also to Solomon, and beware of hasty gathering of Riches: Qui festinat ad divitias, non erit insons.' 10 The poets feign, that when Plutus 11 (which is Riches) is sent from Jupiter, he limps, and goes slowly; but when he is sent from Pluto, he runs, and is swift of foot; meaning, that Riches gotten by good means and just labour pace slowly; but when they come by the death of others (as by the course of inheritance, testaments, and the like), they come tumbling upon a man: but it might be applied likewise to Pluto, taking him for the Devil: for when Riches come from the Devil (as by fraud and oppression, and unjust means), they come upon speed.12 The ways to enrich are many, and most of them foul. Parsimony is one of the best, and yet is not innocent, for it withholdeth men from works of liberality and charity. The improvement of the ground is the most natural obtaining of Riches, for it is our great Mother's blessing, the Earth's; but it is slow; and yet, where men of great wealth do stoop to husbandry, it multiplieth Riches exceedingly. I knew a nobleman in England that had the greatest audits 13 of any man in my time, a great grazier, a great sheep-master, a great timber-man, a great collier, a great corn-master, a great lead-man, and so of iron, and a number of the like points of husbandry; so as the earth seemed a sea to him in respect of the perpetual importation. It was truly observed by one, That himself 14 came very hardly to a little Riches, and very easily to great Riches; for when a man's stock is come to that, that he can expect the prime of markets,15 and overcome 16 those bargains, which for their greatness are few men's money,17 and be partner in the industries of younger men, he cannot but increase mainly. The gains of ordinary trades and vocations are honest, and furthered by two things, chiefly: by diligence, and by a good name for good and fair dealings. But the gains of bargains are of a more doubtful nature, when men shall wait upon 18 others' necessity; broke 19 by servants and instruments to draw them on; put off others cunningly that would be better chapmen;20 and the like practices, which are crafty and naught.21 As for chopping of bargains, when a man buys not to hold, but to sell over again, that commonly grindeth double, both upon the seller and upon the buyer. Sharings do greatly enrich, if the hands be well chosen that are trusted. Usury is the certainest means of gain, though one of the worst; as that whereby a man doth eat his bread, in sudore vultûs alieni;22 and besides, doth plough upon Sundays. But yet certain though it be, it hath flaws; for that the scriveners and brokers do value unsound men to serve their own turn.2 23 The fortune in being the first in an invention, or in a privilege, doth cause sometimes a wonderful overgrowth in Riches, as it was with the first sugarman in the Canaries: therefore, if a man can play the true logician, to have as well judgment as invention, he may do great matters, especially if the times be fit. He that resteth upon gains certain, shall hardly grow to great Riches; and he that puts all upon adventures, doth oftentimes break and come to poverty: it is good, therefore, to guard adventures with certainties that may uphold losses. Monopolies,24 and coemption of wares for resale, where they are not restrained, are great means to enrich; especially if the party have intelligence what things are like to come into request, and so store himself beforehand. Riches gotten by service, though it be of the best rise,25 yet when they are gotten by flattery, feeding humours, and other servile conditions, they may be placed amongst the worst. As for fishing for testaments and executorships (as Tacitus saith of Seneca, Testamenta et orbos tanquam indagine capi), it is yet worse, by how much men submit themselves to meaner persons than in service.” Believe not much them that seem to despise Riches, for they despise them that despair of them; and none worse when they come to them. Be not pennywise; Riches have wings, and sometimes they fly away of themselves, sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more. Men leave their Riches either to their kindred, or to the public; and moderate portions prosper best in both. A great state left to an heir, is a lure to all the birds of prey round about to seize on him, if he be not the better stablished in years and judgment: likewise, glorious gifts and foundations 30 are like sacrifices without salt, and but the painted sepulchres of alms, which soon will putrefy and corrupt inwardly. Therefore measure not thine advancements 1 by quantity, but frame them by measure: and defer not charities till death; for, certainly, if a man weigh it rightly, he that doth so is rather liberal of another man's than of his own. NOTES ON ESSAY XXXIV. 1. 'Baggage of Virtue'-i.e. they make the attainment of virtue more difficult; riches are not altogether a moral help, but often a moral hindrance to a man. So in the Gospels, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!'-Mark x, 23. The Latin word impedimenta (from pes, pedis=a foot) signifies that which entangles and impedes, and was generally used in a military sense to denote the baggage of an army. 2. 'conceit'-i.e. fancy; there is no real, but a fancied, enjoyment in the possession of great wealth. The quotation following is from Eccles. v, 2, 'When goods increase, they are increased that eat them; and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?' 3. 'personal fruition'-'the real and conscious enjoyment of vast |