ters, as compared with the more open, free-spoken, active, and daring, is the tendency to over-rate the amount of what is distinctly known. The bold and enterprising are likely to meet with a greater number of tangible failures than the overcautious; and yet if you take a hundred average men of each description, you will find that the bold have had, on the whole, a more successful career. But the failures—that is, the nonsuccess of the over-cautious, cannot be so distinctly traced. Such a man only misses the advantages-often very greatwhich boldness and free-speaking might have gained. He who always goes on foot will never meet with a fall from a horse, or be stopped on a journey by a restive horse; but he who rides, though exposed to these accidents, will, in the end, have accomplished more journeys than the other. He who lets his land lie fallow, will have incurred no losses from bad harvests; but he will not have made so much of his land as if he had ventured to encounter such risks.

The kind of boldness which is most to be deprecated—or at least as much so as the boldness of ignorance-is daring, unaccompanied by firmness and steadiness of endurance. Such was that which Tacitus attributes to the Gauls and Britons: 'Eadem in deposcendis periculis audacia; eadem in detrectandis, ubi advenerint, formido." This character seems to belong to those who have-in phrenological language-Hope, and Conbativeness, large, and Firmness small.

1 The same daring in rushing into dangers, and the same timidity in shrinking from them when they come.

ESSAY XIII. OF GOODNESS, AND GOODNESS OF NATURE.

I

TAKE goodness in this sense, the affecting' of the weal of men, which is that the Grecian, call Philanthropia; and the word humanity, as it is used, is a little too light to express it. Goodness, I call the habit, and goodness of nature the inclination. This, of all virtues and dignities of the mind, is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing, no better than a kind of vermin. Goodness answers to the theological virtue, Charity, and admits no excess but error. The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall-the desire of knowledge in excess caused Man to fall; but in charity there is no excess, neither can angel or Man come in danger by it. The inclination to goodness is imprinted deeply in the nature of Man; insomuch, that if it issue not towards men, it will take unto other living creatures; as it is seen in the Turks, a cruel people, who, nevertheless, are kind to beasts, give alms to dogs and birds; insomuch as Busbechius' reporteth a christian boy in Constantinople had liked to have been stoned for gagging in a waggishness, a long-billed fowl. Errors, indeed, in this virtue, in goodness or charity, may be committed. The Italians have of it an ungracious proverb, 'Tanto buon che val niente," and one of the doctors of Italy, Nicholas Machiavel, had the confidence to put in writing, almost in plain terms, "That the christian faith had given up good men in prey to those who are tyrannical and unjust:' which he spake, because, indeed, there was never law, or sect, or opinion, did so much magnify goodness as the christian religion doth; therefore, to avoid the scandal and the danger both, it is good to take knowledge of the errors of a habit so excellent. Seek the good of other man, but be not in

1 Affecting. The being desirous of; aiming at. See page 1.

"Busbechius. A learned Fleming of the 16th century, in his Travels in the

East.

So good that he is good for nothing.'

* Take knowledge of. Take cognizance of. They took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.'-Acts iv. 13.

bondage to their faces or fancies; for that is but facility or softness, which taketh an honest mind prisoner. Neither give thou Esop's cock a gem, who would be better pleased and happier if he had a barley-corn. The example of God teacheth the lesson truly: 'He sendeth his rain, and maketh his sun to shine upon the just and the unjust;' but he doth not rain wealth nor shine honour and virtues upon men equally: common benefits are to be communicated with all, but peculiar benefits with choice. And beware how in making the portraiture thou breakest the pattern; for divinity maketh the love of ourselves the pattern-the love of our neighbours but the portraiture: Sell all thou hast, and give it to the poor, and follow me;' but sell not all thou hast, except thou come and follow me—that is, except thou have a vocation' wherein thou mayest do as much good with little means as with great-for otherwise, in feeding the streams thou driest the fountain.

2

Neither is there only a habit of goodness directed by right reason; but there is in some men, even in nature, a disposition towards it, as, on the other side, there is a natural malignity; for there be that in their nature do not affect the good of others. The lighter sort of malignity turneth but to a crossness, or frowardness, or aptness to oppose, or difficileness, or the like; but the deeper sort to envy, and mere mischief. Such men, in other men's calamities, are, as it were, in season, and are ever on the loading part-not so good as the dogs that licked Lazarus' sores, but like flies that are still buzzing upon anything that is raw-misanthropi [men-haters], that make it their practice to bring men to the bough, and yet never have a tree for the purpose in their gardens, as Timon' had: such dispositions are the very errors of human nature, and yet they are the fittest timber to make great politics of—like to knee-timber, that is good for ships that are ordained to be tossed, but not for building houses that shall stand firm.

5

1 Vocation. See page 20.

6

2 Difficileness. Difficulty to be persuaded. 'The Cardinal, finding the Pope difficile in granting the dispensation.'-Bacon, Henry VII.

3 Loading. Loaden; burdened.

* See an account of Timon in Plutarch's Life of Marc Antony.

6 Politics. Politicians. See page 21.

Knee-timber. A timber cut in the shape of the knee when bent.

The parts and signs of goodness are many. If a man bet gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them, if he be compassionate towards the afflictions of others, it shows that his heart is like the noble tree that is wounded itself when it gives the balm,-if he easily pardons and remits offences, it shows that his mind is planted above injuries, so that he cannot be shot, -if he be thankful for small benefits, it shows that he weighs men's minds, and not their trash; but, above all, if he have St. Paul's perfection, that he would wish to be an anathema from Christ,' for the salvation of his brethren, it shows much of a divine nature, and a kind of conformity with Christ himself.

ANNOTATIONS.

'Goodness admits no excess, but error.'

Bacon is speaking of what is now called benevolence and beneficence; and his remark is very just, that it admits of no excess in quantity, though it may be misdirected and erroneous. For if your liberality be such as to reduce your family to poverty, or-like the killing of the hen that laid the golden eggs-such as to put it out of your power hereafter to be liberal at all; or if it be bestowed on the undeserving; this is rather to be accounted an unwise and misdirected benevolence than an excess of it in quantity. And we have here a remarkable instance of the necessity of keeping the whole character and conduct, even our most amiable propensities, under the control of right principle guided by reason; and of taking pains to understand the subject relating to each duty you are called on to perform. For there is perhaps no one quality that can produce a greater amount of mischief than may be done by thoughtless good-nature. For instance, if any one out of tenderness of heart and reluctance to punish or to discard the criminal and worthless, lets loose on society, or advances to important offices, mischievous characters, he will have conferred

1 Romans ix. 3.

a doubtful benefit on a few, and done incalculable hurt to thousands. So also, to take one of the commonest and most obvious cases, that of charity to the poor,-a man of great wealth, by freely relieving all idle vagabonds, might go far towards ruining the industry, and the morality, and the prosperity, of a whole nation. For there can be no doubt that careless, indiscriminate alms-giving does far more harm than good; since it encourages idleness and improvidence, and also imposture. If you give freely to ragged and filthy street beggars, you are in fact hiring people to dress themselves in filthy rags, and go about begging with fictitious tales of distress. If, on the contrary, you carefully inquire for, and relieve, honest and industrious persons who have fallen into distress through unavoidable misfortune, you are not only doing good to those objects, but also holding out an encouragement generally to honest industry.

'You may, however, meet with persons who say, 'as long as it is my intention to relieve real distress, my charity is equally virtuous, though the tale told me may be a false one. The impostor alone is to be blamed who told it me; I acted on what he said; and if that is untrue, the fault is his, and not mine."

'Now this is a fair plea, if any one is deceived after making careful inquiry: but if he has not taken the trouble to do this, regarding it as no concern of his, you might ask him how he would act and judge in a case where he is thoroughly in earnest —that is, where his own interest is concerned. Suppose he employed a steward or other agent, to buy for him a house, or a horse, or any other article, and this agent paid an exorbitant price for what was really worth little or nothing, giving just the same kind of excuse for allowing his employer to be thus cheated; saying, 'I made no careful inquiries, but took the seller's word; and his being a liar and a cheat, is his fault, and not mine;' the employer would doubtless reply, 'The seller indeed is to be condemned for cheating; but so are you, for your carelessness of my interests. His being greatly in fault does not clear you; and your merely intending to do what was right, is no excuse for your not taking pains to gain right information.'

'Now on such a principle we ought to act in our charities: