His Noctes Attica Mr. Wright states lived during the period of the Antonines. is a notable work of criticism and travel. that Bacon is in error in attributing this passage to Gellius, and that he quotes from memory the substance of one of Quintilian's remarks concerning Seneca. 88:8. "Hominem," etc. 'A silly fellow, who disturbs the serious concerns of business with verbal quibbles.' 889. Plato. See note on page 55, line 20. 88: 10. Protagoras. Prodicus. Two Athenian Sophists. One of the Platonic dialogues is given the name of Protagoras. 88: 14. to be. In being. 88:20. inward. Disguised; the 'inwardness' of his condition being hid by pretence of prosperity. 88:21. their. False syntax in modern English. 88:23. opinion. reputation. XXVII. OF FRIENDSHIP (1625. The brief essay of 1612 is hardly a nucleus) This essay has especial reference to the long and gracious friendship between Bacon and Toby Matthews. The edition of 1612 contains a very short treatment of the topic; that of 1625 redeems his promise to Matthews: "For the Essay of Friendship, while I took your speech of it for a cursory request, I took my promise for a compliment. But, since you call for it, I shall perform it." The student will do well to consider also in relation to this essay Bacon's connection with Essex and with Buckingham. Emerson's essay on the same subject should be read for many interesting points of similarity and divergence. 89:1. him. Aristotle, in his Politics. 89: 13. Epimenides. A Cretan poet, fabled to have fallen asleep in a cave while a youth, and to have remained asleep for fifty-seven years. Numa. Numa Pompilius, successor to Romulus as king of Rome, B.C. 716-673. He is said to have founded the Roman religious institutions, receiving instruction from the nymph Egeria in the grove of Aricia. 89:14. Empedocles. A Sicilian philosopher reputed to have thrown himself into the crater of Mount Etna in order to create the impression that he was a god. See Matthew Arnold's Empedocles on Etna. 89:15. Apollonius. See note on page 64, line 3. 89: 19. a gallery of pictures. Compare Tennyson's In Memoriam, Lyric 70; Stephen Phillips' Faces at a Fire. 89:20. tinkling cymbal. See 1 Cor. xiii. 1. 89:22. 66 tude.' 'Magna civitas," etc. 'A great city is a great soli 89: 26. mere. Complete; utter. 90: 10. sarza. Sarsaparilla. 90:13. a true friend. Compare from Emerson's essay on Friendship: "The end of friendship is a commerce the most strict and homely that can be joined; more strict than any of which we have experience. It is for aid and comfort through all the relations and passages of life and death. It is fit for serene days, and graceful gifts, and country rambles, but also for rough roads and hard fare, shipwreck, poverty and persecution." 90:27. sorteth to. Tends to; results in. 90:29. privadoes. Bosom friends. 91:2. "participes curarum. 'Partners in cares.' The Roman emperor Tiberius so named his chief adviser, Ælius Sejanus. 91:11. Sylla. L. Cornelius Sulla, a Roman of high military genius, who successfully led an army against Marius in Rome, and also defeated the Pontic king Mithridates. He became dictator and consul, and died B.C. 78. 91:12. Pompey. See note on page 82, line 23. 91: 19. Julius Cæsar, a great soldier and statesman, first emperor of Rome, conqueror of Pompey. He was slain B.C. 44 by conspirators led by C. Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus. Decimus Brutus. One of the conspirators against Cæsar, to whom his victim had bequeathed the control of Cisalpine Gaul. He was put to death by Antony's orders, in Aquileia B. c. 43. 91:26. Calpurnia. The wife of Cæsar. 91:30. Antonius. See note on page 31, line 7. 92:2. Augustus. See note on page 5, line 24. 92:3. Agrippa. M. Vipsanius Agrippa, adviser of Augustus. 92:4. Mæcenas. C. Cilnius Mæcenas, another adviser, and patron of art and literature. 92:9. Tiberius Cæsar, Sejanus. See note on page 91, line 2. 92:12. Haec pro," etc. 'Because of our friendship I have not concealed these thoughts.' 92:16. Septimius Severus. See note on page 6, line 2. Plautianus. Prætorian prefect, representing the emperor. 92:22. Trajan. Emperor of Rome, A.D. 98-117. Marcus Aurelius. Emperor A.D. 161-180. Two great rulers. 93:3. Comineus. Philippe de Comines, the French historian, 1446-1509. 93: 4. Charles the Hardy. Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, 1433-1477. He was the foe of Louis XI. 93: 13. Pythagoras. A celebrated Greek philosopher, born at Samos about B.C. 590. He supported the theory of metempsychosis, or the transınigration of souls into varying bodies. Compare Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Sc. 1:"Thou almost mak'st me waver in my faith, To hold opinion with Pythagoras, That souls of animals infuse themselves and Twelfth Night, Act IV, Sc. 2: : "Clown. What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wild fowl? "Malvolio. That the soul of our grandam might happily inhabit a bird. "Clown. What thinkest thou of his opinion? "Malvolio. I think nobly of the soul, and no way approve his opinion." 93:29. praying in aid. Seeking the assistance. 94:21. Themistocles. An Athenian statesman and leader. He lived in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. 94:22. cloth of Arras. Tapestry (made chiefly in the town of Arras, hence the name, 'arras'). 94:23. put abroad. Unfolded; spread out. 95: 2. statua. Statue. So elsewhere in Bacon, and once in Shakespeare. 957. Heraclitus. A Greek philosopher, born at Ephesus about 535 B.C., died about 475 B.C. 958. Dry. Clear; uncoloured by the senses or feelings. 95:25. flat. Tame; dull; insipid. Compare Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act I, Sc. 2: "How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world!" 96:3. St. James. In his epistle, i. 23, 24. 96: 12. fond. Foolish. 96:13. when all is done. Nevertheless; after all 96:23. bowed and crooked to some ends. Compare from Emerson's essay on Friendship: “Let me be alone to the end of the world, rather than that my friend should overstep, by a word or a look, his real sympathy. I am equally balked by antagonism and by compliance. Let him not cease an instant to be himself. The only joy I have in his being mine is that the not mine is mine. I hate, where I looked for a manly furtherance, or at least a manly resistance, to find a mush of concession. Better be a nettle in the side of your friend than his echo." 97:2. kill the patient. Bacon's humour is the more effective for its infrequency and unexpectedness. Compare with this passage Essay XXX, page 114, lines 4-6. 97:6. scattered counsels. Suggestions from various sources 97:14. to life. To (the) life. 97:15. cast. Count. 97:18. another himself. Aristotle used such an expression. Compare again Emerson on Friendship: "A friend, therefore, is a sort of paradox in nature. I who alone am, I who see nothing in nature whose existence I can affirm with equal evidence to my own, behold now the semblance of my being in all its height, variety, and curiosity, reiterated in a foreign form; so that a friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature." 97:19. their time. Their last day; their appointed moment of death. Compare Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles : "She suddenly thought one afternoon, when looking in the glass at her fairness, that there was yet another date, of greater importance to her than those; that of her own death, when all these charms would have disappeared; a day which lay sly and unseen among all the other days of the year, giving no sign or sound when she annually passed over it; but none the less surely there." 98:1. A man can scarce allege. Bacon himself, though punctiliously courteous, was not, it must be confessed, peculiarly backward in valuating and even recommending himself. |