Page:Bacons Essays 1908 West.djvu/50

Rh Affection and the most depraved; For which cause, it is the proper Attribute of the Devill, who is called The Envious Man that soweth tares amongst the wheat by night. As it alwayes commeth to passe that Envy worketh subtilly, and in the darke, And to the preiudice of good things, such as is the Wheat.  

Stage is more beholding to Love then the Life of Man. For as to the Stage, Love is ever matter of Comedies, and now and then of Tragedies: But in Life it doth much mischiefe, Sometimes like a Syren, Sometimes like a Fury. You may observe that amongst all the great and worthy Persons, (whereof the memory remaineth, either Ancient or Recent), there is not One that hath beene transported to the mad degree of Love; which shewes that great Spirits and great Businesse doe keepe out this weake Passion. You must except, neverthelesse, Marcus Antonius the halfe Partner of the Empire of Rome, and Appius Claudius the Decemvir and Law-giver; Whereof the former was indeed a Voluptuous Man and Inordinate ; but the latter was an Austere and wise man: And therefore it seemes (though rarely) that Love can finde entrance, not only into an open Heart, but also into a Heart well fortified, if watch be not well kept. It is a poore Saying of Epicurus, Satis magnum Alter Alteri Theatrum sumus : As if Man, made for the contemplation of Heaven and all Noble Obiects, should doe nothing but kneele before a little Idoll, and make himselfe subiect, though not of the Mouth (as Beasts are) yet of the Eye, which was given him for higher Purposes. It is a strange Thing to note the Excesse of this Passion, And how it braves the Nature and value of things, by this, that the Speaking in a perpetuall Hyperbole is comely in 