Page:Bacons Essays 1908 West.djvu/53

Rh Great Fortunes are strangers to themselves, and while they are in the pusle of businesse, they have no time to tend their Health either of Body or Minde. Illi Mors gravis incubat, qui, notus nimis omnibus, ignotus moritur sibi. In Place, There is License to doe Good and Evill; wherof the latter is a Curse; For in Evill the best condition is not to will, The Second, not to Can. But Power to doe good is the true and lawfull End of Aspiring. For good Thoughts (though God accept them,) yet towards men are little better then good Dreames, Except they be put in Act; And that cannot be without Power and Place, As the Vantage and Commanding Ground. Merit and good Works is the End of Man's Motion ; And Conscience of the same is the Accomplishment of Man's Rest. For if a Man can be Partaker of God's Theater, he shall likewise be Partaker of God's Rest. Et conversus Deus, ut aspiceret Opera quæ fecerunt manus suæ, vidit quod omnia essent bona nimis ; And then the Sabbath.

In the Discharge of thy Place, set before thee the best Examples; For Imitation is a Globe of Precepts. And after a time, set before thee thine owne Example; And examine thy selfe strictly, whether thou didst not best at first. Neglect not also the Examples of those that have carried themselves ill in the same Place; Not to set off thy selfe by taxing their Memory, but to direct thy selfe what to avoid. Reforme, therfore, without Braverie or Scandall of former Times and Persons; but yet set it downe to thy selfe, as well to create good Precedents as to follow them. Reduce things to the first Institution, and