Page:Bacons Essays 1908 West.djvu/59

Rh Therfore, to avoid the Scandall and the Danger both, it is good to take knowledge of the Errours of an Habit so excellent. Seeke the Good of other Men, but be not in bondage to their Faces or Fancies; For that is but Facilitie or Softnesse; which taketh an honest Minde Prisoner. Neither give thou Æsop's Cocke a Gemme, who would be better pleased and happier if he had had a Barly Corne. The Example of God teacheth the Lesson truly: He sendeth his Raine, and niaketh his Sunne to shine, upon the lust and Uniust; But hee doth not raine Wealth, nor shine Honour and Vertues upon Men equally. Common Benefits are to be communicate with all, But peculiar Benefits, with choice. And beware how, in making the Portraiture, thou breakest the Patterne; For Divinitie maketh the Love of our Selves the Patterne; The Love of our Neighbours but the Portraiture. Sell all thou hast, and give it to the poore, and follow mee: But sell not all thou hast, except thou come and follow mee; That is, except thou have a Vocation, wherin thou maist doe as much good with little meanes as with great: For otherwise, in feeding the Streames thou driest the Fountaine. Neither is there only a Habit of Goodnesse, 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 Naturall Malignitie. For there be that, in their Nature, doe not affect the Good of Others. The lighter Sort of Malignitie turneth but to a Crosnesse, or Frowardnesse , or Aptnesse to oppose, or Difficilnesse , or the like; but the deeper Sort, to Envy and meere Mischiefe. 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 any Thing that is raw; Misanthropi , that make it their Practise to bring Men to