Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/196

68 is the precept, "Try all things, and hold that which is good;" which endureth a discerning election out of an examination whence nothing at all is excluded out of the same fountain ariseth that direction, "Be you wise as serpents and innocent as doves." There are neither teeth nor stings, nor venom, nor wreaths and folds of serpents, which ought not to be all known, and, as far as examination doth lead, tried: neither let any man here fear infection or pollution, for the sun entereth into sinks and is not defiled; neither let any man think that herein he tempteth God, fur his diligence and generality of examination is commanded, and God is sufficient to preserve you immaculate and pure.

detestation or renouncing of Job. For a man to love again where he is loved, it is the charity of publicans contracted by mutual profit and good offices; but to love a man's enemies is one of the cunningest points of the law of Christ, and an imitation of the divine nature. But yet again, of this charity there be divers degrees; whereof the first is, to pardon our enemies when they repent: of which charity there is a shadow and image, even in noble beasts; for of lions, it is a received opinion that their fury and fierceness ceaseth towards any thing that yieldeth and prostrateth itself. The second degree is, to pardon our enemies, though they persist, and without satisfactions and submissions. The third degree is, not only to pardon and forgive, and forbear our enemies, but to deserve well of them, and to do them good: but all these three degrees either have or may have in them a certain bravery and greatness of the mind rather than pure charity; for when a man perceiveth virtue to proceed and flow from himself, it is possible that he is puffed up and takes contentment rather in the fruit of his own virtue than in the good of his neighbours; but if any evil overtake the enemy from any other coast than from thyself, and thou in the inwardest motions of thy heart be grieved and compassionate, and dost noways insult, as if thy days of right and revenge were at the last come; this I interpret to be the height and exaltation of charity.

ought to be a measure in worldly cares, otherwise they are both unprofitable, as those which oppress the mind and astonish the judgment, and profane, as those which savour of a mind which promiseth to itself a certain perpetuity in the things of this world; for we ought to be day's men and not to-morrow's men. considering the shortness of our time; and as he saith, "Laying hold on the present day;" for future things shall in heir turns become presents, therefore the care of the present sufficeth: and yet moderate cares (whether they concern our particular, or the commonwealth, or our friends) are not blamed. But herein is a two fold excess; the one when the chain or thread of our cares, extended and spun out to an over great length, and unto times too far off, as if we could bind the divine providence by our provisions, which even with the heathen, was always found to be a thing insolent and unlucky; for those which did attribute much to fortune, and were ready at hand to apprehend with alacrity the present occasions, have for the most part in their actions been happy; but they who in a compass, wisdom, have entered into a confidence that they had belayed all events, have for the most part en countered misfortune. The second excess is, when we dwell longer in our cares than is requisite for due deliberating or firm resolving; for who is there amongst us that careth no more than sufficeth either to resolve of a course or to conclude upon an impossibility, and doth not still chew over the same things, and tread a maze in the same thoughts, and vanisheth in them without issue or conclusion: which kind of cares are most contrary to all divine and human respects.

sense receiving every thing according to the natural impression, makes a better state and government of the mind, than these same imaginations and apprehensions of the mind; for the mind of man hath this nature and property even in the gravest and most settled wits, that from the sense of every particular, it doth as it were bound and spring forward, and take hold of other matters, foretelling unto itself that all shall prove like unto that which beateth upon the present sense; if the sense be of good, it easily runs into an unlimited hope, and into a like fear, when the sense is of evil, according as is said

And that contrary,

But yet of fear there may be made some use; for it prepareth patience and awaketh industry,

But hope seemeth a thing altogether unprofitable; for to what end serveth this conceit of good. Consider and note a little if the good fall out less than thou hopest; good though it be, yet less be cause it is, it seemeth rather loss than benefit through thy excess of hope; if the good prove equal and proportionable in event to thy hope, yet