Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/281

 ANALYSIS OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. PRIVATE co&amp;lt;y&amp;gt; 22 . It is: 1st. Active. 2d. Passive. Active Private Good. . Active is preferable to passive private good. Vita sine propnsito languida et vaga est. . Active private good has not an identity with the good of society 22 1 Passive Private Good. . It is: 1st. Conversative. 2d. Perfective. Good Perfective 221 . Good perfective is of a higher nature than good conversative. Man s approach or assumption to divine or angelical nature is the perfect/mi of his form. . The imitation of perfection is the tempest of life. 1 As those which are sick, and find no remedy, do fumble up and down and change place, as if by a remove local they could obtain a remove internal ,- so is it with men in ambition, when, failing of the means to exalt their nature, they art in a perpetual estuation to exalt their place. Good Conversative 221 . It consists in the practice of that which is agree able to our nature. . It is the most simple, but lowest good. . Good conversative consists in the steadiness and in tensity of the enjoyment. . Doubts whether felicity results most from the steadiness or intensity. The sophist saying that Socrates s felicity was the felicity of a block or stone ,- and &- crates saying that the sophist s felicity was the felicity of one that had the itch, who did nothing but itch and scratch. As we see, upon the lute or like instrument, a ground, though it be sweet and have show of many changes, yet breaketh not the hand to such strange and hard stops and passages, as a set song or voluntary ; much after the same manner was the diversity between a philosophical and a civil life. And therefore men are to imitate the wisdom of jewellers ,- who, if there be a grain, or a cloud, or an ice which may be ground forth without taking too much of the stone, they help it ,- but if it should lessen and abate the stone too much, they will not meddle with it. : so ought men so to procure serenity as they destroy not mag nanimity. PUBLIC GOOD j. It is duty, and relates to a mind well framed towards others. , Error in confusing this science with politics. As in architecture the direction of framing the posts, beams, and other parts of building, is not the same with the manner of joining them and erecting the building,- and in me chanical -, the direction how to frame an in strument or engine is not the same with the manner of setting it on work and employing it, so the. dud fine of conjugation of men in society dijfereth from that of their conformity thereunto. Q. Is not this the difference between thu love of excelling iml the IOVH of excellence? VOL. I. 20 . Duties are: 1st. Common to all men. 2d. Peculiar Jo professions or particular pursuits 222 . The duties common to all men has been excellently laboured. . The duties respecting particular professions have, of necessity, been investigated dillusedly. . A knowledge of the impostures of professions is incident to the knowledge of professional du ties, and is deficient. As the f able goeth of the basilisk, that if he see you first, you die fr/r it, but if you tee him first, he dielh : so is it with deceits and evil arts, lahich, if they be first espied, they lose their life, but if they prevent, they en danger. We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do. For it is nut possible to join serpentine wisdom with the columbine innocency, except men know exactly all the conditions of the serpent, his baseness and going upon his belly, his volubility and lubri city, his envy and sting, and the rest, that is, all forms and natures of evil.- for without this, virtue lieth open and unfenced. . To this subject appertains the duties of husband and wife, parent and child, friendship, grati tude, &c. . This knowledge concerning duties considers com- paijative duties. We see in the proceeding of Lucius Brutus against his own sons, which was so much ex tolled; yet what was said ? &quot;Infelix, utcujii/ue ferent ea fata minores.&quot; Men must pursue the things which arejutt in present, and leave the future to the Divine Providence. THE CULTURE OF THE MIXD 223 . Inquiry must be made not only of the nature of virtue, but how it may be attained. An exhibition of the nature of good without considering the culture of the mind, seemcth to be no better than a fair image, or statue, which is beautiful to contemplate, but is with out life and motion. . Morality should be the handmaid of divinity. . We ought to cast up our account, what is in our power and what not 224 The husbandman cannot command, neither the nature of the earth, nor the teutons of the weather ; no more can the physician the con stitution of the patient, nor the variety of acci dents: so in the culture and cure of }he mind of man, two things are without our command; points of nature, and points of fortune, for to the basis of the one, and the conditioni of the other, our work is limited and tied. Of Men s Natures, or Inherent Dispositions . The foundation of the culture of the mind is die knowledge of its nature. There are minds which are proportioned to great mutters, and others to small. There are minds proportioned to intend many matters, and others to few. Some minds are proportioned to that which may be despatched at once, or within a short return of lime / others to that which begins afar (iff, and is to be won with length of pu- suit