Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/416

288 being nursed by the natural pravity, and clownish malignity of the vulgar sort, (unto princes as infestuous as serpents,) is again repaired by renewed strength, and at last breaks out into open rebellion, which, because it brings infinite mischiefs upon prince and people, is represented by the monstrous deformity of Typhon: his hundred heads signify their divided powers, his fiery mouths their in flamed intents, his serpentine circles their pestilent malice in besieging, his iron hands their merciless slaughters, his eagle's talons their greedy rapines, his plumed body their continual rumours, and scouts, and fears, and suchlike; and some times these rebellions grow so potent, that princes are enforced (transported as it were by the rebels, and forsaking the chief seats and cities of the kingdom) to contract their power, and, being deprived of the sinews of money and majesty, be take themselves to some remote and obscure corner within their dominions; but in process of time, if they bear their misfortunes with moderation, they may recover their strength by the virtue and industry of Mercury, that is, they may, by be coming affable, and by reconciling the minds and wills of their subjects with grave edicts and gracious speech, excite an alacrity to grant aids and subsidies whereby to strengthen their authority anew. Nevertheless, having learned to be wise and wary, they will refrain to try the chance of fortune by war, and yet study how to suppress the reputation of the rebels by some famous action, which if it fall out answerable to their expectation, the rebels, finding themselves weakened, and fearing the success of their broken projects, betake themselves to some sleight and vain bravadoes like the hissing of serpents, and at length in despair betake themselves to flight, and then when they begin to break, it is safe and timely for kings to pursue and oppress them with the forces and weight of the kingdom, as it were with the mountain Ætna.

say the Cyclops, for their fierceness and cruelty, were by Jupiter cast into hell, and there doomed to perpetual imprisonment; but Tellus persuaded Jupiter that it would do well, if being set at liberty, they were put to forge thunderbolts, which being done accordingly, they became so painful and industrious, as that day and night they continued hammering out in laborious diligence thunderbolts and other instruments of terror. In process of time Jupiter having conceived a dis pleasure against Æsculapius, the son of Apollo, for restoring a dead man to life by physic, and concealing his dislike because there was no just cause of anger, the deed being pious and famous, secretly incensed the Cyclops against him, who without delay slew him with a thunderbolt; in revenge of which act, Apollo, Jupiter not prohibiting it, shot them to death with his arrows. This fable may be applied to the projects of kings, who having cruel, bloody, and exacting officers, do first punish and displace them; after wards, by the counsel of Tellus, that is of some base and ignoble person, and by the prevailing respect of profit, they admit them into their places again, that they may have instruments in a readiness, if at any time there should need either severity of execution or accerbity of exaction. These servile creatures being by nature cruel, and by their former fortune exasperated,, and perceiving well what is expected at their hands, do show themselves wonderful officious in such kind of employments; but being too rash and precipi tate in seeking countenance and creeping into favour, do sometimes take occasion, from the secret beckonings and ambiguous commands of their prince, to perform some hateful executio-n. But princes abhorring the fact, and knowing well that they shall never want such kind of instru ments, do utterly forsake them, turning them over to the friends and allies of the wronged, to their accusations and revenge, and to the general hatred of the people; so that with great applause and prosperous wishes and acclamations towards the prince, they are brought rather too late than undeservedly to a miserable end.

say that Narcissus was exceeding fair and beautiful, but wonderful proud and disdain ful; wherefore despising all others in respect of himself, he leads a solitary life in the woods and chases with a few followers, to whom he alone was all in all; amongst the rest there follows him the nymph Echo. During his course of life, it fatally so chanced that he came to a clear foun tain, upon the bank whereof he lay down to re pose himself in the heat of the day; and having espied the shadow of his own face in the water, was so besotted and ravished with the contem plation and admiration thereof, that he by no means possibly could be drawn from beholding his image in this glass; insomuch, that by con tinual gazing thereupon, he pined away to nothing, and was at last turned into a flower of his own name, which appears in the beginning of the spring, and is sacred to the infernal powers, Pluto, Proserpina, and the Furies. This fable seems to show the dispositions and fortunes of those, who in respect either of their beauty or other gift wherewith they are adorned and graced by nature, without the help of indus try, are so far besotted in themselves as that they prove the cause of their own destruction. For it is the property of men infected with this humour not to come much abroad, or to be conversant in civil affairs; specially seeing those that are in