Page:Bacons Essays 1908 West.djvu/93

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
ESSAY XXII]
OF CUNNING
69

able to Examine or debate Matters. And yet commonly they take advantage of their Inability, and would be thought Wits of direction.[1] Some build rather upon the Abusing[2] of others, and (as we now say) Putting Tricks upon them, Then upon Soundnesse of their own proceedings. But Salomon saith, Prudens advertit ad Gressus suos: Stultus divertit ad Dolos.[3]

XXIII

OF WISEDOME FOR A MAN'S SELFE

An Ant is a wise Creature for it Selfe, But it is a shrewd[4] Thing in an Orchard or Garden. And certainly, Men that are great Lovers of Themselves waste the Publique. Divide with reason betweene Selfe-love and Society; And be so true to thy Selfe as[5] thou be not false to Others, Specially to thy King and Country. It is a poore Center of a Man s Actions, Himselfe. It is right Earth;[6] For that onely[7] stands fast upon his[8] owne Center; Whereas all Things that have Affinity with the Heavens move upon the Center of another, which they benefit. The Referring of all to a Man's Selfe is more tolerable in a Soveraigne Prince, Because Themselves are not onely Themselves, But their Good and Evill is at the perill[9] of the Publique Fortune: But it is a desperate Evill in a Servant to a Prince, or a Citizen in a Republique; For whatsoever Affaires passe such a Man's Hands, he crooketh[10] them to his owne Ends, Which must needs be often Eccentrick to[11] the Ends of his Master or State. Therefore let Princes or States choose


  1. would like to be taken for men of special ability in directing other people
  2. deceiving
  3. The wise man looks to his own steps: the fool turns aside to the snare.
  4. mischievous
  5. be true to thyself in such a way that
  6. It is just like the earth
  7. For the earth alone
  8. its
  9. involves the good or evil
  10. bends
  11. different from