Page:Essays of Francis Bacon 1908 Scott.djvu/132

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BACON'S ESSAYS.



V. Of Adversity.[1]

It was a high speech of Seneca (after the manner of the Stoics), that the good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired. Bona rerum secundarum optabilia; adversarum mirabilia.[2] Certainly if miracles be the command over nature, they appear most in adversity. It is yet a higher speech of his than the other (much too high for a heathen), It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man, and the security of a God. Vere magnum habere fragilitatem hominis, securitatem Dei.[3] This would have done better in poesy,[4] where transcendences[5]

    though violent enough in their onset." Byron. Letter to Thomas Moore. March 6, 1822. The Works of Lord Byron. R. E. Prothero. Vol. VI. p. 35.

    "How happy might we be, and end our time with blessed days, and sweet content, if we could contain ourselves, and, as we ought to do, put up injuries, learn humility, meekness, patience, forget and forgive, (as in God's word we are injoyned), compose such small controversies amongst ourselves, moderate our passions in this kind, and think better of others (as Paul would have us) than of ourselves: be of like affection one towards another, and not avenge ourselves, but have peace with all men!" Robert Burton. The Anatomy of Melancholy. Partition 1. Section 2. Member 3. Subsection 8. Edited by Rev. A. R. Shilleto, M.A., with an Introduction by A. H. Bullen. London. 1893.

  1. This essay was first printed in the edition of 1625, after Bacon had experienced the height of prosperity as Lord Chancellor and the depth of adversity in his degradation and fall.
  2. Ilia bona optabilia, haec mirabilia sunt. L. Annaei Senecae ad Lucilium Epistularum Moralium Liber VII. Epistula IV. 29.
  3. Ecce res magna, habere inbecillitatem hominis, securitatem dei. L. Annaei Senecae ad Lucilium Epistularum Moralium Liber VI. Epistula I. 12.
  4. Poesy. Poetry.

    "Music and poesy use, to quicken you."
    Shakspere. The Taming of the Shrew. i. 1.

  5. Transcendence. Elevation, loftiness (of thought).