omnibus, ignotus moritur sibi.[1] In place there is license to do good and evil; whereof the latter is a curse: for in evil the best condition is not to will; the second not to can.[2] But power to do good is the true and lawful end of aspiring. For good thoughts (though God accept them) yet towards men are little better than good dreams, except they be put in act; and that cannot be without power and place, as the vantage and commanding ground. Merit and good works is the end of man's motion; and conscience[3] of the same is the accomplishment of man's rest. For if a man can be partaker of God's theatre, he shall likewise be partaker of God's rest. Et conversus Deus, ut aspiceret opera quæ fecerunt manus suæ, vidit quod omnia essent bona nimis;[4] and then the sabbath. In the discharge of thy place set before thee the best examples; for imitation is a globe[5] of precepts. And after a time set before thee thine own example; and examine thyself strictly whether thou didst not best at first.
- ↑ Death presses heavily upon him who dies known too well by all, but unknown to himself. Seneca. Thyestes. XI. 401–403.
- ↑ Can. To know; the verb is independent and bears its original meaning.
"She could the Bible in the holy tongue."
Ben Jonson. The Magnetic Lady. i. 5.
- ↑ Conscience. Consciousness.
"Her virtue and the conscience of her worth."
Milton. Paradise Lost. VIII. 502.
- ↑ And God, turning, looked upon the works which his hands had made and saw that all were very good. Bacon has here put into his own Latin Genesis i. 31: "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Viditque Deus cuncta quae fecerat: et erant valde bona, the Vulgate reads.
- ↑ Globe. Circle.
"him round
A globe of fiery seraphim enclos'd
With bright imblazonry."
Milton. Paradise Lost. II. 511–513.
