XXVI. Of Seeming Wise.[1]
It hath been an opinion, that the French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are. But howsoever it be between nations, certainly it is so between man and man. For as the Apostle saith of godliness, Having a shew of godliness, but denying the power thereof;[2] so certainly there are in point of wisdom and sufficiency, that do nothing or little very solemnly: magno conatu nugas.[3] It is a ridiculous thing and fit for a satire to persons of judgment, to see what shifts these formalists have, and what prospectives[4] to make superficies[5] to seem body that hath depth and bulk. Some are so close and reserved, as they will not shew their wares but
- ↑ "In the essay on Seeming Wise we can trace from the impatient notes put down in his Commentarius Solutus, the picture of the man who stood in his way, the Attorney-General Hobart." R. W. Church. Bacon, in English Men of Letters.
Sir Henry Hobart, d. 1625, chief justice of the common pleas. He became attorney-general July 4, 1606, and barred Bacon's path to promotion for seven years. The Dictionary of National Biography says of Hobart: "He was a very modest and learned lawyer, and as a judge escaped the charge of subserviency to the crown." - ↑ II. Timothy iii. 5.
- ↑ Play the fool with great effort. "Nae, ista hercle magno jam conatu magnas nugas dixerit." Terence. Heauton-timorumenos. IV. 1.
A marginal note in the Commentarius Solutus, on "Hubbard's disadvantages" reads, "Solemn goose." - ↑ Prospective. A perspective glass, a telescope.
"What means my sister's eye so oft to passe
Through the long entry of that Optic glasse?· · · · · And is this all? doth thy Prospective please
Th' abusèd fancy with no shapes but these?"
Francis Quarles. Emblemes. III. xiv. 1, 2, 13, 14.
- ↑ Superficies. The surface.
