more; if he be superior, if he be not to be commended, you much less.[1] Glorious men are the scorn of wise men, the admiration of fools, the idols of parasites, and the slaves of their own vaunts.[2]
LV. Of Honour and Reputation.
The winning of Honour is but the revealing of a man's virtue and worth without disadvantage. For some in their actions do woo and affect honour and reputation; which sort of men are commonly much talked of, but inwardly little admired. And some, contrariwise, darken their virtue in the shew of it; so as they be undervalued in opinion. If a man perform that[3] which hath not been attempted before; or attempted and given over; or hath been achieved, but not with so good circumstance;[4] he shall pur-
- ↑ I quote the Latin of Pliny, to call attention to Bacon's style of translation, close but varied: "Disertior ipse es? tanto magis, ne invideris: nam qui invidet minor est. Denique, sive plus sive minus sive idem praestas, lauda vel inferiorem vel superiorem vel parem: superiorem, quia, nisi laudandus ille, non potes ipse laudari; inferiorem aut parem, quia pertinet ad tuam gloriam quam maximum videri quem praecedis vel exaequas." C. Plini Caecili Secundi Epistolarum Liber VI. 17.
- ↑ Vaunt. A vain display; a boast.
"As next the King, he was successive heir,
And such high vaunts of his nobility,
Did instigate the bedlam brain-sick duchess
By wicked means to frame our sovereign's fall."
Shakspere. II. King Henry VI. iii. 1.
- ↑ That. What.
- ↑ Circumstance. The logical surroundings or adjuncts of an action, such as its time, place, manner, or cause; in the singular, any one of these conditioning adjuncts. "My lord hath sent you this note; and by me this further charge,—that you swerve not from the smallest article of it, neither in time, matter, or other circumstance." Shakspere. Measure for Measure. iv. 2.
