The Essays of Francis Bacon/XI Of Great Place

by Francis Bacon

XI. Of Great Place.

Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state; servants of fame; and servants of business. So as they have no freedom; neither in their persons, nor in their actions, nor in their times. It is a strange desire, to seek power and to lose liberty: or to seek power over others and to lose power over a man's self. The rising unto place is laborious; and by pains men come to greater pains; and it is sometimes base; and by indignities^[1] men come to dignities. The standing is slippery, and the regress is either a downfall, or at least an eclipse, which is a melancholy thing. Cum non sis qui fueris, non esse cur velis vivere.^[2] Nay, retire men cannot when they would, neither will they when it were reason;^[3] but are impatient of privateness,^[4] even in age and sickness, which require the shadow;^[5] like old townsmen that will be still sitting at their street door, though thereby they offer age to scorn. Certainly great persons had need to borrow other men's opinions, to think themselves happy; for if they judge by their own feeling, they cannot find it: but if they think with themselves what other men think of them, and that other men would fain be as they are, then they are happy as it were by report; when perhaps they find the contrary within.^[6] For they are the first that find their own griefs, though they be the last that find their own faults. Certainly men in great fortunes are strangers to themselves, and while they are in the puzzle of business they have no time to tend their health either of body or mind. Illi mors grams incubat, qui notus nimis omnibus, ignotus moritur sibi.^[7] 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.^[8] 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^[9] 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;^[10] and then the sabbath. In the discharge of thy place set before thee the best examples; for imitation is a globe^[11] of precepts. And after a time set before thee thine own example; and examine thyself strictly whether thou didst not best at first. Neglect not also the examples of those that have carried themselves ill in the same place; not to set off thyself by taxing their memory, but to direct thyself what to avoid. Reform therefore, without bravery^[12] or scandal of former times and persons; but yet set it down to thyself as well to create good precedents as to follow them. Reduce things to the first institution, and observe wherein and how they have degenerate; but yet ask counsel of both times; of the ancient time, what is best; and of the latter time, what is fittest. Seek to make thy course regular,^[13] that men may know beforehand what they may expect; but be not too positive and peremptory; and express thyself well when thou digressest from thy rule. Preserve the right of thy place; but stir not questions of jurisdiction: and rather assume thy right in silence and de facto,^[14] than voice it with claims and challenges. Preserve likewise the rights of inferior places; and think it more honour to direct in chief than to be busy in all. Embrace and invite helps and advices touching the execution of thy place; and do not drive away such as bring thee information, as meddlers; but except of them in good part. The vices of authority are chiefly four; delays, corruption, roughness, and facility.^[15] For delays; give easy access; keep times appointed; go through with that which is in hand, and interlace not business but of necessity. For corruption; do not only bind thine own hands or thy servants' hands from taking, but bind the hands of suitors also from offering. For integrity used doth the one; but integrity professed, and with a manifest detestation of bribery, doth the other. And avoid not only the fault, but the suspicion. Whosoever is found variable, and changeth manifestly without manifest cause, giveth suspicion of corruption. Therefore always when thou changest thine opinion or course, profess it plainly, and declare it, together with the reasons that move thee to change; and do not think to steal^[16] it. A servant or a favourite, if he be inward,^[17] and no other apparent cause of esteem, is commonly thought but a by-way to close^[18] corruption. For roughness; it is a needless cause of discontent: severity breedeth fear, but roughness breedeth hate. Even reproofs from authority ought to be grave, and not taunting. As for facility; it is worse than bribery. For bribes come but now and then; but if importunity or idle respects^[19] lead a man, he shall never be without. As Salomon saith, To respect persons is not good; for such a man will transgress for a piece of bread.^[20] It is most true that was anciently spoken, A place sheweth the man. And it sheweth some to the better, and some to the worse. Omnium consensu capax imperii, nisi imperasset,^[21] saith Tacitus of Galba; but of Vespasian he saith, Solus imperantium, Vespasianus mutatus in melius:^[22] though the one was meant of sufficiency,^[23] the other of manners and affection. It is an assured sign of a worthy and generous spirit, whom honour amends. For honour is, or should be, the place of virtue; and as in nature things move violently to their place and calmly in their place, so virtue in ambition is violent, in authority settled and calm.^[24] All rising to great place is by a winding stair; and if there be factions, it is good to side a man's self whilst he is in the rising, and to balance himself when he is placed. Use the memory of thy predecessor fairly and tenderly; for if thou dost not, it is a debt will sure be paid when thou art gone. If thou have colleagues, respect them, and rather call them when they look not for it, than exclude them when they have reason to look to be called. Be not too sensible or too remembering of thy place in conversation and private answers to suitors; but let it rather be said, When he sits in place he is another man.

1. Indignity. Conduct involving shame or disgrace; a disgraceful act.

   "Fie on the pelfe for which good name is sold,
   And honour with indignity debased."
   

   Spenser. The Faery Queene. Book V. Canto xi. Stanza 63.
   
   "Whoever is apt to hope good from others is diligent to please them; but he that believes his powers strong enough to force their own way, commonly tries only to please himself." Dr. Samuel Johnson. Lives of the English Poets. John Gay.
2. Since you are not what you were, there is no reason why you should wish to live. M. Tullii Ciceronis Epistolarum ad Familiares Liber VII. iii. (Ad Marium).
3. Reason. Reasonable; the idiom is French, and was frequent in English from about 1400 to 1650, though now rare. "And the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables." Acts vi. 2.
4. Privateness. Privacy, retirement.
5. Shadow. Shade, retirement.

   "Old politicians chew on wisdom past,
   And totter on in business to the last."
   

   Pope. Epistle I. 11. 228-229.
6. "He who looks for applause from without has all his happiness in another's keeping." Oliver Goldsmith. The Good-natured Man. v.
7. Death presses heavily upon him who dies known too well by all, but unknown to himself. Seneca. Thyestes. XI. 401–403.
8. 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.
9. Conscience. Consciousness.

   "Her virtue and the conscience of her worth."
   

   Milton. Paradise Lost. VIII. 502.
10. 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.
11. Globe. Circle.

    ⁠"him round
    A globe of fiery seraphim enclos'd
    With bright imblazonry."
    

    Milton. Paradise Lost. II. 511–513.
12. Bravery. Rashness.
13. Regular. Governed by rules, consistent, steady.
14. De facto. As a matter of fact.
15. Facility. Lack of firmness, pliability. "No man is fit to govern great societies who hesitates about disobliging the few who have access to him for the sake of the many whom he will never see. The facility of Charles was such as has perhaps never been found in any man of equal sense." Macaulay. History of England. Vol. I. Chap. II. Character of Charles II.
16. Steal. To conceal.

    "'T were good, methinks, to steal our marriage."
    

    Shakspere. The Taming of the Shrew. iii. 2.
17. Inward. Intimate, confidential.

    "For what is inward between us, let it pass."
    

    Shakspere. Love's Labour's Lost. v. 1.
18. Close. Secret; of persons, secretive, sly.

    ⁠"Close villain, I
    Will have this secret from thy heart, or rip
    Thy heart to find it."
    

    Shakspere. Cymbeline. iii. 5.
19. Respects. Considerations.

    "But the respects thereof are nice and trivial."
    

    Shakspere. King Richard III. iii. 7.
20. Proverbs xxviii. 21. In the Advancement of Learning, II. xxiii. 6, Bacon quotes this proverb from the Vulgate, and goes right on with the distinction just made here, that facility is worse than bribery: "Qui cognoscit in judicio faciem, non bene facit; iste et pro buccella panis deseret veritatem. Here is noted, that a judge were better be a briber than a respecter of persons; for a corrupt judge offendeth not so lightly as a facile."
21. If he had not governed, all would have thought him capable of governing. Cornelii Taciti Historiarum Liber I. Caput 49.
22. Vespasian alone as emperor changed for the better. Et ambigua de Vespasiano fama solusque omnium ante se principum in melius mutatus est. Cornelii Taciti Historiarum Liber I. Caput 50. In the Advancement of Learning, II. xxii. 5, Bacon quotes Tacitus's criticism of Vespasian again, Solus Vespasianus mutatus in melius.
23. Sufficiency. De arte imperatoria, in the Latin text, that is, ability.
24. "So that it is no marvel though the soul so placed enjoy no rest, if that principle be true, that Motus rerum est rapidus extra locem, placidus in loco." Advancement of Learning, II. x. 2.