Essays of Francis Bacon

The Essays of Francis Bacon

THE ESSAYS OR COUNSELS, CIVIL AND MORAL, OF FRANCIS
Ld. VERULAM VISCOUNT ST. ALBANS
THE ESSAYS
Of Truth
Of Death
Of Unity in Religion
Of Revenge
Of Adversity
Of Simulation and Dissimulation
Of Parents and Children
Of Marriage and Single Life
Of Envy
Of Love
Of Great Place
Of Boldness
Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature
Of Nobility

Of Seditions and Troubles
Of Atheism
Of Superstition
Of Travel
Of Empire
Of Counsel
Of Delays
Of Cunning
Of Wisdom for a Man's Self
Of Innovations
Of Dispatch
Of Seeming Wise
Of Friendship
Of Expense
Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates
Of Regiment of Health
Of Suspicion
Of Discourse
Of Plantations
Of Riches

Of Prophecies
Of Ambition
Of Masques and Triumphs
Of Nature in Men
Of Custom and Education
Of Fortune
Of Usury
Of Youth and Age
Of Beauty
Of Deformity
Of Building
Of Gardens
Of Negotiating
Of Followers and Friends
Of Suitors
Of Studies
Of Faction
Of Ceremonies and Respects
Of Praise
Of Vain-glory

Of Honor and Reputation
Of Judicature
Of Anger
Of Vicissitude of Things
Of Fame

TO
THE RIGHT HONORABLE
MY VERY GOOD LORD
THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM
HIS GRACE, LORD
HIGH ADMIRAL OF ENGLAND
EXCELLENT LORD:
SALOMON saies; A good Name is as a precious oyntment; And I
assure my selfe, such wil your Graces Name bee, with Posteritie. For
your Fortune, and Merit both, have been Eminent. And you have
planted Things, that are like to last. I doe now publish my Essayes;
which, of all my other workes, have beene most Currant: For that, as it
seemes, they come home, to Mens Businesse, and Bosomes. I have
enlarged them, both in Number, and Weight; So that they are indeed a
New Worke. I thought it therefore agreeable, to my Affection, and
Obligation to your Grace, to prefix your Name before them, both in
English, and in Latine. For I doe conceive, that the Latine Volume of
them, (being in the Universall Language) may last, as long as Bookes
last. My Instauration, I dedicated to the King: My Historie of Henry the
Seventh, (which I have now also translated into Latine) and my

Portions of Naturall History, to the Prince: And these I dedicate to your
Grace; Being of the best Fruits, that by the good Encrease, which God
gives to my Pen and Labours, I could yeeld. God leade your Grace by
the Hand. Your Graces most Obliged and faithfull Servant,
FR. ST. ALBAN

Of Truth

WHAT is truth? said jesting Pilate,and would not stay for an answer.
Certainly there be, that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to
fix a belief; affecting free-will in thinking, as well as in acting. And
though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain
certain discoursing wits, which are of the same veins, though there be
not so much blood in them, as was in those of the ancients. But it is not
only the difficulty and labor, which men take in finding out of truth,
nor again, that when it is found, it imposeth upon men's thoughts, that
doth bring lies in favor; but a natural, though corrupt love, of the lie
itself. One of the later school of the Grecians, examineth the matter,
and is at a stand, to think what should be in it, that men should love lies;
where neither they make for pleasure, as with poets, nor for advantage,
as with the merchant; but for the lie's sake. But I cannot tell; this same
truth, is a naked, and open day-light, that doth not show the masks, and
mummeries, and triumphs, of the world, half so stately and daintily as
candle-lights. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that
showeth best by day; but it will not rise to the price of a diamond, or
carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights. A mixture of a lie doth
ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of
men's minds, vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations,
imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds,
of a number of men, poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and
indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves?
One of the fathers, in great severity, called poesy vinum daemonum,
because it fireth the imagination; and yet, it is but with the shadow of a

lie. But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that
sinketh in, and settleth in it, that doth the hurt; such as we spake of
before. But howsoever these things are thus in men's depraved
judgments, and affections, yet truth, which only doth judge itself,
teacheth that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or wooing