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what shifts these Formalifts have, and what Prospectives to make Superficies to feem Body that hath Depth and Bulk. Some are so close and reserved as they will not fhew their Wares but by a dark Light, and seem always to keep back fomewhat; and when they know within themselves they speak of that they do not well know, would nevertheless seem to others to know of that which they may not well fpeak. Some help themselves with Countenance and Gesture, and are wife by Signs; as Cicero faith of Pifo, that when he anfwered him he fetched one of his Brows up to his Forehead, and bent the other down to his Chin: Refpondes, altero ad Frontem fublato, altero ad Mentum depreffo fupercilio; Crudelitatem tibi non placere. Some think to bear it by speaking a great Word, and being peremptory; and go on, and take by admittance that which they cannot make good. Some, whatsoever is beyond their reach, will seem to defpife, or make light of it as impertinent or curious; and fo would have their Ignorance feem Judgement. Some are never without a Difference, and commonly by amusing Men with a Subtilty blanch the matter; of whom Aulus Gellius faith, Hominem delirum, qui Verborum Minutiis Rerum frangit Pondera. Of which kind

3 Cic. Orat. in Pifonem, 6.

4 Lord Bacon's memory was at fault here. Aulus Gellius it is true (xii. 2), but in other words fays, fomething to the purport of Seneca. In the Advancement of Learning, 1. iv. 5, we have this repetition. "So that, as was faid of Seneca, Verborum minutiis rerum frangit pondera; fo a man may truly fay of the schoolmen, Quæftionem minutiis fcientiarum frangunt foliditatem." The words are memoriter from Quintilian, (Inft. Or. x. 1). Speaking of Seneca, he fays, "Si rerum pondera minutiffimis fententiis non fregiffet."

alfo Plato, in his Protagoras 5 bringeth in Prodicus, in Scorn, and maketh him make a Speech that confifteth of Diftinctions from the Beginning to the End. Generally fuch Men in all Deliberations find eafe to be of the negative Side; and affect a Credit to object and foretell Difficulties: for when propofitions are denied, there is an End of them; but if they be allowed, it requireth a new Work: which falfe Point of Wisdom is the Bane of Bufinefs. To conclude, there is no decaying Merchant, or inward Beggar, hath so many Tricks to uphold the Credit of their Wealth, as these empty Perfons have to maintain the Credit of their Sufficiency. Seeming-Wife men may make fhift to get Opinion; but let no Man choose them for Employment; for certainly, you were better take for Bufinefs a Man fomewhat abfurd, than over formal.

XXVII. Of Friendship.

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T had been hard for him that spake it to have put more Truth and Untruth together in few Words, than in that Speech, Whosoever is delighted in folitude, is either a wild Beaft, or a God. For it is moft true, that a natural and fecret Hatred and

5 Plat. Protag. i. 337.

Ariftot. Polit. i. 1. Comp. Adv. of L. II. xx. 8.

Aversation towards Society, in any Man, hath somewhat of the favage Beaft; but it is moft untrue that it should have any Character at all of the Divine Nature, except it proceed, not out of a Pleasure in Solitude, but out of a Love and Defire to fequefter a Man's Self for a higher Converfation: fuch as is found to have been falfely and feignedly in some of the Heathen; as Epimenides the Candian, Numa the Roman, Empedocles the Sicilian, and Apollonius of Tyana; and truly and really in divers of the ancient Hermits and holy Fathers of the Church. But little do Men perceive what Solitude is, and how far it extendeth; for a Crowd is not Company, and Faces are but a Gallery of Pictures, and Talk but a tinkling Cymbal where there is no Love. The Latin Adage meeteth with it a little; Magna Civitas, magna Solitudo, because in a great Town Friends are scattered; so that there is not that Fellowship, for the most Part, which is in less Neighbourhoods. But we may go further, and affirm moft truly, that it is a mere and miferable Solitude to want true Friends, without which the World is but a Wilderness and even in this fenfe alfo of Solitude, whofoever in the Frame of his Nature and Affections is unfit for Friendship, he taketh it of the Beast, and not from Humanity.

A principal Fruit of Friendship is the Ease and Discharge of the Fulness and Swellings of the

* See Erafm. Adag. p. 551. Lugd. 1550. It is a verse from a Greek comic poet, referring to the city of Megalopolis in Arcadia. Ερημία μεγάλη στὶν ἡ Μεγάλη πόλις.

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Heart, which Paffions of all kinds do cause and induce. We know Diseases of Stoppings and Suffocations are the most dangerous in the Body; and it is not much otherwise in the Mind: You may take Sarza to open the Liver; Steel to open the Spleen; Flower of Sulphur for the Lungs; Caftoreum for the Brain; but no Receipt openeth the Heart but a true Friend, to whom you may impart Griefs, Joys, Fears, Hopes, Suspicions, Counfels, and whatsoever liveth upon the Heart to oppress it, in a kind of civil Shrift or Confeffion.

It is a strange Thing to observe how high a Rate great Kings and Monarchs do fet upon this Fruit of Friendship whereof we speak fo great as they purchase it many times at the hazard of their own Safety and Greatness. For Princes, in regard of the distance of their Fortune from that of their Subjects and Servants, cannot gather this Fruit, except (to make themselves capable thereof) they raise some Persons to be, as it were, Companions, and almost Equals to themselves; which many times forteth to inconvenience. The modern Languages give unto fuch Perfons the name of Favourites, or Privadoes; as if it were matter of Grace or Converfation: but the Roman Name attaineth the true Ufe and Cause thereof, naming them Participes Curarum; for it is that which tieth the knot. And we see plainly that this hath been done, not by weak and paffionate Princes only, but by the wisest and most politick that ever reigned, who have oftentimes joined to themfelves fome of their Servants, whom both them

felves have called Friends, and allowed others likewise to call them in the fame manner; using the Word which is received between private Men.

L. Sylla, when he commanded Rome, raised Pompey (after furnamed the Great) to that Height that Pompey vaunted himself for Sylla's Overmatch. For when he had carried the Confulship for a Friend of his, against the pursuit of Sylla, and that Sylla did a little resent thereat, and began to speak great, Pompey turned upon him again and in effect bade him be quiet; For that more Men adored the Sun rifing, than the Sun fetting.3 With Julius Cæfar, Decimus Brutus had obtained that Intereft, as he fet him down in his Teftament for Heir in Remainder after his Nephew: and this was the Man, that had power with him to draw him forth to his Death. For when Cæfar would have discharged the Senate, in regard of fome ill Prefages, and specially a Dream of Calfurnia, this Man lifted him gently by the Arm out of his Chair, telling him, he hoped he would not dismiss the Senate till his Wife had dreamt a better Dream. And it feemeth his Favour was fo great, as Antonius in a Letter, which is recited verbatim in one of Cicero's Philippics, calleth him Venefica—Witch; as if he had enchanted Cæfar.5 Augustus raised Agrippa (though of mean Birth) to that Height,'as when he confulted with Mecenas about the Marriage of his

4

3 Plut. Vit. Pomp. 19, tells us that Pompey said this when Sylla refused to give him a Triumph.

4 Plut. Vit. J. Cæf. 6.

Cic. Philip. xiii. 11.

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