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SELECTIONS FROM LORD BACON.

PARENTS AND CHILDREN.

THE joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears they cannot utter the one, nor will they utter the other. Children sweeten labours; but they make misfortunes more bitter. They increase the cares of life; but they mitigate the remembrance of death. The perpetuity by generation is common to beasts; but memory, merit, and noble works are proper to men and surely a man shall see the noblest works and foundations have proceeded from childless men, who have sought to express the images of their minds, where those of their bodies have failed: so the care of posterity is most in them that have no posterity.

They that are the first raisers of their houses, are most indulgent towards their children; beholding them as the continuance, not only of their kind, but of their work; and so both children and creatures.

The difference in affection of parents towards their several children is often unequal, and sometimes unworthy, especially in the mother; as Solomon says, "A wise son rejoiceth the father; but an ungracious son shames the mother." A man shall see, where there is a house full of children, one or two of the eldest respected, and the youngest made wantons; but in the midst, some that are, as it were, forgotten, who often, nevertheless, prove the best.

The illiberality of parents in allowance towards their children, is a harmful error: it makes them base, accustoms them to shifts, and to sort with mean company; and makes them surfeit more when they come to plenty: and therefore the proof is best when men keep their authority towards their children, but not their purse.

Some men have a foolish manner of creating and breeding an emulation between brothers during childhood, which many times causeth discord when they are men, and disturbeth families. The Italians make little difference between children and nephews, or near kinsfolk; but, so they be of the lump, they care not, though they pass not through their own body; and, to say truth, in

nature it is much a like matter; insomuch that we see a nephew sometimes resembleth an uncle or kinsman more than his own parents, as the blood happens.

Let parents choose betimes the vocations and courses they mean their children should take, for then they are more flexible; and let them not too much apply themselves to the disposition of their children, as thinking they will take best to that which they have most mind to. It is true, that, if the affection or aptness of the children be extraordinary, then it is good not to cross it; but generally the precept is good, "Choose what is best; custom will make it agreeable and easy." Younger brothers are commonly fortunate, but seldom or never where the elder are disinherited.

DISPATCH.

AFFECTED dispatch is one of the most dangerous things to business that can be. It is like that which the physicians call predigestion, or hasty digestion; which is sure to fill the body with crudities, and secrete seeds of diseases therefore, measure not dispatch by the times of sitting, but by the advancement of business. And as,

in races it is not the large stride, nor high lift, that makes the speed; so, in business, the keeping close to the matter, and not taking too much of it at one time, procures dispatch.

It is the care of some only to come off speedily for the time, or to contrive some false periods of business, that they may seem men of dispatch. But it is one thing to abbreviate by contracting, another by cutting off: and business so handled at several sittings or meetings, commonly goes backward. I knew a wise man who had it for a by-word, when he saw men hasten to a conclusion, "Stay a little, that we may make an end the sooner."

On the other hand, true dispatch is a rich thing; for time is the measure of business, as money is of wares; and business is bought at dear rate where there is small dispatch. The Spartans and Spaniards have been noted to be of small dispatch: "Let my death come from Spain," for then it will be sure to be long in coming.

Listen attentively to those who give the first information in business, and rather direct them in the beginning, than interrupt them in the continuance, of their speeches;

for he that is put out of his own order will go forward and backward, and be more tedious while he waits upon his memory, than he would have been if he had gone on in his own course: but sometimes it is seen that the moderator is more troublesome than the actor.

Iterations are commonly loss of time; but there is no such gain of time as to iterate or repeat often the state of the question; for it chases away many a frivolous speech as it is coming forth. Long and curious speeches are as fit for dispatch as a robe or mantle with a long train is for a race. Prefaces, quotations, apologies, and other speeches of reference to the person, are great wastes of time; and, though they seem to proceed from modesty, they are bravery, and merely ornamental. Yet beware of being too material or matter-of-fact, when there is any impediment or obstruction in men's wills; for pre-occupation of mind ever requireth preface of speech, like a fomentation to make the unguent enter.

Above all things, order, and distribution, and singling out of parts, is the life of dispatch, so that the distribution be not too subtile; for he that doth not divide will never enter well into business; and he that divideth too much will never come out of it clearly. To choose time is to save time; and an unseasonable motion is but beating the air.

There are three parts of business; the preparation, the debate or examination, and the perfection; of which, if you look for dispatch, let the middle one be the work of many, and the first and last the work of few. The proceeding upon any thing conceived in writing, for the most part, facilitates dispatch; for though it should be wholly rejected, yet that negative is more pregnant of direction than an indefinite, as ashes are more generative than dust.

BOLDNESS.

Ir is a trivial grammar-school text, but yet worthy a wise man's consideration. Question was asked of Demosthenes, "What was the chief part of an orator?" He answered, "Action." "What next?" "Action.” "What next again?" "Action." He said it that knew it best, and had by nature himself no advantage in that he commended. A strange thing, that that part of an orator which is but superficial, and rather the virtue of a player,

should be placed so high above those other noble parts of invention, elocution, and the rest. But the reason is plain. There is in human nature generally more of the fool than of the wise: and therefore those faculties by which the foolish part of men's minds is taken, are most potent.

Alike wonderful is the case of boldness in civil business. What first? Boldness. What second and third? Boldness. And yet boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness, far inferior to other parts; but, nevertheless, it doth fascinate, and bind hand and foot those that are either shallow in judgment, or weak in courage, which are the greater part; yea, and prevaileth with wise men at weak times: therefore we see it hath done wonders in popular states; but, with senates and princes, less; and ever more upon the first entrance of bold persons into action, than soon after; for boldness is an ill keeper of promise.

Surely, as there are mountebanks for the natural body, so are there mountebanks for the politic body; men that undertake great cures, and have, perhaps, been lucky in two or three experiments, but want the grounds of science, and therefore cannot hold out: nay, you shall see a bold fellow many times do Mahomet's miracle. Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled; Mahomet called the hill to come to him again and again; and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, but said, “If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill." So these men, when they have promised great matters, and failed most shamefully, yet—if they have the perfection of boldness-they will but slight it over, and make a turn, and no more ado.

Certainly, to men of great judgment, bold persons are sport to behold; nay, and to the vulgar also, boldness hath somewhat of the ridiculous: for if absurdity be the subject of laughter, doubt you not that great boldness is seldom without some absurdity. Especially it is a sport to see when a bold fellow is out of countenance, for that puts his face into a most shrunken and wooden posture, as it needs must; for in bashfulness the spirits do a little go and come; but with bold men, upon like occasion, they

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stand at a stay; like a stale at chess, where it is no mate, but yet the game cannot stir-but this last were fitter for a satire, than for a serious observation.

This is well to be weighed, that boldness is ever blind; for it seeth not dangers and inconveniences: therefore it is ill in counsel, good in execution; so that the right use of bold persons is, that they never command in chief, but be seconds, and under the direction of others: for in counsel it is good to see dangers, and in execution not to see them, except they be very great.

EXPENSE.

RICHES are for spending, and spending for honour and good actions; therefore, extraordinary expense must be limited by the worth of the occasion: for voluntary undoing may be as well for a man's country as for the kingdom of heaven: but ordinary expense ought to be limited by a man's estate, and governed with such regard as it be within his compass, and not subject to deceit and abuse of servants, and ordered to the best show, that the bills may be less than the estimation abroad.

Certainly, if a man will keep but of even hands, his ordinary expenses ought to be but to the half of his receipts; and if he think to wax rich, but to the third part. It is no baseness for the greatest to descend and look into their own estate. Some forbear it, not upon negligence alone, but doubting to bring themselves into melancholy, in respect they shall find it broken; but wounds cannot be cured without searching. He that cannot look into his own estate at all, had need both choose well those whom he employeth, and change them often; for new are more timorous and less subtle.

He that can look into his estate but seldom, should turn all to certainties. A man hath need, if he be plentiful in some kind of expense, to be as saving again in some other: as, if he be plentiful in diet, to be saving in apparel; if he be plentiful in the hall, to be saving in the stable, and the like: for he that is plentiful in expenses of all kinds, will hardly be preserved from decay.

In clearing a man's estate, he may as well hurt himself in being too sudden, as in letting it run on too long; for hasty selling is commonly as disadvantageous as interest. Besides, he that clears at once will relapse: for, finding

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