That himself came very hardly to a little Riches, and verý easily to great Riches; for when a man's stock is come to that, that he can expect the prime of markets,15 and overcome 16 those bargains, which for their greatness are few men's money,17 and be partner in the industries of younger men, he cannot but increase mainly.

The gains of ordinary trades and vocations are honest, and furthered by two things, chiefly: by diligence, and by a good name for good and fair dealings. But the gains of bargains are of a more doubtful nature, when men shall wait upon 18 others' necessity; broke 19 by servants and instruments to draw them on; put off others cunningly that would be better chapmen;20 and the like practices, which are crafty and naught.21 As for chopping of bargains, when a man buys not to hold, but to sell over again, that commonly grindeth double, both upon the seller and upon the buyer. Sharings do greatly enrich, if the hands be well chosen that are trusted. Usury is the certainest means of gain, though one of the worst; as that whereby a man doth eat his bread, in sudore vultûs alieni;22 and besides, doth plough upon Sundays. But yet certain though it be, it hath flaws; for that the scriveners and brokers do value unsound men to serve their own turn.2

23

The fortune in being the first in an invention, or in a privilege, doth cause sometimes a wonderful overgrowth in Riches, as it was with the first sugarman in the Canaries: therefore, if a man can play the true logician, to have as well judgment as invention, he may do great matters, especially if the times be fit. He that resteth upon gains certain, shall hardly grow to great Riches; and he that puts all upon adventures, doth oftentimes break and come to poverty: it is good, therefore, to guard adventures with certainties that may uphold losses. Monopolies,24 and coemption of wares for resale, where they are not restrained, are great means to enrich; especially if the party have intelligence what things are like to come into request, and so store himself beforehand. Riches gotten by service, though it be of the best rise,25

yet when they are gotten by flattery, feeding humours, and other servile conditions, they may be placed amongst the worst. As for fishing for testaments and executorships (as Tacitus saith of Seneca, Testamenta et orbos tanquam indagine capi' 26), it is yet worse, by how much men submit themselves to meaner persons than in service.27

Believe not much them that seem to despise Riches, for they despise them that despair of them; and none worse when they come to them.

Be not pennywise; 28 Riches have wings, and sometimes they fly away of themselves, sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more.

Men leave their Riches either to their kindred, or to the public; and moderate portions prosper best in both. A great state left to an heir, is a lure to all the birds of prey round about to seize on him, if he be not the better 29 stablished in years and judgment: likewise, glorious gifts and foundations 30 are like sacrifices without salt, and but the painted sepulchres of alms, which soon will putrefy and corrupt inwardly. Therefore measure not thine advancements 31 by quantity, but frame them by measure: and defer not charities till death; for, certainly, if a man weigh it rightly, he that doth so is rather liberal of another man's than of his own.

NOTES ON ESSAY XXXIV.

1. Baggage of Virtue'-i.e. they make the attainment of virtue more difficult; riches are not altogether a moral help, but often a moral hindrance to a man. So in the Gospels, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!'-Mark x, 23.

The Latin word impedimenta (from pes, pedis a foot) signifies that which entangles and impedes, and was generally used in a military sense to denote the baggage of an army. 2. 'conceit'-i.e. fancy; there is no real, but a fancied, enjoy. ment in the possession of great wealth. The quotation following is from Eccles. v, 2, When goods increase, they are increased that eat them; and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?' 3. 'personal fruition'-'the real and conscious enjoyment of vast

wealth by the person who nominally possesses it. He may store his wealth merely for the miserly pleasure of calling it his own ('custody'); or he may distribute it in small portions for the enjoyment of others ('dole and donative'); or he may boastfully display it before others, in order that he may enjoy their admiration at it ('fame'); but in itself it cannot give him any real and personal enjoyment ('solid use').

4. 'feigned prices'-what we now call fancy prices, i.e. excessively large payments by wealthy people for the purchase of articles of small intrinsic value, but which have a fictitious value attached to them because of their history or curiosity, or some circumstance in connection with them.

5. The quotation is from Prov. xviii, 11, The rich man's wealth is his strong city, and as an high wall in his own conceit.'

6. 'sold' deceived, cheated, injured. The word in colloquial usage still retains this meaning; a man is sold when he is taken in or cheated; and in common talk we often call a piece of trickery a sell.

7. 'proud Riches'-i.e. wealth so vast as to be useless for enjoy. ment, and which can only gratify the pride and ostentation of the possessor. See note 3 above.

8. ‘abstract'—unpractical; opposed to the practical experience of

life.

'friarly'—such contempt for wealth as was professed by the orders of the poor and begging friars.

9. 'In his anxiety to increase his fortune, it was evident that it was not the gratification of avarice which was sought, but the means of doing good'-Cicero, Pro Rabirio, ii.

10. He who hastens to riches will not be innocent. The reference is to Prov. xxviii, 22, but the quotation does not agree verbally with our Authorised Version.

II. Plutus-the god of riches.

'Pluto'—the god of the departed spirits in the lower world, and the originator and dispenser of all wealth. Hence Bacon

describes wealth coming by the death of others' as being sent by Pluto, though he suggests another explanation of the fiction immediately afterwards.

'Jupiter,' or Zeus, in the Greek mythology was the greatest of the Olympian gods, and ruled supreme in the heavens and upper regions.

12. upon speed'—at a good pace.

13. 'andits-accounts; here especially accounts of money re

14.

ceived.

'himself.' The antecedent is 'one,' not 'nobleman.' Bacon uses the emphatic pronoun instead of he, in order to limit this reference to the nearer antecedent.

The observation referred to is exemplified in every department of commercial experience. The great difficulty a trader

experiences is the initial difficulty of getting a start in business. In present circumstances the great_capitalists of the world have everything in their hands. Large fortunes are often made rapidly, and lost as rapidly. The more capital a man has, the more he has the power of obtaining; and conversely, the poorer a man becomes, the poorer he is likely to become. Circumstances fluctuate; and the rate, both of the gain and of the loss of money, is a rapidly accelerating one. 15. 'expect the prime of markets'-afford to wait until the highest possible market-price is reached, for that which he wishes to sell.

16. overcome.' We should use the word undertake; but Bacon refers to undertaking a bargain with the certainty of managing it to one's own profit, which is really overcoming it. 17. 'few men's money'-such that few men have at command the necessary capital for undertaking them.

18. 'wait upon '-watch for (and take advantage of) the pecuniary difficulties of other traders.

19. 'broke'-do business; especially do business as the agent of another. Hence the terms broker, stockbroker, pawnbroker,

etc.

20. 'chapmen'-customers, buyers. The word is derived from the verb to chap or chop, meaning to exchange (Old English ceapian, German kaufen). It originated the common English surname Chapman (like the German Kaufmann, which the famous geographer translated into Latin as Mercator), and appears in the words Cheapside, Chippenham, etc., and the common adjective cheap. Hence also the expression, 'to chop and change, i.e. to chap and exchange, to buy with the intention of selling again at a profit, which explains an allusion in the next sentence of the essay.

21. 'naught'utterly disreputable. The word and its adjective naughty, though now commonly used in a light, playful, and childish sense, had formerly a very strong and decidedly condemnatory meaning.

• The other basket had very naughty figs-Jer. xxiv, 2.

'I know thy pride and the naughtiness of thine heart'—1 Sam. xvii, 28.

'Thy sister's naught, O Regan, she hath tied

Sharp-toothed unkindness like a vulture here'-King Lear, II, iv. 'Naughty lady,

These hairs which thou dost ravish from my chin,

Will quicken and accuse thee'-King Lear, III, vii.

'Truly repented and amended his former naughty life'

-P. B. Communion Service.

22. 'In the sweat of another's brow.' The original curse pronounced upon fallen man was, 'In the

sweat of thy face shalt thou eat

bread' (Gen. iii, 19). Bacon says that the usurer reverses this rule, and gets his bread by the toil of others.

In the present day a man who has spare capital invests it, that is, lends it out to some one else who can use it remuneratively, and the lender, of course, expects a share of this remuneration as what is called interest. But in former days, when spare money could not be invested, but only hoarded, no loss was entailed by parting with it temporarily to a trusty borrower, and this fact, coupled with a rigorously literal interpretation of certain passages in the Old Testament (Exod. xxii, 25; Lev. xxv, 36; Deut. xxiii, 19), led men to regard the lending of money on interest as a sin, and to use the word 'usury' as an opprobrious name for exorbitant interest.

Bacon cordially shares (see also Essay XLI) in this popular aversion from usury, and regards it even as inhuman, like robbing men and beasts of their just and God-given rest by ploughing upon Sundays.

23. Still, though the gains of usury are sure and large, yet it has drawbacks and disadvantages, for clerks and agents will often, for their own purposes, procure loans for persons who are thoroughly untrustworthy.

24. 'Monopolies 'exclusive rights of trading in certain commodities. Though monstrously unjust, they were commonly granted to favourites by the Tudor sovereigns, but were declared illegal by James I.

'coemption'-exclusive right of purchasing a commodity, so as to give the buyer the right of selling it again at his own price.

25. Riches acquired by holding lucrative office and employment, even under sovereigns and noble persons, etc.

Notice the needless repetition of the pronoun they following. 26. 'Wills and childless persons were caught (by him) as though with a hunting-net'—Tacitus, Annals, xii, 42.

27. In the one case men are employed in the service of those who are really their superiors; in legacy-hunting, the service they enter must be disgraceful and degrading.

28. pennywise '

29.

30.

-an expression generally used in connection with 'pound-foolish'-meaning, together, saving and penurious in smali matters to the detriment of greater matters.

He means, do not hoard your wealth till you lose it; but part with it, so that it may return to you with increase. 'the better '-well; better than is usually the case. 'glorious gifts and foundations'-ostentatious bequests and endowments (which are not meritorious, because, like sacrafices without salt, they lack the true spirit of benevolencé which ought to underlie all gifts).

31. 'advancements '-gifts, charities.