Of Studies
Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for
ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for
ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition
of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one
by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs,
come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is
sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment
wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are
perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that
need pruning, by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too
much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men condemn
studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not
their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by
observation. Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for
granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books
are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and
digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read,
but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and
attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by
others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner
sort of books, else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy
things. Reading
He that hath wife and children hath given
hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of
virtue or mischief. Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the
public, have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men; which both in
affection and means, have married and endowed the public. Yet it were great
reason that those that have children, should have greatest care of future
times; unto which they know they must transmit their dearest pledges. Some
there are, who though they lead a single life, yet their thoughts do end with
themselves, and account future times impertinences. Nay, there are some other,
that account wife and children, but as bills of charges. Nay more, there are
some foolish rich covetous men that take a pride, in having no children,
because they may be thought so much the richer. For perhaps they have heard
some talk, Such an one is a great rich man, and another except to it, Yea, but
he hath a great charge of children; as if it were an abatement to his riches.
But the most ordinary cause of a single life, is liberty, especially in certain
self-pleasing and humorous minds, which are so sensible of every restraint, as
they will go near to think their girdles and garters, to be bonds and shackles.
Unmarried men are best friends, best masters, best servants; but not always
best subjects; for they are light to run away; and almost all fugitives, are of
that condition. A single life doth well with churchmen; for charity will hardly
water the ground, where it must first fill a pool. It is indifferent for judges
and magistrates; for if they be facile and corrupt, you shall have a servant,
five times worse than a wife. For soldiers, I find the generals commonly in
their hortatives, put men in mind of their wives and children; and I think the
despising of marriage amongst the Turks, maketh the vulgar soldier more base.
Certainly wife and children are a kind of discipline of humanity; and single
men, though they may be many times more charitable, because their means are
less exhaust, yet, on the other side, they are more cruel and hardhearted (good
to make severe inquisitors), because their tenderness is not so oft called
upon. Grave natures, led by custom, and therefore constant, are commonly loving
husbands, as was said of Ulysses, vetulam suam praetulit immortalitati. Chaste
women are often proud and froward, as presuming upon the merit of their
chastity. It is one of the best bonds, both of chastity and obedience, in the
wife, if she think her husband wise; which she will never do, if she find him
jealous. Wives are young men's mistresses; companions for middle age; and old
men's nurses. So as a man may have a quarrel to marry, when he will. But yet he
was reputed one of the wise men, that made answer to the question, when a man
should marry,- A young man not yet, an elder man not at all. It is often seen
that bad husbands, have very good wives; whether it be, that it raiseth the
price of their husband's kindness, when it comes; or that the wives take a
pride in their patience. But this never fails, if the bad husbands were of
their own choosing, against their friends' consent; for then they will be sure
to make good their own folly. 
Of Love
The stage is more beholding to love, that the
life of man. For as to the stage, love is ever matter of comedies, and now and
then of tragedies; but in life it doth much mischief; sometimes like a siren,
sometimes like a fury. You may observe, that amongst all the great and worthy
persons (whereof the memory remaineth, either ancient or recent) there is not
one, that hath been transported to the mad degree of love: which shows that
great spirits, and great business, do keep out this weak passion. You must
except, nevertheless, Marcus Antonius, the half partner of the empire of Rome,
and Appius Claudius, the decemvir and lawgiver; whereof the former was indeed a
voluptuous man, and inordinate; but the latter was an austere and wise man: and
therefore it seems (though rarely) that love can find entrance, not only into
an open heart, but also into a heart well fortified, if watch be not well kept.
It is a poor saying of Epicurus, Satis magnum alter alteri theatrum sumus; as
if man, made for the contemplation of heaven, and all noble objects, should do
nothing but kneel before a little idol and make himself a subject, though not
of the mouth (as beasts are), yet of the eye; which was given him for higher
purposes. It is a strange thing, to note the excess of this passion, and how it
braves the nature, and value of things, by this; that the speaking in a
perpetual hyperbole, is comely in nothing but in love. Neither is it merely in
the phrase; for whereas it hath been well said, that the arch-flatterer, with
whom all the petty flatterers have intelligence, is a man's self; certainly the
lover is more. For there was never proud man thought so absurdly well of
himself, as the lover doth of the person loved; and therefore it was well said,
That it is impossible to love, and to be wise. Neither doth this weakness
appear to others only, and not to the party loved; but to the loved most of
all, except the love be reciproque. For it is a true rule, that love is ever
rewarded, either with the reciproque, or with an inward and secret contempt. By
how much the more, men ought to beware of this passion, which loseth not only
other things, but itself! As for the other losses, the poet's relation doth
well figure them: that he that preferred Helena
Of Beauty
Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set; and
surely virtue is best, in a body that is comely, though not of delicate
features; and that hath rather dignity of presence, than beauty of aspect.
Neither is it almost seen, that very beautiful persons are otherwise of great
virtue; as if nature were rather busy, not to err, than in labor to produce
excellency. And therefore they prove accomplished, but not of great spirit; and
study rather behavior, than virtue. But this holds not always: for Augustus
Caesar, Titus Vespasianus, Philip le Belle of France, Edward the Fourth of
England, Alcibiades of Athens, Ismael the Sophy of Persia, were all high and
great spirits; and yet the most beautiful men of their times. In beauty, that
of favor, is more than that of color; and that of decent and gracious motion,
more than that of favor. That is the best part of beauty, which a picture
cannot express; no, nor the first sight of the life. There is no excellent
beauty, that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. A man cannot tell
whether Apelles, or Albert Durer, were the more trifler; whereof the one, would
make a personage by geometrical proportions; the other, by taking the best
parts out of divers faces, to make one excellent. Such personages, I think,
would please nobody, but the painter that made them. Not but I think a painter
may make a better face than ever was; but he must do it by a kind of felicity
(as a musician that maketh an excellent air in music), and not by rule. A man
shall see faces, that if you examine them part by part, you shall find never a
good; and yet altogether do well. If it be true that the principal part of
beauty is in decent motion, certainly it is no marvel, though persons in years
seem many times more amiable; pulchrorum autumnus pulcher; for no youth can be
comely but by pardon, and considering the youth, as to make up the comeliness.
Beauty is as summer fruits, which are easy to corrupt, and cannot last; and for
the most part it makes a dissolute youth, and an age a little out of
countenance; but yet certainly again, if it light well, it maketh virtue shine,
and vices blush.
OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN
The joys of parents are secret; and so are their griefs and fears. They cannot utter the one; nor they will not utter the other. Children sweeten labors; 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, which 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 many times unequal; and sometimes unworthy; especially in the mothers; as
Solomon saith, 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 many times, nevertheless, prove the
best. The illiberality of parents, in allowance towards their children, is an
harmful error; makes them base; acquaints them with shifts; makes them 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 the
children, but not their purse. Men have a foolish manner (both parents and
schoolmasters and servants) in creating and breeding an emulation between
brothers, during childhood, which many times sorteth to discord when they are
men, and disturbeth families. The Italians make little difference between
children, and nephews or near kinsfolks; 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 a kinsman, more than his own parent; as the blood happens. Let
parents choose betimes, the vocations and courses they mean their children
should take; for then they are most 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, optimum elige, suave et facile illud faciet
consuetudo. Younger brothers are commonly fortunate, but seldom or never where
the elder are disinherited
No comments:
Post a Comment