answer of Apollonius 11 to Vespasian is full of excellent instruction. Vespasian asked him, 'What was Nero's overthrow?' he answered, 'Nero could touch and tune the harp well; but in government sometimes he used to wind the pins too high, sometimes to let them down too low.' And certain it is, that nothing destroyeth authority so much as the unequal and untimely interchange of power pressed too far, and relaxed too much.

This is true, that the wisdom of all these latter times 12 in princes' affairs is rather fine deliveries, and shiftings of dangers and mischiefs, when they are near, than solid and grounded courses to keep them aloof: but this is but to try masteries with Fortune; 13 and let men beware how they neglect and suffer matter 14 of trouble to be prepared. For no man can forbid the spark, nor tell whence it may come. The difficulties in princes' business are many and great; but the greatest difficulty is often in their own mind. For it is common with princes (saith Tacitus 15) to will contradictories; 'Sunt plerumque regum voluntates vehementes, et inter se contrariæ;' for it is the solecism 16 of power to think to command the end, and yet not to endure the mean.

Kings have to deal with their Neighbours, their Wives, their Children, their Prelates or Clergy, their Nobles, their second Nobles or Gentlemen, their Merchants, their Commons, and their Men of War; and from all these arise dangers, if care and circumspection be not used.

First, for their Neighbours, there can no general rule be given (the occasions are so variable), save one which ever holdeth; which is, that princes do keep due sentinel, that none of their neighbours do overgrow so (by increase of territory, by embracing 17 of trade, by approaches, 18 or the like), as they become more able to annoy them than they were; and this is generally the work of standing counsels to foresee and to hinder it. During that triumvirate of kings, King Henry the Eighth of England, Francis the First, King of France, and Charles the Fifth, Emperor, there was such a watch kept that

none of the three could win a palm of ground, but the other two would straightways balance it, either by confederation, or, if need were, by a war; and would not in anywise take up peace at interest: 19 and the like was done by that league 20 (which Guicciardini saith was the security of Italy), made between Ferdinando, King of Naples, Lorenzius Medicis, and Ludovicus Sforza, potentates, the one of Florence, the other of Milan. Neither is the opinion of some of the schoolmen to be received, that a war cannot justly be made, but upon a precedent injury or provocation; for there is no question, but a just fear of an imminent danger, though there be no blow given, is a lawful cause of a war.

For their Wives, there are cruel examples of them. Livia is infamed 21 for the poisoning of her husband; Roxolana,22 Solyman's wife, was the destruction of that renowned prince, Sultan Mustapha, and otherwise troubled his house and succession; Edward the Second of England his Queen 23 had the principal hand in the deposing and murder of her husband.

This kind of danger is then to be feared chiefly when the wives have plots for the raising of their own children, or else that they be advoutresses.24

For their Children, the tragedies likewise of dangers from them have been many; and generally the entering of fathers into suspicion of their children hath been ever unfortunate.25 The destruction of Mustapha (that we named before) was so fatal to Solyman's line, as the succession of the Turks from Solyman until this day is suspected to be untrue, and of strange blood; for that Selymus the Second was thought to be supposititious. The destruction of Crispus,26 a young prince of rare towardness, by Constantinus the Great, his father, was in like manner fatal to his house; for both Constantinus and Constance, his sons, died violent deaths; and Constantius, his other son, did little better, who died indeed of sickness, but after that Julianus had taken arms against him. The destruction of Demetrius,27 son to Philip the Second of Macedon, turned upon the father, who died of repent

ance. And many like examples there are; but few or none where the fathers had good 28 by such distrust, except it were where the sons were up in open arms against them; as was Selymus the First against Bajazet, and the three sons of Henry the Second, King of England.

For their Prelates, when they are proud and great, there is also danger from them; as it was in the times of Anselmus 29 and Thomas Becket, Archbishops of Canterbury, who with their crosiers did almost try it 30 with the king's sword; and yet they had to deal with stout and haughty kings; William Rufus, Henry the First, and Henry the Second. The danger is not from that state,3 but where it hath a dependence of foreign authority; or where the churchmen come in and are elected, not by the collation 32 of the king, or particular patrons, but by the people.

31

For their Nobles, to keep them at a distance it is not amiss; but to depress them may make a king more absolute, but less safe, and less able to perform anything that he desires. I have noted it in my History of King Henry the Seventh of England, who depressed his nobility, whereupon it came to pass that his times were full of difficulties and troubles; for the nobility, though they continued loyal unto him, yet did they not co-operate with him in his business; so that in effect he was fain 33 to do all things himself.

For their second Nobles,34 there is not much danger from them, being a body dispersed: they may sometimes discourse high, but that doth little hurt; besides, they are a counterpoise to the higher nobility, that they grow not too potent; and, lastly, being the most immediate in authority with the common people, they do best. temper popular commotions.

For their Merchants, they are 'vena porta;'35 and if they flourish not, a kingdom may have good limbs, but will have empty veins, and nourish little. Taxes and imposts upon them do seldom good to the king's revenue, for that which he wins in the hundred, he loseth in the

shire; 36 the particular rates being increased, but the total bulk of trading rather decreased.

For their Commons, there is little danger from them, except it be where they have great and potent heads; or where you meddle with the point of religion, or their customs, or means of life.

For their Men of War, it is a dangerous state where they live and remain in a body, and are used to donatives; 37 whereof we see examples in the Janizaries and Prætorian bands of Rome; but trainings of men, and arming them in several places, and under several commanders, and without donatives, are things of defence, and no danger.

Princes are like to heavenly bodies, 38 which cause good or evil times; and which have much veneration, but no rest. All precepts concerning kings are in effect comprehended in those two remembrances, 'Memento quod es homo;' and 'Memento quod es Deus,' or 'vice Dei;' 39 the one bridleth their power, and the other their will.

NOTES ON ESSAY XIX.

I. 'want matter of desire'-have nothing capable of exciting their interest.

and distrust.

3. Prov. xxv, 3.

4.

'make themselves desires'-devise artificial pleasures.

5. toys'-trifles; things for amusement but not of real value.

6. Order'-class of special rank; community of men upon whom some honourable rank or degree has been conferred. Cf. Holy Orders,' 'The Order of the Garter,' Order of Knighthood.'

7. 'feat-literally anything done (Latin factum; French fait); and hence, anything cleverly or dexterously done, e.g. feats of horsemanship.

8. 'standing at a stay-coming to a stop; being unable to

proceed.

9. Alexander the Great.' He was always full of high spirits when actively engaged in his great military exploits; but at the end of his life, when his strength began to fail, he suffered greatly from depression of spirits, and became

morose and suspicious. Plutarch, whose account probably suggested the incident to Bacon, says that he left his trust in the gods, and his mind became so troubled and terrified, that whatever unusual thing happened to him he immediately took for a sign from the gods of impending evil, and that his tent was always full of soothsayers. 'Diocletian-Roman emperor from A. D. 284 to 305, when he abdicated and passed the remaining eight years of his life in privacy. Bacon is wrong in supposing that 'superstition and melancholy' led to Diocletian's retirement. Gibbon says (chap. xiii, vol. i) that 'reason had dictated, and content seems to have accompanied, his retreat, in which he enjoyed for a long time the respect of those princes to whom he had resigned the possession of the world." He retired to a magnificent palace a few miles from Salona, in his native province of Dalmatia, and pleasantly occupied himself in building, planting, and gardening. On one occasion, when urged by Maximian, to whom he had given the empire of the west, to reassume the imperial government, he replied with a smile of pity, 'If I could show you the cabbages which I have planted with my own hand at Salona, you would no longer urge me to give up the possession of happiness for the sake of the pursuit of power.'

'Charles V' (I of Spain)-Emperor of the West. In A.D. 1555, wearied with incessant cares, and worn out by activity, he abdicated the imperial throne, and resigned his hereditary states of the Netherlands to his son Philip, the husband of Mary, Queen of England, and retired to the monastery of St Just in Estremadura, where he lived in severe asceticism. A few weeks before his death (1558) he had his funeral obsequies performed in his presence.

10. 'temper'—the blending of the various parts; the constitution; the mixture of the different elements so as to make one harmonious whole.

The word is used both of persons individually and of the 'body politic.'

To interchange' the various parts without blending them, produces what Bacon calls, in the next sentence, 'distemper.'

II. Apollonius' of Tyana-a Pythagorean philosopher who lived in the first century of the Christian era. He led a most ascetic life, delivered philosophical discourses, and professed to have the power of working miracles. His life (a collection of many interesting and some incredible stories), from which Bacon here quotes, was written by Philostratus in the third century, at the command of the Empress Julia Domna, who made a foolish attempt to revive paganism by means of

his name.