2. (Weakness.) A prince must be careful to assume all the credit of the counsel given.

3. (Misleading.) Kings should ascertain the character of those of whom they ask counsel.

V. The best modes of obtaining counsel:

I. Not to allow counsellors to be inquisitive.

2. To take opinions privately as well as collectively.
3. To take counsel upon persons as well as things.

4. To take counsel from books-advisers which will not
'blanch' or flatter.

5. To have set days for petitions and other business.

6. To choose impartial counsellors rather than compromisers. 7. To take advice, not dictation, from professional men.

8. Not to think the mere form of the council-room a thing unimportant.

XXI.-OF DELAYS. (1625.)

FORTUNE is like the market, where many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall; and again, it is some times like Sibylla's offer,1 which at first offereth the commodity at full, then consumeth part and part, and still holdeth up the price; for Occasion (as it is in the common verse) turneth a bald noddle'2 after she hath presented her locks in front, and no hold taken:3 or, at least, turneth the handle of the bottle first to be received, and after the belly, which is hard to clasp.

There is surely no greater wisdom than well to time the beginnings and onsets of things. Dangers are no more light, if they once seem light; and more dangers have deceived men than forced them: nay, it were better to meet some dangers half-way, though they come nothing near,5 than to keep too long a watch upon their approaches; for if a man watch too long, it is odds he will fall asleep. On the other side, to be deceived with too long shadows (as some have been when the moon was low, and shone on their enemies' back), and so to shoot off before the time, or to teach dangers to come on by over-early buckling towards them, is another extreme.

I

The ripeness or unripeness of the occasion (as we said) must ever be well weighed; and generally it is good to commit the beginnings of all great actions to Argus 7 with his hundred eyes, and the ends to Briareus with his hundred hands; first to watch and then to speed; for the helmet of Pluto, which maketh the politic man go invisible, is secrecy in the council, and celerity in the execution; for when things are once come to the execution, there is no secrecy comparable to celerity, like the motion of a bullet in the air, which flieth so swift as it outruns the eye.

NOTES ON ESSAY XXI.

1. 'Sibylla's offer.' The story current among the Romans was that a sibyl, or prophetic woman, came to Tarquinius Priscus, king of Rome, offering him nine books for sale, which he refused. She then went away and burnt three, and returning, offered the king the remaining six at the same price, and was again refused. Going away once more, she burnt three of these and then offered the king the remaining three, demanding still the same price as for the original nine. Curiosity being now aroused, the king consented to the purchase.

2.

The Sibylline books were regarded as sacred by the Romans; officers were appointed to take charge of them, and they were consulted in cases of national emergency.

Bacon says that sometimes delay will, by chance, give great advantage to a man, as in dealings in the market; but that at other times he only loses by delay, having to procure a less advantage at the same cost which he once thought too much for a greater, as was the case with Tarquin's purchase of the Sibylline books.

'Occasion turneth a bald noddle'—i.e. opportunity offers itself only once. The illustration is that of an old man whose head, otherwise bald, has one lock of hair in front, by which alone it can be held. Time is thus commonly represented, and hence the proverb, 'Take Time by the forelock,' meaning, if you do not do so, Time will turn his head the other way, and thus offer you nothing which you can take hold of.

'Noddle' is the name applied jocosely or contemptuously to the head, because it is the nodding part of the body. In the same humour we use nut, pate; and Shakespeare (Richard III) uses pimp, i.e. pimple.

3.

'no hold taken '-an absolute phrase = no hold having been taken, or when no hold is taken.

4. A danger is really increased by our thinking little of it, because then our preparation for it is inadequate; and similarly a great danger is lessened when we regard it as great and prepare for it accordingly.

5. nothing near '-not at all near; literally, near by nothing, 'nothing' being an adverb. Cf. Latin nihilo, nihilo minus, de nihilo, nihilo aliter.

And that would set my teeth nothing on edge'

-Shakespeare, 1 Henry IV, III, i.

'I fear nothing (i.e. not at all) what may be said against me' -Henry VIII, I, ii.

'The influence of reason in producing our passions is nothing near so extensive as is commonly believed '-BURKE.

6. 'it is odds'-i.e. (as we should say) the chances are; it is more likely than not. Odds is difference in favour of one and against another; in the expression odds and ends' it means the remnants, or odd things, that have been produced by making things match evenly.

7. 'Argus '-surnamed Panoptes, the all-seeing; he was a monster with a hundred eyes, appointed by Juno to watch the cow into which the maiden Ïo had been metamorphosed. The fable is that Juno afterwards transferred the eyes of Argus to the tail of her favourite bird, the peacock.

8. 'Briareus'—a fabulous monster with a hundred hands, who, with his brothers, conquered the Titans when they made war upon the gods.

9. 'helmet of Pluto.'

Pluto, the god of the lower world, is said to have had a helmet which rendered the wearer invisible, and which he sometimes lent to both gods and men. With Bacon's association of this with secrecy in council,' compare the common expression of putting one's thinking-cap on.

ANALYSIS OF ESSAY XXI.

I. Delays are

1. Sometimes advantageous.

2. Often hurtful-(three illustrations: Sibylline books-bald head-bottle).

II. The true wisdom is to know the limits of delay, for—

1. To be unprepared for danger is to increase it, while2. Often to make preparation for danger is to suggest it. III. Preparation should be secret, and execution swift, like the motion of a bullet.

XXII.-OF CUNNING.

(1612, re-written 1625.)

WE take1 Cunning 2 for a sinister, or crooked wisdom; 3 and certainly there is great difference between a cunning man and a wise man, not only in point of honesty, but in point of ability. There be that can pack the cards,1 and yet cannot play well; so there are some that are good in canvasses and factions,5 that are otherwise weak men. Again, it is one thing to understand persons, and another thing to understand matters; for many are perfect in men's humours that are not greatly capable of the real part of business, which is the constitution of one that hath studied men more than books. Such men are fitter for practice than for counsel, and they are good but in their own alley:7 turn them to new men, and they have lost their aim; so as the old rule, to know a fool from a wise man, 'Mitte ambos nudos ad ignotos, et videbis,' doth scarce hold for them; and, because these cunning men are like haberdashers of small wares, it is not amiss to set forth their shop.

It is a point of Cunning to wait upon 10 him with whom you speak with your eye, as the Jesuits give it in precept; for there be many wise men that have secret hearts and transparent countenances: yet this would be done with a demure abasing of your eye sometimes,11 as the Jesuits also do use.

Another is, that when you have anything to obtain of present dispatch,12 you entertain and amuse the party with whom you deal with some other discourse, that he be not too much awake to make objections. I knew a Counsellor 13 and Secretary that never came to Queen Elizabeth of England with bills to sign, but he would always first put her into some discourse of estate,14 that she mought 15 the less mind the bills.

16

The like surprise may be made by moving things when the party is in haste, and cannot stay to consider advisedly of that is moved.

If a man would cross 17

a business that he doubts some

other would handsomely and effectually move, let him pretend to wish it well, and move it himself, in such sort as may foil it.

The breaking off in the midst of that one was about to say, as if he took himself up,18 breeds a greater appetite in him with whom you confer, to know more.

And because it works better when anything seemeth to be gotten from you by question than if you offer it of yourself, you may lay a bait 19 for a question by showing another visage and countenance than you are wont; to the end, to give occasion for the party to ask what the matter is of the change, as Nehemiah did, ‘And I had not before that time been sad before the king'

In things that are tender 20 and unpleasing, it is good to break the ice by some whose words are of less weight, and to reserve the more weighty voice to come in as by chance, so that he may be asked the question upon the other's speech; as Narcissus did, in relating to Claudius the marriage of Messalina and Silius.

In things that a man would not be seen in himself, it is a point of Cunning to borrow the name of the world; as to say, 'The world says,' or 'There is a speech abroad.'

I knew one, that when he wrote a letter, he would put that which was most material in the postscript, as if it had been a by-matter.21

I knew another, that when he came to have speech, he would pass over that he intended most; and go forth and come back again, and speak of it as of a thing that he had almost forgot.

Some procure themselves to be surprised at such times as it is like 22 the party that they work upon 23 will suddenly come upon them, and to be found with a letter in their hand, or doing somewhat which they are not accustomed, to the end they may be apposed 24 of those things which of themselves they are desirous to utter.

It is a point of Cunning to let fall those words in a man's own name, which he would have another man learn and use, and thereupon take advantage. I knew two that were competitors for the Secretary's place, in Queen