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Essay XXIII: Of Wisdom For A Man`s Self
Essay XXIII: Of Wisdom For A Man`s Self
An ant is a wise creature for itself, but it is a shrewd ^1 thing in an
orchard or garden. And certainly men that are great lovers of themselves waste
the public. Divide with reason between self-love and society; and be so true
to thyself, as thou be not false to others; specially to thy king and country.
It is a poor centre of a man`s actions, himself. It is right earth. ^2 For
that only stands fast upon his own centre; whereas all things that have
affinity with the heavens move upon the centre of another, which they benefit.
The referring of all to a man`s self is more tolerable in a sovereign prince;
because themselves are not only themselves but their good and evil is at the
peril of the public fortune. But it is a desperate evil in a servant to a
prince, or a citizen in a republic. For whatsoever affairs pass such a man`s
hands, he crooketh them to his own ends; which must needs be often eccentric
to ^3 the ends of his master or state. Therefore let princes, or states,
choose such servants as have not this mark; except they mean their service
should be made but the accessory. That which maketh the effect more pernicious
is that all proportion is lost. It were disproportion enough for the servant`s
good to be preferred before the master`s; but yet it is a greater extreme,
when a little good of the servant shall carry things against a great good of
the master`s. And yet that is the case of bad officers, treasurers,
ambassadors, generals, and other false and corrupt servants; which set a bias
^4 upon their bowl, of their own petty ends and envies, to the overthrow of
their master`s great and important affairs. And for the most part, the good
such servants receive is after the model ^5 of their own fortune; but the hurt
they sell for that good is after the model of their master`s fortune. And
certainly it is the nature of extreme self-lovers, as they will set an house
on fire, and it were but to roast their eggs; and yet these men many times
hold credit with their masters, because their study is but to please them and
profit themselves; and for either respect they will abandon the good of their
affairs.
[Footnote 1: Mischievous.]
[Footnote 2: Precisely like the earth. Bacon here is thinking of the old
astronomy, according to which all the heavenly bodies moved round the earth.]
[Footnote 3: Have a different center from.]
[Footnote 4: A weight let into one side, to make the bowl describe a
curve.]
[Footnote 5: Scale.]
Wisdom for a man`s self is, in many branches thereof, a depraved thing.
It is the wisdom of rats, that will be sure to leave a house somewhat before
it fall. It is the wisdom of the fox, that thrusts out the badger, who digged
and made room for him. It is the wisdom of crocodiles, that shed tears when
they could devour. But that which is specially to be noted is, that those
which (as Cicero says of Pompey) are sui amantes, sine rivali [lovers of
themselves without a rival] are many times unfortunate. And whereas they have
all their times sacrificed to themselves, they become in the end themselves
sacrifices to the inconstancy of fortune, whose wings they sought by their
self-wisdom to have pinioned.
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