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Essay LVIII: Of Vicissitude Of Things
Essay LVIII: Of Vicissitude Of Things
Solomon saith, There is no new thing upon the earth. So that as Plato had
an imagination, That all knowledge was but remembrance; so Solomon giveth his
sentence, That all novelty is but oblivion. Whereby you may see that the river
of Lethe runneth as well above ground as below. There is an abstruse
astrologer that saith, If it were not for two things that are constant (the
one is, that the fixed stars ever stand a like distance one from another, and
never come nearer, together, nor go further asunder; the other, that the
diurnal motion perpetually keepeth time), no individual would last one moment.
Certain it is, that the matter is in a perpetual flux, and never at a stay.
The great winding-sheets, that bury all things in oblivion, are two ; deluges
and earthquakes. As for conflagrations and great droughts, they do not merely
dispeople and destroy. Phaeton`s car went but a day. And the three years`
drought in the time of Elias was but particular, and left people alive. As for
the great burnings by lightnings, which are often in the West Indies, they are
but narrow. But in the other two destructions, by deluge and earthquake, it is
further to be noted, that the remnant of people which hap to be reserved, are
commonly ignorant and mountainous people, that can give no account of the time
past; so that the oblivion is all one as if none had been left. If you
consider well of the people of the West Indies, it is very probable that they
are a newer or a younger people than the people of the Old World. And it is
much more likely that the destruction that hath heretofore been there was not
by earthquakes (as the Egyptian priest told Solon concerning the island of
Atlantis, that it was swallowed by an earthquake), but rather that it was
desolated by a particular deluge. For earthquakes are seldom in those parts.
But on the other side, they have such pouring rivers, as the rivers of Asia
and Africka and Europe are but brooks to them. Their Andes, likewise, or
mountains, are far higher than those with us; whereby it seems that the
remnants of generation of men were in such a particular deluge saved. As for
the observation that Machiavel hath, that the jealousy of sects doth much
extinguish the memory of things; traducing Gregory the Great, that he did what
in him lay to extinguish all heathen antiquities; I do not find that those
zeals do any great effects, nor last long; as it appeared in the succession of
Sabinian, ^1 who did revive the former antiquities.
[Footnote 1: The Pope who succeeded Gregory the Great.]
The vicissitude of mutations in the superior globe ^2 are no fit matter
for this present argument. It may be, Plato`s great year, ^3 if the world
should last so long, would have some effect; not in renewing the state of
like individuals (for that is the fume of those that conceive the celestial
bodies have more accurate influences upon these things below than indeed they
have), but in gross. Comets, out of question, have likewise power and effect
over the gross and mass of things; but they are rather gazed upon, and waited
upon in their journey, than wisely observed in their effects; specially in
their respective effects; that is, what kind of comet, for magnitude, color,
version of the beams, placing in the reign of heaven, or lasting, produceth
what kind of effects.
[Footnote 2: The heavens.]
[Footnote 3: When the great cycle of all the heavenly motions shall be
completed.]
There is a toy which I have heard, and I would not have it given over,
but waited upon a little. They say it is observed in the Low Countries (I know
not in what part) that every five and thirty years the same kind and suit of
years and weathers comes about again; as great frosts, great wet, great
droughts, warm winters, summers with little heat, and the like; and they call
it the Prime. It is a thing I do the rather mention, because, computing
backwards, I have found some concurrence.
But to leave these points of nature, and to come to men. The greatest
vicissitude of things amongst men, is the vicissitude of sects and religions.
For those orbs rule in men`s minds most. The true religion is built upon the
rock; the rest are tossed upon the waves of time. To speak, therefore, of the
causes of new sects; and to give some counsel concerning them, as far as the
weakness of human judgment can give stay to so great revolutions.
When the religion formerly received is rent by discords; and when the
holiness of the professors of religion is decayed and full of scandal; and
withal the times be stupid, ignorant, and barbarous; you may doubt ^4 the
springing up of a new sect; if then also there should arise any extravagant
and strange spirit to make himself author thereof. All which points held when
Mahomet published his law. If a new sect have not two properties, fear it not;
for it will not spread. The one is the supplanting or the opposing of
authority established; for nothing is more popular than that. The other is the
giving licence to pleasures and a voluptuous life. For as for speculative
heresies (such as were in ancient times the Arians, and now the Arminians),
though they work mightily upon men`s wits, yet they do not produce any great
alterations in states; except it be by the help of civil occasions. There be
three manner of plantations of new sects. By the power of signs and miracles;
by the eloquence and wisdom of speech and persuasion; and by the sword. For
martyrdoms, I reckon them amongst miracles; because they seem to exceed the
strength of human nature: and I may do the like of superlative and admirable
holiness of life. Surely there is no better way to stop the rising of new
sects and schisms than to reform abuses; to compound the smaller differences;
to proceed mildly, and not with sanguinary persecutions; and rather to take
off the principal authors by winning and advancing them, than to enrage them
by violence and bitterness.
[Footnote 4: Fear.]
The changes and vicissitude in wars are many; but chiefly in three
things; in the seats or stages of the war; in the weapons; and in the manner
of the conduct. Wars, in ancient time, seemed more to move from east to west;
for the Persians, Assyrians, Arabians, Tartars (which were the invaders) were
all eastern people. It is true, the Gauls were western; but we read but of two
incursions of theirs: the one to Gallo-Grecia, the other to Rome. But east and
west have no certain points of heaven; and no more have the wars, either from
the east or west, any certainty of observation. But north and south are fixed;
and it hath seldom or never been seen that the far southern people have
invaded the northern, but contrariwise. Whereby it is manifest that the
northern tract of the world is in nature the more martial region: be it in
respect of the stars of that hemisphere; or of the great continents that are
upon the north, whereas the south part, for aught that is known, is almost all
sea; or (which is most apparent) of the cold of the northern parts, which is
that which, without aid of discipline, doth make the bodies hardest, and the
courages warmest.
Upon the breaking and shivering of a great state and empire, you may be
sure to have wars. For great empires, while they stand, do enervate and
destroy the forces of the natives which they have subdued, resting upon their
own protecting forces; and then when they fail also, all goes to ruin, and
they become a prey. So was it in the decay of the Roman empire; and likewise
in the empire of Almaigne, after Charles the Great, every bird taking a
feather; and were not unlike to befall to Spain, if it should break. The
great accessions and unions of kingdoms do likewise stir up wars; for when a
state grows to an over-power, it is like a great flood, that will be sure to
overflow. As it hath been seen in the states of Rome, Turkey, Spain, and
others. Look when the world hath fewest barbarous peoples, but such as
commonly will not marry or generate, except they know means to live (as it is
almost everywhere at this day, except Tartary), there is no danger of
inundations of people; but when there be great shoals of people, which go on
to populate, without foreseeing means of life and sustentation, it is of
necessity that once in an age or two they discharge a portion of their people
upon other nations; which the ancient northern people were wont to do by lot;
casting lots what part should stay at home, and what should seek their
fortunes. When a warlike state grows soft and effeminate, they may be sure of
a war. For commonly such states are grown rich in the time of their
degenerating; and so the prey inviteth, and their decay in valor encourageth
a war.
As for the weapons, it hardly falleth under rule and observation: yet we
see even they have returns and vicissitudes. For certain it is, that ordnance
was known in the city of the Oxidrakes in India; and was that which the
Macedonians called thunder and lightning, and magic. And it is well known that
the use of ordnance hath been in China above two thousand years. The
conditions of weapons, and their improvement, are; First, the fetching afar
off; for that outruns the danger; as it is seen in ordnance and muskets.
Secondly, the strength of the percussion; wherein likewise ordnance do exceed
all arietations ^5 and ancient inventions. The third is, the commodious use of
them; as that they may serve in all weathers; that the carriage may be light
and manageable; and the like.
[Footnote 5: Battering-rams.]
For the conduct of the war: at the first, men rested extremely upon
number: they did put the wars likewise upon main force and valor; pointing
days for pitched fields, and so trying it out upon an even match: and they
were more ignorant in ranging and arraying their battles. ^6 After they grew
to rest upon number rather competent than vast; they grew to advantages of
place, cunning diversions, and the like: and they grew more skilful in the
ordering of their battles.
[Footnote 6: Battalions.]
In the youth of a state, arms do flourish; in the middle age of a state,
learning; and then both of them together for a time; in the declining age of
a state, mechanical arts and merchandize. Learning hath his infancy, when it
is but beginning and almost childish; then his youth, when it is luxuriant and
juvenile; then his strength of years, when it is solid and reduced; ^7 and
lastly, his old age, when it waxeth dry and exhaust. But it is not good to
look too long upon these turning wheels of vicissitude, lest we become giddy.
As for the philology ^8 of them, that is but a circle of tales, and therefore
not fit for this writing.
[Footnote 7: Brought within bounds.]
[Footnote 8: History.]
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