In the beginning innovations are rough. Time is the greatest innovator. New things do not fit in with the old easily. Retaining customs because they are customs is as turbulent as an innovation. Those who revere old times are scorned by the new. Better to treat innovations as time does “which…innovates greatly, but quietly, and by degrees scarce to be perceived.” Don’t try experiments in government unless change is urgent.
Comment: The structure of the essays by Bacon is a kind of random brainstorm. Doesn’t really have a beginning, middle and end. RayS.
The Oxford Book of Essays. Ed. John Gross. Oxford and new York: Oxford University Press. 1991.
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