Essay: How the Distermpers of These Times.... Owen Felltham

The distempers of these times (1620) are pretty bad, [but probably like all times.] They make a wise man both merry and mad. Beggary, baseness and contempt. People suppose that the wealthiest are the best. Buy offices. Tumbled up and down, like the spoke of a wheel “from beggary to worship, from worship to honor, from honor to baseness again. Glossed over with the varnish of a smooth tongue. Thunders in a tavern, appoints a duel, goes away and gives money to have the quarrel taken care of. Machiavel’s tenets are oracles. Justice bought and sold. Money stronger than truth. Flattery gains favor with greatness. Plain dealing is thought the enemy of state and honor. But worst of all is to know all this not know how to help it.

Comment: How’s that for a description of today’s (2010) world? RayS.

The Oxford Book of Essays. Ed. John Gross. Oxford and new York: Oxford University Press. 1991.

"A Good Old Man." John Earle.

He has learned as many lessons as his days, including the vanity of life. He sees his past life as danger well past and would not begin again if he could. He expects death calmly as a natural part of life. He fears more a return to childishness. He shares his experience with youth without reproof for the foibles of youth. His counsel is good company. Tells his old stories and makes them better in the telling. He does not trouble people with telling the same story over and over again. He goes away having heard of other people’s sorrows and not telling his own.

The Oxford Book of Essays. Ed. John Gross. Oxford and new York: Oxford University Press. 1991.

Essay: "An Antiquary." John Earle. 1678.

Enamored of everything old age. He will go forty miles to see a saint’s well or a ruined abbey. His estate consists in Roman coins and pictures of Caesar. He considers printed books as a novelty but pores over old manuscripts. His attire is out of fashion. He is not afraid of graves because he is used to sepulchers and he welcomes death because it gathers him to his fathers.

The Oxford Book of Essays. Ed. John Gross. Oxford and new York: Oxford University Press. 1991.

Essay: "Of Innovations." Francis Bacon.

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.

Essay: "Of Boldness." Francis Bacon.

Boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness. Appeals to those that are shallow in judgment or weak in courage. Prevails with wise men at weak times. Boldness does not keep its promises. An example of boldness is when men undertake great cures but claim them with only two or three experiments.

Dealing with the failure of boldness? Do as Mahomet did. If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill. So when men have promised great things and failed, yet they will slight it over.

Great boldness is seldom without absurdity. Boldness is always blind for it does not see dangers and inconveniences. In counsel it is good to see dangers, but in execution it is better not to see them unless they are very great.

The Oxford Book of Essays. Ed. John Gross. Oxford and new York: Oxford University Press. 1991.

Essay: "Of Revenge." Francis Bacon.

Revenge is wild justice. When taking revenge, one is even. When passing over the revenge, one is superior. That which is past is gone, irrevocable. Wise men have enough to do with problems in the present, rather than dwelling on those in the past. If a person does wrong out of sheer ill nature, consider it like a briar that can’t do anything else. Comus, duke of Florence, said, “You shall read…that we are commanded to forgive our enemies, but you never read that we are commanded to forgive our friends.” Bacon concludes his essay on revenge with this quote: “This is certain, that a man that studies revenge keeps his own wound green, which otherwise would heal and do well.”

The Oxford Book of Essays. Ed. John Gross. Oxford and new York: Oxford University Press. 1991.

Essay: "Of Truth." Francis Bacon.

Poetry is a form of lying that the author writes for pleasure. The merchant uses lying to take advantage of others. Our vain opinions, flattering hopes, false values and imagining what we want are also lies that will leave our personalities empty without them. We desire truth, experience it and, believing it, we enjoy it. Truth is like standing on a hill watching the turmoil of falsehood below in the valley. Falsehood is like the wanderings of a snake, on its belly, not standing on foot. Mixing falsehood with truth is like a base coin. Men’s propensity for lying will leave men at Christ’s Second Coming without faith. 1625.

Comment: Bacon uses analogies and metaphors to explain abstract terms. He deepens our understanding of them. We are more aware of the presence of the abstract quality in our personalities. RayS.

The Oxford Book of Essays. Ed. John Gross. Oxford and new York: Oxford University Press. 1991.