certain it is, that ordnance was known in the city of the Oxydraces 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 improvements 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* 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. For the conduct of the war: at the first men rested extremely upon number; they did put the wars likewise upon main force and valour, pointing days for pitched fields, and so trying it out upon an even mach, and they were more ignorant in ranging and arraying their battles. 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. 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 merchandise. 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; 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 of them, that is but a circle of tales, and therefore not fit for this writing. What may the king's whole battle reach unto?'—Shakespere. 6 Reduced. Subjected (to rule). The Romans reduced Spain, Gaul, and Britain by their arms.'-Ogilvie. 7 His. Its. See page 361. 8 Exhaust. Exhausted. See page 72. A FRAGMENT OF AN ESSAY ON FAME. THE 'HE poets make Fame a monster; they describe her in part finely and elegantly, and in part gravely and sententiously; they say, look how many feathers she hath, so many eyes she hath underneath, so many tongues, so many voices, she pricks up so many ears. This is a flourish: there follow excellent parables; as that she gathereth strength in going; that she goeth upon the ground, and yet hideth her head in the clouds; that in the day-time she sitteth in a watch-tower, and flieth most by night; that she mingleth things done with things not done; and that she is a terror to great cities: but that which passeth all the rest is, they do recount that the earth, mother of the giants that made war against Jupiter, and were by him destroyed, thereupon in anger brought forth Fame; for certain it is that rebels, figured by the giants, and seditious fames' and libels, are but brothers and sisters, masculine and feminine; but now if a man can tame this monster, and bring her to feed at the hand, and govern her, and with her fly other ravening fowl and kill them, it is somewhat worth. But we are infected with the style of the poets. To speak now in a sad' and serious manner, there is not in all the politics a place less handled, and more worthy to be handled, than this of fame; we will therefore speak of these points; what are false fames, and what are true fames, and how they may be best discerned, how fames may be sown and raised, how they may be spread and multiplied, and how they may be checked and laid dead, and other 1 Fames. Reports; rumours. See page 119. Fly. To fly at; to attack. Fly everything you see, and censure it freely.'-Ben Jonson. 3 Ravening. Predatory; rapacious. 'As a ravening and roaring lion.'4 Sad. Grave. Ps. xxii. 13. 5 Discerned. 'A sad, wise valour is the brave complexion Distinguished. Then shalt thou return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not.'-Mal. iii. 18. things concerning the nature of fame. Fame is of that force, as' there is scarcely any great action wherein it hath not a great part, especially in the war. Mucianus undid Vitellius by a fame that he scattered, that Vitellius had in purpose to move the legions of Syria into Germany, and the legions of Germany into Syria; whereupon the legions of Syria were infinitely inflamed. Julius Cæsar took Pompey unprovided, and laid asleep his industry and preparations by a fame that he cunningly gave out, how Cæsar's own soldiers loved him not; and being wearied with the wars, and laden with the spoils of Gaul, would forsake him as soon as he came into Italy. Livia settled all things for the succession of her son Tiberius, by continually giving out that her husband Augustus was upon recovery and amendment; and it is a usual thing with the bashaws to conceal the death of the Great Turk from the janizaries and men of war, to save the sacking of Constantinople, and other towns, as their manner is. Themistocles made Xerxes, King of Persia, post apace out of Grecia,' by giving out that the Grecians had a purpose to break his bridge of ships which he had made athwart the Hellespont. There be a thousand such like examples, and the more they are, the less they need to be repeated, because a man meeteth with them everywhere; wherefore, let all wise governors have as great a watch and care over fames, as they have of the actions and designs themselves. 1 As. That. See page 22. 2 Undid. Ruined. (Not so frequently used in this sense as are the other tenses of the verb 'to undo.') Where, with like haste, through several ways they run, 3 Tacit. Hist. ii. 80. 5 Tacit. Ann. i. 5. 6 Apace. 7 Grecia. Speedily. Ay, quoth my uncle Glo'ster, 4 Cæs. de Bell. Civ. i. 6. Small herbs have grace, great weeds do grow apace; And since, methinks, I would not grow so fast, Because sweet flowers are slow, and weeds make haste.'-Shakespere. of Grecia.'-Dan. xi. 2. 8 Athwart. Across. Execrable Shape! That dar'st, though grim and terrible, advance 9 Vid. Herod. viii. 108, 109. ANNOTATIONS. [This Essay is reckoned a fragment, as it is supposed Bacon must have written much more on the subject; but it is complete as far as it goes; and there are many of the other Essays that would have borne to be much enlarged.] Fame is of that force as there is scarcely any great action wherein it hath not a great part, as meeteth with them everywhere.' a man By fame, Bacon means what we call 'report,' or 'rumour,' or the French on dit. One remarkable instance of the effects produced by rumours might be added to those Bacon mentions. When Buonaparte's return from Elba was plotted, his partisans went all about France, pretending to seek to purchase land; and when in treaty for a field, and seemingly about to close the bargain, they inquired about the title; and when they found, as they generally did, that it was land which had been confiscated at the Revolution, they broke off at once, declaring that the title was insecure thus spreading throughout France the notion that the Bourbons meditated the resumption of all those lands-the chief part of France-to restore them to the former owners. And thus, most of the proprietors were eager for their downfall. Some remarks on political predictions, already made in my notes on the essay of Prophecies,' might come in under this head. 'Let all wise governors have as great a watch and care over fames as they have of the actions and designs themselves.' The necessity of this watchfulness from the effects produced by them seems to have been recognised at a very early period in our legislative history. We have before noticed a statute respecting them made in the reign of Edward the First. It enacts that forasmuch as there have been oftentimes found in the country Devisors of Tales, whereby discord [or occasion] of discord hath arisen many times between the King and his people, or great men of this realm; for the damage that hath and may thereof ensue; it is commanded, that from henceforth none be so hardy to tell or publish any false news or tales, whereby discord, or [matter] of discord or slander may grow between the King and his people, or the great men of the realm; and he that doth so shall be taken and kept in prison, until he hath brought him into the Court which was the first which did speak the same.'-3 Edw. I. Stat. Westmonast. 1, c. xxxiv. The framing and circulating of 'politic fames' might have been set down by Bacon as one of the points of cunning. |