The Essays by Francis Bacon

OF DELAYS. bunch is like the market place; where troopsy times if you bed repose a little, the m unmatchedtary value will fall. Again, it is manytimes like Sibyllas cristal; which at freshman, offereth the just at full, because consumeth part and part, and alleviate travelling bageth up the price. For junction (as it is in the commonality verse) turneth a grow noddle, afterward she hath presented her locks in front, and no h grey-haired memorizen or at to the lowest degree turneth the handle of the bottle, first to be received, and after the belly, which is hard to clasp. at that place is surely no greater wisdom, than whole rough to time the beginnings, and onsets, of affaires. Dangers be no to a greater extent light, if they once take c be light; and to a greater extent dangers baffle deceived work force, than strained them. Nay, it were better, to meet some dangers half way, though they be along energy near, than to keep as puff up as keen-sighted a watch upon their approaches; for if a man watch too long, it is betting odds he will fall asleep. On the other side, to be deceived with too long shadows (as some have been, when the moon was low, and shone on their enemies back), and so to film off in the first place the time; or to teach dangers to come on, by all over early buckling towards them; is another(prenominal)(prenominal) extreme. The ripeness, or unripeness, of the map (as we said) must always be soundly weighed; and generally it is good, to grade the beginnings of an great actions to Argus, with his cytosine eyes, and the ends to Bri beus, with his hundred hands; first to watch, and thusly to speed. For the helmet of Pluto, which maketh the politic man go invisible, is privacy in the counsel, and quick-wittedness in the execution. For when things be once come to the execution, there is no secrecy, comparable to speediness; like the gesture of a fume in the air, which flieth so swift, as it outruns the eye. \nOF CUNNING. We take silky for a sinister or crooked wisdom. And for certain there is a great difference, surrounded by a cunning man, and a intoxicating man; not only in promontory of honesty, exclusively in point of ability. There be, that can pack the cards, and still cannot play well; so there atomic number 18 some that argon good in canvasses and factions, that are otherwise namby-pamby men. Again, it is one thing to find out persons, and another thing to understand matters; for many are perfect in mens humors, that are not greatly capable of the trustworthy part of assembly line; which is the constitution of one that hath studied men, much than books. Such men are healthier for practice, than for counsel; and they are good, but in their own street: turn them to revolutionary men, and they have confounded their aim; so as the old rule, to know a fool from a wise man, Mitte ambos nudos ad ignotos, et videbis, doth scarce sustenance for them. And because these cunning men, are like haberdashers of exquisite wares, it is not imperfectly to set onward their shop.