Bacon's Essays/Of Truth

by Francis Bacon

ESSAYES

I

OF TRUTH

WHAT is Truth? said jesting Pilate;^[1] And would not stay for an Answer. Certainly there be, that delight in Giddinesse,^[2] And count it a Bondage to fix a Beleefe; Affecting^[3] Freewill in Thinking, as well as in Acting. And though the Sects of Philosophers of that Kinde be gone, yet there remaine certaine discoursing Wits,^[4] which are of the same veines, though there be not so much Bloud in them, as was in those of the Ancients.^[5] But it is not onely the Difficultie and Labour, which men take in finding out of Truth; Nor againe, that when it is found, it imposeth^[6] upon men's Thoughts, that doth bring Lies in^[7] favour; But a naturall though corrupt Love of the Lie it selfe. One of the later Schoole of the Grecians, examineth the matter, and is at a stand^[8] to think what should be in it,^[9] that men should love Lies; Where neither they make for Pleasure, as with Poets; Nor for Advantage, as with the Merchant; but for the Lie's sake. But I cannot tell:^[10] this same Truth is a Naked and Open day light, that doth not shew the Masques, and Mummeries, and Triumphs of the World^[11], halfe so stately and daintily as Candlelights. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a Pearle, that sheweth best by day; But it will not rise to the price of a Diamond, or Carbuncle, that sheweth best in varied lights. A Mixture of a Lie doth ever adde Pleasure. Doth any man doubt that, if there were taken out of Men's Mindes Vaine Opinions, Flattering Hopes, False Valuations, Imaginations as one would^[12], and the like, but it would leave the Mindes of a Number of Men poore shrunken Things, full of Melancholy and Indisposition^[13], and unpleasung to themselves? One of the fathers, in great severity, called poesy vinum dæmonum,^[14] because it filleth the imagination; and yet, it is but with the shadow of a lie. But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in and settleth in it, that doth the hurt, such as^[15] we spake of before. But, howsoever^[16] these things are thus in men’s depraved Iudgements, and Affections, yet Truth, which only doth iudge it selfe, teacheth that the Inquirie of Truth, which is the Love-making, or Wooing of it; The knowledge of Truth, which is the Presence of it; and the Beleefe of Truth, which is the Enjoying of it; is the Soveraigne Good of humane^[17] Nature. The first Creature^[18] of God, in the workes of the Dayes, was the Light of the Sense; The last, was the Light of Reason; And his Sabbath Worke, ever since, is the Illumination of his Spirit^[19]. First he breathed Light into the Face of the Matter or Chaos; then he breathed Light into the Face of Man; and still he breatheth and inspireth Light into the Face of his Chosen. The Poet, that beautified^[20] the Sect that was otherwise inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well: It is a pleasure, to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tost upon the Sea: A pleasure to stand in the window of a Castle, and to see a Battaile, and the Adventures^[21] thereof, below: But no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of Truth, (A hill not to be commanded^[22], and where the Ayre is alwaies cleare and serene,) And to see the Errours, and Wandrings, and Mists, and Tempests, in the vale below: So alwaies, that^[23] this prospect be with Pitty, and not with Swelling or Pride. Certainly, it is Heaven upon Earth, to have a Man's Minde Move in Charitie, Rest in Providence, and Turne upon the Poles of Truth.

To passe from Theologicall, and Philosophicall Truth, to the Truth of civil Businesse^[24]; It will be acknowledged, even by those that practize it not, that cleare and Round^[25] dealing, is the Honour of Man's Nature; And that Mixture of Falshood, is like Allay in Coyne of Gold and Silver, which may make the Metall worke the better, but it embaseth^[26] it. For these winding, and crooked courses, are the Goings of the Serpent; which goeth basely upon the belly, and not upon the Feet. There is no Vice^[27] that doth so cover Man with Shame as to be found false and perfidious. And therefore Mountaigny saith prettily, when he inquired the reason why the word of the Lie should be such a Disgrace, and such an Odious Charge, Saith he, If it be well weighed, To say that a man lieth, is as much to say as that he is brave towards God and a Coward towards Men. For a Lie faces God, and shrinkes from Man. Surely the Wickednesse of Falshood and Breach of Faith cannot possibly be so highly expressed, as in that it shall be the last Peale^[28] to call the Iudgements of God upon the Generations of Men; It being foretold that, when Christ cometh, He shall not finde Faith upon the Earth.

1. said Pilate in derision
2. fickleness
3. aiming at
4. discursive minds
5. whose disposition is the same as that of the ancients, though their abilities are less
6. i.e. imposes restraint
7. into
8. at a loss
9. why it is
10. But somehow or other
11. does not make the world's dramatic spectacles and farcical shows and public pageants appear
12. at pleasure
13. languor
14. the wine of devils
15. i.e. such a lie as
16. whatever the true cause may be why
17. human
18. created thing
19. i.e. of men's minds by the Holy Spirit
20. adorned
21. chances
22. not to be overlooked, or, perhaps, inaccessible to others
23. provided that
24. the habit of truthfulness in social intercourse
25. plain and straightforward
26. debases
27. i.e. no other vice
28. summons