joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, counsels, and whatever lieth upon the heart to oppress it," Of Friendship. The whole essay Of Studies illustrates this manner of composition. The aphoristic sentences are simply packed closely one upon another, like gold sovereigns in a bag. The separate pieces of money have the continuity of being coin of the realm, but by the theory of chances they might be packed in an infinite variety of ways. In form, the essay is crude, styleless; in effect, it is direct, keen as a rapier's thrust.
Besides translated proverbs, Bacon quotes proverbs in Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish. And always, as he puts it, the proverb "pierces the knot in the business." Compare Cor ne edito, 'eat not the heart' Of Friendship; In nocte, consilium, 'the night brings counsel,' as we say colloquially, sleep over it, Of Counsel; Beaucoup de bruit, pen de fruit, 'much bruit, little fruit,' Of Vain- Glory; Mi venga la muerte de Spagna, "'let my death come from Spain' for then it will be sure to be long in coming," Of Dispatch. This same essay contains the well-known English proverb, 'the more haste, the less speed' in the form of Bacon's apothegm about his diplomatic chief, Sir Amias Paulet, who was wont to say, "Stay a little, that we may make an end the sooner." But the bulk of proverbs in English throughout the Essays are quoted from the wisdom of the Bible, both the old Testament and New.
The Bible is directly quoted in thirty-four of the fifty-eight essays, and if to these thirty-four essays
