The Essays of Francis Bacon/LVIII Of Vicissitude of Things

by Francis Bacon

LVIII. Of Vicissitude of Things.

Salomon saith, There is no new thing upon the earth.^[1] So that as Plato had an imagination, That all knowledge was but remembrance;^[2] so Salomon giveth his sentence, That all novelty is but oblivion. Whereby you may see that the river of Lethe runneth as well above ground as below. There is an abstruse astrologer that saith, if it were not for two things that are constant, (the one is, that the fixed stars ever stand at like distance one from another, and never come nearer together, nor go further asunder; the other, that the diurnal motion perpetually keepeth time,) no individual would last one moment. Certain it is, that the matter is in a perpetual flux,^[3] and never at a stay. The great winding-sheets, that bury all things in oblivion, are two; deluges and earthquakes. As for conflagrations and great droughts, they do not merely dispeople and destroy. Phaëton's^[4] car went but a day. And the three years' drought in the time of Elias^[5] was but particular,^[6] and left people alive. As for the great burning by lightnings, which are often in the West Indies, they are but narrow. But in the other two destructions, by deluge and earthquake, it is further to be noted, that the remnant of people which hap^[7] to be reserved, are commonly ignorant and mountainous people, that can give no account of the time past; so that the oblivion is all one^[8] as if none had been left. If you consider well of the people of the West Indies, it is very probable that they are a newer or a younger people than the people of the old world. And it is much more likely that the destruction that hath heretofore been there, was not by earthquakes (as the Ægyptian priest told Solon concerning the island of Atlantis,^[9] that it was swallowed by an earthquake), but rather that it was desolated by a particular deluge. For earthquakes are seldom in those parts. But on the other side, they have such pouring rivers, as^[10] the rivers of Asia and Africk and Europe are but brooks to them. Their Andes likewise, or mountains, are far higher than those with us; whereby it seems that the remnants of generation of men were in such a particular deluge saved. As for the observation that Machiavel hath, that the jealousy of sects doth much extinguish the memory of things;^[11] traducing^[12] Gregory the Great,^[13] that he did what in him lay to extinguish all heathen antiquities; I do not find that those zeals^[14] do any great effects, nor last long; as it appeared in the succession of Sabinian,^[15] who did revive the former antiquities.

The vicissitude or mutations in the Superior Globe are no fit matter for this present argument. It may be, Plato's great year,^[16] if the world should last so long, would have some effect; not in renewing the state of like individuals, (for that is the fume^[17] of those that conceive the celestial bodies have more accurate influences upon these things below than indeed they have,) but in gross.^[18] Comets, out of question, have likewise power and effect over the gross^[19] and mass of things; but they are rather gazed upon, and waited upon in their journey, than wisely observed in their effects; specially in their respective effects; that is, what kind of comet, for magnitude, colour, version^[20] of the beams, placing in the region of heaven, or lasting, produceth what kind of effects.

There is a toy which I have heard, and I would not have it given over, but waited upon a little. They say it is observed in the Low Countries (I know not in what part) that every five and thirty years the same kind of suit^[21] of years and weathers comes about again; as great frosts, great wet, great droughts, warm winters, summers with little heat, and the like; and they call it the Prime. It is a thing I do the rather mention, because, computing backwards, I have found some concurrence.

But to leave these points of nature, and to come to men. The greatest vicissitude of things amongst men, is the vicissitude of sects and religions. For those orbs rule in men's minds most. The true religion is built upon the rock;^[22] the rest are tossed upon the waves of time. To speak therefore of the causes of new sects; and to give some counsel concerning them, as far as the weakness of human judgment can give stay to so great revolutions.

When the religion formerly received is rent by discords; and when the holiness of the professors of religion is decayed and full of scandal; and withal^[23] the times be stupid, ignorant, and barbarous; you may doubt the springing up of a new sect; if then also there should arise any extravagant and strange spirit to make himself author thereof. All which points held when Mahomet published his law. If a new sect have not two properties, fear it not; for it will not spread. The one is, the supplanting or the opposing of authority established; for nothing is more popular than that. The other is, the giving licence to pleasures and a voluptuous life. For as for speculative heresies, (such as were in ancient times the Arians,^[24] and now the Arminians,)^[25] though they work mightily upon men's wits, yet they do not produce any great alterations in states; except it be by the help of civil occasions. There be three manner of plantations of new sects. By the power of signs and miracles; by the eloquence and wisdom of speech and persuasion; and by the sword. For martyrdoms, I reckon them amongst miracles; because they seem to exceed the strength of human nature: and I may do the like of superlative and admirable holiness of life. Surely there is no better way to stop the rising of new sects and schisms, than to reform abuses; to compound the smaller differences; to proceed mildly, and not with sanguinary persecutions; and rather to take off the principal authors by winning and advancing them, than to enrage them by violence and bitterness.

The changes and vicissitude in wars are many; but chiefly in three things; in the seats or stages of the war; in the weapons; and in the manner of the conduct. Wars, in ancient time, seemed more to move from east to west; for the Persians, Assyrians, Arabians, Tartars, (which were the invaders,) were all eastern people. It is true, the Gauls were western; but we read but of two incursions of theirs: the one to Gallo-Græcia, the other to Rome. But East and West have no certain points of heaven; and no more have the wars, either from the east or west, any certainty of observation. But North and South are fixed; and it hath seldom or never been seen that the far southern people have invaded the northern, but contrariwise. Whereby it is manifest that the northern tract of the world is in nature the more martial region: be it in respect of the stars of that hemisphere; or of the great continents; that are upon the north, whereas the south part, for aught that is known, is almost all sea; or (which is most apparent) of the cold of the northern parts, which is that which, without aid of discipline, doth make the bodies hardest, and the courage warmest.

Upon the breaking and shivering of a great state and empire, you may be sure to have wars. For great empires, while they stand, do enervate and destroy the forces of the natives which they have subdued, resting upon their own protecting forces; and then when they fail also, all goes to ruin, and they become a prey. So was it in the decay of the Roman empire; and likewise in the empire of Almaigne,^[26] after Charles the Great,^[27] every bird taking a feather; and were not unlike to befal^[28] to Spain, if it should break. The great accessions and unions of kingdoms do likewise stir up wars: for when a state grows to an over-power,^[29] it is like a great flood, that will be sure to overflow. As it hath been seen in the states of Rome, Turkey, Spain and others. Look when the world hath fewest barbarous peoples, but such as commonly, will not marry or generate, except they know means to live, (as it is almost everywhere at this day, except Tartary,) there is no danger of inundations^[30] of people: but when there be great shoals of people, which go on to populate, without foreseeing means of life and sustentation,^[31] it is of necessity that once in an age or two they discharge a portion of their people upon other nations; which the ancient northern people were wont to do by lot; casting lots what part should stay at home, and what should seek their fortunes. When a warlike state grows soft and effeminate, they may be sure of a war. For commonly such states are grown rich in the time of their degenerating; and so the prey inviteth, and their decay in valour encourageth a war.

As for the weapons, it hardly falleth under rule and observation: yet we see even they have returns and vicissitudes. For certain it is, that ordnance was known in the city of the Oxidrakes 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 improvement, are, First, the fetching^[32] 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^[33] 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,^[34] and so trying it out upon an even match: and they were more ignorant in ranging and arraying their battles.^[35] After they grew to rest upon number rather competent than vast; they grew to^[36] 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.^[37] 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:^[38] and lastly, his old age, when it waxeth dry and exhaust.^[39] But it is not good to look too long upon these turning wheels of vicissitude, lest we become giddy. As for the philology^[40] of them, that is but a circle of tales, and therefore not fit for this writing.^[41]

1. Ecclesiastes i. 9.
2. The doctrine that 'all knowledge is but remembrance' is expounded by Plato in the two Dialogues, Phaedo, 72 and Meno, 81. In "The First Book of Francis Bacon; of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human, To the King," Bacon asserts, with fulsome flattery, "I have often thought, that of all the persons living that I have known, your Majesty were the best instance to make a man of Plato's opinion, that all knowledge is but remembrance."
3. Flux. A continuous succession of changes of condition, composition, or substance; fluctuation. "The language of this country being always upon the flux, the struldbrugs of one age do not understand those of another." Swift. Travels into several Remote Nations of the World. By Lemuel Gulliver. A Voyage to Laputa, etc. Part III. Chapter 10.
4. Phaëton, or Phaëthon, in Greek mythology, was the son of Helios and Clymene. He obtained permission from Helios to drive the chariot of the sun across the heavens for one day, but unable to check his horses he was overthrown and nearly set the world on fire. To punish his presumption Zeus struck him with a thunderbolt and cast him into the river Po.
5. I. Kings xvii. 1. and xviii. 1.
6. Particular. Partial, not universal. "'T is ridiculous to put off, or drown, the general flood of Noah in that particular inundation of Deucalion." Sir Thomas Browne. Religio Medici. Part I. Section 22.
7. Hap. To have the 'hap,' fortune, or luck ('to do' something, or with clause); happen.

   "Hap what hap may, I 'll roundly go about her."
   

   Shakspere. The Taming of the Shrew. iv. 5.

8. All one. One and the same; quite the same. "Aweel, sir, if ye think it wadna be again the law, it 's a' ane to Dandie." Scott. Guy Mannering. XXXVI.
9. For the conversation between Solon and the Egyptian priest, "a man well stricken in years," see The Timaeus of Plato, III. 21–25, pp. 67–81, in edition of R. D. Archer-Hind, 1888.
10. As. That.
11. Bacon has in mind here Book II., Chapter V., of Machiavelli's Discourses upon the First Decad of Livy, "That Deluges, Pestilences, the change of Religion and Languages, and other accidents, in a manner extinguish the memory of many things." St. Gregory is the only individual Machiavelli charges with destroying "the monuments of antiquity, defacing images and statues, and demoralizing every thing that might in any wise contribute to keep the memory of paganism alive."
12. Traduce. To misrepresent; censure.
13. Gregory the Great, Saint Gregory, lived from about 540 to 604 A.D., and was Pope, 590–604. In the year 597, Gregory sent Augustine and a band of forty monks to Ethelbert, King of Kent, and within the space of a year Ethelbert had embraced Christianity, together with some ten thousands of his subjects.
14. Zeal. Enthusiasm; fervor. No longer used in the plural.
15. Pope Sabinian, died 606 A.D. He was the immediate successor of Gregory the Great.
16. "Plato's great year," or the perfect year, will be rounded out when all the planets return to one and the same region of the heavens at the same time. As to its duration, there is no agreement among the ancients. Tacitus, on the authority of Cicero, gives it 12,954 years, but Cicero himself expresses no opinion. Plato discusses the problem in the Timaeus, XI, 88 and 39.
17. Fume. Something which 'goes to the head' and clouds the faculties or the reason.

    "The charm dissolves apace;
    And as the morning steals upon the night,
    Melting the darkness, so their rising senses
    Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle
    Their clearer reason."
    

    Shakspere. The Tempest. v. 1.

18. In gross, or in the gross. In a general way; generally; without going into particulars; in the main; on the whole.

    "The unlettered Christian, who believes in gross,
    Plods on to heaven, and ne'er is at a loss."
    

    Dryden. Religio Laici. ll. 322–323.

19. Gross. The greater part; the majority; the bulk. "The gross of an audience is composed of two sorts of people, those who know no pleasure but of the body, and those who improve or command corporeal pleasures by the addition of fine sentiments of the mind." Steele. The Spectator. No. 502.
20. Version. A turning round or about, change of direction.
21. Suit. Series; succession; regular order.
22. "And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Matthew xvi. 18.
23. Withal. With all; in addition; besides. "For it seemeth to me unreasonable, to send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him." Acts xxv. 27.
24. The Arians were the followers of Arius, a deacon of Alexandria, who lived in the fourth century. Arius maintained the divinity of Jesus Christ, but held that his nature was not co-equal with that of God, not the same nature, but a similar and subordinate one.
25. The Arminians of Bacon's time were the followers of Arminius, who was a Dutch Protestant divine of Leyden, named Jacobus Harmensen, 1560–1609. Their doctrines, 'The Remonstrance,' published in 1610, expressed their divergence from strict Calvinism, chiefly their objection to predestination, in five articles, and was presented to the states of Holland and West Friesland. The Arminians are sometimes called 'Remonstrants.'
26. Almaigne. Germany.
27. Charles the Great, Carolus Magnus, Charlemagne, lived from 742 or 747 to 814, King of the Franks, and Emperor of the Romans.
28. Befall. To fall out in the course of events, to happen, to occur (with 'to,' 'unto,' or 'upon'). Archaic.

    "Say, goddess, what ensu'd when Raphael,
    The affable archangel, had forewarn'd
    Adam by dire example to beware
    Apostasy, by what befel in Heaven
    To those apostates."
    

    Milton. Paradise Lost. VII. 40–44.

29. Over-power. A superior, or supreme power.
30. Inundation. An overspreading or overwhelming in superfluous abundance; superabundance. "What inundation of life and thought is discharged from one soul into another through them! The glance [of the eyes] is natural magic." Emerson. Conduct of Life. Behavior.
31. Sustentation. Support, especially, the support of life, sustenance, maintenance.
32. Fetch. To 'have at,' reach, strike (a person).

    "Come away, or I'll fetch thee with a wanion."
    

    Shakspere. Pericles, Prince of Tyre. ii. 1.

33. Arietation. The action of butting, like a ram; hence, the striking with a battering-ram, or similar machine.
34. Field. A battle.

    "What though the field be lost?
    All is not lost; the unconquerable will,
    And study of revenge, immortal hate,
    And courage never to submit or yield,
    And what is else not to be overcome;
    That glory never shall his wrath or might
    Extort from me."
    

    Milton. Paradise Lost. I. 105–110.

35. Battle. A. body or line of troops in battle array, whether an entire army, or one of its main divisions; battalion.

    "In battles four beneath their eye,
    The forces of King Robert lie."
    

    Scott. The Lord of the Isles. VI. x.

36. So in original. A word appears to have dropped out, such as seek, or something equivalent. The translation has captabant. S.
37. With this sentence, compare Advancement of Learning, II. x. 13.
38. Reduce. To subject; to make subject to one; to bring under one, into or under one's power, within bounds.
39. Exhaust. Exhausted.
40. Philology. The love or study of learning and literature. Bacon uses the word philology in its old sense, the study of literature generally, the relation of literature and literary records to history, etc. The modern sense limits philology to the study of language or linguistics.
41. In connection with this essay, read in the Wisdom of the Ancients, Nemesis; or the Vicissitude of Things.