The Essays of Francis Bacon/XXVII Of Friendship

by Francis Bacon

XXVII. Of Friendship.

It had been hard for him that spake it to have put more truth and untruth together in few words, than in that speech, Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.^[1] For it is most true that a natural and secret hatred and aversation^[2] towards society in any man, hath somewhat of the savage beast; but it is most untrue that it should have any character at all of the divine nature; except^[3] it proceed, not out of a pleasure in solitude, but out of a love and desire to sequester a man's self for a higher conversation:^[4] such as is found to have been falsely and feignedly in some of the heathen; as Epimenides^[5] the Candian, Numa^[6] the Roman, Empedocles^[7] the Sicilian, and Apollonius of Tyana;^[8] and truly and really in divers of the ancient hermits and holy fathers of the church. But little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth. For a crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.^[9] The Latin adage meeteth with it a little: Magna civitas, magna solitudo;^[10] because in a great town friends are scattered; so that there is not that fellowship, for the most part, which is in less neighbourhoods. But we may go further, and affirm most truly that it is a mere^[11] and miserable solitude to want true friends; without which the world is but a wilderness; and even in this sense also of solitude, whosoever in the frame of his nature and affections is unfit for friendship, he taketh it of the beast, and not from humanity.^[12]

A principal fruit of friendship is the ease and discharge of the fulness and swellings of the heart, which passions of all kinds do cause and induce. We know diseases of stoppings and suffocations are the most dangerous in the body; and it is not much otherwise in the mind; you may take sarza^[13] to open the liver, steel to open the spleen, flower of sulphur^[14] for the lungs, castoreum^[15] for the brain; but no receipt openeth the heart, but a true friend; to whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, counsels, and whatsoever lieth upon the heart to oppress it, in a kind of civil shrift or confession.

It is a strange thing to observe how high a rate great kings and monarchs do set upon this fruit of friendship whereof we speak: so great, as they purchase it many times at the hazard of their own safety and greatness. For princes, in regard of the distance of their fortune from that of their subjects and servants, cannot gather this fruit, except (to make themselves capable thereof) they raise some persons to be as it were companions and almost equals to themselves, which many times sorteth to inconvenience. The modern languages give unto such persons the name of favourites, or privadoes;^[16] as if it were matter of grace, or conversation. But the Roman name attaineth the true use and cause thereof, naming them participes curarum;^[17] for it is that which tieth the knot. And we see plainly that this hath been done, not by weak and passionate princes only, but by the wisest and most politic that ever reigned; who have oftentimes joined to themselves some of their servants; whom both themselves have called friends, and allowed others likewise to call them in the same manner; using the word which is received between private men.

L. Sylla,^[18] when he commanded Rome, raised Pompey (after surnamed the Great) to that height, that Pompey vaunted himself for Sylla's over-match. For when he had carried the consulship for a friend of his, against the pursuit of Sylla, and that Sylla did a little resent thereat, and began to speak great, Pompey turned upon him again, and in effect bade him be quiet; for that more men adored the sun rising than the sun setting.^[19] With Julius Cæsar, Decimus Brutus^[20] had obtained that interest, as he set him down in his testament for heir in remainder after his nephew. And this was the man that had power with him to draw him forth to his death. For when Cæsar would have discharged the senate, in regard of some ill presages, and specially a dream of Calpurnia;^[21] this man lifted him gently by the arm out of his chair, telling him he hoped he would not dismiss the senate till his wife had dreamt a better dream.^[22] And it seemeth his favour was so great, as Antonius, in a letter which is recited verbatim in one of Cicero's Philippics,^[23] calleth him venefica, witch; as if he had enchanted Cæsar.^[24] Augustus raised Agrippa^[25] (though of mean birth) to that height, as^[26] when he consulted with Mæcenas^[27] about the marriage of his daughter Julia, Mæcenas took the liberty to tell him, that he must either marry his daughter to Agrippa, or take away his life: there was no third way, he had made him so great.^[28] With Tiberius Cæsar, Sejanus had ascended to that height, as they two were termed and reckoned as a pair of friends. Tiberius in a letter to him saith, hæc pro amicitiâ nostrâ non occultavi;^[29] and the whole senate dedicated an altar to Friendship, as to a goddess, in respect of the great dearness of friendship between them two. The like or more was between Septimius Severus and Plautianus. For he forced his eldest son to marry the daughter of Plautianus; and would often maintain Plautianus in doing affronts to his son; and did write also in a letter to the senate, by these words: I love the man so well, as I wish he may over-live^[30] me. Now if these princes had been as a Trajan^[31] or a Marcus Aurelius,^[32] a man might have thought that this had proceeded of an abundant goodness of nature; but being men so wise, of such strength and severity of mind, and so extreme lovers of themselves, as all these were, it proveth most plainly that they found their own felicity (though as great as ever happened to mortal men) but as an half piece, except they mought^[33] have a friend to make it entire; and yet, which^[34] is more, they were princes that had wives, sons, nephews; and yet all these could not supply the comfort of friendship.

It is not to be forgotten what Comineus^[35] observeth of his first master, Duke Charles the Hardy;^[36] namely, that he would communicate^[37] his secrets with none; and least of all, those secrets which troubled him most. Whereupon he goeth on and saith that towards his latter time that closeness did impair and a little perish^[38] his understanding. Surely Comineus mought have made the same judgment also, if it had pleased him, of his second master Lewis the Eleventh,^[39] whose closeness was indeed his tormentor. The parable^[40] of Pythagoras^[41] is dark, but true; Cor ne edito: Eat not the heart.^[42] Certainly, if a man would give it a hard phrase, those that want friends to open themselves unto are cannibals of their own hearts. But one thing is most admirable (wherewith I will conclude this first fruit of friendship), which is, that this communicating of a man's self to his friend works two contrary effects; for it redoubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in halfs. For there is no man that imparteth his joys to his friend, but he joyeth the more: and no man that imparteth his griefs to his friend, but be grieveth the less. So that it is in truth of operation upon a man's mind, of like virtue as the alchymists use to attribute to their stone for man's body; that it worketh all contrary effects, but still to the good and benefit of nature. But yet without praying^[43] in aid of alchymists, there is a manifest image of this in the ordinary course of nature. For in bodies, union strengtheneth and cherisheth any natural action; and on the other side weakeneth and dulleth any violent impression: and even so it is of^[44] minds.

The second fruit of friendship is healthful and sovereign for the understanding, as the first is for the affections. For friendship maketh indeed a fair day in the affections, from storm and tempest; but it maketh daylight in the understanding, out of darkness and confusion of thoughts. Neither is this to be understood only of faithful counsel, which a man receiveth from his friend; but before you come to that, certain it is that whosoever hath his mind fraught with many thoughts, his wits and understanding do clarify and break up, in the communicating and discoursing with another; he tosseth his thoughts more easily; he marshalleth them more orderly; he seeth how they look when they are turned into words: finally, he waxeth^[45] wiser than himself; and that more by an hour's discourse than by a day's meditation. It was well said by Themistocles^[46] to the king of Persia, That speech was like cloth of Arras,^[47] opened and put abroad; whereby the imagery doth appear in figure; whereas in thoughts they lie but as in packs.^[48] Neither is the second fruit of friendship, in opening the understanding, restrained^[49] only to such friends as are able to give a man counsel; (they indeed are best;) but even without that, a man learneth of himself, and bringeth his own thoughts to light, and whetteth his wits as against a stone, which itself cuts not. In a word, a man were better^[50] relate himself to a statua^[51] or picture, than to suffer his thoughts to pass in smother.^[52]

Add now, to make this second fruit of friendship complete, that other point which lieth more open and falleth within vulgar^[53] observation; which is faithful counsel from a friend. Heraclitus saith well in one of his enigmas, Dry light is ever the best.^[54] And certain it is, that the light that a man receiveth by counsel from another, is drier and purer than that which cometh from his own understanding and judgment; which is ever infused and drenched in his affections and customs. So as there is as much difference between the counsel that a friend giveth, and that a man giveth himself, as there is between the counsel of a friend and of a flatterer. For there is no such flatterer as is a man's self; and there is no such remedy against flattery of a man's self, as the liberty of a friend. Counsel is of two sorts: the one concerning manners, the other concerning business. For the first, the best preservative to keep the mind in health is the faithful admonition of a friend. The calling of a man's self to a strict account is a medicine, sometime, too piercing and corrosive. Reading good books of morality is a little flat and dead. Observing our faults in others is sometimes improper for our case. But the best receipt (best, I say, to work, and best to take) is the admonition of a friend. It is a strange thing to behold what gross errors and extreme absurdities many (especially of the greater sort) do commit, for want of a friend to tell them of them; to the great damage both of their fame and fortune: for, as St. James saith, they are as men that look sometimes into a glass, and presently forget their own shape and favour.^[55] As for business, a man may think, if he will, that two eyes see no more than one; or that a gamester seeth always more than a looker-on; or that a man in anger is as wise as he that hath said over the four and twenty letters;^[56] or that a musket may be shot off as well upon the arm as upon a rest; and such other fond^[57] and high imaginations, to think himself all in all. But when all is done, the help of good counsel is that which setteth business straight. And if any man think that he will take counsel, but it shall be by pieces; asking counsel in one business of one man, and in another business of another man; it is well, (that is to say, better perhaps than if he asked none at all;) but he runneth two dangers: one, that he shall not be faithfully counselled; for it is a rare thing, except it be from a perfect and entire friend, to have counsel given, but such as shall be bowed and crooked to some ends which he hath that giveth it. The other, that he shall have counsel given, hurtful and unsafe, (though with good meaning,) and mixed partly of mischief and partly of remedy; even as if you would call a physician that is thought good for the cure of the disease you complain of, but is unacquainted with your body; and therefore may put you in way for a present cure, but overthroweth your health in some other kind; and so cure the disease and kill the patient. But a friend that is wholly acquainted with a man's estate^[58] will beware, by furthering any present business, how he dasheth upon other inconvenience. And therefore rest not upon scattered counsels; they will rather distract and mislead, than settle and direct.

After these two noble fruits of friendship, (peace in the affections, and support of the judgment,) followeth the last fruit; which is like the pomegranate, full of many kernels; I mean aid and bearing a part in all actions and occasions. Here the best way to represent to life the manifold use of friendship, is to cast and see how many things there are which a man cannot do himself; and then it will appear that it was a sparing speech of the ancients, to say, that a friend is another himself; for that^[59] a friend is far more than himself. Men have their time, and die many times in desire of some things which they principally take to heart; the bestowing of a child, the finishing of a work, or the like. If a man have a true friend, he may rest almost secure that the care of those things will continue after him. So that a man hath, as it were, two lives in his desires. A man hath a body, and that body is confined to a place; but where friendship is, all offices of life are as it were granted to him and his deputy. For he may exercise them by his friend. How many things are there which a man cannot, with any face or comeliness, say or do himself? A man can scarce allege his own merits with modesty, much less extol them;^[60] a man cannot sometimes brook to supplicate or beg; and a number of the like. But all these things are graceful in a friend's mouth, which are blushing in a man's own. So again, a man's person hath many proper^[61] relations which he cannot put off. A man cannot speak to his son but as a father; to his wife but as a husband; to his enemy but upon terms: whereas a friend may speak as the case requires, and not as it sorteth with the person. But to enumerate these things were endless; I have given the rule, where a man cannot fitly play his own part: if he have not a friend, he may quit the stage.^[62]

1. "But he who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god: he is no part of a state." The Politics of Aristotle. Translated into English by B. Jowett. Vol. I. i. 2.
2. Aversation towards. Aversion to.
3. Except. Unless. "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." John iii. 3.
4. Conversation. Mode or course of life. "Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom." James iii. 13.
5. Epimenides, a Cretan poet and prophet, who lived in the 7th century B.C. He was said to have fallen into a sleep that lasted fifty-seven years, and to have lived two hundred and ninety-nine years.
6. Numa Pompilius, second King of Rome, 715–672 B.C. The origin of many Roman institutions is referred to Numa, such as the flamens, vestal virgins, pontifices, etc. He was supposed to have been instructed in the art of legislation by the nymph Egeria.
7. Empedocles was born at Agrigentum, Sicily, and lived 490–430 B.C. He was a Greek philosopher, poet, and statesman. He was said to have declared himself to be immortal, and to be able to cure all evils.
8. Apollonius was born at Tyana, Cappadocia, and lived from about 4 B.C. to about 97 A.D. He was a Pythagorean philosopher and reputed magician and wonder-worker. Divine honors were paid to Apollonius in the 3d century and his bust was placed by Alexander Severus in his lararium with those of Abraham, Orpheus, and Christ.
9. "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." I. Corinthians xiii. 1.
10. A great city is a great solitude. Erasmi Adagia.
11. Mere. Absolute, utter, whole. "It is Othello's pleasure, our noble and valiant general, that, upon certain tidings now arrived, importing the mere perdition of the Turkish fleet, every man put himself into triumph." Shakspere. Othello. ii. 2.
12. Humanity. Human nature; man in the abstract. "Oh, there be players that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor Turk, have so strutted and bellowed, that I have thought some of Nature's journeymen had made them, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably." Shakspere. Hamlet. iii. 2.
13. Sarza. Sarsaparilla.
14. Flower of sulphur. A yellow powder formed by condensing the vapor of sulphur.
15. Castoreum. A secretion of the beaver formerly of high repute in medicine.
16. Privado. Spanish word, a private or intimate friend.
17. Sharers of cares, partners in sorrows.
18. Lucius Cornelius Sulla, surnamed Felix, lived from about 138 to 78 B.C., a celebrated Roman general and dictator.
19. Plutarch. Life of Pompey.
20. Decimus Junius Brutus, surnamed Albinus, Roman general, one of the assassins of Caesar, executed 43 B.C. He was betrayed and put to death by Antony.
21. Calpurnia, daughter of Lucius Calpurnius Piso, and third wife of Caesar.
22. Plutarch. Life of Caesar.
23. Cicero's Philippics are fourteen orations against Antony, delivered in 44–43. The original Philippics are Demosthenes's nine orations against Philip of Macedon.
24. M. Tullii Ciceronis in M. Antonium Oratio Philippica Tertia Decima. XI. 25.
25. Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, 63–12 B.C., Roman commander and the leading statesman of the reign of Augustus. His third wife was Julia, daughter of Augustus and widow of Marcellus.
26. As. That.
27. Caius Cilnius Maecenas, died 8 B.C., Roman statesman and patron of letters. With Agrippa, he was the chief adviser of Augustus down to 16 B.C., when he became estranged from his master and retired to private life. He was the friend and patron of Horace and Vergil.
28. Dion Cassius. Liber LVI. 6.
29. Because of our friendship, I have not concealed these things. P. Cornelii Taciti Annalium Liber IV. 40.
30. Overlive. To survive; to outlive. "And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord, that he had done for Israel." Joshua xxiv. 31. The quotation is from Dion Cassius Cocceianus (Cassii Dionis Cocceiani Historiae Romanae Liber LXXV. 15).
31. Marcus Ulpius Trajanus, surnamed Dacicus and Parthicus, born about 53, died 117 A.D., Roman emperor from 98 to 117 A.D.
32. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, originally Marcus Annus Verus, commonly known as Marcus Aurelius, 121–180 A.D., Roman emperor from 161 to 180 A.D. He wrote, in Greek, a very celebrated book, entitled, The Meditations of Marcus Antoninus.
33. Mought. Old form of might.

    "So sound he slept, that nought mought him awake."
    Spenser. The Faery Queene. Book I. Canto i. Stanza 42.

34. Which. What.

    "Which a miracle ther befel anoon."
    

    Chaucer. The Knightes Tale. Line 1817.

35. Philippe de Comines, or Commines, or Comynes, born about 1445, died in 1519, a French statesman and historian.
36. Charles the Bold (French, le Téméraire), 1433–1477, Duke of Burgundy.
37. Communicate. To inform a person of; to tell. Now construed with 'to' instead of 'with.'
38. Perish, a transitive verb.

    "You are an innocent,
    A soul as white as Heaven; let not my sins
    Perish your noble youth."
    Beaumont and Fletcher. The Maid's Tragedy. iv. 1.

39. Louis XI. 1423–1483, King of France from 1461 to 1483. The historical setting of Sir Walter Scott's great novel, Quentin Durward, based largely on the Mémoires of Philippe de Comines, is the time of Louis XI. and Charles the Bold.
40. Parable means proverb here.
41. Pythagoras, born about 582 B.C., died about 500 B.C., Greek philosopher and mathematician.
42. A Discourse Touching the Training of Children. 17. Plutarch's Miscellanies and Essays. Vol. I. Edited by W. W. Goodwin. With Introduction by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
43. Pray in aid, in law, to call in as aid, one who has an interest in the cause.

    "and you shall find
    A conqueror that will pray in aid for kindness,
    Where he for grace is kneel'd to."
    

    Shakspere. Antony and Cleopatra. v. 2.

44. Of means here with regard to, concerning.
45. Wax. To grow; to become. "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." Matthew xxiv. 12.
46. Themistocles, born in the latter part of the 6th century B.C., died about 460 B.C., perhaps as late as 447 B.C., Athenian statesman and commander.
47. Cloth of Arras. Tapestry, from Arras, the capital of the department of Pas-de-Calais, in the north of France. The expression 'cloth of Arras' was probably used originally to distinguish tapestry from Arras from other kinds.
48. Plutarch. Life of Themistocles. "Themistocles said of speech: That it was like Arras, that spread abroad shews fair images, but contracted is but like packs." Bacon. Apophthegmes New and Old. 199.
49. Restrained. Restricted, limited.
50. Were better. Old English idiom, with be and the dative, him were better, that is, 'it would be better for him.' The correct modern form of the idiom is had better, with the verb 'have' meaning 'hold' or 'regard,' like the Latin habere.

51. "And, in his mantle muffling up his face,
    Even at the base of Pompey's statua,
    Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell."
    

    Shakspere. Julius Caesar. iii. 2.

52. Smother. The state of being stifled; suppression.
53. Vulgar. Common.

    "Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar."
    

    Shakspere. Hamlet. i. 3.

54. Read, for this same thought, in the Wisdom of the Ancients, The Flight of Icarus; also, Scylla and Charybdis; or the Middle Way. Also, Apophthegmes New and Old. 268 (188).
55. "For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was." James i. 23, 24.
56. The English Grammar of Ben Jonson limits the English alphabet to "four and twenty letters," omitting J and U. This means that in his time and Bacon's J had not yet been differentiated from I, nor U from V, although U was coming in. U and J are modern letters.
57. Fond. Foolish.

    "'T is fond to wail inevitable strokes,
    As 't is to laugh at 'em."
    

    Shakspere. Coriolanus. iv. 1.

58. Estate. State or condition.
59. For that. Because.
60. "It is an abominable thing for a man to commend himself." Quoted in Sterne's Tristram Shandy, Vol. I. Ch. xxii., from Dr. Joseph Hall, Bishop of Exeter, Divine Art of Meditation.
61. Proper. Peculiar.

    "And so, with great imagination,
    Proper to madmen, led his powers to death,
    And, winking, leap'd into destruction."
    

    Shakspere. II. King Henry IV. i. 3.

62. In the last year of Bacon's life, at the special request of his friend, Sir Tobie Matthew, he rewrote entirely the essay on Friendship, to commemorate their lifelong intimacy. Sir Tobie Matthew, 1577–1655, courtier, diplomatist, and writer, was the son of Tobie, or Tobias, Matthew, Archbishop of York. Bacon and Matthew, who was the junior by sixteen years, became friends when Matthew entered Parliament, in 1601, and their affection knew no break through every variation of both their fortunes. Bacon held a high opinion of Matthew's literary judgment, and submitted his writings to him for criticism from time to time, among other pieces his book, De Sapientia Veterum, with an accompanying letter, dated Feb. 17, 1610.
    
    In 1618, Matthew, who had lived in Italy, and had there become a Roman Catholic, published in London an Italian translation of the Essays, entitled, Saggi Morali del Signore Francesco Bacono, Cavaliero inglese, gran cancelliero d'Inghelterra, con un' altro suo Trattato della Sapienza degli Antichi.
    
    A dedicatory letter to Cosimo dei Medici II., Grand Duke of Tuscany, eulogizes Sir Francis Bacon, praising him not only for the qualities of his intellect, but also for those of the heart and will, and moral understanding: "being a man most sweet in his conversation and ways, grave in his judgment, invariable in his fortunes, splendid in his expenses; a friend unalterable to his friends; an enemy to no man; a most hearty and indefatigable servant to the King, and a most earnest lover of the Public,—having all the thoughts of that large heart of his set upon adorning the age in which he lives, and benefiting as far as possible the whole human race."
    
    When Bacon was impeached, Matthew was of the few who remained faithful to him. He wrote a letter to his old friend, in his disgrace and downfall, which Bacon compared to 'old gold.'
    
    The episode is the most pleasing personal one in Bacon's life, and should be remembered to his credit in any judgment of the baseness of his conduct towards Essex.