The Essays of Francis Bacon/XXXVIII Of Nature in Men

by Francis Bacon

XXXVIII. Of Nature in Men.

Nature is often hidden; sometimes overcome; seldom extinguished. Force maketh nature more violent in the return; doctrine and discourse maketh nature less importune;^[1] but custom only doth alter and subdue nature. He that seeketh victory over his nature, let him not set himself too great nor too small tasks; for the first will make him dejected by often failings; and the second will make him a small proceeder, though by often prevailings. And at the first let him practise with helps, as swimmers do with bladders or rushes; but after a time let him practise with disadvantages, as dancers do with thick shoes. For it breeds great perfection, if the practice be harder than the use. Where nature is mighty, and therefore the victory hard, the degrees had need be,^[2] first to stay and arrest nature in time; like to him that would say over the four and twenty letters when he was angry; then to go less in quantity; as if one should, in forbearing wine, come from drinking healths to a draught at a meal; and lastly, to discontinue altogether. But if a man have the fortitude and resolution to enfranchise himself at once, that is the best:

Optimus ille animi vindex lædentia pectus
Vincula qui rupit, dedoluitque semel.^[3]

Neither is the ancient rule amiss, to bend nature as a wand to a contrary extreme, whereby to set it right, understanding it, where the contrary extreme is no vice. Let not a man force a habit upon himself with a perpetual continuance, but with some intermission. For both the pause reinforceth the new onset; and if a man that is not perfect be ever in practice, he shall as well practise his errors as his abilities, and induce one habit of both; and there is no means to help this but by seasonable intermissions. But let not a man trust his victory over his nature too far; for nature will lay^[4] buried a great time, and yet revive upon the occasion or temptation. Like as it was with Æsop's^[5] damsel, turned from a cat to a woman, who sat very demurely at the board's end, till a mouse ran before her.^[6] Therefore let a man either avoid the occasion altogether; or put himself often to it, that he may be little moved with it. A man's nature is best perceived in privateness,^[7] for there is no affectation; in passion, for that putteth a man out of his precepts; and in a new case or experiment, for there custom leaveth him. They are happy men whose natures sort with their vocations; otherwise they may say, multum incola fuit anima mea^[8] when they converse^[9] in those things they do not affect.^[10] In studies, whatsoever a man commandeth upon himself, let him set hours for it; but whatsoever is agreeable to his nature, let him take no care for any set times; for his thoughts will fly to it of themselves; so as the spaces of other business or studies will suffice. A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds; therefore let him seasonably water the one, and destroy the other.

1. Importune. Importunate; troublesome.
2. Had need be. Had, with following infinitive, means to be under obligation, to be necessitated, to do something; need in this idiom is the Middle English genitive, nede, 'of need, or necessity.'
3. He is the best assertor of the soul who bursts the bonds that gall his breast, and suffers all at once. P. Ovidii Nasonis Remedia Amoris. 293–294.
4. So in original, and also in Ed. 1639. I have not thought it right to substitute lie, as has been usually done; because it may be that the form of the word was not settled in Bacon's time; and the correction of obsolete forms tends to conceal the history of the language. Compare Natural History, Century I. 19. S.
5. Aesop or Esop. According to tradition, a Greek fabulist of the 6th century, B.C., represented as a dwarf and originally a slave.
6. Fables of Aesop and other Eminent Mythologists: with Morals and Reflexions. By Sir Roger L'Estrange, Kt. Fable LXI. A Cat and Venus.
7. Privateness. Privacy.
8. Psalms cxx. 6. Vulgate. In the Douay Bible of 1610 this verse is translated "My soul hath long been a sojourner"; in the Authorized Version, it is, "My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace."
9. Converse. To deal with, or to be engaged in.
10. Affect. To like.

    "In brief, sir, study what you most affect."
    

    Shakspere. The Taming of the Shrew. i. 1.