Francis Bacon - The Essays 1601
OF VAIN-GLORY
It was prettily devised of AEsop,
The fly sat upon the axle-tree
of the chariot wheel, and said,
What a dust do I raise!
So are there some vain persons,
that whatsoever goeth alone,
or moveth upon greater means,
if they have never
so little hand in it,
they think it is
they that carry it.
They that are glorious,
must needs be factious;
for an bravery stands upon comparisons.
They must needs be violent,
to make good their own vaunts.
Neither can they be secret,
and therefore not effectual;
but according to the French proverb, Beaucoup de bruit, peu de fruit;
Much bruit little fruit. Yet certainly,
there is use of
this quality in civil affairs.
Where there is an
opinion and fame to be created,
either of virtue or greatness,
these men are good trumpeters. Again,
as Titus Livius noteth,
in the case of
Antiochus and the AEtolians,
There are sometimes great effects, of cross lies;
as if a man,
that negotiates between two princes,
to draw them to
join in a war against the third,
doth extol the forces
of either of them, above measure,
the one to the other:
and sometimes he that
deals between man and man,
raiseth his own credit with both,
by pretending greater interest
than he hath in either.
And in these and the like kinds,
it often falls out,
that somewhat is produced of nothing;
for lies are sufficient to breed opinion,
and opinion brings on substance.
In militar commanders and soldiers, vain-glory
is an essential point;
for as iron sharpens iron, so by glory,
one courage sharpeneth another.
In cases of great
enterprise upon charge and adventure,
a composition of glorious natures,
doth put life into business;
and those that are
of solid and sober natures,
have more of the ballast,
than of the sail.
In fame of leaming,
the flight will be
slow without some feathers of ostentation.
Qui de contemnenda gloria libros scribunt, nomen, suuminscribunt. Socrates, Aristotle, Galen,
were men full of ostentation. Certainly vain-glory
helpeth to perpetuate a man's memory;
and virtue was never
so beholding to human nature,
as it received his
due at the second hand.
Neither had the fame of Cicero, Seneca, Plinius Secundus,
borne her age so well,
if it had not
been joined with some vanity in themselves; like unto varnish,
that makes ceilings not
only shine but last.
But all this while,
when I speak of vain-glory,
I mean not of that property,
that Tacitus doth attribute to Mucianus;
Omnium quae dixerat feceratque arte quadam ostentator:
for that proceeds not of vanity,
but of natural magnanimity and discretion;
and in some persons,
is not only comely, but gracious. For excusations, cessions,
modesty itself well governed,
are but arts of ostentation.
And amongst those arts,
there is none better
than that which Plinius Secundus speaketh of,
which is to be
liberal of praise and commendation to others, in that, wherein a man's
self hath any perfection. For saith Pliny, very wittily, In commending another,
you do yourself right;
for he that you commend,
is either superior to
you in that you commend, or inferior.
If he be inferior,
if he be to be commended, you much more;
if he be superior,
if he be not to be commended, you much less.
Glorious men are the
scorn of wise men,
the admiration of fools,
the idols of parasites,
and the slaves of their own vaunts.
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