204 Bacon 



But men, if they be in their own power, and do bear and 

 sustain themselves, and be not carried away with a whirl 

 wind or tempest of ambition, ought, in the pursuit of their 

 own fortune, to set before their eyes not only that general 

 map of the world, that all things are vanity and vexation of 

 spirit, 1 but many other more particular cards and direc 

 tions : chiefly that that being without wellbeing is a curse 

 and the greater being the greater curse; and that all 

 virtue is most rewarded, and all wickedness most punished 

 in itself : according as the poet saith excellently : 



Quae vobis, quae digna, viri, pro laudibus istis 

 Praemia posse rear solvi ? pulcherrima primum 

 Dl moresque dabunt vestri. 2 



And so of the contrary. And, secondly, they ought to 

 look up to the eternal providence and divine judgment, 

 which often subverteth the wisdom of evil plots and 

 imaginations, according to that Scripture, He hath conceived 

 mischief, and shall bring forth a vain thing. 3 And although 

 men should refrain themselves from injury and evil arts, 

 yet this incessant and Sabbathless pursuit of a man s 

 fortune leaveth not the tribute which we owe to God of our 

 time ; who we see demandeth a tenth of our substance, and 

 a seventh, which is more strict, of our time: and it is to 

 small purpose to have an erected face towards heaven, and 

 a perpetual grovelling spirit upon earth, eating dust, as 

 doth the serpent, 



Atque affigit humo divinae particulam auras.* 



And if any man flatter himself that he will employ his 

 fortune well, though he should obtain it ill, as was said 

 concerning Augustus Caesar, and after of Septimius Severus, 

 that either they should never have been born, or else they 

 should never have died, 5 they did so much mischief in the 

 pursuit and ascent of their greatness, and so much good 

 when they were established; yet these compensations and 

 satisfactions are good to be used, but never good to be 

 purposed. And lastly, it is not amiss for men in their 



1 Eccl. ii. n. * Virg. &n. ix. 252. 



3 Job xv. 35. * Hor. Sat. ii. 2, 79. 



5 Aurel. Victor, Epit. i. for Augustus; for Severus, see his life by 

 Lampridius. 



