206 Bacon 



(the shadows whereof are in the poets,) in the description 

 of torments and pains, next unto the crime of rebellion, 

 which was the giants offence, doth detest the offence of 

 futility, as in Sisyphus and Tantalus. 1 But this was meant 

 of particulars: nevertheless even unto the general rules 

 and discourses of policy and government there is due a 

 reverent and reserved handling. 



But contrariwise, in the governors toward the governed, 

 all things ought, as far as the frailty of man permitteth, 

 to be manifest and revealed. For so it is expressed in the 

 Scriptures touching the government of God, that this 

 globe, which seemeth to us a dark and shady body, is in 

 the view of God as crystal: Et in conspectu sedis tanquam 

 mare vitreum simile crystallo. 2 So unto princes and states, 

 especially towards wise senates and councils, the natures 

 and dispositions of the people, their conditions and necessi 

 ties, their factions and combinations, their animosities 

 and discontents, ought to be, in regard of the variety of 

 their intelligences, the wisdom of their observations, and 

 the height of their station where they keep sentinel, in 

 great part clear and transparent. Wherefore, consider 

 ing that I write to a King that is a master of this science, 

 and is so well assisted, I think it decent to pass over this 

 part in silence, as willing to obtain the certificate which 

 one of the ancient philosophers aspired unto; who being 

 silent, when others contended to make demonstration of 

 their abilities by speech, desired it might be certified for 

 his part, that there was one that knew how to hold his peace. 



Notwithstanding, for the more public part of government, 

 which is laws, I think good to note only one deficiency; 

 which is, that all those which have written of laws, have 

 written either as philosophers or as lawyers, and none as 

 statesmen. As for the philosophers, they make imaginary 

 laws for imaginary commonwealths; and their discourses 

 are as the stars, which give little light, because they are so 

 high. For the lawyers, they write according to the states 

 where they live, what is received law, and not what ought 

 to be law: for the wisdom of a lawmaker is one, and of a 

 lawyer is another. For there are in nature certain foun 

 tains of justice, whence all civil laws are derived but as 

 streams: and like as waters do take tinctures and tastes 

 1 Vid. Find. 01. i. 55. 2 Rev. iv. 6. 



