65-67.] NOTES. 145 



Page 67, 1. 2. do disclaim in, do renounce. These imperfect 

 suggestions of Aristotle, says Bacon, are nothing to the Christian, 

 for he knows that after death body as well as soul shall be 

 purified, and enjoy immortality : still I have mentioned them, 

 because they are a human testimony to the dignity of knowledge. 



1. 4. probation, proof. We use the word now in the sense of 

 'trial.' 



1. 10. .Ssop's cock, see Phaedrus, iii. 12. Bacon alludes to the 

 fable again in Essay xiii. 



1. 13. Judged for plenty, decided in favour of plenty. Midas 

 was a king of Phrygia, and it is said that, as a punishment for 

 the judgment referred to in the text, Apollo turned his ears into 

 those oi an ass. 



Paris, Juno the Goddess of Power, Minerva the Goddess 



and gave the prize to Venus. See Tennyson's (Enone. 



1. 14. Agrippina, mother of the Emperor. Many years before 

 Agrippina had anticipated this end for herself, and had spurned 

 the thought. For when she consulted the astrologers about Nero, 

 they replied that he would be Emperor and kill his mother. 

 " Let him kill her," she said, " provided he is Emperor," 

 Tacitus, Annals xiv. 9. To please his mistress, the Emperor 

 Nero caused his mother Agrippina to be murdered in the year 



59 A.D. 



1. 17. Ulysses, the most crafty Greek who joined the expedition 

 against Troy, in the course of his wanderings fell into the hands 

 of the enchantress Calypso, who promised him immortality, if he 

 would stay with her. He preferred to return to his wife 

 Penelope. 



1. 24. Wisdom is justified, etc., i.e., that nothing is better than 

 wisdom is shown by the superiority of those who possess wisdom. 

 This is one of the sayings of Jesus Matthew xi. 19. 



