i88 BACON 



ginning, but only settled affection and judgment can give con- 

 tinuance. 3. It deceives in things whose nature and common 

 course carry them contrary to the first attempt, which is there- 

 fore continually frustrated, and gets no ground unless the force 

 be redoubled : hence the common forms Not to go forwards 

 is to go backwards running up hill rowing against the 

 stream, etc. But if it be with the stream, or with the hill, then 

 the degree of inception has by much the advantage. 4. This 

 color not only reaches to the degree of inception from power to 

 action, compared with the degree from action to increase, but 

 also to the degree from want of power to power, compared with 

 the degree from power to action ; for the degree from want of 

 power to power seems greater than that from power to action. 



Sophism 10 



What relates to truth is greater than what relates to opinion; 

 but the measure and trial of what relates to opinion is what 

 a man ivould not do if he thought he were secret 



So the Epicureans pronounce of the stoical felicity placed 

 in virtue, that it is the felicity of a player, who, left by his audi- 

 ence, would soon sink in his spirit ; whence they in ridicule call 

 virtue a theatrical good ; but it is otherwise in riches 



" Populus me sibilat; at mihi plaudo,"^ 



and pleasure, 



" Grata sub imo 



Gaudia corde premens, vultu simulante pudorem,"a> 



which are felt more inwardly. 



The fallacy of this color is somewhat subtile, though the an- 

 swer to the example be easy, as virtue is not chosen for the sake 

 of popular fame, and as every one ought principally to rever- 

 ence himself ; so that a virtuous man will be virtuous in a desert 

 as well as a theatre, though perhaps virtue is made somewhat 

 more vigorous by praise, as heat by reflection. But this only 

 denies the supposition, and does not expose the fallacy. Al- 

 lowing, then, that virtue, joined with labor, would not be chosen 

 but for the praise and fame which usually attend it, yet it is no 

 consequence that virtue should not be desired principally for its 

 own sake, since fame may be only an impellent, and not a con- 

 stituent or efficient cause. Thus, if when two horses are rode 



