2 68 BACON 



angued the people : " Ita parentis honores consequi liceat : " e 

 which was no less than tyranny itself. It is true, to salve the 

 matter a little, he would at those times stretch his hand towards 

 the statue of Julius Caesar erected in the place, whilst the audi- 

 ence smiled, applauded, admired, and cried out among them- 

 selves : " What does the youth mean ? " but never suspected 

 him of any ill design, who thus candidly and ingenuously spoke 

 his mind. And yet all these we have named were prosperous 

 men. Pompey, on the other hand, who endeavored at the same 

 ends by more dark and concealed methods, wholly bent himself, 

 by numberless stratagems, to cover his desires and ambition, 

 whilst he brought the state to confusion, that it might then 

 of necessity submit to him, and he thus procure the sovereignty 

 to appearance against his will. And when he thought he had 

 gained his point, as being made sole consul, which no one ever 

 was before him, he found himself never the nearer, because 

 those who would doubtless have assisted him, understood not 

 his intentions; so that at length he was obliged to go in the 

 beaten path, and under pretence of opposing Csesar, procured 

 himself arms and an army : so slow, casual, and generally un- 

 successful, are the counsels covered with dissimulation ! And 

 Tacitus seems to have had the same sentiment, when he makes 

 the artifice of dissimulation an inferior prudence, compared 

 with policy, attributing the former to Tiberius, and the latter to 

 Augustus ; for speaking of Livia, he says : " She was well tem- 

 pered with the arts of her husband, and the dissimulation of her 

 son."* 



As for the bending and forming of the mind, we should 

 doubtless do our utmost to render it pliable, and by no means 

 stiff and refractory to occasions and opportunities ; for to con- 

 tinue the same men, when we ought not, is the greatest obstacle 

 business can meet with ; that is, if men remain as they did, and 

 follow their own nature after the opportunities are changed. 

 Whence Livy, introducing the elder Cato as a skilful architect 

 of his own fortune, adds that " he was of a pliant temper " : and 

 hence it is, that grave, solemn, and unchangeable natures gen- 

 erally meet with more respect than felicity. This defect some 

 men have implanted in them by nature, as being in themselves 

 stiff, knotty, and unfit for bending ; but in others it is acquired 

 by custom, which is a second nature, or from an opinion, which 

 easily steals into men's minds, that they should never change 



