274 BACON 



And indeed, whilst men are projecting and every way rack- 

 ing their thoughts to provide and take care for their fortunes, 

 they ought, in the midst of all, to have an eye to the Divine 

 Providence, which frequently overturns and brings to naught 

 the machinations and deep devices of the wicked, according 

 to that of the Scripture, " He has conceived iniquity, and 

 shall bring forth vanity." q And although men were not in 

 this pursuit to practise injustice and unlawful arts, yet a con- 

 tinual and restless search and striving after fortune, takes up 

 too much of their time, who have nobler things to observe, and 

 prevents them from paying their tribute to God, who exacts 

 from all men the tenth part of their substance and the seventh 

 of their time. Even the heathens observed, that man was not 

 made to keep his mind always on the ground; and, like the 

 serpent, eating the dust 



" Atque affigit humo divinse particulam aurae." Horace. r 

 And again 



" Os homini sublime dedit, ccelumque tueri 

 Jussit; et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus." Ovid. 



Some, however, may flatter themselves, that, by what sinister 

 means soever their fortune be procured, they are determined 

 to use it well when obtained; when it was said of Augustus 

 Caesar and Septimus Severus, that " they ought never to have 

 been born, or never to have died :" so much evil they committed 

 in aspiring, and so much good they did when seated. But let 

 such men know that this recompensing of evil with good, 

 though it may be approved after the action, yet is justly con- 

 demned in the design. Lastly, it may not be amiss, in this eager 

 pursuit of fortune, for men to cool themselves a little with the 

 saying of Charles V to his son ; viz. " Fortune is like the ladies, 

 who generally scorn and discard their over-earnest admirers." 

 But this last remedy belongs to such as have their taste vitiated 

 by a disease of the mind. Let mankind rather rest upon the 

 corner-stone of divinity and philosophy, both which nearly 

 agree in the thing that ought first to be sought. For Divinity 

 says : " Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all other things 

 shall be added unto you :" t so philosophy directs us first to seek 

 the goods of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied, or 

 are not much wanted. For although this foundation, laid by 



