LIBER SEXTUS. 685 



virtus semper domi adsunt. Adeo ut postquam boni quid 

 nobis hoc modo paratum fuerit, maneant etiam eadem instru- 

 menta in novos usus parata ; quin et consuetudine et successu 

 reddita validiora. Secundo, quia quod alieno beneficio adipi- 

 scimur, ejus etiam aliis debitores sumus ; cum quae per nos ipsi 

 comparaverimus nihil oneris secum trahant. Etiam si quid 

 indulgentia divina in nos cumulaverit, retributionem quandam 

 erga Dei bonitatem efflagitat, quod homines pravos et improbos 

 mordet; ubi in priore genere illud Prophetae usuveniat, LG- 

 tantur et exultant, immolant plagis suis, et sacrificant reti suo. 1 

 Tertio, quia ea quae a virtute nostra minime profecta sunt, 

 nulla sequitur laus et existimatio. Quae enim foelicitatis sunt, 

 admirationem quandam pariunt, laud em minime. Sicut ait 

 Cicero ad Caesarem ; Qua miremur habemus, qua laudemus 

 expectamus.* Quarto, quia quae industria propria acquiruntur, 

 cum laboribtis et contention e fere conjuncta sunt, quod non- 

 nullam habet in se suavitatem; uti Salomon, Suavis cibus a 

 venatu. 3 



ELENCHUS. 



At quatuor inveniuntur Colores Oppositi, qui rem in con- 

 trariam partem inclinant, possintque esse prioribus instar 

 Elenchorum. Primo, quia Foalicitas videtur esse signum 

 quoddam et character Favoris Divini; et propterea turn in 

 nobismetipsis confidentiam et alacritatem generat, turn apud 

 alios authoritatem et reverentiam. Fo3licitas autem ista etiam 

 fortuita complectitur, ad quae virtus aegre aspirat ; veluti 

 cum Caesar ad navis gubernatorem animos addendo dixit, Ccesa- 

 rem portas et fortunam ejus. 4 Quod si dixisset, Ccesarem portas 

 et virtutem ejus, frigidum prorsus fuisset solatium periclitanti in 

 procella. Secundo, quia ea quae a virtute aut industria pro- 

 cedunt sunt imitabilia, et aliis patent ; cum foelicitas sit res in- 

 imitabilis, et praerogativa quaedam hominis individui. Itaque 



1 Habakkuk, i. 15, 16. 



2 Cicero pro Marcello, c. 9. ; but the quotation is inaccurate. [The meaning, how- 

 ever, is accurately given ; which (as in the passage from Demosthenes, p. 681.) could 

 not have been done in the exact words of the original without a long quotation, much 

 of which would have been irrelevant. When Bacon quotes an author as " saying " 

 anything, we are always to understand the words " in effect." J. S.~\ 



3 In the Colours of Good and Evil, of wnich this tract is only an expansion, this 

 sentence is given in Latin as here, but without any reference to Solomon. There are 

 one or two of Solomon's proverbs to the same purpose, but none I think in these 

 words. It was probably suggested to Bacon by something in Solomon, and turned into 

 its present shape by himself. In after years, remembering where the thought came 

 from, he may easily have forgotten that the expression was his own. J. S. 



4 Plutarch, De Fortuna Roman, p. 319. 



