28 BACON'S ESSAYS 



but said, ' If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet 

 will go to the hill/ So these men, when they have 

 promised great matters and failed most shamefully, yet (if 

 they have the perfection of boldness) they will but slight it 

 over, and make a turn, and no more ado. Certainly to 

 men of great judgment, bold persons are a sport to behold ; 

 nay and to the vulgar also, boldness hath somewhat of the 

 ridiculous. For if absurdity be the subject of laughter, 

 doubt you not but great boldness is seldom without some 

 absurdity. Especially it is a sport to see, when a bold 

 fellow is out of countenance ; for that puts his face, 

 into a most shrunken and wooden posture ; as needs it 

 must ; for in bashfulness the spirits do a little go and 

 come ; but with bold men, upon like occasion, they stand 

 at a stay ; like a stale at chess, where it is no mate, but yet 

 the game cannot stir. But this last were fitter for a 

 satire than for* a serious observation. This is well to be 

 weighed; that boldness is ever blind; for it seeth not 

 dangers and inconveniences. Therefore it is ill in counsel, 

 good in execution ; so that the right use of bold persons is, 

 that they never command in chief, but be seconds, and 

 under the direction of others. For in counsel it is good to 

 see dangers ; and in execution not to see them, except they 

 be very great. 



XIII 

 OF GOODNESS AND GOODNESS OF NATURE 



I TAKE Goodness in this sense, the affecting of the weal of 

 men, which is that the Grecians call Philanthropic, ; and 

 the word ' humanity ' (as it is used) is a little too light to 

 express it. Goodness I call the habit, and Goodness of 

 Nature the inclination. This of all virtues and dignities 

 of the mind is the greatest ; being the character of the Deity : 

 and without it man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing ; 

 no better than a kind of vermin. Goodness answers to 

 the theological virtue Charity, and admits no excess, but 



