64 BACON'S ESSAYS 



all kinds do cause and induce. We know diseases of 

 stoppings and suffocations are the most dangerous in the 

 body ; and it is not much otherwise in the mind ; you may 

 take sarza to open the liver, steel to open the spleen, 

 flower of sulphur for the lungs, castoreum for the brain ; 

 but no receipt openeth the heart, but a true friend ; to 

 whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, 

 counsels, and whatsoever lieth upon the heart to oppress it, 

 in a kind of civil shrift or confession. 



It is a strange thing to observe how high a rate great 

 kings and monarchs do set upon this fruit of friendship 

 whereof we speak : so great, as they purchase it many 

 times at the hazard of their own safety and greatness. 

 For princes, in regard of the distance of their fortune from 

 that of their subjects and servants, cannot gather this fruit, 

 except (to make themselves capable thereof) they raise 

 some persons to be as it were companions and almost 

 equals to themselves, which many times sorteth to incon- 

 venience. The modern languages give unto such persons 

 the name of favourites, or privadoes ; as if it were matter 

 of grace, or conversation. But the Roman name attaineth 

 the true use and cause thereof, naming them participes 

 curarum ; for it is that which tieth the knot. And we 

 see plainly that this hath been done, not by weak and 

 passionate princes only, but by the wisest and most politic 

 that ever reigned ; who have oftentimes joined to them- 

 selves some of their servants ; whom both themselves have 

 called friends, and allowed others likewise to call them in 

 the same manner ; using the word which is received 

 between private men. 



L. Sylla, when he commanded Rome, raised Pompey 

 (after surnamed the Great) to that height, that Pompey 

 vaunted himself for Sylla's over-match. For when he had 

 carried the consulship for a friend of his, against the 

 pursuit of Sylla, and that Sylla did a little resent thereat, 

 and began to speak great, Pompey turned upon him again, 

 and in effect bade him be quiet ; for that more men adored 

 the sun rising than the sun setting. With Julius Caesar, 

 Decimus Brutus had obtained that interest, as he set him 



