ESSA VS CIVIL AND MORAL. 7 



of Henry the Third of France ; and many more : but in private 

 revenges it is not so ; nay, rather, vindicative persons live the life of 

 witches ; who as they are mischievous, so end they unfortunate. 



V. OF ADVERSITY. 



It was a high speech of Seneca, after the manner of the Stoics, 

 that the good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, b i. 

 the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired : &quot; Bona 

 rcrum secundarum optabilia, ad versa rum mirabilia.&quot; Certainly if 

 miracles be the command over nature, they appear most in adversity. 

 It is yet a higher speech of his than the other, much too high for a 

 heathen, It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man, and 

 the security of a God: &quot;Vere magnum, habcre fragilitatem hominis, 

 securitatem Dei.&quot; This would have done better in poesy, where trans 

 cendencies are more allowed. And the poets indeed have been busy 

 with it ; for it is in effect the thing which is figured in that strange 

 fiction of the ancient poets, which sccmeth not to be without mystery ; 

 nay, and to have some approach to the state of a Christian : that 

 Hercules, when ho went to unbind Prometheus, by whom human 

 nature is represented, sailed the length of the great ocean in an earthcru 

 pot or pitcher ; lively describing Christian resolution, that sailcth in 

 the frail bark of the flesh through the waves of the world. But to 

 speak in a mean : the virtue of prosperity is temperance ; the virtue 

 of adversity is fortitude ; which in morals is the more hcroical virtue. 

 Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament ; adversity is the 

 blessing of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction, and the 

 clearer revelation of God s favour. Yet, even in the Old Testament, 

 if you listen to David s harp, you shall hear as many hcarsc-likc aits 

 as carols : and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath laboured more in 

 describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. Pros 

 perity is not without many fears and distates ; and adversity is not 

 without comforts and hopes. We see in needle-works and embroideries, 

 it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground, 

 than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground : 

 judge therefore of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye. 

 Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they arc 

 incensed or crushed ; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but 

 adversity doth best discover virtue. 



VI. OF SIMULATION AND DISSIMULATION. 



Dissimulation is but a faint kind of policy, or wisdom ; for itaskcth 

 a strong wit, and a strong heart, to know when to tell truth and to do 

 it. Therefore it is the weaker sort of politicians that are the grea 

 dissemblers. 



Tacitus saith, Livia sorted well with the arts of her husband, and 

 dissimulation of her son ; attributing arts or policy to Augustus, and 

 dissimulation to Tiberius. And again, when Mucianus encourageth 

 Vespasian to take arms against Vitellius, he saith ; \Ve rise not 



