5 8 ESS A VS CIVIL AND MORAL. 



enrich ; especially if tin- party liavc intelligence what things are like to 

 come into request, and to store himself beforehand. Riches gotten by 

 service, though it be of the best rise, yet when they are gotten by 

 flattery, feeding humours, and other servile conditions, they may be 

 placed among the worst. As for fishing for testaments and executor- 

 ships, as Tacitus saith of Seneca, &quot; Testnmcnta et orbos tanquam 

 indagine capi,&quot; it is yet worse ; by how much men submit themselves 

 to meaner persons than in service. Believe not much them that seem 

 to despise riches; for they despise them that despair of them: and 

 none worse when they come to them, lie not penny-wise ; riches have 

 wings, and sometimes they fly away of themselves, sometimes they 

 must be set living to bring in more. Men leave their riches either to 

 their kindred, or to the public : and moderate portions prosper best in 

 both. A great estate left to an heir, is as a lure to all the birds of 

 prey round about, to seize on him, if he be not the better established 

 in years and judgment. Likewise glorious gifts and foundations, are 

 like sacrifices without salt ; and but the painted sepulchres of alms, 

 which soon will putrefy and corrupt inwardly. Therefore measure not 

 thine advancements by quantity, but frame them by measure : and 

 defer not charities till death : for certainly, if a man weigh it rightly, 

 he that doth so, is rather liberal of another man s than of his own. 



XXXV. OF PROPHECIES. 



I mean not to speak of divine prophecies, nor of heathen oracles, 

 nor of natural predictions ; but only of prophecies that hath been of 

 certain memory, and from hidden causes. Saith the Pythonissa to 

 Saul ; &quot; To morrow thou and thy son shall be with me.&quot; Virgil hath 

 these verses from Homer : 



At domtis yKnrn; cunctis clominabitur oris, 

 Kt nati n.itorum, ct qui nasccntur ab illis 



/F.neid. iii, 97. 



A prophecy, as it seems, of the Roman empire. Seneca the Trage 

 dian hath these verses : 



Vcnient annis 



Srcula seris, quibus oceanus 

 Vincula reruni laxct, ct ingcns 

 Patc.it tdlus, Tiphysque novos 

 Drte^at orbes ; nee sit tcrris 

 Ultima Thai.- : 



A prophecy of the discovery of America. The daughter of Polycrates 

 dreamed, that Jupiter bathed her father, and Apollo anointed him : 

 it came to pass, that he was crucified in an open place, where the 

 e his body run with sweat, and the rain washed it. Philip of 

 edon dreamed he scaled up his wife s belly ; whereby he did 

 , that his wife should be barren ; but Aristandcr the sooth- 

 urn, his wife was with child : because mon do not use to 

 i that are empty. A Phantasm that appeared to M. Brutus, 

 in his tent, said to him, &quot;Philippis iterum me vidcbis,&quot; Tiberius said to 



