6. He that will sell lawn before he can fold it Shall repent him before he have sold it. 7. A beck is as good as a Dieu vous garde. 8. When bale is heckst boot is next. 9. He that never clomb never fell. 10. Itch and ease can no man please. 11. All this wind shakes no corn. 12. Timely crooks the tree That will a good camock be. 13. Better is the last smile than the first laughter. 14. The cat knows whose lips she licks. 15. As good never a whit as never the better. 16. The packs may be set right by the way. 17. It is the cat's nature and the wench's fault. 18. Good watch chooseth ill adventure. 19. Early rising hasteneth not the morning. 20. Let them that be a-cold blow at the coal. 21. I have seen as far come as nigh. 22. Tell your cards and tell me what you have won. 23. When thrift is in the field he is in the town. 24. That he wins in the hundred he loses in the shire. 25. To do more than the priest spake of on Sunday. 26. Use maketh mastery. 27. Love me little, love me long. 28. Time trieth troth. 29. Make not two sorrows of one. 30. There is no good accord Where every one would be a lord. 31. That the eye seeth not, the heart rueth not. 32. Ill putting a sword in a madman's hand. 33. Quien nesciamente pecca nesciamente va al Inferni. V. I cannot find anything in the lines selected from Virgil, Horace, or Ovid, that should make it worth while to print them here. Those from Virgil may have been used with excellent effect for rhetorical purposes, but it would depend upon the occasion and manner in which they were introduced. Most of those from Horace are so full of sense in the observation and felicity in the expression that they would be well worth printing as they stand, only that everybody knows them. And the same remark applies, though in a less degree, to those from Ovid: for Ovid was a fine observer and a great master of neat and pointed expression. His Ars amandi sparkles with observations and precepts which the best didactic writers on the worthiest subjects have scarcely surpassed. The following extracts, nicely picked out of that most unworthy poem, stand together in the Promus; and contain the seeds of half a treatise on the art of persuasion, whether in speech or writing: Sed lateant vires, nec sis in fronte disertus. 1 The omission of the words "Blanda tamen," which complete the line in the original, indicates the principle of selection. From the precepts given by Ovid for the particular art of Love, or rather of Love-making, Bacon takes so much only as relates to art in general. Nec sua vesanus scripta poeta legat. Ars casum simulet. Quid cum legitimâ fraudatur litera voce, Blasaque fit jusso lingua coacta sono? And these will probably be thought enough by way of specimen. VI. There is one other class of memoranda in this Promus which I have not yet mentioned, and they are the more notable because they have been transferred with additions and a formal title to a separate sheet (fo. 126.), as if he had intended to proceed with the collection. This fragment I have thought worth printing in extenso; not only as a curious illustration of the attention which Bacon bestowed upon the details and smaller graces of his art, but also because it may possibly throw some light on the history of the English language. It is headed Analogia Casaris (a title by the way, of which, comparing it with the supposed character of Caesar's lost book de Analogia, as explained in the De Augmentis, lib. vi. c. 1. I do not see the fitness) and docqueted by Bacon himself Verba interjectiva ; sive ad grā sparsa. It is fairly written in Bacon's own hand, in three parallel columns. But this I think was only to save paper; for the articles which happen to lie over against each other do not appear to be connected in any way; and therefore I have not thought it necessary to preserve that form in the printing. In other respects I have copied it literatim. Those who are curious as to the periods when particular forms of expression came into use or wore out, may perhaps derive some useful hints from it. But to enter into any speculations of that kind here would be to go beyond my province as editor. ANALOGIA CESARIS. VERB. ET CLAUSULE AD EXERCITATIONEM ACCENTUS ET AD GRATIAM SPARSAM ET AD SUITATEM. Say that; (for admitt that) Peraventure can yow; Sp. (what can you). Yf yow be at leasure furnyshed &c. as phappes yow are (instead of are not). For the rest (a transition concluding). The rather bycause (contynuing another's speach). To the end, saving that, whereas, yet, (contynuances, and so of all kynds. In contemplation (in consideration): Not prejudicing. With this (cum hoc quod verificare vult). Without that (absq. hoc quod For this tyme (when a man extends his hope or imaginacon or beleefe to farre. A mery world when such fellowes must correct X A mery world when the simplest may correct. It is like S' &c. (putting a man agayne into his tale interrupted. Your reason. I have been allwaies at his request. His knowledg lieth about him. Such thoughts I would exile into my dreames. A good crosse poynt but the woorst cinq a pase. He will never doe his tricks clean. A proper young man and so will he be while he lives. 2. of these fowre take them where yow will. I have knowne the tyme and it was not half an howre ago. Pyonner in the myne of truth. As please the painter. A nosce teipsu (a chiding or disgrace. Valew me not the lesse bycause I am yours. Is it a small thing y' &c. (cannot yow not be content, an hebraisme. What els? Nothing lesse. It is not the first untruth I have heard reported nor it is not the first truth I have heard denied. I will proove X why goe and proove it. Minerall wytts strong poyson yf they be not corrected. O the ' Mought it please God that. fr. (I would to God. Never may it please yow. As good as the best. I would not but yow had doone it x But shall I doe it againe. |