A CHAPTER FROM LAVATER. 66 FACE TO FACE TRUTH COMES OUT APACE." THE more uniform a man's step, voice, manner of conversation, handwriting-the more quiet and uniform his actions and character. Vociferation and calmness of character seldom meet in the same person. (So thought Bacon, who desires a counsellor to adopt "a stedfast countenance, not wavering with action as in moving the head or hand too much, which showeth a fantastical light and fickle operation of the spirit; and consequently, like mind, like gesture," &c.) Who writes an illegible hand is commonly rapid, often impetuous in his judgments. Who interrupts often is inconstant and insincere. The side-glance, dismayed when observed, seeks to in snare. He who has a daring eye tells downright truths, and downright falsehoods. Softness of smile indicates softness of character. An old proverb says, "A smiling boy is a bad servant." The horse-laugh indicates brutality. LEARNING. IT is an assured truth which is contained in the verses, Scilicet ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes Emollit mores, nec sinit esse feros. It taketh away the wildness, and barbarism, and fierceness of men's minds; but indeed the accent had need be laid upon fideliter: for a little superficial learning doth rather work a contrary effect. It taketh away all levity, temerity, and insolency, by copious suggestions of all doubts and difficulties, and acquainting the mind to balance reasons on both sides, and to turn back the first offers and conceits of the mind, and to accept of nothing but what is examined and tried. It taketh away all vain admiration of any thing, which is the root of all weakness; for all things are admired because they are new, or because they are great. For novelty, no man that wadeth in learning or contemplation thoroughly, but will find that printed in his heart-Nil novi super terNeither can any man marvel at the play of puppets, that goeth behind the curtain, and adviseth well of the ram. motion. And for magnitude, as Alexander the Great, after he was used to great armies, and the great conquests of the spacious provinces in Asia, when he received letters out of Greece of some fights and services there, which were commonly for a passage, or a fort, or some walled town at most, he said, "It seemed to him that he was advertised of the Battle of the Frogs and Mice, that the old tales went of;" so certainly, if a man meditate upon the universal frame of nature, the Earth, with men upon it, (the divineness of souls excepted,) will not serve much other than an ant-hill, where some ants carry corn, and some carry their young, and some go empty, and all to and fro a little heap of dust. It taketh away or mitigateth fear of death, or adverse fortune; which is one of the greatest impediments of virtue, and imperfections of manners. For if a man's mind be deeply seasoned with the consideration of the mortality and corruptible nature of things, he will easily concur with Epictetus, who went forth one day, and saw a woman weeping for her pitcher of earth that was broken; and went forth the next day, and saw a woman weeping for her son that was dead; and therefore said, "Heri vidi fragilem frangi; hodiè vidi mortalem mori." And therefore did Virgil excellently and profoundly couple the knowledge of causes and the conquest of all fears together as concomitantia : Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari. I will conclude with that which hath rationem totius; which is that it disposeth the constitution of the mind not to be fixed or settled in the defects thereof, but still to be capable and susceptible of growth and reformation. For the unlearned man knows not what it is to descend into himself, or to call himself to account; nor the pleasure of that “suavissima vita, indies sentire se fieri meliorem." The good parts he hath he will learn to show to the full, and use them dexterously, but not much to increase them; the faults he hath, he will learn how to hide and colour them, but not much to amend them: like an ill mower, that mows on still, and never whets his scythe. Whereas with the learned man it fares otherwise, that he doth ever intermix the correction and amendment of his mind with the use and employment thereof. Nay, further, in general and in sum, certain it is that Veritas and Bonitas differ but as the seal and print; for Truth prints Goodness; and they be the clouds of error, which descend in the storms of passions and perturbations. Bacon's Advancement. He a scholar! No, a Witling can't be a scholar. Knowledge is a great calmer of people's minds. Wilson. MIMICRY. "TELL me of any animal I cannot imitate," said the Ape. "And tell me," answered the Fox, "of any animal that will imitate you." German. |