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to Unedited Philosophy Quotes and Ramblings about Intequinism.
Book name: The
Essays
Author: Francis Bacon
Editor: Edited with an
introduction by John Pitcher
Copyright: Notes and introduction
– John Pitcher 1985
Edition: First 1985
Publisher: Penguin
Place: London, England
Reader: Mr. M.D. Pienaar
<p.61>
"1. Of Truth
…
<p.62>
But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind but
the lie that sinketh in and settleth in it, that doth the
hurt, such as we spake of before."
<self: The
above quotation made me think that when lies are told lies
have to be remembered and probably the effect of lies on
ones' own minds, after telling lies is bigger, because
lies have to be remembered. Bacon put emphasis on lies in
his essay. Lies related to truth for Bacon. He started the
essay by referring to Pilate who asked Jesus what truth is
after Jesus told him in John 18:37-38 that he (Jesus) came
to Earth to show what truth is. Before Jesus could answer,
Pilate asked the population whether they wanted Jesus
freed. They chose Barrabas, a thief in stead.>
<p.67>
"3. Of Unity in Religion
…
But the true
God hath this attribute, that he is a jealous God,2
…
2. See Exodus
20:5"
<p.68-69>
Bacon argued against means and quoted Paul (1 Timothy
6:20) to support his argument against false knowledge.
<p.69>
"For truth and falsehood in such things are like the iron
and clay in the toes of Nebuchadnezzar's image; they may
cleave but they will not incorporate."
19 September
2013
<p.101>
"15. Of Seditions and
Troubles
...
<p.104>
Generally, it
is to be foreseen that the population of a kingdom
(especially if it be not mown down by wars) do not exceed
the stock27 of the kingdom which should
maintain them. Neither is the population to be reckoned
only by number: for a smaller number, that spend more and
earn less, do wear out an estate sooner than a greater
number that live lower and gather more. Therefore the
multiplying of nobility and other degrees of quality, in
an over-proportion to the common people, doth speedily
bring a state to necessity; and so doth likewise an
overgrown clergy, for they bring nothing to the stock; and
in like manner when more are bred scholars than
preferments can take off.
It is likewise to be remembered that, forasmuch as
the increase of any estate must be upon28 the
foreigner (for whatsoever is somewhere gotten is somewhere
lost), there be but three things which <p.105> one
nation selleth unto another: the commodity as nature
yieldeth it, the manufacture, and the vecture or carriage.
So that if these three wheels go, wealth will flow as in a
spring tide. And it cometh many times to pass, that materium superabit
opus;29 that the work and carriage is
more worth than the material, and enricheth a state more;
as is notably seen in the Low-Countrymen, who have the
best mines above ground in the world.
27. Resources
(produce and capital)
28. At the
expense of.
29. The
workmanship will surpass the material (Ovid, Metamorphoses,
II. 5)."
<p.108>
"16. Of Atheism
I had rather
believe all the fables in the Legend,1 and the
Talmud,2 and the Alcoran,3 than that
this universal frame is without a mind.4
...
4. In Bacon's
day, an atheist was not necessarily someone who denied the
existence of God, but someone who identified the creative
principles of the universe with God.
...
<p.110>
Never was there such a state for magnanimity as Rome: of
this state hear what Cicero saith: Quam .. superavimus.24
24. We may
admire ourselves as much as we please, Senators, yet we
cannot match the Spaniards in number, nor the Gauls in
bodily strength, nor the Carthaginians in cunning, nor the
Greeks in art, nor indeed our own Italians and Latins in
the homebred and native good sense characteristics of this
land and nation. But in our piety, and in our religion,
and in our recognition of the one great truth that all
things are ruled and ordered by the divine will of the
immortal gods - in these things we have surpassed all
peoples and nations (A
speech Concerning the Response of the Soothsayers,
IX. 19)."
<p.138>
"27.
Of
Friendship
<p.144>
"I have
given the rule, where a man cannot fitly play his own
part: if he have not a friend, he may quit the stage."