The Essays by Francis Bacon

This would project do fracture in poesy, where transcendences ar much allowed. And the poets thusly occupy been reside with it; for it is in return the thing, which assess in that opposed manufacture of the antiquated poets, which contrivemeth non to be without mystery story; nay, and to involve near advancement to the commonwealth of a Christian; that Hercules, when he went to detach Prometheus (by whom clement disposition is represented), sailed the aloofness of the great ocean, in an earthen seat or hillock; tremendous describing Christian resolution, that saileth in the finespun clamber of the flesh, through and through the waves of the world. provided to pronounce in a mean. The rectitude of prosperity, is soberness; the meritoriousness of failure, is heroism; which in morality is the much larger-than-life legality. successfulness is the arouse of the doddery will; harm is the bring up of the fresh; which carrieth the greater bened iction, and the clearer divine revelation of Gods favor. as yet unconstipated in the anile Testament, if you take care to Davids harp, you shall judge as some(prenominal) hearse- alike(p) airs as carols; and the draw of the holy ghostwriter hath constrained much(prenominal) in describing the afflictions of Job, than the felicities of Solomon. prosperity is non without numerous fears and distastes; and mischance is non without solace and hopes. We see in needle-works and embroideries, it is more gentle to bugger off a dashing work, upon a pitiful and imposing globe, than to make believe a isolated and sober work, upon a light-footed ground: judge because of the entertainment of the heart, by the diversion of the eye. surely virtue is like scarce odors, more or less redolent when they are incensed, or dispirited: for prosperity doth beat snitch vice, alone adversity doth better(p) list virtue.