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mind, not knowing which way to take,-to be amongst the kinds of this passion of fear. The poet, speaking of the Sabine virgins, whom the Roman youth snatched away, and took to them for wives, hath thus elegantly described this distraction of fear":

“Ut fugiunt aquilas, timidissima turba, columbæ,
Utque fugit visos agna novella lupos ;
Sic illæ timuere viros, sine lege ruentes.

Constitit in nulla, qui fuit ante, color.
Nam timor unus erat, facies non una timoris.
Pars laniat crines; pars sine mente sedet:
Altera mosta silet; frustra vocat altera matrem :
Hæc queritur; stupet hæc; hæc manet; illa fugit."
As weak and fearful doves the eagle fly,

And tender lambs when they the wolf espy:
So the affrighted Sabine virgins run,

Pale and discoloured, Roman youth to shun.
Their fear was one, but fear had not one look.
Part here sit reav'd of sense; part there doth pluck
And tear their hairs; one silent mourns; another,
With a successless outcry, calls her mother:
One moans; the fright another doth amaze :
One flies for fear; for fear, another stays.

Now the reasons why newness of evil doth thus work fear, may be many. For first, all admiration is a kind of fear, it being the property of a man, not only to fear that which is against, but that also which is above, our nature,-either in regard of natural and civil dignity, which worketh a fear of reverence, as to parents, governors, masters; or in regard of moral excellency and excesses above the strength of the faculty, which worketh a fear of admiration. Now then it is the property of every thing that brings novelty with it, to work, more or less, some manner of admiration, which (as the honour of this age's learning calls it) is a broken knowledge,' and commonly the first step which we make in each particular science and therefore children are most given to wonder, because every thing appeareth new unto them. Now then when any evil shall at once fright our

z Advancement of Learning.

a

Ovid. de Arte Amandi, 1. 1. ο Σοφός ovdèv Davμágel Tŵv dokоúvтwv @apadówv. Laert. in Zenon. 1. 7.-Plut. de Aud. Ο ἀπορῶν καὶ θαυμάζων οἴεται ἀγνοεῖν, Metaph. 1. 1. c. 2.

nature, and pose our understanding; the more our ignorance doth weaken our reason, the more doth it strengthen our passion.

Again; though such evils may, haply, be in themselves but slight, yet the very strangeness of them will work an opinion of their greatness. For as that of Seneca is true, Magnitudinem rerum consuetudo subducit,' that use makes small esteem of great things; so it will follow on the contrary side, that novelty makes evil appear greater; as the way which a man is least acquainted with, seems the longest." And therefore the Romans did use themselves unto their gladiatory fights and bloody spectacles, that acquaintance with wounds and blood might make them the less fear it in the wars.

And, lastly; such is the inbred cautelousness of nature in declining all noxious things, and such is the common suspicion of the mind, whereby out of a tendering of its own safety, it is willing to know every thing before it make experiment of any,—as that thereby it is made naturally fearful even of harmless and inoffensive things; (omnia tuta timens) much more then of those, which bring with them the noise. and face of evil.

Now the corruption of this passion herein is, when it falleth too soon upon the object, and snatcheth it from the understanding before that hath duly weighed the nature of it; when, as Aristotle speaks of anger, that it runs away from reason with a half message; so the object shall be plucked away from the understanding with a half judgement. For when a man hath but a half and broken sight, like him in the gospel, he will be easily apt to judge men as big as trees, and to pass a false sentence upon any thing which he fears.

Another cause of fear, may be conscience of evil, and guiltiness of mind, which, like mud in water, the more it is stirred, doth the more foul and thicken: for "wickedness, when it is condemned of its own witness, is exceeding timorous; and being pressed with conscience, always forecasteth terrible things :" and as the historian speaketh of

b Nat. Quæst. 1. 7, c. 1. Lipsii Saturn.

Jul. Capitol. in Maximo et Balbino.-Vide e Tacit. Annal. lib. 6.

d Wisd. xvii. 11.

tyrants, so may we of any other wicked men, Si recludantur mentes, posse aspici laniatus et ictus;" their minds with lust, cruelty, and unclean resolutions, being no less torn and made raw, than the body flayed with scourges. Every vicious man hath a double flight from God; a flight from the holiness, and a flight from the justice, of his will. Adam first eats, and next he hides: as soon as he hath transgressed the covenant, he expects the curse and therefore we shall still observe that men are afraid of those whom they have injured. Alcibiades having provoked the Athenians, was afraid to trust them; saying, "It is a foolish thing for a man when he may flee, to betray himself into their hands, from whom he cannot flee." And therefore they who would have us fear them, desire nothing more than to be privy to our guilts, and to know such crimes of us, as by detecting of which, they have it in their power to bring either infamy or loss upon us.

"Scire volunt secreta domus, atque inde timeri."

Into our secret crimes they pry, that so

We

may fear them, when they our vices know.

And therefore innocency is the best armour that any man can put on against other men's malice, or his own fears: for, the righteous are bold as a lion "."

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Other causes of fear might be ere observed, which I shall but intimate. As we fear active and busy men ; because if they be provoked, they will stir and look about to revenge

themselves.

We fear likewise delators, because they are inquisitive and pry into the secrets of others. Plutarch compares them unto cupping-glasses, which draw ever the worst humours of the body unto them, and to those gates through which none passed but condemned and piacular persons. We may liken them unto flies, which resort only to the raw and corrupt parts of the body; or if they light on a sound part, never leave blowing on it, till they dispose it to putrefaction. For this is all the comfort of malevolent persons, to make

s Juven. Carus erit Verii qui Verrem h Prov. xxvii. 1. iMiὡς ἀπράγμονα, Plutarch.

Elian. Var. Hist. 1. 13. c. 38. tempore quo vult, Accusare potest, &c. nus timebant Epaminondam, Διὰ φιλοσοφίαν,

others appear worse than they are, that they themselves, though they be the worst of men, may not appear so.

We fear also abusive and satirical wits, which make use of other men's names, as of whetstones, to sharpen themselves upon.

"Omnes hi metuunt versus, odere poetas.

'Fonum habet in cornu, longe fuge; dummodo risum
Excutiat sibi, non hic cuiquam parcet amico:

Et, quodcunque semel chartis illeverit, omnes
Gestiet a furno redeuntes scire lacuque,
Et pueros, et anus.'” i

These all hate poets, fear to suffer scorn

From those curs'd wits, which carry hay on horn.-
'Shun them; they will not spare their dearest friend
To make themselves sport: then what they have penn'd
They're big with, till old wives and boys, that go

From ovens and from wash-pools, know it too.'

Lastly, we fear close, cunning, and suppressed malice, which, like a skinned wound, doth rankle inwardly crafty, insinuative, plausible men, that can shroud and palliate their revengeful purposes under pretexts of love. I formerly noted of Tiberius, (and Elius Spartianus observeth it of Antoninus Geta) that men were more afraid of his kindness than of his anger; because his use was to show much courtesy there, where he intended mischief. 1

m

And Cæsar was wont to say, that "he was not afraid of Antony and Dolabella, bold adversaries; but of Brutus and Cassius, his pale and lean enemies ;" who were able to smother their passion, till they had fit opportunity to act it. The Italians (they say) have a proverb, wherein they promise "to take heed themselves of their enemy, but pray to God to deliver them from their friend." And this, as it is of all other the most dangerous, and the most unchristian, so it is the most unworthy and sordid disposition of mind, (I cannot find words bad enough to character it by)" which, at the same

i Horat. 1. 1. Sat. 4. 35. Rhet. 1. 2.

* Οἱ πρᾷοι καὶ πανούργοι· ἄδηλοι γάρ. Arist. Fuit ejus immanitatis Antoninus, ut iis præcipue blandiretur, quos ad necem destinabat; ut ejus magis blandimentum timeretur quam iracundia. Spart. in Geta. m Plutarch. in Cæsare.-Ira quæ tegitur, "Pessimum ini

nocet. Sen. Med.-Psalm 1xii. 4. lv. 21. x. 8, 9, 10.

time, can both flatter and hate, and, with the same breath, praise a man, and undo him. And therefore the philosopher telleth us, that a magnanimous man is φανερόμισος and φανερόφι 20s, such a one as doth boldly profess as well his displeasure as his love, esteeming it timorousness to trifle and conceal his affections.

Of all Christ's enemies, Judas when he kissed him, the Herodians when they praised him, and the Devil when he confessed him, were the worst and ill-favouredst. A leprosy was ever uncleannest when it was whitest; and Satan is never more wicked or more ugly, than when he puts on Samuel's mantle. Hatred, when it flatters, is the most misshapen monster. Like those poisons which kill men with laughing; or like the Philistines' trespass-offering, mice and emeralds made of gold.

CHAP. XXVIII.

Of the effects of Fear, suspicion, circumspection, superstition, betraying the succours of reason, Fear generative, reflecting, inward weakening the faculties of the mind, base suspicion,

wise caution.

I PROCEED to consider some of the effects of this passion; whereof the first may be suspicion and credulity, which either other men's rumours, or our own working imagination frameth unto itself. Which effect of fear the historian hath wisely observed, 'Retineri commeatus dum timet, credit;' what he feared, that he believed. And in another place ', speaking of the strange relations which had been made of monsters, his judgement upon the report is, 'Visa, sive ex metu credita; it was uncertain whether they had been really seen, or believed out of fear. For as timorous men are, by their own suspicion, ready to frame unto themselves new terrors, and to fear where no fear is; (which the poet hath observed, "Quæ finxere timent."

micorum genus,

cap. 29.

lib. 4.

laudantes. Tac.-Turpe est odisse quem laudes. Sen. de Ira, lib. 3. • Arist. Ethic. lib. 4. c. 8. To yàp λavbávei polovμévov. • Tacit. Annal. lib. 2.

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