< Page:Essays of Francis Bacon 1908 Scott.djvu
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OF WISDOM FOR A MAN'S SELF

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self. It is right[1] earth. For that only stands fast upon his own centre;[2] whereas all things that have affinity with the heavens, move upon the centre of another, which they benefit. The referring of all to a man's self is more tolerable in a sovereign prince; because themselves are not only themselves, but their good and evil is at the peril of the public fortune. But it is a desperate evil in a servant to a prince, or a citizen in a republic. For whatsoever affairs pass such a man's hands, he crooketh[3] them to his own ends; which must needs be often eccentric to the ends of his master or state. Therefore let princes, or states, choose such servants as have not this mark; except they mean their service should be made but the accessary.[4] That which maketh the effect more pernicious is that all proportion is lost. It were disproportion enough for the servant's good to be preferred before the master's; but yet it is a greater extreme, when a little good of the servant shall carry things against a great good of the master's. And yet that is the case of bad officers, treasurers, ambassadors, generals, and other false and corrupt servants; which set a bias[5] upon their bowl, of their own petty ends and envies, to the overthrow of their master's great and important affairs. And for the most part, the good such

  1. ↑ Right. True, genuine, actual, real. "The Poet is indeed the right Popular Philosopher. Whereof Esops tales give good proofe." Sir Philip Sidney. The Defense of Poesie. p. 18.
  2. ↑ Bacon accepted the Ptolemaic system, which made the earth the centre of the universe. The Copernican system was not generally received until long after his time.
  3. ↑ Crook. To bend or turn out of the straight course; to pervert.
  4. ↑ Accessary, also spelled accessory.
  5. ↑ Bias. A weight in one side of the bowl, that is, 'ball,' which deflects it from the straight line.
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