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Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626

"The Advancement of Learning"


(5) Of much like kind are those impressions of Nature, which are
imposed upon the mind by the sex, by the age, by the region, by
health and sickness, by beauty and deformity, and the like, which
are inherent and not extern; and again, those which are caused by
extern fortune, as sovereignty, nobility, obscure birth, riches,
want, magistracy, privateness, prosperity, adversity, constant
fortune, variable fortune, rising per saltum, per gradus, and the
like. And, therefore, we see that Plautus maketh it a wonder to see
an old man beneficent, benignitas hujis ut adolescentuli est. Saint
Paul concludeth that severity of discipline was to be used to the
Cretans, increpa eos dure, upon the disposition of their country,
Cretensus semper mendaces, malae bestiae, ventres. Sallust noteth
that it is usual with kings to desire contradictories: Sed
plerumque regiae voluntates, ut vehementes sunt, sic mobiles,
saepeque ipsae sibi advers. Tacitus observeth how rarely raising of
the fortune mendeth the disposition: solus Vespasianus mutatus in
melius.


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