francis bacon the wisdom of the ancients

First, he breathed light upon the face of the matter, or chaos then he breathed light into the face of man and still he breatheth and inspireth light into the face of his chosen. The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense 46 the last was the light of reason 47 and his sabbath work, ever since, is the illumination of his Spirit. But howsoever these things are thus in men's depraved judgments and affections, yet truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature. 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. Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's minds vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds of a number of men poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves? One of the fathers,44 in great severity, called poesy 'vinum d monum,'45 because it filleth the imagination, and yet it is but with the shadow of a lie. A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that showeth best by day, but it will not rise to the price of a diamond or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights.

But I cannot tell this same truth is a naked and open daylight, that doth not show the masks, and mummeries, and triumphs of the world, half so stately and daintily as candle-lights. One of the later schools43 of the Grecians examineth the matter, and is at a stand to think what should be in it that men should love lies where neither they make for pleasure, as with poets nor for advantage, as with the merchant, but for the lie's sake.

But it is not only the difficulty and labor which men take in finding out of truth: nor again, that, when it is found, it imposeth upon men's thoughts, that doth bring lies in favor but a natural though corrupt love of the lie itself. And though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing wits which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them as was in those of the ancients. Certainly, there be that delight in giddiness and count it a bondage to fix a belief affecting freewill in thinking as well as in acting. What is truth? said jesting Pilate 42 and would not stay for an answer.

Francis bacon the wisdom of the ancients