amongst the signs of troubles. Virgil[1] giving the pedigree of Fame, saith she was sister to the Giants:
Illam Terra parens, irâ irritata Deorum,
Extremam (ut perhibent) Cœo Enceladoque sororem
Progenuit.[2]
As if fames[3] were the relics of seditions past; but they are no less indeed the preludes of seditions to come. Howsoever he noteth it right, that seditious tumults and seditious fames differ no more but as brother and sister, masculine and feminine; especially if it come to that, that the best actions of a state, and the most plausible, and which ought to give greatest contentment, are taken in ill sense, and traduced: for that shews the envy great, as Tacitus saith, conflata magna invidia, seu bene sen male gesta premunt.[4] Neither doth it follow, that because these fames are a sign of troubles, that[5] the suppressing of them with too much severity should be a remedy of troubles. For the despising of them many times checks them best; and the going about to stop them doth but make a wonder long-lived. Also
- ↑ Publius Vergilius Maro, 70–19 B.C., a famous Roman epic, didactic, and idyllic poet. He wrote the Aeneid, ten Bucolics or Eclogues, and four Georgics.
- ↑ Irritated by the vengeance of the gods, teeming Earth, as they relate, brought her forth last, sister to Coeus and Enceladus. Vergil. Aeneidos Liber IV. 178–180. Bacon also quotes this passage from the Aeneid in the Advancement of Learning, II. iv. 4. Compare also in the Wisdom of the Ancients, The Sister of the Giants; or Fame.
- ↑ Fame. Rumor; report. "And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brethren are come: and it pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants." Genesis xlv. 16.
- ↑ When great unpopularity is excited, they condemn acts, both good and bad. Tacitus. Historiarum Liber I. 7. Bacon quotes the sense, not the exact language.
- ↑ So in original. One of the thats should of course be omitted. S.
