and more dangers have deceived men than forced them. Nay, it were better to meet some dangers half way, though they come nothing near, than to keep too long a watch upon their approaches; for if a man watch too long, it is odds he will fall asleep. On the other side, to be deceived with too long shadows (as some have been when the moon was low and shone on their enemies' back), and so to shoot off before the time; or to teach dangers to come on, by over early buckling[1] towards them; is another extreme. The ripeness or unripeness of the occasion (as we said) must ever be well weighed; and generally it is good to commit the beginnings of all great actions to Argos[2] with his hundred eyes, and the ends to Briareus[3] with his hundred hands; first to watch, and then to speed. For the helmet of Pluto,[4] which maketh the politic man go invisible, is secrecy in the counsel and celerity in
- ↑ Buckle. To gird one's self; to apply one's self resolutely to.
"And buckling soone himselfe, gan fiercely fly
Upon that carle, to save his friend from jeopardy."
Spenser. The Faery Queene. Book VI. Canto viii. Stanza 12. - ↑ Argos, surnamed Panoptes (the all-seer), had one hundred eyes, some one of which was always awake. Hera (Juno) set him to guard Io, and Hermes killed him. After his death Hera transferred his eyes to the tail of the peacock. Spenser alludes to "Great Junoes golden chaire," which was
"Drawne of faire pecocks, that excell in pride,
And full of Argus eyes their tailes dispredden wide."
The Faery Queene. Book I. Canto iv. Stanza 17. - ↑ Briareus or Aegaeon, a giant with fifty heads and one hundred hands. Homer mentions him in Iliad. I. 403.
- ↑ The helmet of Pluto, made by the Cyclops, had the peculiar property of rendering the wearer invisible. Mercury wore it in the battle with the giants, and Perseus in his contest with the Gorgons. Minerva puts it on when she is helping Diomede against Mars on the plain of Troy. Homer. Iliad. V. 845. For Bacon's version of the fable of Perseus, see Perseus; or War, in the Wisdom of the Ancients.
