ill markets: and, if you will consult with Momus,[1] ill neighbours. I speak not of many more; want of water; want of wood, shade, and shelter; want of fruitfulness, and mixture[2] of grounds of several natures; want of prospect; want of level grounds; want of places at some near distance for sports of hunting, hawking, and races; too near the sea, too remote; having the commodity of navigable rivers,[3] or the discommodity of their overflowing; too far off from great cities, which may hinder business, or too near them, which lurcheth[4] all provisions, and maketh every thing dear; where a man hath a great living laid together, and where he is scanted:[5] all which, as it is impossible perhaps to find together, so it is good to know them, and think of them, that a man may take as many as he can; and if he have several dwellings, that he sort[6] them so, that what
- ↑ Momus, in Greek mythology, is a god personifying censure and mockery. According to Hesiod, he is the son of Night, the sleepy god. Bacon has in mind the fable of Aesop (Aesopi fabulae Graecolatinae, 193), which relates that Zeus made a bull, Prometheus, a man, and Athena, a house. Momus was called upon to decide which was the best creation, and objected to all three. The bull, he said, should have its horns below its eyes in order to see where to strike; man should have a window in his breast so that his thoughts could be seen; and a house should be built on wheels, so as to be easily and quickly rolled away from uncomfortable neighbors. Bacon explains Momus's window of the heart in the Advancement of Learning, II. xxiii. 14.
- ↑ Bacon means 'want of mixture,' the construction of 'want' going on to the semicolon.
- ↑ So in the original, and also in Ed. 1639. It seems as if not had dropped out; or as if the should be no. The translation has commoditas nulla fluviorum navigabilium. S.
- ↑ Lurch. To absorb; to monopolize.
- ↑ Scant. To limit; to stint.
- ↑ Sort. To choose, select, pick out.
"Nurse, will you go with me into my closet,
To help me sort such needful ornaments
As you think fit to furnish me to-morrow?"
Shakspere. Romeo and Juliet. iv. 2.
