harp, Domitian[1] for certainty of the hand with the arrow, Commodus[2] for playing at fence, Caracalla[3] for driving chariots, and the like. This seemeth incredible unto those that know not the principle that the mind of man is more cheered and refreshed by profiting in small things, than by standing at a stay in great. We see also that kings that have been fortunate conquerors in their first years, it being not possible for them to go forward infinitely, but that they must have some check or arrest in their fortunes, turn in their latter years to be superstitious and melancholy; as did Alexander the Great;[4] Dioclesian;[5] and in our memory, Charles the Fifth;[6] and others: for he that is used to go forward, and findeth a stop, falleth out of his own favour, and is not the thing he was.
To speak now of the true temper of empire; it is a thing rare and hard to keep; for both temper[7] and distemper[8] consist of contraries. But it is one thing to mingle contraries, another to interchange them. The answer of Apollonius to Vespasian is
- ↑ Titus Flavius Domitianus Augustus, 51–96 A.D., Roman emperor, 81–96 A.D.
- ↑ Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus (also Marcus Antoninus), 161–192 A.D., Roman emperor, 180–192 A.D.
- ↑ Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, originally Bassianus, nicknamed Caracalla or Caracallus, 188–217 A.D., Roman emperor, 211–217 A.D.
- ↑ Alexander III., surnamed 'the Great,' 356–323 B.C., King of Macedon, 336–323 B.C.
- ↑ Caius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, surnamed Jovius, 245–313 A.D., Roman emperor, 284–305 A.D.
- ↑ Charles V., 1500–1558, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, 1519–1556.
- ↑ Temper. Balance of qualities.
- ↑ Distemper. Disturbed condition. Bacon uses temper and distemper in their old physiological senses. Temper, or temperament, from temperare, 'to mix,' was one's 'mixture'; distemper was a 'variation from the proper mixture.'
