Greetings,
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was
an English philosopher, essayist, jurist, and statesman. He was one of the earliest and most
influential supporters of empirical (experimental) science and helped develop
the scientific method of solving problems.
The following is from Essays, xxi, “Of Delays.” It is not easy reading, but it is well worth
the effort.
Fortune is like the market; where many times, if you
can stay a little, the price will fall.
And again, it is sometimes like Sibylla’s offer; which at first offereth
the commodity at full, then consumeth part and part, and still holdeth up the
price. For occasion (as it is in the
common verse) turneth a bald noddle, after she hath presented her locks in
front, and no hold taken; or at least turneth the handle of the bottle to be
received, and after the belly, which is hard to clasp. There is surely no greater wisdom than well
to time the beginnings and onsets of things.
Dangers are no more light, if they once seem light; and more dangers
have deceived men than forced them. Nay,
it were better to meet some dangers half-way, though they came 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 towards them;
is another extreme. The ripeness or
unripeness of the occasion (as we said) must ever be well weighted; and
generally it is good to commit the beginnings of all great actions to Argos
with his hundred eyes, and the ends to Briareus with his hundred hands; first
to watch, and then to speed. For the
helmet of Pluto, which maketh the politic man go invisible, is secrecy in the
counsel and celerity in the execution.
For when things are once come to the execution, there is no secrecy
comparable to celerity; like the motion of a bullet in the air, which flieth so
swift as it outruns the eye.
Yours
& His,
DED
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