Bacon: On youth and twilight, beauty and death

Excerpt from "Bacon's Essays", translated by Tao Wenjia, Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House, December 2016 edition

On youth and twilight

A young person may also be a young man, as long as he never wastes his time, but this is rare. Generally speaking, youth is like the first contemplation, far less wise than the later contemplation. In addition to the youth of age, there is also the youth of thought. But usually the inventions of young people are more vibrant than those of older people, and the imagination flows more brilliantly through their minds, because it is closer to the gods.

Those who are fiery by nature, ambitious, eager for success, and restless are immature enough to achieve great things until they are in their prime, as was the case with Caesar and Severus. The history books say of the latter, "He made countless mistakes in his youth, and even went a little insane," yet he became almost the most capable emperor of all time. A calm personality may have been beneficial to young people such as Augustus, Cosimo of Florence and Gaston, Duke of Lemore. On the contrary, for the elderly, it is more valuable to maintain enthusiasm and vitality.

Young people are better suited to create than to judge, better suited to execute than to make suggestions, better suited to try new things than to already successful careers. While older people can mentor them in careers that require experience, they can only hold them back in emerging careers.

Young people can easily ruin their careers when they make mistakes, while older people make mistakes by doing too little and acting too late.

When young people decide their own actions, it is easy to be happy but unable to accomplish them, to rush to achieve the goal without considering the ways and means and priorities, to change at will and insist on doing it, and to be reckless in innovation but reckless about the consequences, regardless of the unknown drawbacks that may be caused. At the beginning, they use extreme means, even if they make their mistakes worse, they do not admit and do not repent, just like a horse that has not yet been tamed, and does not know when to stop and when to turn around. The elderly, on the other hand, oppose too much, worry too long, are too reluctant to take risks, regret too easily, rarely grit their teeth and persevere, and are always satisfied as long as they barely succeed.

Obviously, it would be great to combine the best of both worlds. On the one hand, it is possible to ensure the present, because the two age groups can complement each other; On the other hand, it ensures the continuation of the career, with the young people humbly seeking guidance and the older ones at the helm. Finally, such an arrangement is also good for diplomacy, with the older being authoritative and the younger being likable. On the moral side, however, it may be more important to let young people take the lead, just as in politics it is up to the elderly to play the leading role.

The Bible says, "Your young men will see visions, and your old men will have dreams." A teacher once analyzed that this sentence implied that young people are closer to God than older people, because illusions are clearer revelations than dreams. Of course, the more experience a person has in the world, the more it poisons him, and the benefits of age are more in the power of understanding than in the superiority of will and emotion.

Some people became famous at a young age, but their talents dried up as time passed. The first is witty early on, but soon after, like the rhetorician Seymour Genes, whose books were full of witty words, and then only stupid. The second is that there are some talents that are more elegant for young people but not for older people, for example, smooth and flowery rhetoric is wonderful for young people, but not for older people. Thus Cicero once said in his criticism of Ottenhuus: "His style is still the same as before, but it no longer suits him." "The third is that when you are young, you tighten the strings of pressure too early, and you can't continue it as you get older, so you can only relax. Livy once said of Scipio the Great: "His last deeds pale in comparison to the greatness of his youth." ”

On beauty

Virtue is like a jewel, and its beauty can be best set off by simplicity and elegance. As far as people are concerned, virtue is best matched with a Peugeot body, but not too delicate, preferring a noble temperament to a beautiful appearance. In the same way, it is almost rare for a beautiful person to possess great virtue at the same time, as if nature was too busy to create man, and it is inevitable that he will not make a mistake to produce a perfect person. Often, those who have achieved great things do not seem to have great hearts, so people focus more on demeanor than virtue. But there were exceptions, such as Augustus, Reed Spasian, Philip IV of France, Edward IV of England, Alcibiades of Athens, and Ismail the Wise of Persia, who had noble and great souls, but were also the most beautiful men of the world.

As far as beauty is concerned, the beauty of the countenance is greater than the beauty of the complexion, and the beauty of proper and benevolent behavior is greater than the beauty of the countenance. Beauty at its best cannot be depicted with a brush, nor can it be seen at a glance. Any truly remarkable beauty has a singularity in proportion. It is impossible to judge which of the two painters, Apelis or Dürer, was more boring, Dürer was obsessed with geometric proportions when painting portraits, and the other loved to combine the best parts of people's faces to create perfect portraits. In my humble opinion, no one would like such a portrait except the painter himself. I don't think any painter can paint a beautiful face like no other in the world, unless there is a stroke of genius, like a musician's inspiration when composing, rather than sticking to the rules.

People have seen faces like this: if separated, each part may be plain, but together it is beautiful. If the most important factor in beauty lies in proper manners, then it is not surprising that the elderly are often more elegant. "Beauty is beautiful even in the twilight." If it is not supplemented by youth, young people will not achieve flawless beauty.

Beauty, like the fruit of summer, perishes easily, is difficult to last, and is often youthful and frivolous, and embarrassing to the elderly. But as I have emphasized before, if beauty is in harmony with virtue, it can shine, while evil is not ashamed.

On death

Adults fear death just as children fear stepping into darkness. Ancient legends have deepened the natural fear of children, as does the fear of death. The contemplation of death as the retribution of original sin, the passage to the other shore, is sacred and reverent, but it is too cowardly to see the fear of death as a reverence for nature. Even in devotional meditation, vanity and superstition are often mixed. In some of the ascetic books written by the monks, you should have read that one should think to himself about how painful it would be if his fingertips were broken or tortured. Then imagine how painful it would be when death causes the whole body to decay and fester. Sometimes, however, the pain of death is less severe than the pain of abusing a limb stem, because the organs that sustain life are not the most sensitive organs in the human body. There is a philosopher who knows nature very well and said, "The things that accompany death are more terrible than death itself." "Moans and convulsions, pale faces, weeping of relatives and friends, mourning clothes and funerals, all these show the horror of death.

It is important to note that the passions in the human heart, though weak, are not necessarily incapable of overcoming the fear of death. Therefore, if one has the power of many passions, he can win the battle, and death will no longer be a terrible enemy. Revenge triumphs over death, love despises death, honor longs for death, sorrow runs to death, fear focuses on death.

Not only that, but we have read that after Emperor Otto killed himself, compassion (which is the softest emotion) led many soldiers to die generously – out of their sympathy for the monarch – and that they were the true followers. Not only that, but Seneca added a sense of demand and weariness: "When I think of this, I resolve to cut myself off, not for courage or fear, but for boredom." "People seek death, not because they are brave, not because they are too painful, but because they are tired of repeating the same thing over and over again.

It is also important to note that the proximity of death does not change the noble soul, and even if they are near-dead, they remain the same at the last moment. Augustus · Caesar was still singing as he died: "Goodbye, dear Livia, do not forget the time we spent together after marriage." Tiberius was still in a state of coy when he was dying, as Tacitus put it: "Tiberius is getting weaker, but his state of mind is always the same." Still speaking wittily, he sat down on a stool and said, "I think I'm going to become a god!" Galba the Great generously stated: "Do it!" May the people of Rome be well. "And lead the neck to be killed. Septimius · Severus was still calling the shots: "If there is anything else that needs to be done by me, hurry up!" And so on.

The Stoics put too much meaning on top of death, and the preparations for death were so complex that they made it even more terrifying. Rather, as some people say, "The end of life is nothing but a bounty of nature." "Death is as natural as birth, and both may be equally painful for a baby. In the fervent pursuit, the person who dies is like a person who is wounded when his blood is boiling, and he can hardly feel the pain at that moment, and because of this, the person who is firm in his faith and dedicated to good can indeed avoid the pain of death. But more important than that, the sweetest ode to the conviction is "Lord, let your servant die in peace, Lord" when you achieve your lofty goals and expectations. In addition to this, death can also open the door to fame and eliminate jealousy—"He who was hated in life will be loved after death." ”