Francis Bacon - The Essays 1601
OF REVENGE
Revenge is a kind of wild justice;
which the more man's nature runs to,
the more ought law
to weed it out.
For as for the first wrong,
it doth but
offend the law;
but the revenge of that wrong,
putteth the law out of
office. Certainly, in taking revenge,
a man is but
even with his enemy;
but in passing it over, he is superior;
for it is a prince's
part to
pardon. And Solomon, I am sure, saith,
It is the glory of a man,
to pass
by an offence.
That which is past is gone, and irrevocable;
and wise men
have enough to do,
with things present and to come;
therefore they do but
trifle with themselves,
that labor in past matters.
There is no man
doth a
wrong, for the wrong's sake;
but thereby to purchase himself profit, or
pleasure, or honor, or the like.
Therefore why should I
be angry with a
man,
for loving himself better than me?
And if any man should do wrong,
merely out of ill-nature, why,
yet it is but
like the thorn or briar,
which prick and scratch,
because they can do no other.
The most tolerable
sort of revenge,
is for those wrongs
which there is no law to remedy;
but
then let a man take heed,
the revenge be such
as there is no
law to
punish; else a man's
enemy is still before hand,
and it is two for one.
Some,
when they take revenge, are desirous,
the party should know,
whence
it cometh.
This is the more generous.
For the delight seemeth to be,
not
so much in doing the hurt,
as in making the party repent.
But base and
crafty cowards,
are like the arrow
that flieth in the dark. Cosmus,
duke
of Florence,
had a desperate saying
against perfidious or neglecting
friends,
as if those wrongs were unpardonable;
You shall read (saith he)
that we are commanded
to forgive our enemies;
but you never read,
that we
are commanded
to forgive our friends.
But yet the spirit
of Job was in
a
better tune: Shall we (saith he)
take good at God's hands,
and not be
content
to take evil also?
And so of friends in a proportion.
This is
certain,
that a man that studieth revenge,
keeps his own wounds green,
which otherwise would heal, and do well.
Public revenges are for
the most
part fortunate;
as that for the death of Caesar;
for the death of
Pertinax;
for the death of
Henry the Third of France; and many more.
But
in private revenges,
it is not so. Nay rather,
vindictive persons live the
life of witches; who,
as they are mischievous,
so end they infortunate.
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