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Unit 11: Of Revenge by Francis Bacon

other hand, those who view nature as an entity in its own right, a higher-order estate of which Notes
the human community is only a part, tend to perceive him as a kind of arch-villain – the evil
originator of the idea of science as the instrument of global imperialism and technological
conquest.
On the one side, then, we have figures like the anthropologist and science writer Loren Eiseley,
who portrays Bacon (whom he calls “the man who saw through time”) as a kind of Promethean
culture hero. He praises Bacon as the great inventor of the idea of science as both a communal
enterprise and a practical discipline in the service of humanity. On the other side, we have
writers, from Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Lewis Mumford to, more recently, Jeremy
Rifkin and eco-feminist Carolyn Merchant, who have represented him as one of the main
culprits behind what they perceive as western science’s continuing legacy of alienation, exploitation,
and ecological oppression.

Clearly somewhere in between this ardent Baconolotry, on the one hand there is a strident
demonisation of Bacon and on the other lies the real Lord Chancellor: a Colossus with feet of
clay. He was by no means a great system-builder (indeed his Magna Instauratio turned out to
be less of a “grand edifice” than a magnificent heap) but rather, as he more modestly portrayed
himself, a great spokesman for the reform of learning and a champion of modern science. In
the end we can say that he was one of the giant figures of intellectual history—and as brilliant,
and flawed, a philosopher as he was a statesman.

11.4 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 pulleth 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 Salomon,
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 labour in past matters.
There is no man doth a wrong for the wrong’s sake; but thereby to purchase himself profit,
or pleasure, or honour, or the like. There 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 or 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 beforehand, 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 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 unfortunate.

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