We see a notable example in Tacitus of two stage players^
Perennius and Vibulenus, who by this faculty of flaying put the
Pannonian armies into an extreme tumult and combustion.
But he played it merely as if he had been upon the stage,

Tiberius, who was never seen in a pluty.
But men must know, that in this theatre of man's life it is reserved
only for God and angels to be lookers on.
Quid est deformius quam scenam in vitam transferre ?

From ^' De Augmentis Scientiarum " :

DramaiUa autem poesis^ quae theatrum habet pro mundo, usu
eximia est, si sana foret ^on parva enim esse potest t/yuM^ et
disciplina, et corruptela.
Attamen licet in rebuspubUcis modemis, babeatur pro re ludiicia
actio ^atralis^ nisi forte nimium trahat e satyrs^ e)b oiordeat.
MiwU in scena agendis,

Amori multum debet scena*



Digitized by VjOOQIC



228 FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES
Cnidditas viio bono semper &bulo6a esse videtur, et fictio

Adulatioms deformitas comica^ nocumentum tn^giamt.
Atque est res, quae si sit professoria, iniamis est : venun dis-
dplioaria fiacta, ex optimis est. Intelligimus aatem aMmem
thtairakm.
From the " Novum Organum " :

Quatuor sunt genera Idolorum quae mentes humanas obsident.
lis (dooendi gratia) nomina imposuixnus ; ut primum genus, Idola
Tribtts; secundum, Idola Specus; tertium, Idola Fori; quartum,
Thioin vooentur.
Sunt denique Idola quae immigrarunt in animos hominum ex
diversis dogmatibus philosophiarum, ac etiam ex perversis legibus
demonstrationum ; quae Idola Theairi nominamus ; quia quot philo-
sophiae receptae aut inventae sunt, tot Jabulas productas et actas
censeamus, quae tmmdos effecerunt fictitios et sanicos. Neque de
his quae jam habentur, aut etiam de veteribus philosophiis et sectis,
tantum loquimnr ; cum complures aliae ejusmodi /almlae componi
et condnnari possint . ..
