A Finding List: Part I.

Bacon’s Words and Phrases of the English then of the Latin

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W-X-Y-Z

V (English)

Vacuum Bacon’s mind was in a curious state of vacillation regarding the theory of a vacuum in nature. At first he thought that the atoms of which a body is composed must vibrate in a vacuum, as he could not otherwise conceive how bodies contract and expand. This was in 1603. In 1620, when he published the Novum Organum, he said he was in doubt on the subject; but three years later we find him distinctly and emphatically rejecting the theory of a vacuum, whether applied to bodies in space or to the internal constitution of bodies.

Vain Vain glorious persons are ever factious, liars, inconstant, extreme. Thraso is Gnaso’s prey. (Bacon, De Aug., Bk. VI. Antitheta).
Glorious (or boastful) men are the scorn of wise men, the admiration of fools, the idols of parasites, and the slaves of their own vaunts. (Bacon, Essay: Of Vain Glory).

Vast From vastus (kindred with vacuus), empty, waste. Because their excursions into the limits of physical causes hath bred a vastness [vacancy] and solitude in that tract. (Bacon, Adv).

Vengeance Vndictive persons live the life of witches; who, as they are mischievous, so end they infortunate. (Bacon, Essays: IV).

Vanity Dispositions that have in them some vanity are readier to undertake the care of the commonwealth. (Bacon, De Aug., Bk. VI. Antitheta).

Venus Apellis Err; Helen of Zeuxis. (Bacon, De Aug., Bk. VI).

Vices of authority Are chiefly four: (Bacon, Essays: XI)

1. Delays: give easy access; keep times appointed; go through with that which is in hand, and interlace not business but of necessity.
2. Corruption: do not only bind thine own hands or thy servants’ hands from taking, but bind the hands of suitors also from offering.
3. Roughness: a needless cause of discontent.
4. Facility: avoid not only the fault, but the suspicion.

Vindication What Hallam left dark and Campbell foul should be cleansed as soon as may be from dust and stain. It is our due. One man only set aside, our interest in Bacon’s fame is greater than in that of any Englishman who ever lived. We cannot hide his light, we cannot cast him out. For good, it be good, for evil, if it must be evil, his brain has passed into our brain, his soul into our souls. We are part of him; he is part of us; inseparable as the salt and sea. The life he lived has become our law. If it be true that the Father of Modern Science was a rogue and cheat, it is also most true that we have taken a rogue and cheat to be our god. (Dixon). 1

Virtue Is nothing but inward beauty; beauty nothing but outward virtue. (Bacon, De Aug., Bk. VI. Antitheta).
A long course is better than a short one for everything, even for virtue. Without a good space of life a man can neither finish, nor learn, nor repent. (Ibid).
For which of the good works do you stone me? (Bacon, Promus, 1594–96).
Praise is the handmaid of virtue. (Ibid).
We should both seek and love virtue for itself, and not for praise; for, as one said, it is a shame for him that woos the mistress to court the maid, for praise is the handmaid of virtue. (Bacon, Letter to Rutland, 1596).

Vivisection The practice of vivisection, and trial of drugs on living organisms can be traced back to a very early period; but until Harvey resorted to it in order to demonstrate the circulation of the blood, knowledge of the subject was confined to a very limited circle of physiologists. It was on this account that Harvey has been called the Father of Vivisection. And yet it seems that Bacon and Shakespeare had both investigated it before Harvey’s experiments became public, and were fully aware of the beneficent effects claimed in its behalf. “To speak, therefore, of medicine, and to resume that we have said, ascending a little higher.” (Bacon).

Vocabulary A common farm laborer in England uses, it is said, five hundred words. The average educated business man, three thousand. A writer, like Thackeray, five thousand. The great poet, scholar and publicist, John Milton, used seven thousand. According to Professor George L. Craik, a recognized authority in this branch of science, the author of the Shakespeare plays and poems used twenty-one thousand (inflectional forms not counted). This is admitted to have been the largest vocabulary ever possessed by any individual of the human race. The extent of Bacon’s vocabulary has not been definitely ascertained, but “a Dictionary of the English language might be compiled from Bacon’s works alone.” (Johnson). We are certain that it was immense, probably the greatest, with one exception (if it be an exception), ever known. Bacon made a study of comparative philology in order to show, as he said, “in what points each language excels and in what it fails, so that not only may languages be enriched by mutual exchanges, but also the several beauties of each be combined and thus made to constitute a model of speech itself.”

V (Latin)

Vacuum coacervatum Clear empty space. (Bacon, Nov. Org., Aphorismorum XLVIII).

Vacuum permistum Vacuum diffused through the interstices of any portion of matter. (Bacon, Nov. Org., Aphorismorum XLVIII).

Vehicula scientiæ Carriers of knowledge. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. I).

Vehiculum formæ Carries the form. (Bacon, Nov. Org., Aphorismorum XXIII.; Adv., Bk. II). Actuates the potential existence of the form in the subject matter.

Vena porta Gate-vein; the metaphor is historically curious; for no one would have used it since the discovery of the circulation of the blood and of the lacteals. But in Bacon’s time it was supposed that the chyle was taken up by the veins, which converge to the vena porta. (Bacon, Essays: XIX).
Being a King that loved wealth and treasure, he could not endure to have trade sick, nor any obstruction to continue in the gate-vein, which disperseth that blood. (Bacon, Hist. Henry VII).

Veni in nomine Patris, nec recipitis me; si quis venerit in nomine suo, eum recipietis: I have come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not; if one come in his own name, him ye will receive. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).

Verba ista sunt senum otiosorum It is the talk of old men that have nothing to do. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. I).

Verba sapientum tanquam aculei, et tanquam clavi in altum defixi The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fixed deep in. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. I).

Verbera sed audi Strike me if you will, only hear me. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).

Verborum minutiis rerum frangit pondera That he broke up the weight and mass of the matter by verbal points and niceties. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. I).

Vere magnum, habere fragilitatem hominis, securitatem dei It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a God. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).

Versatile ingenium A wit that could turn well; if a man look sharply and attentively he shall see fortune, for though she be blind, yet she is not invisible. (Bacon, Essays: XL).

Verum hæc et omnia mala pariter cum honore precunæ desinent; si neque magistratus, neque alia vulgo cupienda, venalia erunt: But these and all other evils will cease as soon as the worship of money ceases; which will come to pass when neither magistracies nor other things that are objects of desire to the vulgar shall be to be had for money. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. I).
Vestigiorum This application of the word vestigia is constantly made by the schoolmen.

Victorque volentes per populos dat jura, viamque affectat Olympo Moving in conquest onward, at his will to willing peoples he gives laws, and shapes through worthiest deeds on earth his Court to Heaven. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. I).

Video meliora, proboque; deteriora sequor Whereby they who not only see the better course, but approve it also, nevertheless follow the worse. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).

Viderit successus The result will show. (Bacon).

Vidi cunctos viventes qui ambulant sub sole, cum adolescente secundo qui consurgit pro eo: I beheld all the living which walk under the sun, with the second youth that shall stand in his place. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).

Vidisti virum velocem in opere suo? Coram regibus stabit, nec erit inter ignobiles: Seest thou a man that is quick in his business? He shall stand before Kings; his place shall not be among mean men. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).

Vincenda est omnis fortuna ferendo All fortune may be overcome by endurance or suffering. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).

Vincenda est omnis natura ferendo All nature may be overcome by suffering. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).

Vinculum Bond. (Bacon).

Vir sapiens si cum stulto contenderit, sive irascatur sive rideat, non inveniet requiem: A wise man if he contend with a fool, whether he be angry or whether he laugh, shall find no rest. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).

Vis unita fortior Combined forces are stronger. (Bacon).

Viscerum pensilitas Not being supported from below, but merely hanging from their attachments. (Bacon, De Aug., Bk. IV.; Syl. Sylv. 733).

Vita brevis, ars longa Life is short and art is long. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).

Vita sine proposito languida et vaga est Life without an object to pursue is a languid and tiresome thing. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).