Francis Bacon

Narcissus; or Self-Love

001 

Narcissus is said

to have been

a young man of

wonderful beauty,

but intolerably proud,

fastidious, and disdainful.

Pleased with himself

and despising all others,

he led a solitary life

in the woods and

hunting grounds;

with a few companions

to whom

he was all in all;

followed also

wherever he went

by a nymph called

Echo.

002 

Living thus,

he came by chance

one day to

a clear fountain,

and (being in the heat of noon)

lay down by it;

when beholding in the water

his own image,

he fell into

such a study

and then into

such a

rapturous admiration of himself,

that he could not

be drawn away from

gazing at

the shadowy picture,

but remained rooted to

the spot till sense

left him;

and at last

he was changed into

the flower

that bears his name;

a flower

which appears

in the early spring;

and is sacred to

the infernal deities,

－Pluto,

Proserpine,

and the Furies.

003

In this fable

are represented

the dispositions,

and the fortunes too,

of those persons

who from consciousness

either of beauty or

some other gift with

which nature unaided

by any industry of

their own has graced them,

fall in love

as it were

with themselves.

004 

For with

this state of mind

there is commonly

joined an indisposition to

appear much in public or

engaged in business;

because business would expose

them to many neglects and scorns,

by which their minds would

be dejected and troubled.

005 

Therefore they

commonly live a solitary,

private, and

shadowed life;

with a small circle of

chosen companions,

all devoted admirers,

who assent like

an echo to everything

they say,

and entertain them

with mouth-homage;

till being by such habits

gradually depraved

and puffed up, and

besotted at last

with self-admiration,

they fall into

such a sloth

and listlessness

that they grow

utterly stupid, and

lose all

vigor and alacrity.

006 

And it was

a beautiful thought

to choose

the flower of spring

as an emblem of characters

like this:

characters which

in the opening of

their career flourish

and are talked of,

but disappoint

in maturity

the promise of

their youth.

007 

The fact

too that

this flower

is sacred to

the infernal deities

contains

an allusion to

the same thing.

008 

For men of

this disposition

turn out utterly

useless and good

for nothing whatever; 

and anything

that yields no fruit,

but

like the way of a ship

in the sea

passes and leaves no trace,

was by the ancients

held sacred to

the shades and infernal gods.