Of Ambition
Editorial commentary by Ayman Fouad Abdelgawad
Reading note: Wanting to excel, wanting to overshadow
Bacon distinguishes the wish to achieve important things from the wish to be important in everything. His essay is also a revealing manual for rulers who want the energy of ambitious people while fearing their independence.
AMBITION is like choler; which is an humor that maketh men active, earnest, full of alacrity, and stirring, if it be not stopped. But if it be stopped, and cannot have his way, it becometh adust, and thereby malign and venomous. So ambitious men, if they find the way open for their rising, and still get forward, they are rather busy than dangerous; but if they be checked in their desires, they become secretly discontent, and look upon men and matters with an evil eye, and are best pleased, when things go backward; which is the worst property in a servant of a prince, or state. Therefore it is good for princes, if they use ambitious men, to handle it, so as they be still progressive and not retrograde; which, because it cannot be without inconvenience, it is good not to use such natures at all.
For if they rise not with their service, they will take order, to make their service fall with them. But since we have said, it were good not to use men of ambitious natures, except it be upon necessity, it is fit we speak, in what cases they are of necessity. Good commanders in the wars must be taken, be they never so ambitious; for the use of their service, dispenseth with the rest; and to take a soldier without ambition, is to pull off his spurs. There is also great use of ambitious men, in being screens to princes in matters of danger and envy; for no man will take that part, except he be like a seeled dove, that mounts and mounts, because he cannot see about him. There is use also of ambitious men, in pulling down the greatness of any subject that overtops; as Tiberius used Marco, in the pulling down of Sejanus.
Since, therefore, they must be used in such cases, there resteth to speak, how they are to be bridled, that they may be less dangerous. There is less danger of them, if they be of mean birth, than if they be noble; and if they be rather harsh of nature, than gracious and popular: and if they be rather new raised, than grown cunning, and fortified, in their greatness. It is counted by some, a weakness in princes, to have favorites; but it is, of all others, the best remedy against ambitious great-ones. For when the way of pleasuring, and displeasuring, lieth by the favorite, it is impossible any other should be overgreat. Another means to curb them, is to balance them by others, as proud as they. But then there must be some middle counsellors, to keep things steady; for without that ballast, the ship will roll too much.
At the least, a prince may animate and inure some meaner persons, to be as it were scourges, to ambitious men. As for the having of them obnoxious to ruin; if they be of fearful natures, it may do well; but if they be stout and daring, it may precipitate their designs, and prove dangerous. As for the pulling of them down, if the affairs require it, and that it may not be done with safety suddenly, the only way is the interchange, continually, of favors and disgraces; whereby they may not know what to expect, and be, as it were, in a wood. Of ambitions, it is less harmful, the ambition to prevail in great things, than that other, to appear in every thing; for that breeds confusion, and mars business. But yet it is less danger, to have an ambitious man stirring in business, than great in dependences.
He that seeketh to be eminent amongst able men, hath a great task; but that is ever good for the public. But he, that plots to be the only figure amongst ciphers, is the decay of a whole age. Honor hath three things in it: the vantage ground to do good; the approach to kings and principal persons; and the raising of a man's own fortunes. He that hath the best of these intentions, when he aspireth, is an honest man; and that prince, that can discern of these intentions in another that aspireth, is a wise prince. Generally, let princes and states choose such ministers, as are more sensible of duty than of using; and such as love business rather upon conscience, than upon bravery, and let them discern a busy nature, from a willing mind.
Editor’s critique
Who gets to call ambition dangerous?
The distinction I would rescue from this essay is between competing among capable people and arranging to be surrounded by people who cannot compete. The first ambition can improve a shared endeavour. The second diminishes everyone else so that one person appears larger. Bacon’s compressed description catches something that grand claims about leadership often conceal: some people seek excellence, while others seek a room in which excellence cannot challenge them.
But the viewpoint of the essay deserves resistance. Ambitious people appear chiefly as resources and hazards for a ruler to manage. Bacon recommends balancing rivals and, when necessary, alternating favour and disgrace to keep a troublesome figure uncertain. Read from below rather than above, this is a description of deliberate insecurity. Its shrewdness does not make it a defensible way to treat people.
I am also unconvinced by the ease with which frustrated aspiration becomes suspect. Resentment may arise from vanity, but it may also arise from promises broken or opportunities distributed unfairly. The essay’s final preference for duty over display is attractive. It would be more convincing if the ruler’s conduct faced the same scrutiny as the subordinate’s temperament. Ambition becomes a useful moral category only when it can describe the person already holding power as well as the person seeking it.
Source & attribution
Francis Bacon, “Of Ambition,” from The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral. Source edition at Project Gutenberg.
Original wording retained; web layout, paragraph presentation, and editorial commentary added for this site. These historical essays reflect their authors’ periods and viewpoints.