From Francis Bacon's essay *Of Adversity* (1625). Select the word that fits the blank. "Certainly virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant when they are incensed, or crushed: for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover ______."

The colon-clause sets up an antithesis: *prosperity discovers X, adversity discovers Y*. Bacon has been arguing throughout the essay that adversity reveals virtue (the lively work on a sad ground, the precious odor released when crushed). So Y must be the opposite of "vice" — i.e. **virtue**. The sentence's opening simile ("virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant when… crushed") removes any doubt: it is virtue that adversity brings out. "Weakness" and "error" would fit if the blank were a synonym for vice; the colon construction explicitly requires the opposite. "Wisdom" is close in flavor but doesn't sit in Bacon's vice/virtue dichotomy.