value of a suit is simplicity; as well as to be ignorant of the right thereof is want of conscience. Secrecy in suits is a great mean of obtaining; for voicing them to be in forwardness may discourage some kind of suitors, but doth quicken and awake others. But timing of the suit is the principal. Timing, I say, not only in respect of the person that should grant it, but in respect of those which are like to cross it. Let a man, in the choice of his mean, rather choose the fittest mean than the greatest mean; and rather them that deal in certain things, than those that are general. The reparation of a denial is sometimes equal to the first grant;2 if a man shew himself neither dejected nor discontented. Iniquum petas ut æquum feras, [Ask more than is reasonable, that you may get no less,] is a good rule, where a man hath strength of favour: but otherwise a man were better rise in his suit; for he that would have ventured at first to have lost the suitor, will not in the conclusion lose both the suitor and his own former favour. Nothing is thought so easy a request to a great person, as his letter; and yet, if it be not in a good cause, it is so much out of his reputation. There are no worse instruments than these general contrivers of suits; for they are but a kind of poison and infection to public proceedings.

1 atque eum potius adhibe qui paucioribus negotiis se immiscet, quam qui omnia complectitur.

2 Denegatæ petitionis iteratio concessioni ipsi quandoque æquipollet.

8 gradibus quibusdam ad id quod petis ascendere, et aliquid saltem impetrare.

4 non invenitur in rebuspublicis perniciosius hominum genus.

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L. OF STUDIES.

STUDIES serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business.3 For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning 7 by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to

contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to

1 aut meditationum voluptati, aut orationis ornamento, aut negotiorum subsidio.

2 in sermone tam familiari quam solemni.

8 ut accuratiore judicio res et suscipiantur et disponantur.

4 speciosa quædam socordia.

5 affectatio mera est quæ se ipsam prodit.

6 de rebus autem ex regulis artis judicare, scholam omnino sapit, nec bene succedit.

7 So in the original. Compare Sylva Sylvarum, § 432.: "the lower boughs only maintained, and the higher continually proined off:" and again § 823.: "many birds do proine their feathers: " from which I suppose that it is not a misprint, but another form of the word.

8 sed ut addiscas, ponderes, et judicio tuo aliquatenus utaris.

be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; 2 but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.1 And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit: and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtile; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores. [The studies pass into the manners.] Nay there is no stond or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies: like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for head; and the like. So if a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again. If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find

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1 quos deglutire cursimque legere oportet.

2 eorumque compendia tantum desumere.

8 penitus insipidi.

4 scriptio autem, et notarum collectio, perlecta in animo imprimit et altius figit.

5 gravitatem quandam morum conciliat.

6 pugnacem reddit, et ad contentiones alacrem.

differences, let him study the schoolmen; for they are cymini sectores, [splitters of hairs.] If he be not apt to beat over matters,1 and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers' cases. So every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.

LI. OF FACTION.

MANY have an opinion not wise, that for a prince to govern his estate, or for a great person to govern his proceedings, according to the respect of factions, is a principal part of policy; whereas contrariwise, the chiefest wisdom is either in ordering those things which are general, and wherein men of several factions do nevertheless agree; or in dealing with correspondence to particular persons, one by one.2 But I say not that the consideration of factions is to be neglected. Mean men, in their rising, must adhere; but great men, that have strength in themselves, were better to maintain themselves indifferent and neutral. Yet even in beginners, to adhere so moderately, as he be a man of the one faction which is most passable with the other, commonly giveth best way. The lower and weaker faction is the firmer in conjunction; and it is often seen that a few that are stiff do tire out a greater number that are more moderate. When one of the factions is extinguished, the remaining subdivideth; as the faction

1 si quis ad transcursus ingenii segnis sit.

2 in palpandis, conciliandis, et tractandis singulis.

8 jam pridem honorem adeptis.

4 ita caute adhærere, ut videatur quis alteri ex partibus addictus, et tamen parti adversæ minime odiosus, viam quandam sternit ad honores per medium factionum.

between Lucullus and the rest of the nobles of the senate (which they called Optimates) held out awhile against the faction of Pompey and Cæsar; but when the senate's authority was pulled down, Cæsar and Pompey soon after brake. The faction or party of Antonius and Octavianus Cæsar against Brutus and Cassius, held out likewise for a time; but when Brutus and Cassius were overthrown, then soon after Antonius and Octavianus brake and subdivided. These examples are of wars, but the same holdeth in private factions. And therefore those that are seconds in factions do many times, when the faction subdivideth, prove principals; but many times also they prove cyphers and cashiered; for many a man's strength is in opposition; and when that faileth he groweth out of use. It is commonly seen that men once placed take in with the contrary faction to that by which they enter: thinking belike that they have the first sure, and now are ready for a new purchase.1 The traitor in faction lightly goeth away with it; for when matters have stuck long in balancing, the winning of some one man casteth them, and he getteth all the thanks. The even carriage between two factions proceedeth not always of moderation, but of a trueness to a man's self, with end to make use of both. Certainly in Italy they hold it a little suspect in popes, when they have often in their mouth Padre commune: 5 and take it to be a sign of

1 ad novos amicos conciliandos se comparare.

2 plerumque rem obtinet.

8 tanquam in æquilibrio.

4 sed ex consilio callido, quandoquidem proximus sibi quisque sit, atque ex utrâque factione utilitatem demetere speret.

5 in suspicionem incurrit Papa, de quo vox illa in vulgus volitat, Padre Commune.