secrecy; and they export honour from a man,2 and make him a return in envy. There is a kind of followers likewise which are dangerous, being indeed espials; which inquire the secrets of the house, and bear tales of them to others. Yet such men, many times, are in great favour; for they are officious, and commonly exchange tales. The following by certain estates of men, answerable to that which a great person himself professeth, (as of soldiers to him that hath been employed in the wars, and the like,) hath ever been a thing civil, and well taken even in monarchies; so it be without too much pomp or popularity. But the most honourable kind of following is to be followed as one that apprehendeth to advance virtue and desert1 in all sorts of persons. And yet, where there is no eminent odds in sufficiency, it is better to take with the more passable, than with the more able.5 And besides, to speak truth, in base times active men are of more use than virtuous. It is true that in government it is good to use men of one rank equally for to countenance some extraordinarily, is to make them insolent, and the rest discontent; because they may claim a due. But contrariwise, in favour, to use men with much difference and election is good; for it maketh the persons preferred more thankful, and the rest more officious: because all is of favour. It is good dis 1 futilitate suâ. 2 The translation inserts, si quis vere rem reputet. 8 pro re decorâ habitum est. 4 ut quis patronum se profiteatur eorum qui virtute et meritis clarent. 5 præstat mediocribus patrocinari quam eminentioribus. 6 quandoquidem ordinis paritas æquas gratiæ conditiones tanquam ex debito poscit. 7 neque de hoc merito conqueratur quispiam, quum omnia ex gratia non ex debito prodeant. cretion not to make too much of any man at the first; because one cannot hold out that proportion. To be governed (as we call it) by one, is not safe; for it shews softness, and gives a freedom to scandal and disreputation; for those that would not censure or speak ill of a man immediately, will talk more boldly of those that are so great with them, and thereby wound their honour. Yet to be distracted with many is worse; for it makes men to be of the last impression,1 and full of change. To take advice of some few friends is ever honourable; for lookers-on many times see more than gamesters; and 2 the vale best discovereth the hill. There is little friendship in the world, and least of all between equals, which was wont to be magnified. That that is, is between superior and inferior, whose fortunes may comprehend the one the other. XLIX. OF SUITORS. MANY ill matters and projects are undertaken; and private suits do putrefy the public good. Many good matters are undertaken with bad minds; I mean not only corrupt minds, but crafty minds, that intend not performance. Some embrace suits, which never mean to deal effectually in them; but if they see there may be life in the matter by some other mean, they will be content to win a thank, or take a second reward, or at least to make use in the mean time of the suitor's hopes. Some take hold of suits only for an occasion to 1 postremo (ut nunc loquuntur) editionis. Whence it would appear that the metaphor is from the printing-press. 2 atque (ut adagio dicitur). 8 recipiunt et operam avide pollicentur. cross some other; or to make an information1 whereof they could not otherwise have apt pretext; without care what become of the suit when that turn is served; or, generally, to make other men's business a kind of entertainment to bring in their own. Nay some undertake suits, with a full purpose to let them fall; to the end to gratify the adverse party or competitor. Surely there is in some sort a right in every suit; either a right in equity, if it be a suit of controversy; or a right of desert, if it be a suit of petition. If affection lead a man to favour the wrong side in justice, let him rather use his countenance to compound the matter than to carry it. If affection lead a man to favour the less worthy in desert, let him do it without depraving or disabling the better deserver. In suits which a man doth not well understand, it is good to refer them to some friend of trust and judgment, that may report whether he may deal in them with honour: but let him choose well his referendaries, for else he may be led by the nose. Suitors are so distasted with delays and abuses, that plain dealing in denying to deal in suits at first, and reporting the success barely, and in challenging no more thanks than one hath deserved, is grown not only honourable but also gracious. In suits of favour, the first coming ought to take little place: so far forth consideration may be had of his trust,2 that if intelligence of the matter could not otherwise have been had but by him, advantage be not taken of the note, but the party left to his other means; and in some sort recompensed for his discovery. To be ignorant of the 1 ut aliquid obiter deferant et informent. 2 fides in re illâ patefaciendâ. 8 hoc ei fraudi non sit, sed potius remuneretur. 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.1 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. 4 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 impe trare. 4 non invenitur in rebuspublicis perniciosius hominum genus. 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; 2 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. |