come on, but marshal them according to greatness and not according to instance; not observing the good precept, Quod nunc instat agamus,

[Despatch we now what stands us now upon].

Another precept of this knowledge is, not to embrace any matters which do occupy too great a quantity of time, but to have that sounding in a man's ears, Sed fugit interea, fugit irreparabile tempus, [while he is making ready to do it the time for doing it is gone ;] and that is the cause why those which take their course of rising by professions of burden, as lawyers, orators, painful divines, and the like, are not commonly so politic for their own fortune,' otherwise than in their ordinary way, because they want time to learn particulars, to wait occasions, and to devise plots.2

Another precept of this knowledge is to imitate nature which doth nothing in vain; which surely a man may do, if he do well interlace his business, and bend not his mind too much upon that which he principally intendeth. For a man ought in every particular action so to carry the motions of his mind, and so to have one thing under another, as if he cannot have that he seeketh in the best degree, yet to have it in a second, or so in a third; and if he can have no part of that which he purposed, yet to turn the use of it to somewhat else; and if he cannot make any thing of it for the present, yet to make it, as a seed of somewhat in

1 So the original. Edd. 1629 and 1633 have fortunes.

2 Whereas (he adds in the translation) you will find in courts and commonwealths that the best promoters of their own fortune are those who have no public duty to discharge, and make their own rising their only business.

3 This last clause is omitted in the translation.

4 i. e. to turn his labour taken therein to some other use quempiam præter destinatum finem operam impensam flectamus).

(ad alium

time to come; and if he can contrive no effect or substance from it, yet to win some good opinion by it, or the like; so that he should exact an account 1 of himself, of every action to reap somewhat, and not to stand amazed and confused if he fail of that he chiefly meant: for nothing is more impolitic than to mind actions wholly one by one; for he that doth so leeseth infinite occasions which intervene, and are many times more proper and propitious for somewhat that he shall need afterwards, than for that which he urgeth for the present; and therefore men must be perfect in that rule, Hæc oportet facere, et illa non omittere, [these things ought ye to do, and not to leave the other undone].

Another precept of this knowledge is, not to engage a man's self peremptorily in any thing, though it seem not liable to accident; but ever to have a window to fly out at, or a way to retire;2 following the wisdom in the ancient fable of the two frogs, which consulted when their plash was dry whither they should go; and the one moved to go down into a pit, because it was not likely the water would dry there; but the other answered, True, but if it do, how shall we get out again?

Another precept of this knowledge is that ancient precept of Bias, construed not to any point of perfidiousness but only to caution and moderation, Et ama tanquam inimicus futurus, et odi tanquam amaturus, [love your friend as you would love one who may hereafter be your enemy; hate your enemy as one who may hereafter be your friend ;] for it utterly betrayeth all utility for men to embark themselves too far in un

1 So the original. Edd. 1629 and 1633 omit an.

2 The rest of this paragraph is omitted in the translation.

fortunate friendships, troublesome spleens, and childish and humorous envies or emulations.

But I continue this beyond the measure of an example; led, because I would not have such knowledges which I note as deficient to be thought things imaginative or in the air, or an observation or two much made of; but things of bulk and mass, whereof an end is hardlier made than a beginning. It must be likewise conceived, that in these points which I mention and set down, they are far from complete tractates of them, but only as small pieces for patterns. And lastly, no man I suppose will think that I mean fortunes are not obtained without all this ado; for I know they come tumbling into some men's laps; and a number obtain good fortunes by diligence in a plain way, little intermeddling, and keeping themselves from gross errors.

But as Cicero, when he setteth down an Idea of a perfect Orator, doth not mean that every pleader should be such; and so likewise, when a Prince or a Courtier hath been described by such as have handled those subjects, the mould hath used to be made according to the perfection of the art, and not according to common practice: so I understand it that it ought to be done in the description of a Politic man; I mean politic for his own fortune.

But it must be remembered all this while, that the precepts which we have set down are of that kind which may be counted and called bona artes, [honest arts]. As for evil arts, if a man would set down for himself that principle of Machiavel, that a man seek not to attain virtue itself, but the appearance only thereof; because the credit of virtue is a help, but the use of it is cumber; or that other of his principles,

that he presuppose that men are not fitly to be wrought otherwise but by fear, and therefore that he seek to have every man obnoxious, low, and in strait, which the Italians call seminar spine, to sow thorns; or that other principle contained in the verse which Cicero citeth, Cadant amici, dummodo inimici intercidant, [down with friends so enemies go down with them,] as the Triumvirs, which sold every one to other the lives of their friends for the deaths of their enemies; or that other protestation of L. Catilina, to set on fire and trouble states, to the end to fish in droumy waters, and to unwrap their fortunes; Ego si quid in fortunis meis excitatum sit incendium, id non aqua sed ruina restinguam, [if my fortunes be set on fire I will put it out not with water but with demolition :] or that other principle of Lysander that children are to be deceived with comfits, and men with oaths and the like evil and corrupt positions, whereof (as in all things) there are more in number than of the good: certainly with these dispensations from the laws of charity and integrity the pressing of a man's fortune may be more hasty and compendious. But it is in life as it is in ways; the shortest way is commonly the foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about.

But men if they be in their own power and do bear and sustain themselves, and be not carried away with a whirlwind or tempest of ambition, ought in the pursuit of their own fortune to set before their eyes not only that general map of the world, that all things are vanity and vexation of spirit, but many other more particular cards and directions: chiefly that, that Being without well-being is a curse and the greater being the greater curse, and that all virtue is most rewarded and all

wickedness most punished in itself: according as the poet saith excellently:

Quæ vobis, quæ digna, viri, pro laudibus istis
Præmia posse rear solvi? pulcherrima primum
Dii moresque dabunt vestri:

[What recompence, O friends, can I hold out
Worthy such deeds? The best is that ye have,
God's blessing and your proper nobleness :]

and so of the contrary. And secondly they ought to look up to the eternal providence and divine judgment, which often subverteth the wisdom of evil plots and imaginations, according to that Scripture, He hath conceived mischief, and shall bring forth a vain thing. And although men should refrain themselves from injury and evil arts, yet this incessant and sabbathless pursuit of a man's fortune leaveth not tribute which we owe to God of our time; who (we see) demandeth a tenth of our substance, and a seventh, which is more strict, of our time and it is to small purpose to have an erected face towards heaven, and a perpetual grovelling spirit upon earth, eating dust as doth the serpent ; Atque affigit humo divinæ particulam auræ, [fixing to earth the etherial spark divine]. And if any man flatter himself that he will employ his fortune well though he should obtain it ill, as was said concerning Augustus Cæsar, and after of Septimius Severus, that either they should never have been born or else they should never have died, they did so much mischief in the pursuit and ascent of their greatness, and so much good when they were established; yet these compensations and satisfactions are good to be used, but never good to be purposed. And lastly, it is not amiss for men in their race toward their fortune to cool themselves

a