and tenderly; for if thou dost not, it is a debt will sure be paid when thou art gone. If thou have colleagues, respect them, and rather call them when they look not for it, than exclude them when they have reason to look to be called. Be not too sensible or too remembering of thy place in conversation and private answers to suitors; but let it rather be said, When he sits in place he is another man.

XII. OF BOLDNESS.

It is a trivial grammar-school text, but yet worthy a wise man's consideration. Question was asked of Demosthenes,1 what was the chief part of an orator? he answered, action: what next? action: what next again? action. He said it that knew it best, and had by nature himself no advantage in that he commended. A strange thing, that that part of an orator which is but superficial, and rather the virtue of a player, should be placed so high, above those other noble parts of invention, elocution, and the rest; nay almost alone, as if it were all in all. But the reason is plain. There is in human nature generally more of the fool than of the wise; and therefore those faculties by which the foolish part of men's minds is taken are most potent. Wonderful like is the case of Boldness, in civil business;

1 Demosthenes, born 384 or 385, died 322 B.C., the greatest Greek orator. His best orations are the three Philippics, 351, 344, and 341 B.C., and the famous speech, On the Crown, 330 B.C.

what first? Boldness: what second and third? Boldness. And yet boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness, far inferior to other parts. But nevertheless it doth fascinate and bind hand and foot those that are either shallow in judgment or weak in courage, which are the greatest part; yea and prevaileth with wise men at weak times. Therefore we see it hath done wonders in popular states; but with senates and princes less; and more ever upon the first entrance of bold persons into action than soon after; for boldness is an ill keeper of promise. Surely as there are mountebanks1 for the natural body, so are there mountebanks for the politic2 body; men that undertake great cures, and perhaps have been lucky in two or three experiments, but want the grounds of science, and therefore cannot hold out. Nay you shall see a bold fellow many times do Mahomet's miracle. Mahomet3 made the people believe that he would call an hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled; Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again and again; and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit1 abashed, but said, If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill. So these men, when they have promised great matters and failed most shame

1 Mountebank.

A quack doctor who mounts a bench or platform to sell his wares. Ben Jonson gives a good description of an Elizabethan mountebank in his satirical comedy, Volpone. ii. 1.

2 Politic. Political. 3 Mohammed,

or Mahomet, 'the praised one,' 570-632 A.D., founder of Mohammedanism, or Islam ('surrender,' namely, to God).

4 Whit.

The smallest part; a jot, tittle, or iota: often used adverbially, and generally with a negative. "For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles." II. Corinthians xi. 5.

fully, yet (if they have the perfection of boldness) they will but slight it over, and make a turn, and no more ado. Certainly to men of great judgment, bold persons are a sport to behold; nay and to the vulgar also, boldness has somewhat of the ridiculous. For if absurdity be the subject of laughter, doubt you not but great boldness is seldom without some absurdity. Especially it is a sport to see, when a bold fellow is out of countenance; for that puts his face into a most shrunken and wooden posture; as needs it must; for in bashfulness the spirits do a little go and come; but with bold men, upon like occasion, they stand at a stay; like a stale1 at chess, where it is no mate, but yet the game cannot stir. But this last were fitter for a satire than for a serious observation. This is well to be weighed; that boldness is ever blind; for it seeth not dangers and inconveniences. Therefore it is ill in counsel, good in execution; so that the right use of bold persons is, that they never command in chief, but be seconds, and under the direction of others. For in counsel it is good to see dangers; and in execution not to see them, except they be very great.

XIII. OF GOODNESS AND GOODNESS OF NATURE.

I TAKE Goodness in this sense, the affecting of the weal of men, which is that the Grecians call Philanthropia, and the word humanity (as it is used) is a

1 Stale. Stale-mate, in chess, the position of a king when he cannot move but into check.

little too light to express it. Goodness I call the habit, and Goodness of Nature the inclination. This of all virtues and dignities of the mind is the greatest; being the character of the Deity: and without it man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing; no better than a kind of vermin., Goodness answers to the theological virtue Charity, and admits no excess, but error. The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall: but in charity there is no excess; neither can angel or man come in danger by it. The inclination to goodness is imprinted deeply in the nature of man; insomuch that if it issue not towards men, it will take unto other living creatures; as it is seen in the Turks, a cruel people, who nevertheless are kind to beasts, and give alms to dogs and birds; insomuch as Busbechius1 reporteth, a Christian boy in Constantinople had like to have been stoned for gagging in a waggishness a long-billed fowl.2 Errors indeed. in this virtue of goodness or charity may be committed. The Italians have an ungracious proverb, Tanto buon che val niente; So good, that he is good for nothing. And one of the doctors of Italy, Nicholas Machiavel,3 had the confidence to put in writing, almost in plain terms, That the Christian

1 Augier Ghislen de Busbec, or Busbecq, or Busbecqué (Latinized, Busbechius here, but better, Busbequius), 1522-1592, a Flemish diplomatist and scholar, ambassador of Ferdinand I. at Constantinople.

2 The bird was a goat-sucker, which the goldsmith fastened over his door with wings spread and jaws distended. The story will be found in Busbequius's letter from Constantinople, p. 179 of ed. 1633. S.

3 Niccolò Machiavelli, 1469-1527, Florentine statesman, author of Discourses on the First Decade of T. Livius, the Prince, and a

faith had given up good men in prey to those that are tyrannical and unjust.1 Which he spake, because indeed there was never law, or sect, or opinion, did so much magnify goodness, as the Christian religion doth. Therefore, to avoid the scandal and the danger both, it is good to take knowledge2 of the errors of an habit so excellent. Seek the good of other men, but be not in bondage to their faces or fancies; for that is but facility or softness; which taketh an honest mind prisoner. Neither give thou Esop's cock a gem, who would be better pleased and happier if he had a barley-corn.3 The example of God teacheth the lesson truly; He sendeth his rain, and maketh his sun to shine, upon the just and unjust; but he doth not rain wealth, nor shine History of Florence. Bacon was much attracted towards Machiavelli, who was a kindred spirit, a man of acute intellect and no compelling conscience.

4

1 Discorsi sopra La Prima Deca di T. Livio. II. 2.

2 Knowledge. Cognizance; notice; only in the phrase, 'to take knowledge of,' that is, 'to take cognizance or notice of, to observe.'

"Take you, as 't were, some distant knowledge of him."

Shakspere. Hamlet. ii. 1.

3 "As a Cock was turning up a Dunghill, he spy'd a Jewel. Well (says he to himself), this sparkling Foolery now to a Lapidary in my place, would have been the making of him, but as for any Use or Purpose of mine, a Barley-Corn had been worth Forty on 't. "The Moral.

"He that 's Industrious in an honest Calling, shall never fail of a Blessing. "T is the part of a wise Man to prefer Things necessary before Matters of Curiosity, Ornament, or Pleasure." Fable I. A Cock and a Diamond. Fables of Aesop and other Eminent Mythologists: with Morals and Reflexions. By Sir Roger L'Estrange, Kt.

"When peace was renewed with the French in England, divers of the great counsellors were presented from the French with jewels. The Lord Henry Howard was omitted. Whereupon the King said to him: My Lord, how haps it that you have not a jewel as well as the rest? My Lord answered again (alluding to the fable of Aesop): Non sum Gallus, itaque non reperi gemmam." Bacon. Apophthegmes New and Old. 203 (34).

"For he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Matthew v. 45.