Advancement of Learning 181 



For as Salomon saith, Qui respicit ad ventos, non seminal ; et 

 qui respicit ad nubes, non metet: 1 a man must make his 

 opportunity, as oft as find it. To conclude, behaviour 

 seemeth to me as a garment of the mind, and to have the 

 conditions of a garment. For it ought to be made in 

 fashion; it ought not to be too curious; it ought to be 

 shaped so as to set forth any good making of the mind, 

 and hide any deformity; and above all, it ought not to 

 be too strait, or restrained for exercise or motion. But 

 this part of civil knowledge hath been elegantly handled, 

 and therefore I cannot report it for deficient. 



The wisdom touching negotiation or business hath not 

 been hitherto collected into writing, to the great derogation 

 of learning, and the professors of learning. For from this 

 root springeth chiefly that note or opinion, which by us is 

 expressed in adage to this effect, that there is no great 

 concurrence between learning and wisdom. For of the 

 three wisdoms which we have set down to pertain to civil 

 life, for wisdom of behaviour it is by learned men for the 

 most part despised, as an inferior to virtue, and an enemy 

 to meditation; for wisdom of government, they acquit 

 themselves well, when they are called to it, but that hap- 

 peneth to few; but for the wisdom of business, wherein 

 man s life is most conversant, there be no books of it, 

 except some few scattered advertisements, that have no 

 proportion to the magnitude of this subject. For if books 

 were written of this, as the other, I doubt not but learned 

 men with mean experience, would far excel men of long 

 experience without learning, and outshoot them in their 

 own bow. 



Neither needeth it at all to be doubted, that this know 

 ledge should be so variable as it f alleth not under precept ; 

 for it is much less infinite than science of government, 

 which, we see, is laboured and in some part reduced. Of 

 this wisdom, it seemeth some of the ancient Romans in 

 the saddest and wisest times were professors; for Cicero 

 reporteth 2 that it was then in use for senators that had 

 name and opinion for general wise men, as Coruncanius, 

 Curius, Laelius, and many others, to walk at certain hours 

 in the Place, and to give audience to those that would use 

 their advice; and that the particular citizens would resort 



1 Eccles. xi. 4. 2 Cic. de Orat. iii. 133, 134 (cap. 33). 



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