Advancement of Learning 201 



of men s arms, that is, a valiant, populous, and military 

 nation: and he voucheth aptly the authority of Solon, 

 who, when Croesus showed him his treasury of gold, said 

 to him, that if another came that had better iron, he would 

 be master of his gold. In like manner it may be truly 

 affirmed, that it is not moneys that are the sinews of fortune, 

 but it is the sinews and steel of men s minds, wit, courage, 

 audacity, resolution, temper, industry, and the like. In 

 the third place I set down reputation, because of the 

 peremptory tides and currents it hath; which, if they be 

 not taken in their due time, are seldom recovered, it being 

 extreme hard to play an after game of reputation. And 

 lastly, I place honour, which is more easily won by any of 

 the other three, much more by all, than any of them can be 

 purchased by honour. To conclude this precept, as there 

 is order and priority in matter, so is there in time, the pre 

 posterous placing whereof is one of the commonest errors : 

 while men fly to their ends when they should intend their 

 beginnings, and do not take things in order of time as they 

 come on, but marshal them according to greatness, and not 

 according to instance; not observing the good precept, 

 Quod nunc instat agamus. 1 



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: a 



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. 



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 

 1 Virg. Eel. ix. 66. 2 Ib. Georg. iii. 284. 



