1 ee ag ae 
242 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, [XXIII. 36. 
habit of dissimulation is but a weak and sluggish cunning, 
and not greatly politic. 
37- Another precept of this architecture of fortune is 
to accustom our minds to judge of the proportion or 
value of things, as they conduce and are material to our 
particular ends: and that to do substantially, and not 
superficially, For we shall find the logical part (as I may 
term it) of some men’s minds good, but the mathematical 
part erroneous; that is, they can well judge of conse- 
quences, but not of proportions and comparison, pre- 
ferring things of show and sense before things of sub- 
stance and effect. So some fall in love with access to 
princes, others with popular fame and applause, sup- 
posing they are things of great purchase, when in many 
cases they are but matters of envy, peril, and impediment. 
So some measure things according to the labour and 
difficulty or assiduity which are spent about them; and 
think, if they be ever moving, that they must needs 
advance and proceed; as Cesar saith in a despising 
manner of Cato the second, when he describeth how 
laborious and indefatigable he was to no great purpose, 
Hee omnia magno studio agebat. So in most things men 
are ready to abuse themselves in thinking the greatest 
means to be best, when it should be the fittest. 
38. As for the true marshalling of men’s pursuits 
towards their fortune, as they are more or less material, 
I hold them to stand thus. First the amendment of their 
own minds. For the remove of the impediments of the 
mind will sooner clear the passages of fortune, than the 
obtaining fortune will remove the impediments of the 
mind. In the second place I set down wealth and 
means; which I know most men would have placed first, 
because of the general use which it beareth towards all 
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