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246 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [ XXIII. 45. 
precepts which we have set down are of that kind which 
may be counted and called Bone Aries. As for evil arts, 
if a man would set down for himself that principle of 
Machiavel, Zhat a man seek not to atlain virtue itself, but 
the appearance only thereof ; because the credit of virtue ts 
a help, but the use of wt is cumber: or that other of his. 
principles, Zhat 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 inimict intercidant, 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 st quid in fortunis mets exctlatum sit incendium, id 
non aqua sed ruina reslinguam: or that other principle 
of Lysander, Zhat children are to be deceived with comfils, 
and men with oaths: and the like evil and corrupt posi- 
tions, 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. 
46. 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, Thaf all things are 
vanity and vexation of spirit, but many other more par- 
ticular cards and directions: chiefly that, that being 
on 
a 
