THE SECOND BOOK. ] (15 



is not comprehensible by axiom, it is requisite, as we did in 

 the former, that we set down some heads or passages of it. 



(13) Wherein it may appear at the first a new and unwonted 

 argument to teach men how to raise and make their fortune ; 

 a doctrine wherein every man perchance will be ready to yield 

 himself a disciple, till he see the difficulty : for fortune layeth 

 as heavy impositions as virtue ; and it is as hard and severe a 

 thing to be a true politique, as to be truly moral. But the 

 handling hereof concerneth learning greatly, both in honour 

 and in substance. In honour, because pragmatical men may 

 not go away with an opinion that learning is like a lark, that 

 can mount and sing, and please herself, and nothing else ; 

 but may know that she holdeth as well of the hawk, that can 

 soar aloft, and can also descend and strike upon the prey. In 

 substance, because it is the perfect law of inquiry of truth, 

 that nothing be in the globe of matter, which should not be 

 likewise in the globe of crystal or form ; that is, that there be 

 not anything in being and action which should not be drawn 

 and collected into contemplation and doctrine. Neither doth 

 learning admire or esteem of this architecture of fortune 

 otherwise than as of an inferior work, for no man s fortune 

 can be an end worthy of his being, and many times the 

 worthiest men do abandon their fortune willingly for better 

 respects : but nevertheless fortune as an organ of virtue and 

 merit deserveth the consideration. 



(14) First, therefore, the precept which I conceive to be 

 most summary towards the prevailing in fortune, is to obtaiu 

 that window which Momus did require ; who seeing in the 

 frame of man s heart such angles and recesses, found fault 

 there was not a window to look into them ; that is, to procure 

 good informations of particulars touching persons, their 

 natures, their desires and ends, their customs and fashions, 

 their helps and advantages, and whereby they chiefly stand, 

 so again their weaknesses and disadvantages, and where they 

 lie most open and obnoxious, their friends, factions, depend 

 ences ; and again their opposites, enviers, competitors, their 

 moods and times, Sola viri molles aditus et tcmpora noras ; 

 their principles, rules, and observations, and the like : and 

 this not only of persons but of actions ; what are on foot from 

 time to time, and how they are conducted, favoured, opposed, 

 and how they import, and the like. For the knowledge of 

 present actions is not only material in itself, but without it 

 also the knowledge of persons is very erroneous : for men 

 change with the actions ; and whilst they are in pursuit they 

 are one, and when they return to their nature they are 



