THE SECOND BOOK. 175 



(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 removal 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 variety of occasions. But that opinion I may condemn 

 with like reason as Machiavel doth that other, that moneys 

 were the sinews of the wars ; whereas (saith he) the true 

 sinews of the wars are the sinews 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 preposterous 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, bin 

 marshal them according to greatness and not according to 

 instance; not observing the good precept, Quod nunc instat 

 agamus. 



(39) 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 : 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. 



(40) 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 



