176 THE ADVANCEMENT OF -LEARNING. 



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 eannot 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 no part of that which he 

 purposed, yet to turn the use of it to somewhat else ; and if 

 he cannot make anything of it for the present, yet to 

 make it as a seed of somewhat in time to come; and if 

 he can contrive no effect or substance from it, yet to win some 

 good opinion by it, or the like. So that he should exact an 

 account of himself of every action, to reap somewhat, and not 

 to stand amazed and confused if he fail of that he chiefly 

 meant : for nothing is more impolitic than to mind actions 

 wholly one by one. For he that doth so loseth infinite 

 occasions which intervene, and are many times more proper 

 and propitious for somewhat that he shall need afterwards, 

 than for that which he urgeth for the present ; and therefore 

 men must be perfect in that rule, Hcec oportet facere, et ilia 

 non omittere. 



(41) Another precept of this knowledge is, not to engage a 

 man s self peremptorily in anything, though it seem not liable 

 to accident ; but ever to have a window to fly out at, or a 

 way to retire : following the wisdom in the ancient fable of 

 the two frogs, which consulted when their plash was dry 

 whither they should go ; and the one moved to go down into 

 a pit, because it was not likely the water would dry there ; 

 but the other answered, &quot; True, but if it do, how shall we get 

 out again ? &quot; 



(42) Another precept of this knowledge is that ancient pre 

 cept of Bias, construed not to any point of perfidiousness, but 

 only to caution and moderation, Et ama tanquam inimicus 

 futurus et odi tanquam amaturus. For it utterly betrayeth 

 all utility for men to embark themselves too far into un 

 fortunate friendships, troublesome spleens, and childish and 

 humorous envies or emulations. 



(43) But I continue this beyond the measure of an example ; 

 led, because I would not have such knowledges, which I note 

 as deficient, to be thought things imaginative or in the air, or 

 an observation or two much made of, but things of bulk and 

 mass, whereof an end is more hardly made thait a beginning. It 

 must be likewise conceived, that in these points which I men 

 tion and set down, they are far from complete tractates of 

 them, but only as small pieces for patterns. And lastly, no 

 man I suppose will think that I mean fortunes are not ob 

 tained without all tti is $p -for I know they come tumbling 



