II. 4 .] THE FIRST BOOK. 



[cautions of ji^lication : so that in all these it^ 

 Imore effectually than it can pervert. And these medicines 

 n t conveyetTTinto men s millers much more forcibly by the 

 quickness and penetration of examples. For let a man 

 look into the errors of Clement the seventh, so lively 

 described by Guicciardine, who served under him, or into 

 the errors of Cicero, painted out by his own pencil in his 

 Epistles to Atticus, and he will fly apace from being 

 irresolute. Let him look into the errors of Phocion, and 

 he will beware how he be obstinate or inflexible. Let 

 him but read the fable of Ixion, and it will hold him 

 from being vaporous or imaginative. Let him look into 

 the errors of Cato the second, and he will never be one 

 of the Antipodes, to tread opposite to the present world. 



5. And for the conceit that learning should dispose I 

 men to leisure and privateness, and make men slothful ; 

 it were a strange thing if that which accustometh the mind 

 to a perpetual motion and agitation should induce sloth- 

 fulness: whereas contrariwise it may be truly affirmed, 

 that no kind of men love business for itself but those that 

 are learned; for other persons love it for profit, as an 

 hireling, that loves the work for the wages ; or for honour, 

 as because it beareth them up in the eyes of men, and 

 refresheth their reputation, which otherwise would wear; 

 or because it putteth them in mind of their fortune, and 

 giveth them occasion to pleasure and displeasure; or 

 because it exerciseth some faculty wherein they take 

 pride, and so entertaineth them in good humour and 

 pleasing conceits toward themselves; or because it 

 advanceth any other their ends. So that as it is said 

 of untrue valours, that some men s valours are in the 

 eyes of them that look on ; so such men s industries 

 are in the eyes of others, or at least in regard of their 



