24 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, [ill. 6. 



than any versatile advantage of their own carriage. But 

 for this point of tender sense and fast obligation of duty 

 which learning doth endue the mind withal, howsoever 

 fortune may tax it, and many in the depth of their corrupt 

 principles may despise it, yet it will receive an open 

 allowance, and therefore needs the less disproof or ex- 

 cusation. 



7. Another fault incident commonly to learned men, 

 which may be more probably defended than truly denied, 

 is, that they fail sometimes in applying themselves to 

 particular persons : which want of exact application 

 ariseth from two causes ; the one, because the largeness 

 of their mind can hardly confine itself to dwell in the 

 exquisite observation or examination of the nature and 

 customs of one person : for it is a speech for a lover, and 

 not for a wise man, Satis magnum alter alteri theatrum 

 sumus. Nevertheless I shall yield, that he that cannot 

 contract the sight of his mind as well as disperse and 

 dilate it, wanteth a great faculty. But there is a second 

 cause, which is no inability, but a rejection upon choice 

 and judgement. For the honest and just bounds of ob 

 servation by one person upon another, extend no further 

 but to understand him sufficiently, whereby not to give 

 him offence, or whereby to be able to give him faithful 

 counsel, or whereby to stand upon reasonable guard and 

 caution in respect of a man s self. But to be speculative 

 into another man to the end to know how to work him, or 

 wind him, or govern him, proceedeth from a heart that is 

 double and cloven and not entire and ingenuous ; which 

 as in friendship it is want of integrity, so towards princes 

 or superiors is want of duty. For the custom of the 

 Levant, which is that subjects do forbear to gaze or 

 fix their eyes upon princes, is in the outward ceremony 



