XXIII. 33.] THE SECOND BOOK. 339 



he addeth that he had versatile ingenium. And thereof 

 it cometh that these grave solemn wits, which must be 

 like themselves and cannot make departures, have more 

 dignity than felicity. But in some it is nature to be 

 somewhat viscous and inwrapped, and not easy to turn. 

 In some it is a conceit that is almost a nature, which is, 

 that men can hardly make themselves believe that they 

 ought to change their course, when they have found good 

 by it in former experience. For Machiavel noted wisely, 

 how Fabius Maximus would have been temporizing still, 

 according to his old bias, when the nature of the war 

 was altered and required hot pursuit. In some other 

 it is want of point and penetration in their judgement, 

 that they do not discern when things have a period, but 

 come in too late after the occasion; as Demosthenes 

 compareth the people of Athens to country fellows, when 

 they play in a fence school, that if they have a blow, then 

 they remove their weapon to that ward, and not before. 

 In some other it is a lothness to leese labours passed, and 

 a conceit that they can bring about occasions to their ply ; 

 and yet in the end, when they see no other remedy, then 

 they come to it with disadvantage ; as Tarquinius, that 

 gave for the third part of Sibylla s books the treble price, 

 when he mought at first have had all three for the simple. 

 But from whatsoever root or cause this restiveness of 

 mind proceedeth, it is a thing most prejudicial; and 

 nothing is more politic than to make the wheels of our 

 mind concentric and voluble with the wheels of fortune. 



34. Another precept of this knowledge, which hath 

 some affinity with that we last spake of, but with differ 

 ence, is that which is well expressed, Fatis accede deisque, 

 that men do not only turn with the occasions, but also 

 run with the occasions, and not strain their credit or 



