243 O-F THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIII. 36. 



habit of dissimulation is but a weak and sluggish cunning, 

 and not greatly politic. 



37. Another precept of this architecture of fortune is 

 to accustom our minds to judge of the proportion or 

 value of things, as they conduce and are material to our 

 particular ends: and that to do substantially, and not 

 superficially. For we shall find the logical part (as I may 

 term it) of some men s minds good, but the mathematical 

 part erroneous; that is, they can well judge of conse 

 quences, but not of proportions and comparison, pre 

 ferring things of show and sense before things of sub 

 stance and effect. So some fall in love with access to 

 princes, others with popular fame and applause, sup 

 posing they are things of great purchase, when in many 

 cases they are but matters of envy, peril, and impediment. 

 So some measure things according to the labour and 

 difficulty or assiduity which are spent about them; and 

 think, if they be ever moving, that they must needs 

 advance and proceed; as Csesar saith in a despising 

 manner of Cato the second, when he describeth how 

 laborious and indefatigable he was to no great purpose, 

 H&c omnia magno studio agebat. So in most things men 

 are ready to abuse themselves in thinking the greatest 

 means to be best, when it should be the fittest. 



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 remove 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 



