346 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIII. 45. 



precepts which we have set down are of that kind which 

 may be counted and called Bonce Artes. As for evil arts, 

 if a man would set down for himself that principle of 

 Machiavel, That a man seek not to attain virtue itself, but 

 the appearance only thereof ; because the credit of virtue is 

 a help, but the use of it is cumber : or that other of his 

 principles, That he presuppose, that men are not fitly to be 

 wrought otherwise but by fear; and therefore that he seek 

 to have every man obnoxious, low, and in strait, which 

 the Italians call seminar spine, to sow thorns: or that 

 other principle, contained in the verse which Cicero citeth, 

 Cadant amid, dummodo inimici intercidant, as the triumvirs, 

 which sold every one to other the lives of their friends 

 for the deaths of their enemies : or that other protestation 

 of L. Catilina, to set on fire and trouble states, to the end 

 to fish in droumy waters, and to unwrap their fortunes, 

 Ego si quid in fortunis meis excitatum sit incendium, id 

 non aqua sed ruma resiinguam : or that other principle 

 of Lysander, That children are to be deceived with comfits, 

 and men with oaths : and the like evil and corrupt posi 

 tions, whereof (as in all things) there are more in number 

 than of the good : certainly with these dispensations from 

 the laws of charity and integrity, the pressing of a man s 

 fortune may be more hasty and compendious. But it is 

 in life as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the 

 foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about. 



46. But men, if they be in their own power, and do 

 bear and sustain themselves, and be not carried away 

 with a whirlwind or tempest of ambition, ought in the 

 pursuit of their own fortune to set before their eyes not 

 only that general map of the world, That all things are 

 vanity and vexation of spirit, but many other more par 

 ticular cards and directions: chiefly that, that being 



