406 ADVICE TO SIR GEORGE VILLIERS. 



first read them, and draw lines under the material 

 parts thereof; for the matter, for the most part, 

 lies in a narrow room. The petitions being thus 

 prepared, do you constantly set apart an hour in a 

 day to peruse those petitions ; and after you have 

 ranked them into several files, according to the sub 

 ject matter, make choice of two or three friends, 

 whose judgments and fidelities you believe you may 

 trust in a business of that nature; and recommend 

 it to one or more of them, to inform you of their 

 opinions, and of their reasons for or against the 

 granting of it. And if the matter be of great 

 weight indeed, then it would not be amiss to send 

 several copies of the same petition to several of 

 your friends, the one not knowing what the other 

 doth, and desire them to return their answers to 

 you by a certain time, to be prefixed, in writing ; so 

 shall you receive an impartial answer, and by com 

 paring the one with the other, as out of &quot; responsa 

 prudentium,&quot; you shall both discern the abilities 

 and faithfulness of your friends, and be able to give 

 a judgment thereupon as an oracle. But by no 

 means trust to your own judgment alone; for no 

 man is omniscient : nor trust only to your servants, 

 who may mislead you or misinform you ; by which 

 they may perhaps gain a few crowns, but the re 

 proach will lie upon yourself, if it be not rightly 

 carried. 



For the facilitating of your dispatches, my advice 

 is farther, that you divide all the petitions, and the 

 matters therein contained, under several heads : 



