320 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



this rule of decorum applies only to unseasonable and ex 

 cessive eulogy. Surely Cicero, in his excellent oration in 

 defence of Marcellus, is only bent upon drawing a picture 

 with singular art, of Caesar s virtues, though in his presence^ 

 as the second Pliny did for Trajan. But let us proceed with 

 our subject. 



To this part of the respective duties of vocations and 

 particular professions belongs another, as a doctrine relative 

 or opposite to it, viz., the doctrine of cautions, frauds, im 

 postures, and their vices; for corruptions and vices are op 

 posite to duties and virtues; not but some mention is already 

 made of them in writings, though commonly but cursorily 

 and satirically, rather than seriously and gravely; for more 

 labor is bestowed in invidiously reprehending many good 

 and useful things in arts and exposing them to ridicule, 

 than in separating what is corrupt and vicious therein from 

 what is sound and serviceable. Solomon says excellently, 

 &quot;A scorner seeks wisdom, and finds it not; but knowledge 

 is easy to him that understands&quot;; 18 for whoever comes to a 

 science with an intent to deride and despise, will doubtless 

 find things enough to cavil at, and few to improve by. But 

 the serious and prudent treatment of the subject we speak 

 of may be reckoned among the strongest bulwarks of virtue 

 and probity; for as it is fabulously related of the basilisk, 

 that if he sees a man first, the man presently dies; but if 

 the man has the first glance, he kills the basilisk: so frauds, 

 impostures, and tricks do not hurt, if first discovered; but 

 if they strike first, it is then they become dangerous, and 

 not otherwise: hence we are beholden to Machiavel, and 

 writers- of that kind, who openly and unmasked declare 

 what men do in fact, and not what they ought to do; 18 for 

 it is impossible to join the wisdom of the serpent and the 

 innocence of the dove, without a previous knowledge of 



12 Prov. xiv. 6. 



13 Perhaps the treatise of Hieron. Cardan &quot;De Arcanis Prudentiae Civilis,&quot; 

 is a capital performance in this way; as exposing numerous tricks, frauds and 

 stratagems of government, so as to prevent the honest-minded from being im 

 posed upon by them. Shaw. 



