ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 325 



wherein the common discourse of men is wiser than books 

 a thing which seldom happens. But much the best matter 

 of all for such a treatise may be derived from the more 

 prudent historians; and not so well from elogies or panegy 

 rics, which are usually written soon after the death of an 

 illustrious person, but much rather from a whole body of 

 history, as often as such a person appears: for such an inter 

 woven account gives a better description than panegyric. 

 And such examples we have in Livy, of Africanus and 

 Cato; in Tacitus, of Tiberius, Claudius, and Nero; in Hero- 

 dian, of Septimius Severus; in Philip de Comines, of Louis 

 the Eleventh; in Guicciardini, of Ferdinand of Spain, the 

 Emperor Maximilian, Pope Leo, and Pope Clement. For 

 these writers having the image of the person to be described 

 constantly before them, scarce ever mention any of their 

 acts, but at the same time introduce something of their 

 natures. So, likewise, some relations which we have seen 

 of the conclaves at Kome give very exact characters of the 

 cardinals : as the letters of ambassadors do of the counsellors 

 of princes. Let, therefore, an accurate and full treatise be 

 wrote upon this fertile and copious subject. But we do not 

 mean, that these characters should be received in ethics 

 as perfect civil images, but rather as outlines, and first 

 drafts of the images themselves, which, being variously 

 compounded and mixed one among another, afford all kinds 

 of portraits. So that an artificial and accurate dissection 

 may be made of men s minds and natures, and the secret 

 disposition of each particular man laid open, that, from a 

 knowledge of the whole, the precepts concerning the cures 

 of the mind may be more rightly formed. 6 



And not only the characters of dispositions impressed 



6 Compare &quot;Les Caracteres des Passions,&quot; par M. de la Chambre, ed. Amst. 

 1658; M. Clarmont, &quot;De Conjectandis latentibus Animi Affectibus, &quot; reprinted 

 by Conringius; &quot;Neuheusii Theatrum Ingenii humani, seu de Hominum cogno- 

 scenda Indole et Animi Secretis,&quot; 1633; Mr. Evelyn s digression concerning 

 Physiognomy, in his Discourse of Medals; &quot;Les Caracteres de Theophraste, 

 avec les Mceurs de ce Siecle,&quot; par M. de la Bruyere, 1700. See &quot;Stollii Intro- 

 ductio in Historiam Literariam,&quot; p. 823. See also more to this purpose above, 

 sect. iv. Ed. 



