ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



he says, that I may neither seem arrogant nor obnoxious; 

 that is, neither forget my own nor others liberty. 8 



On the other side; a devotion to urbanity and external 

 elegance terminates in an awkward and disagreeable affec 

 tation. For what is more preposterous than to copy the 

 theatres in real life? And though we did not fall into 

 this vicious extreme, yet we should waste time and depress 

 the mind too much by attending to such lighter matters. 

 Therefore, as in universities, the students, too fond of com 

 pany, are usually told by their tutors, that friends are the 

 thieves of time; so the assiduous application to the decorum 

 of conversation steals from the weightier considerations. 

 Again, they who stand in the first rank for urbanity, and 

 seem born, as it were, for this alone, seldom take pleasure 

 in anything else, and scarce ever rise to the higher and more 

 solid virtues. On the contrary, the consciousness of a de 

 fect in this particular makes us seek a grace from good 

 opinion, which renders all things else becoming; but where 

 this is wanting, men endeavor to supply it by good breed 

 ing. And further, there is scarce any greater or more fre 

 quent obstruction to business, than an overcurious observ 

 ance of external decorum, with its attendant too solicitous 

 and scrupulous a choice of times and opportunities. Solo 

 mon admirably says, &quot;He that regards the winds shall not 

 sow, and he that regards the clouds shall not reap. 1 8 For 

 we must make opportunities oftener than we find them. In 

 a word, urbanity is like a garment to the mind, and there 

 fore ought to have the conditions of a garment; that is 

 1, it should be fashionable; 2, not too delicate or costly; 3, it 

 should be so made, as principally to show the reigning virtue 

 of the mind, and to supply or conceal deformity; 4, and 

 lastly, above all things, it must not be too strait, so as to 



8 Speech of Hanno. &quot;Nunc mterroganti senatori, poeniteatne me adhuc 

 suscepti adversus Romanes belli ? si reticeam, aut superbus aut obnoxius videar; 

 quorum alterum est hominis alienee libertatis obliti, alterum suse.&quot; Livy, b. 

 xxiii. c. 12. 



9 Eccles. xi. 4. 



