358 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



calls by the name of folly. The candidate for the former 

 has an eye to his footings, looking out for dangers, contriv 

 ing remedies, and by the assistance of good men defending 

 himself against the bad: he is wary in entering upon busi 

 ness, and not unprovided of a retreat; watching for oppor 

 tunities, powerful against opposition, etc. But the follower 

 of the other is wholly patched up of fallacy and cunning, 

 placing all his hope in the circumventing of others, and 

 forming them to his fancy. And this the aphorism justly 

 rejects as a vicious and even a weak kind of prudence. For, 

 I, it; is by no means a thing in our own power, nor depend 

 ing upon any constant rule; but is daily inventing of new 

 stratagems as the old ones fail and grow useless. 2. He 

 who has once the character of a crafty, tricking man, is en 

 tirely deprived of a principal instrument of business trust; 

 whence he will find nothing succeed to his wish. 3. Lastly, 

 however specious and pleasing these arts may seem, yet 

 they are often frustrated; as well observed by Tacitus, when 

 he said, that crafty and bold counsels, though pleasant in 

 the expectation, are hard to execute, and unhappy in the 

 event. 



XXXI. Be not over-righteous, nor make thyself over-wise: for why shouldst 

 thou suddenly be taken off ! 41 



There are times, says Tacitus, wherein great virtues meet 

 with certain ruin. 48 And this happens to men eminent for 

 virtue and justice, sometimes suddenly, and sometimes after 

 it was long foreseen. But if prudence be also joined, so as 

 to make such men cautious and watchful of their own safety, 

 then they gain thus much, that their ruin shall come sud 

 denly, and entirely from secret and dark counsels whence 

 they may escape envy, and meet destruction unexpected. 

 But for that over-righteousness expressed in the aphorism, 

 it is not understood of virtue itself, in which there is no 

 excess, but of a vain and invidious affectation and show 

 thereof, like what Tacitus intimates of Lepidus making it 



41 Eccles. vii. 17. 42 Hist. i. 2. 



