360 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



things; while the latter are like earth, or unpolished stone, 

 which reflects nothing. And the mind of a prudent man is 

 the more aptly compared to a glass, because therein one s 

 own image may, at the same time, be viewed along with 

 those of others, which could not be done by the eye without 

 assistance: but if the mind of a prudent man be so capa 

 cious as to observe and distinguish an infinite diversity of 

 natures and manners in men, it remains that we endeavor to 

 render it as various in the application as it is in the repre 

 sentation. 



&quot;Qui sapit, innumeris raoribus aptus srit. &quot; 47 



If we have dwelt too long upon those parables, and used 

 them for higher purposes than mere illustrations, the dig 

 nity of both author and subject must be our excuse. For 

 thus, it was not only usual among the Jews, but very com 

 mon also among the wise men of other ancient nations, when 

 they had, by observation, hit upon anything useful in com 

 mon life, to reduce and contract it into some short sentence, 

 parable, or fable. Fables anciently supplied the defect of 

 examples; but now that times abound with variety of his 

 tories, it is better and more enlivening to draw from real 

 life. But the method of writing best suited to so various 

 and intricate a subject as the different occasions of civil 

 business, is that which Machiavel chose for treating poli 

 tics; viz., by observation or discourse upon histories and 

 examples. 48 For the knowledge which is newly drawn, 

 and, as it were, under our own eye, from particulars, best 

 finds the way to particulars again. And doubtless it is 

 much more conducive to practice that the discourse follow 

 the example, than that the example follow the discourse; 

 and this regards not only the order, but the thing itself; for 

 when an example is proposed as the basis of a discourse, it 

 is usually proposed with its whole apparatus of circum 

 stances, which may sometimes correct and supply it; whence 

 it becomes as a model for imitation and practice; while ex- 



47 Ars Amandi, i. 760. Discorso sopra Liv. 



