ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 363 



But these expressions &quot;Every one s fortune is in his 

 own hand,&quot; &quot;A wise man shall control the stars,&quot; &quot;Every 

 way is passable to virtue,&quot; etc. if understood, and used 

 rather as spurs to industry than as stirrups to insolence, 

 and rather to beget in men a constancy and firmness of reso 

 lution than arrogance and ostentation, they are deservedly 

 esteemed sound and wholesome; and hence, doubtless, it 

 is that they find reception in the breasts of great men, and 

 make it sometimes difficult for them to dissemble their 

 thoughts; so we find Augustus Ca3sar, who was rather 

 different from than inferior to his uncle, though doubtless 

 a more moderate man, required his friends, as they stood 

 about his deathbed, to give him their applause at his exit, 58 

 as if conscious to himself that he had acted his part well 

 upon the stage of life. And this part of doctrine also is to 

 be reckoned as deficient, not but that it has been much used 

 and beaten in practice, though not taken notice of in books. 

 Wherefore, according to our custom, we shall here set down 

 some heads upon the subject, under the title of the Self- 

 politician, or the Art of rising in Life. 



It may seem a new and odd kind of thing to teach men 

 how to make their fortunes a doctrine which every one 

 would gladly learn before he finds the difficulties of it; for 

 the things required to procure fortune are not fewer or less 

 difficult than those to procure virtue. It is as rigid and hard 

 a thing to become a true politician as a true moralist, yet 

 the treating of this subject nearly concerns the merit and 

 credit of learning. It is of great importance to the honor 

 of learning, that men of business should know erudition is 

 not like a lark, which flies high and delights in nothing but 

 singing, but that it is rather like a hawk, which soars aloft 

 indeed, but can stoop when she finds it convenient to 

 pounce upon her prey. Again, this also regards the per 

 fection of learning; for the true rule of a perfect inquiry 



nihil forluito, sed summa tua ratione et continentia reipublicse, provisum eat diia 

 immortalibus gratulari nos quam tibi referre acceptum mavis gaudeo.&quot; 

 58 Suetonius. 



