376 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



admired, and cried out among themselves, &quot;What does the 

 youth mean?&quot; but never suspected him of any ill design, 

 who thus candidly and ingenuously spoke his mind. 84 And 

 yet all these we have named were prosperous men. Pom- 

 pey, on the other hand, who endeavored at the same ends 

 by more dark and concealed methods, 86 wholly bent himself, 

 by numberless stratagems, to cover his desires and ambition, 

 while he brought the state to confusion, that it might then 

 of necessity submit to him, and he thus procure the sover 

 eignty to appearance against his will. And when he thought 

 he had gained his point, as being made sole consul, which 

 no one ever was before him, he found himself never the 

 nearer, because those who would doubtless have assisted 

 him, understood not his intentions; so that at length he was 

 obliged to go in the beaten path, and under pretence of op 

 posing Caesar, procured himself arms and an army: so slow, 

 casual, and generally unsuccessful, are the counsels covered 

 with dissimulation! And Tacitus seems to have had the 

 same sentiment, when he makes the artifice of dissimulation 

 an inferior prudence, compared with policy, attributing the 

 former to Tiberius, and the latter to Augustus; for speaking 

 of Li via, he says, &quot;She was well tempered with the arts of 

 her husband, and the dissimulation of her son.&quot; 86 



As for the bending and forming of the mind, we should 

 doubtless do our utmost to render it pliable, and by no 

 means stiff and refractory to occasions and opportunities; 

 for to continue the same men, when we ought not, is the 

 greatest obstacle business can meet with; that is, if men 

 remain as they did, and follow their own nature after the 

 opportunities are changed. 87 Whence Livy, introducing the 

 elder Cato as a skilful architect of his own fortune, adds that 

 &quot;he was of a pliant temper&quot;: 88 and hence it is, that grave, 

 solemn, and unchangeable natures generally meet with more 



84 Ore probo, animo inverecundo. Sallust. 



85 Occultior, non melior. Tacit. Hist. ii. c. 38. 



8t) Annals, v. 1. 81 Cic. in Brut, speaking of Hortensius, c. 95. 



88 B. xxxix. 40. 



