THE SECOND BOOK 199 



that men offer sacrifices to their nets and snares ; and 

 that which the poet expresseth, 



Dextra mihi Deus, et telum quod missile libro, 

 Nunc adsint ! 



For these confidences were ever unhallowed, and un 

 blessed : and therefore those that were great politiques 

 indeed ever ascribed their successes to their felicity, and 

 not to their skill or virtue. For so Sylla surnamed him 

 self Felix, not Magnus. So Caesar said to the master 

 of the ship, Caesarem portas et fortunam ejus. 



12. But yet nevertheless these positions, Faber quis- 

 que fortunae suae : Sapiens dominabitur astris : 

 Invia virtuti nulla est via, and the like, being taken 

 and used as spurs to industry, and not as stirrups to 

 insolency, rather for resolution than for the presump 

 tion or outward declaration, have been ever thought 

 sound and good ; and are no question imprinted in the 

 greatest minds, who are so sensible of this opinion, as 

 they can scarce contain it within. As we see in Augus 

 tus Caesar (who was rather diverse from his uncle than 

 inferior in virtue), how when he died he desired his 

 friends about him to give him a plaudite, as if he were 

 conscient to himself that he had played his part well 

 upon the stage. This part of knowledge we do report 

 also as deficient : not but that it is practised too much, 

 but it hath not been reduced to writing. And therefore 

 lest it should seem to any that it is not comprehensible 

 by axiom, it is requisite, as we did in the Faierfor. 

 former, that we set down some heads or tunae, sive de 

 passages of it. 



13. Wherein it may appear at the first a new and un 

 wonted argument to teach men how to raise and make 

 their fortune ; a doctrine wherein every man perchance 

 will be ready to yield himself a disciple, till he see the 

 difficulty : for fortune layeth as heavy impositions as 

 virtue ; and it is as hard and severe a thing to be a true 

 politique, as to be truly moral. But the handling 

 hereof concerneth learning greatly, both in honour and 

 in substance. In honour, because pragmatical men 



