210 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



choose in their actions that which is most passable : 

 for this will preserve men from foil, not occupy them 

 too much about one matter, win opinion of moderation, 

 please the most, and make a show of a perpetual felicity 

 in all they undertake ; which cannot but mightily in 

 crease reputation. 



35. Another part of this knowledge seemeth to have 

 some repugnancy with the former two, but not as I 

 understand it ; and it is that which Demosthenes 

 uttereth in high terms ; * Et quemadmodum receptum 

 est, ut exercitum ducat imperator, sic et a cordatis viris 

 res ipsae ducendae ; ut quae ipsis videntur, ea gerantur, 

 et non ipsi eventus persequi cogantur. For if we ob 

 serve we shall find two differing kinds of sufficiency in 

 managing of business : some can make use of occasions 

 aptly and dexterously, but plot little ; some can urge 

 and pursue their own plots well, but cannot accommo 

 date nor take in ; either of which is very unperfect with 

 out the other. 



36. Another part of this knowledge is the observing 

 a good mediocrity in the declaring, or not declaring 

 a man s self : for although depth of secrecy, and making 

 way ( qualis est via navis in mari, which the French 

 calleth sourdes menees, when men set things in work 

 without opening themselves at all), be sometimes both 

 prosperous and admirable ; yet many times dissimu- 

 latio errores parit, qui dissimulatorem ipsum illaqueant. 

 And therefore we see the greatest politiques have in 

 a natural and free manner professed their desires, rather 

 than been reserved and disguised in them. For so we 

 see that Lucius Sylla made a kind of profession, that 

 he wished all men happy or unhappy, as they stood his 

 friends or enemies. So Caesar, when he went first into 

 Gaul, made no scruple to profess * That he had rather 

 be first in a village than second at Borne. So again, 

 as soon as he had begun the war, we see what Cicero 

 saith of him, Alter (meaning of Caesar) * non recusat, 

 sed quodammodo postulat, ut (ut est) sic appelletur 

 tyrannus. So we may see in a letter of Cicero to 

 Atticus, that Augustus Caesar, in his very entrance into 



