504 ADVANCEMENT OP LEARNTNGL 



X. The end cf a discourse is better than the beginning. 9 

 This aphorism corrects a common error, prevailing not 

 only among such as principally study words, but also the 

 more prudent ; viz., that men are more solicitous about the 

 beginnings and entrances of their discourses than about the 

 conclusions, and more exactly labour their prefaces and in 

 troductions than their closes. Whereas they ought not to 

 neglect the former, but should have the latter, as bein:* 

 things of far the greater consequence, ready prepared before 

 hand ; casting about with themselves, as much as possible, 

 what may be the last issue of the discourse, and how business 

 may be thence forwarded and ripened. They ought further, 

 not only to consider the windings up of discourses relating 

 to business, but to regard also such turns as may be advan 

 tageously and gracefully given upon departure, even thougl 

 they should be quite foreign to the matter in hand. It was 

 the constant practice of two great and prudent privy-coun 

 sellors, on whom the weight of the kingdom chiefly rested, 

 as often as they discoursed with their princes upon matters oi 

 state, never to end the conversation with what regarded the 

 principal subject ; but always to go off with a jest, or some 

 pleasant device ; and as the proverb runs, &quot; Washing ofl 

 their salt-water discourses with fresh at the conclusion.&quot; 

 And this was one of the principal arts they had. 



XI. As dead flics cause the best ointment to yield an ill odour, so does a 

 little folly to a man in reputation for wisdom and honour.? 



The condition of men eminent for virtue is, as this apho 

 rism excellently observes, exceeding hard and miserable ; 

 because their errors, though ever so small, are not overlooked. 

 But as in a clear diamond, every little grain, or speck, strikes 

 the eye disagreeably, though it would not be observed inaduller 

 stone ; so in men of eminent virtue, their smallest vices are 

 readily spied, talked of, and severely censured ; whilst in an 

 ordinary man, they would either have lain concealed, or been 

 ?asily excused. Whence a little folly in a very wise man, a 

 dmall slip in a very good man, and a little indecency in a 

 polite and elegant man, greatly diminish their characters 

 und reputations. It might, therefore, be no bad policy, for 

 men of uncommon excellencies to intermix with their actioua 



Eceles vii. 9, * Eccles. x. 1. 



