330 ADVANCEMENT OP LEARNING. [BOOK VI1L 



who, at his first entrance upon affairs, whilst he remained the 

 delight of the senate, used to swear in this form when he 

 harangued the people : &quot; Ita Parentis honores consequi 

 liceat : &quot; &quot; which was no less than tyranny itself. It is true, 

 to salve the matter a little, he would at those times stretch 

 his hand towards the statue of Julius Caesar erected in 

 the place, whilst i/he audience smiled, applauded, admired, 

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

 mean 1 ?&quot; but never suspected him ot any ill design, who 

 thus candidly and ingenuously spoke his mind. And yet all 

 these we have named were prosperous men. Pompey, on the 

 other hand, who endeavoured at the same ends by more dark 

 and concealed methods,? wholly bent himself, by numberless 

 stratagems, to cover his desires and ambition, whilst he 

 brought the state to confusion, that it might then of necessity 

 submit to him, and he thus procure the sovereignty to appear 

 ance 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 opposing 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; 1 



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 opportunitj.es ; 

 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. 1 Whence Livy, introducing the 

 elder Cato as a skilful architect of his own fortune, add-. 



n P,. xvi. Ep. 15. Ore probo, animo inverecundo. Sallust. 



* Occuitior, non melior. Tacit. Hist. ii. c. 38. 



* Annals, v. 1. * Cic. in Brut, speaking of Hortensius, o. 9fii 



