346 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



from the separation of their wives, the disinheriting of their 

 children, the frequent changing of servants, etc., as if they 

 should thence procure greater peace of mind, or a more suc 

 cessful administration of their affairs; but such hopes com 

 monly turn to wind; these changes being seldom for the 

 better. And such disturbers of their families often meet 

 with various crosses and ingratitude, from those they after 

 ward adopt and choose. They, by this means, also bring ill 

 reports, and ambiguous rumors upon themselves. For as 

 Cicero well observes, &quot;All men s characters proceed from 

 their domestics.&quot; I3 And both these mischiefs Solomon 

 elegantly expresses by the &quot;possession of the wind&quot;: for 

 the frustration of expectation, and the raising of rumors, 

 are justly compared to the winds. 



X. The end of a discourse is better than the beginning u 



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 labor their prefaces and 

 introductions than their closes. Whereas they ought not 

 to neglect the former, but should have the latter, as being 

 things of far the greater consequence, ready prepared be 

 forehand; casting about with themselves, as much as possi 

 ble, 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 dis 

 courses relating to business, but to regard also such turns 

 as may be advantageously and gracefully given upon de 

 parture, even though they should be quite foreign to the 

 matter in hand. It was the constant practice of two great 

 and prudent privy counsellors, on whom the weight of the 

 kingdom chiefly rested, as often as they discoursed with 

 their princes upon matters of state, never to end the con 

 versation with what regarded the principal subject; but 



13 Petit. Consulatus, 5. 14 Eccles. vii. 9. 



