350 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



ceal, nor against the pertness with, which they indiscrimi 

 nately and injudiciously fly out upon men and things, nor 

 against the talkative humor with which some men disgust 

 their hearers, but against a more latent failing, viz., a very 

 imprudent and impolitic management of speech; when a 

 man in private conversation so directs his discourse as, in 

 a continued string of words, to deliver all he can say, that 

 any way relates to the subject, which is a great prejudice 

 to business. For, 1, discourse interrupted and infused by 

 parcels, enters deeper than if it were continued and un 

 broken; in which case the weight of things is not distinctly 

 and particularly felt, as having not time to fix themselves; 

 but one reason drives out another before it had taken root. 

 2. Again, no one i? so powerful or happy in eloquence, 

 as at first setting out to leave the hearer perfectly mute 

 and silent; but he will always have something to answer, 

 and perhaps to object in his turn. And here it happens, 

 that those things which were to be reserved for confutation, 

 or reply, being now anticipated, lose their strength and 

 beauty. 3. Lastly, if a person does not utter all his mind 

 at once, but speaks by starts, first one thing, then another, 

 he will perceive from the countenance and answer of the 

 person spoken to, how each particular affects him, and in 

 what sense he takes it; and thus be directed more cautiously 

 to suppress or employ the matter still in reserve. 



XYI. If the displeasure of great men rise up against tliee, forsake~not thy 

 place ; for pliant behavior extenuates great offences 22 



This aphorism shows how a person ought to behave, 

 when he has incurred the displeasure of his prince. The 

 precept has two parts 1, that the person quit not his post; 

 and 2, that he, with diligence and caution, apply to the 

 cure, as of a dangerous disease. For when men see their 

 prince incensed against them, what through impatience of 

 disgrace, fear of renewing their wounds by sight, and partly 

 to let their prince behold their contrition and humiliation, 



22 Eccles. x. 4. 



