ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 251 



and full ; as he searches into all the corners and arts of exactions 

 and ways of raising contributions. The thing has been also 

 usually resembled to a sponge, which sucks strongly when dry, 

 but less when moist. And it contains a useful admonition to 

 princes, that they commit not the government of provinces or 

 places of power to indigent men, or such as are in debt ; and 

 again to the people, that they permit not their kings to struggle 

 with want. 



Aphorism 25 



A just man falling before the wicked, is a troubled fountain and 

 a corrupted spring i 



This is a caution to states, that they should have a capital re- 

 gard to the passing an unjust or infamous sentence in any great 

 and weighty cause, where not only the guilty is acquitted, but 

 the innocent condemned. To countenance private injuries, in- 

 deed, disturbs and pollutes the clear streams of justice, as it 

 were, in the brook ; but unjust and great public sentences, 

 which are afterwards drawn into precedents, infect and defile 

 the very fountain of justice. For when once the court goes on 

 the side of injustice, the law becomes a public robber, and one 

 man really a wolf to another. 



Aphorism 26 



Contract no friendship with an angry man, nor walk with a 



furious one k 



The more religiously the laws of friendship are to be observed 

 amongst good men, the more caution should be used in making 

 a prudent choice of friends. The nature and humor of friends, 

 so far as concerns ourselves alone, should be absolutely toler- 

 ated ; but when they lay us under a necessity, as to the charac- 

 ter we should put on towards others, this becomes an exceeding 

 hard and unreasonable condition of friendship. It is therefore 

 of great moment to the peace and security of life, according to 

 the direction of Solomon, to have no friendship with passion- 

 ate men, and such as easily stir up or enter into debates and 

 quarrels. For such friends will be perpetually entangling us 

 in strifes and contentions, so that we must either break off with 

 them or have no regard to our own safety. 



