ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 253 



their friends as well of their errors as their dangers. " What 

 shall I do ?" says an easy, good-natured friend, " or what course 

 shall I take ? I love him as well as man can do, and would will- 

 ingly suffer any misfortune in his stead : but I know his nature ; 

 if I deal freely with him, I shall offend him ; at least chagrin 

 him, and yet do him no service. Nay, I shall sooner alienate 

 his friendship from me, than win him over from those things he 

 has fixed his mind upon." Such an effeminate and useless 

 friend as this Solomon reprehends, and pronounces that greater 

 advantage may be received from an open enemy ; as a man may 

 chance to hear those things from an enemy by way of reproach, 

 which a friend, through too much indulgence, will not speak 

 out. 



Aphorism 30 



A prudent man looks well to his steps, but a fool turns aside to 



deceit P 



There are two kinds of prudence ; the one true and sound, 

 the other degenerate and false : the latter Solomon calls by the 

 name of folly. The candidate for the former has an eye to his 

 footings, looking out for dangers, contriving remedies, and by 

 the assistance of good men defending himself against the bad : 

 he is wary in entering upon business, and not unprovided of a 

 retreat; watching for opportunities, powerful against opposi- 

 tion, etc. But the follower of the other is wholly patched up of 

 fallacy and cunning, placing all his hope in the circumventing 

 of others, and forming them to his fancy. And this the apho- 

 rism justly rejects as a vicious and even a weak kind of pru- 

 dence. For, i. it is by no means a thing in our own power, 

 nor depending upon any constant rule ; but is daily inventing 

 of new stratagems as the old ones fail and grow useless. 2. He 

 who has once the character of a crafty, tricking man, is entirely 

 deprived of a principal instrument of business trust ; whence 

 he will find nothing succeed to his wish. 3. Lastly, however, 

 specious and pleasing these arts may seem, yet they are often 

 frustrated; as well observed by Tacitus, when he said, that 

 crafty and bold counsels, though pleasant in the expectation, 

 are hard to execute, and unhappy in the event 



