ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 255 



false encomiums, than to paint him justly. 2. Sparing and 

 modest praises generally invite the company somewhat to im- 

 prove them, but profuse and immoderate ones to detract and 

 take off from them. 3. The principal thing is, that immod- 

 erate praises procure envy to the person praised, as all extrava- 

 gant commendations seem to reproach others that may be no 

 less deserving. 



Aphorism 34 



A s the face shines in water, so are men's hearts manifest to the 



wise* 



This aphorism distinguishes between the minds of prudent 

 men and those of others, by comparing the former to water, or 

 a mirror, which receives the forms and images of things ; whilst 

 the latter are like earth, or unpolished stone, which reflects noth- 

 ing. And the mind of a prudent man is the more aptly com- 

 pared to a glass, because therein one's own image may, at the 

 same time, be viewed along with those of others, which could 

 not be done by the eye without assistance : but if the mind of 

 a prudent man be so capacious as to observe and distinguish an 

 infinite diversity of natures and manners in men, it remains that 

 we endeavor to render it as various in the application as it is in 

 the representation. 



" Qui sapit. innumerisjnoribus aptus erit." Ovid, w 



If we have dwelt too long upon those parables, and used 

 them for higher purposes than mere illustrations, the dignity 

 of both author and subject must be our excuse. For thus, it 

 was not only usual among the Jews, but very common also 

 among the wise men of other ancient nations, when they had, 

 by observation, hit upon anything useful in common life, to re- 

 duce and contract it into some short sentence, parable, or fable. 

 Fables anciently supplied the defect of examples ; but now that 

 times abound with variety of histories, it is better and more 

 enlivening to draw from real life. But the method of writing 

 best suited to so various and intricate a subject as the different 

 occasions of civil business, is that which Machiavel chose for 

 treating politics; viz., by observation or discourse upon his- 

 tories and examples.* For the knowledge which is newly 

 drawn, and, as it were, under our own eye, from particulars, 

 best finds the way to particulars again. And doubtless it is 



