THE SECOND BOOK 215 



should be such ; and so likewise, when a prince or 

 a courtier hath been described by such as have handled 

 those subjects, the mould hath used to be made accord- 

 ing to the perfection of the art, and not according to 

 common practice : so I understand it, that it ought 

 to be done in the description of a pohtic man, I mean 

 politic for his own fortune. 



45. But it must be remembered all this while, that 

 the precepts which we have set down are of that kind 

 which may be counted and called Bonae Artes. As for 

 evil arts, lif a man would set down for himself that prin- 

 ciple of Machiavel, ' That a man seek not to attain 

 virtue itself, but the appearance only thereof ; because 

 the credit of virtue is a help, but the use of it is cumber ': 

 or that other of his principles, * That he presuppose, 

 that men are not fitly to be wrought otherwise but by 

 fear ; and therefore that he seek to have every man 

 obnoxious, low, and in strait,' which the Italians call 

 seminar spine, to sow thorns : or that other principle, 

 contained in the verse which Cicero citeth, ' Cadant 

 amici, dummodo inimici intercidant,' as the triumvirs, 

 which sold every one to other the lives of their friends 

 for the deaths of their enemies : or that other protesta- 

 tion of L. Catilina, to set on fire and trouble states, 

 to the end to fish in droumy waters, and to unwrap 

 their fortunes, ' Ego si quid in fortunis meis excitatum, 

 sit incendium, id non aqua sed ruina restinguam ' : or 

 that other principle of Lysander, ' That children are to 

 be deceived with comfits, and men with oaths ' : and 

 the hke evil and corrupt positions, whereof (as in all 

 things) there are more in number than of the good : 

 certainly with these dispensations from the laws of 

 charity and integrity, the pressing of a man's fortime 

 may be more hasty and compendious. But it is in life 

 as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the 

 foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about. 



46. But men, if they be in their own power, and do 

 bear and sustain themselves, and be not carried away 

 with a whirlwind or tempest of ambition, ought in the 

 pursuit of their own fortune to set before their eyes not 



