2dC ADVAKCEMEXt OF LEAiliflKa. [fiOOk m. 



" Successful villany is called virtue" — " Prosperum et felix 

 scelus, virtus vocatur." * And again, " Ille crueem pretiuni 

 sceleris tulit, hie diadema."" The poets, indeed, speak 

 in tliis manner satirically, and through indignation; but 

 some books of politics suppose the same positively, and 

 in earnest. For Machiavel is pleased to say, " if Caesar had 

 been conquered, he would have become more odious than 

 Catiline :" as if there was no difference, except in point of 

 fortune, betwixt a fury made up of lust and blood, and a 

 noble spirit, of all natural men the most to be admired, but 

 for his ambition. And hence we see how necessary it is for 

 men to be fully instructed in moral doctrines and religious 

 duties, before they proceed to politics. For those bred up 

 from their youth in the courts of princes, and the midst of 

 civil affairs, can scarce ever obtain a sincere and internal 

 probity of manners. Again, caution also is to be used eveu 

 in moral instructions, or at least in some of them, lest men 

 should thence become stubborn, arrogant, and unsociable. 

 So Cicero says of Cato : " The divine and excellent qualities 

 we see in him are his own ; but the things he sometimes fails 

 in are all derived, not from nature, but his instructors."* 

 There are many other axioms and directions concerning the 

 things which studies and books beget in the minds of men ; 

 for it is true that studies enter our manners, and so do con- 

 versation, reputation, the laws, &c. 



But there is another cure of the mind, which seems still 

 more accurate and elaborate than the rest ; depending upon 

 this foundation, that the minds of all men are, at certain 

 times, in a more perfect, and at others in a more depraved 

 state. The design of this cure is, therefore, to improve the 

 good times, and expunge the bad. There are two practical 

 methods of fixing the good times ; viz., 1. determined reso- 

 lutions ; and 2. observances or exercises ; which are not of 

 so much significancy in themselves, as because they conti- 

 nually keep the mind in its duty. There are also two ways 

 of expunging the bad times ; viz., by some kind of redemp- 

 tion, or expiation of what is past, and a new i-egulation of 

 life for the future. But this part belongs to religion, whereto 



« Seneca, Here. Fur. v. 251. "" Juv. Sat. xiii. 105. 



» Pro L. Muraena, 80. 



