CHAP. I.] ETHICS AND POLITICS COMPARED. 295 



makes mention not only of an art, but even of an eloquence 

 to be found in silence ; and relates in an epistle to Atticus, 

 how once in conversation he made use of this art : "On this 

 occasion," says he, " I assumed a part of your eloquence ; for 

 I said nothing." And Pindar, who peculiarly strikes the 

 mind unexpectedly with some short surprising sentence, has 

 this among the rest : " Things unsaid have sometimes a 

 greater effect than said." And, therefore, I have determined 

 either to be silent upon this subject, or, what is next to it, 

 very concise. 



Civil knowledge turns upon a subject of all others the 

 most immersed in matter, and therefore very difficult to re- 

 duce to axioms. And yet there are some things that ease 

 the difficulty. For, 1. as Cato said, " that the Komans were 

 like sheep, easier to drive in the flock than single ;" so in 

 this respect the office of ethics is in some degree more diffi- 

 cult than that of politics.^ 2. Again, ethics endeavours to 

 tinge and furnish the mind with internal goodness, whilst 

 civil doctrine requires no more than external goodness, which 

 is sufficient for society.^ Whence it often happens, that a 

 reign may be good and the times bad. Thus we sometimes 

 find in sacred history, when mention is made of good and 

 pious kings, that the people had not yet turned their hearts 

 to the Lord God of their fathers. And therefore, in this 

 respect also, ethics has the harder task. 3. States are moved 

 slowly, like machines, and with difficulty ; and consequently 

 not soon put out of order. For, as in Egypt, the seven 

 years of plenty supplied the seven years of famine j so in 

 governments, the good regulation of former times will not 

 presently suffer the errors of the succeeding to prove destruc- 

 tive. But the resolutions and manners of particular persons 

 are more suddenly subverted ; and this, in the last place, 

 bears hard upon ethics, but favours politics. 



deeming it impertinent to speak of the arts of empire, to one who knew 

 them so well ; but the true reason appears to be, that he thought it 

 improper to reveal the mysteries oi state. See below, sect. xxv. £d. 



«-• Plut. Cato. 



^ Hence there ought to be a due difference preserved betwixt ethics 

 and politics, though many writers seem to mix them together ; and 

 form a promiscuous doctrine ot the law of nature, morality, policy, and 

 religion together ; as particularly c^rtMA scriptural g^si^ists, and poll' 

 "'^' 4ivi«§9. ^<iWf 



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