296 ADVANCEMENT OP LEARNING. [BOOK VIIL 



Civil knowledge has tliree parts, suitable to the tliree 

 principal acts of society ; viz., 1. Conversation ; 2. Business ; 

 and 3. Government. For there are three kinds of good that 

 men desire to procure by civil society ; viz., ] . Refuge from 

 Bolitude; 2. Assistance in the affairs of life; and 3. Protection 

 against injuries. And thus there are three kinds of pru- 

 dence, very different, and frequently separated from each 

 other ; viz., 1. Prudence in conversation ; 2. Prudence in 

 business ; 3. Prudence in government.^ 



Conversation, as it ought not to be over affected, much less 

 should it be slighted ; since a prudent conduct therein not 

 only expresses a certain gracefulness in men's manners, but 

 is also of great assistance in the commodious despatch both of 

 public and private business. For as action, though an ex- 

 ternal thing, is so essential to an orator as to be preferred 

 before the other weighty and more internal parts of that art, 

 so conversation, though it consist but of externals, is, if not 

 the principal, at least a capital thing in the man of business, 

 and the prudent management of affairs. What effect the 

 countenance may have, appears from the precept of the 

 poet, — " Contradict not your words by your look," — 



" Nee vultu destrue verba tuo."' 

 For a man may absolutely cancel and betray the force of 

 speech by his countenance. And so may actions themselves, 



** From a mixture of these three parts of civil d' ctrine, there has of 

 late been formed a new kind of doctrine, which they call by the name 

 of civil prudence. This doctrine has been principally cultivated among 

 the Germans ; though hitherto carried to no great length. Hermannus 

 Conringius has dwelt upon it at considerable length, in his book ** De 

 Civili Prudentia," published in the year 1662 ; and Christian Thomasius 

 has treated it excellently in the little piece entitled, " Primse Lineae 

 de Jure-consultorum Prudentia Consul tatoria," &c., first published in 

 the year 1705, but the third edition, with notes, in 1712. The heads it 

 considers, are, 1. " de Prudentia in genere ;" 2. *'de Prudentia con- 

 fiultatoria;" 3. *' de Prudentia Juris-consultorum ;" 4. "de Prudentia 

 consulendi intuitu actionum propriarum ;" 5. *' de Prudentia dirigendi 

 actiones proprias in conversatione quotidiana ;*' 6. *' de Prudentia in 

 conversatione selecta ;" 7. " de Prudentia intuitu societatum domesti' 

 carum ;" 8. "de Prudentia in societate civili ;" and 9. "de Prudentia 

 alios et aliis consulendi." The little piece also of Andr. Bossius, 

 " ])e Pi-udentia Civili comparanda," deserves the perusal. See Morhof, 

 *' De Prudentiae Civilis Scriptoribus ; " " Struvii Bibliotheca Philoso- 

 phica," cap. 7 ; and " Stollji Introdugtio in Historiam Literariam, d^ 

 Prudentia Politico, " Shc^v;, ' Ovid, Ara Aiwmdi. J, 3li 



