ClIAF, II.] WISDOM FOR ONE'S SELf. 317 



treatise, are but succinctly and nakedly quoted, and, as 

 slaves, wholly attend the call of the discourse. 



It is worth while to observe this difference, that as the 

 histories of times afford the best matter for discourses upon 

 politics, such as those ot Machiavel,*^ so the histories of lives 

 are most advantageously used for instructions of business, 

 because they contain all the possible variety of occasions and 

 affiiirs, as well gi-eat as small. Yet a more commodious foun- 

 dation may be had for the precepts of business than either 

 of these histories, and that is, the discoursing upon prudent 

 and serious epistles, such as those of Cicero to Atticus ; for 

 epistles represent business nearer and more to the life 

 than either annals or lives. And thus we have treated of 

 the matter and form of the first part of the doctrine of 

 business, which regards variety of occasions, and place it 

 among the desiderata. 



There is another part of the doctrine of business differing 

 as much from the former as the being wise in general, 

 and the being wise for one's self; — the one seems to move as 

 from the centre to the circumference, and the other as from 

 the circumference to the centre. For there is a certain pru- 

 dence of giving counsel to others, and another of looking to 

 one's own affairs. Both these, indeed, are sometimes found 

 united, but oftenest separate ; as many are prudent in the 

 management of their own private concerns, and weak in 

 public administration, or the giving advice, like the ant, 

 which is a wise creature for itself, but pernicious in a garden. 

 This virtue of self-wisdom was not unknown even to the 

 Romans, those great lovei*s of their countiy; whence, says 

 the comedian, " the wise man forms his own fortune," — 



" Nam pol sapiens fingit fortunam sibi j"** 

 and they had it proverbial amongst them, — " Every man's 

 fortune lies in his own hand," — " Faber quisque lortunae pro- 

 prise." So Livy gives this character of the elder Cato : " Such 

 was his force of mind and genius, that wherever he had 

 been born he seemed formed for making his own fortune."^ 



But if any one publicly professed or made open show o( 



•= Especially his 11 Principe, with the notes of Conringius, which wad 

 foxmd in the carriage of Napoleon after the battle of Mont St. Jeaa, 

 with the annotations of the emperor. Ed. 



* FlaHtUB, Trinum. Act ii. pc. % v. 84, • Livy, mrix . 40. 



