S20 ADVANci::.i:::^'T cf learning. [book viii 



and, 2. of otliei's. Let tliis^ therefore, be the first whereon 

 the knowledge of the rest principally turns, that we procure 

 to ourselves, as far as possible, the window once required 

 by Momus, who, seeing so many corners and recesses in the 

 structure of the human heart, found fault that it should want 

 a window, through which those dark and crooked turnings 

 might be viewed." This window may be procured by dili- 

 gently informing ourselves of the particular persons we have 

 to deal with, — their tempers, desires, views, customs, habits ; 

 the assistances, helps, and assurances whereon they principally 

 rely, and whence they receive their power; their deiocts and 

 weaknesses, whereat they chiefly lie open and are accessible ; 

 their friends, fdctions, patrons, dependants, enemies, enviers, 

 rivals; their times and manner of access, — 



" Sola viri moUes aditus et terapora noras;**° 

 their principles, and the rules they prescribe themselves, &c. 

 But our information should not wholly rest in the persons, 

 but also extend to the particular actions, which from time 

 to time come upon the anvil; how they are conducted, with 

 what success, by whose assistance promoted, by whom op- 

 posed, of what weight and moment they are, and what their 

 consequences. For a knowledge of present actions is not 

 only very advantageous in itself, but without it the know- 

 ledge of persons will be very fallacious and uncertain ; for 

 men change along with their actions, and are one thing 

 whilst entangled and sun'ounded with business, and another 

 when they return to themselves. And these particular in- 

 formations, with regard to persons as well as actions, are 

 like the minor propositions in every active syllogism ; tor no 

 truth, nor excellence of observations or axioms, whence the 

 major political propositions are formed, can give a firm con- 

 clusion, if there be an error in the minor proposition. And 

 that such a kind of knowledge is procurable, Solomon assures 

 us, who says, that " counsel in the heart of man is like a 

 deep water, but a wise man will draw it out;"? for although 

 the knowledge itself does not fall under precej)t, because it 

 regards individuals, yet instructions may be giAcn of use lotj 

 fetching it out. 



■ Plato. Reip. ; Lucan, Hermot. xx. ; and Eras. Cliil. 1. 7*. 



• ^neid, iv. 423. p i*roY. xx. 5. 



