332 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [eOOK Vltl. 



of access to and familiarity with princes ; others of popular 

 fame, and fancy these to be great enjoyments , whereas both 

 of them are frequently full of envy and dangers. Others, 

 again, measure things according to their difficulty and the 

 labour bestowed in procuring them, imagining themselves 

 must needs have advanced as far as they have moved. So 

 Caesar, to describe how diligent and indefatigable the younger 

 Cato was to little purpose, said in the way of irony, " That 

 he did all things with great labour." And hence it happens, 

 that men frequently deceive themselves, when, having the 

 assistance of some great or honourable personage, they 

 promise themselves all manner of success ; whilst the truth 

 is, they are not the greatest, but the fittest instruments that 

 perform business best and quickest. For improving the true 

 mathematics of the mind, it should be principally noted what 

 ought to come first, what second, &c. in the raising and pro- 

 moting a man's fortune. And, in the first place, we set down 

 the emendation of the mind ; for by removing the obstacles, 

 and levelling the inequalities of the mind, a way may be 

 sooner opened to fortune, than the impediments of the mind 

 be removed with the assistance of fortune. And, in the 

 second place, we set down riches, whereto most, perhaps, 

 would have assigned the first, as their use is so extensive. 

 But we condemn this opinion for a reason like that of 

 Machiavel in a similar case ; for though it was an established 

 notion, that " Money is the sinews of war," he said, more 

 justly, that "War had no sinews but those of good soldiers." 

 In the same manner, it may be truly affirmed that the sinews 

 of fortune are not money, but rather the powers of the mind, 

 address, courage, resolution, intrepidity, perseverance, modera- 

 tion, industry, &c. In the third place come fame and repu- 

 tation ; and this the rather, because they have certain tides 

 and seasons, wherein, if they be not opportunely used, it will 

 be difficult to recover them again ; for it is a hopeless attempt 

 to recover a lost reputation. In the last place, we set down 

 honours, which are easier acquired by any of the former 

 three, much more by a conjunction of them all, than any one 

 of them can be procured by honours. But as much depends 

 upon observing the order of things, so likewise in observing 

 the order of time, in disturbing of which men frequently en* 

 and hasten to the end, when they should only have consultrd 



