Life of the Duke 171 



LXXXII 



My Lord discoursing one time with some of his 

 friends, of judging of other men's natures, dispositions 

 and actions ; and some observing that men could not 

 possibly know or judge of them, the events of men's 

 actions faUing out oftentimes contrary to their inten- 

 tions; so that where they hit once, they failed twenty 

 times in their judgments. My Lord answered, that 

 his judgment in that point seldom did miss, although 

 he thought it weaker than theirs : the reason is, said 

 he, because I judge most men to be Uke my self; that 

 is to say, fools ; when as you do judge them all accord- 

 ing to your self, that is, wise men ; and since there are 

 more fools in the world then wise men, I may sooner 

 guess right then you : for though my judgment roves 

 at random, yet it can never miss of errors; which 

 yours will never do, except you can dive into other 

 men's foUies by the length of your own line, and found 

 their bottom by the weight of your own plummet, for 

 the depth of folly is beyond the line of wisdom. 



Besides, said he, you believe that other men would 

 do as you would have them, or as you would do to 

 them, wherein you are mistaken, for most men do the 

 contrary. In short, folly is bottomless, and hath no 

 end; but wisdom hath bounds to all her designs, 

 otherwise she would never compass them. 



LXXXIII 



My Lord discoursing some time with a learned 

 doctor of divinity concerning Faith, said, that in his 

 opinion, the wisest way for a man was to have as 

 little faith as he could for this world, and as much as 

 he could for the next world. 



