120 BACON'S ESSAYS 



some other thing ; or else that he be counted the honester 

 man. All practice is to discover, or to work. Men dis- 

 cover themselves in trust, in passion, at unawares, and of 

 necessity, when they would have somewhat done and cannot 

 find an apt pretext. If you would work any man, you 

 must either know his nature and fashions, and so lead him ; 

 or his ends, and so persuade him ; or his weakness and 

 disadvantages, and so awe him ; or those that have interest 

 in him, and so govern him. In dealing with cunning 

 persons, we must ever consider their ends, to interpret 

 their speeches ; and it is good to say little to them, and 

 that which they least look for. In all negociations of 

 difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once ; 

 but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees. 



XLVIII 

 OF FOLLOWERS AND FRIENDS 



COSTLY followers are not to be liked ; lest while a man 

 maketh his train longer, he make his wings shorter. I 

 reckon to be costly, not them alone which charge the 

 purse, but which are wearisome and importune in suits. 

 Ordinary followers ought to challenge no higher conditions 

 than countenance, recommendation, and protection from 

 wrongs. Factious followers are worse to be liked, which 

 follow not upon affection to him with whom they range 

 themselves, but upon discontentment conceived against 

 some other ; whereupon commonly ensueth that ill intelli- 

 gence that we many times see between great personages. 

 Likewise glorious followers, who make themselves as 

 trumpets of the commendation of those they follow, are 

 full of inconvenience ; for they taint business through want 

 of secrecy; and they export honour from a man, and make 

 him a return in envy. There is a kind of followers like- 

 wise which are dangerous, being indeed espials ; which 

 inquire the secrets of the house, and bear tales of them to 

 others. Yet such men, many times, are in great favour ; 



