OF THE COLOURS OF GOOD AND EVIL 155 



plot, that they be object to view at once, otherwise not ; 

 and therefore men whose living lieth together in one shire, 

 are commonly counted greater landed than those whose 

 livings are dispersed, though it be more, because of the 

 notice and comprehension. 



A third case wherein this colour deceiveth, and it is not 

 so properly a case or reprehension as it is a counter colour, 

 being in effect as large as the colour itself, and that is, 

 omnis compositio indigentiae cujusdam videtur esse particeps : 

 because if one thing would serve the turn it were ever best, 

 but the defect and imperfections of things hath brought in 

 that help to piece them up ; as it is said, Martha, Martha, 

 attendis ad plurima, unum sufficit. So likewise hereupon 

 Aesop framed the fable of the fox and the cat ; whereas the 

 fox bragged what a number of shifts and devices he had to 

 get from the hounds, and the cat said she had but one, 

 which was to climb a tree, which in proof was better worth 

 than all the rest ; whereof the proverb grew, Multa novit 

 vulpes, sed felis unum magnum. And in the moral of this 

 fable it comes likewise to pass, that a good sure friend is a 

 better help at a pinch than all the stratagems and policies 

 of a man's own wit. So it falleth out to be a common 

 error in negociating, whereas men have many reasons to 

 induce or persuade, they strive commonly to utter and use 

 them all at once, which weakeneth them. For it argueth, 

 as was said, a neediness in every of the reasons by itself, as 

 if one did not trust to any of them, but fled from one 

 to another, helping himself only with that, Et quae non 

 prosunt singula, multa juvant. Indeed in a set speech in an 

 assembly it is expected a man should use all his reasons in 

 the case he handleth, but in private persuasions it is always 

 a great error. 



A fourth case wherein this colour may be reprehended, is 

 in respect of that same vis unita fortior ; according to the 

 tale of the French King, that when the Emperor's am- 

 bassador had recited his master's stile at large, which 

 consisteth of many countries and dominions, the French 

 King willed his Chancellor or other minister to repeat and 

 say over France as many times as the other had recited the 



