1 86 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



sality, do refer all things to themselves, and thrust them- 

 selves into the centre of the world, as if all lines should 

 meet in them and their fortunes ; never caring in all 

 tempests what becomes of the ship of estates, so they may 

 save themselves in the cockboat of their own fortune ; 

 whereas men that feel the weight of duty, and know the 

 limits of self-love, use to make good their places and 

 duties, though with peril. And if they stand in seditious 

 and violent alterations, it is rather the reverence which 

 many times both adverse parts do give to honesty, than 

 any versatile advantage of their own carriage. But for 

 this point of tender sense and fast obligation of duty, which 

 learning doth endue the mind withal, howsoever fortune 

 may tax it and many in the depth of their corrupt principles 

 may despise it, yet it will receive an open allowance, and 

 therefore needs the less disproof or excusation. 



Another fault incident commonly to learned men, which 

 may be more- probably -defended than truly denied, is that 

 they fail sometimes in applying themselves to particular 

 persons ; which want of exact application ariseth from two 

 causes ; the one, because the largeness of their mind can 

 hardly confine itself to dwell in the exquisite observation 

 or examination of the nature and customs of one person : 

 for it is a speech for a lover and not for a wise man, Satis 

 magnum alter alter'i theatrum sumus. Nevertheless I shall 

 yield, that he that cannot contract the sight of his mind as 

 well as disperse and dilate it, wanteth a great faculty. 

 But there is a second cause, which is no inability but a 

 rejection upon choice and judgment. For the honest and 

 just bounds of observation by one person upon another 

 extend no farther but to understand him sufficiently, 

 whereby not to give him offence, or whereby to be able 

 to give him faithful counsel, or whereby to stand upon 

 reasonable guard and caution in respect of a man's self: 

 but to be speculative into another man, to the end to 

 know how to work him or wind him or govern him, 

 proceedeth from a heart that is double and cloven, and 

 not entire and ingenuous ; which as in friendship it is want 

 of integrity, so towards princes or superiors is want of 



