THE FIRST BOOK 187 



duty. For the custom ""df the Levant, which is, that 

 subjects do forbear to gaze or fix their eyes upon princes, 

 is in the outward ceremony barbarous ; but the moral is 

 good : for men ought not by cunning and bent observa- 

 tions to pierce and penetrate into the hearts of kings, which 

 the _Scripture hath declared to be inscrutable. 



There is yet another fault (with which I will conclude 

 this part) which is often noted in learned men, that they 

 do many times, fail to observe decency and discretion in 



their behaviour and carriage, and commit errors in small 



i v c i c 



and ordinary points or action ; so as the vulgar sort or 



capacities do make a judgment of them in greater matters 

 by that which they find wanting in them in smaller. But 

 this consequence doth oft deceive men ; for which I__do 

 refer them over to that which was said by Themistocles, 

 arrogantly and uncivilly being applied to himself out of 

 his own mouth, but being applied to the general state of 

 this question pertinently and justly ; when being invited to 

 touch a lute, he said 'he could not fiddle, but he could 

 make a small town a great state.' So no doubt many may 

 be well seen in the passages of government and policy, 

 which are to seek in little and punctual occasions. I refer 

 them also to that which Plato said of his master Socrates, 

 whom he compared to the gallypots of apothecaries, which 

 on the outside had apes and owls and antiques, but con- 

 tained within sovereign and precious liquors and confections; 

 acknowledging that to an external report he was not with- 

 out superficial levities and deformities, but was inwardly 

 replenished with excellent virtues and powers. And so 

 much touching the point of manners of learned men. 



But in the mean time I have no purpose to give allow- 

 ance to some conditions and courses base and unworthy, 

 wherein divers professors of learning have wronged them- 

 selves and gone too far; such as were those trencher 

 philosophers, which in the later age of the Roman state 

 were usually in the houses of great persons, being little 

 better than solemn parasites; of which kind, Lucian 

 maketh a merry description of the philosopher that the 

 great lady took to ride with her in her coach, and would 



