THE SECOND BOOK 333 



For it is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with the 

 columbine innocency, except men know exactly all the 

 conditions of the serpent ; his baseness and going upon his 

 belly, his volubility and lubricity, his envy and sting, and C" 

 the rest ; that is, all forms and natures of evil. For 

 without this, virtue lieth open and unfenced. Nay an 

 honest man can do no good upon those that are wicked 

 to reclaim them, without the help of the knowledge of 

 evil. For men of corrupted minds presuppose that 

 honesty groweth out of simplicity of manners, and be- 

 lieving of preachers, schoolmasters, and men's exterior 

 language : so as, except you can make them perceive 

 that you know the utmost reaches of their own corrupt 

 opinions, they despise all morality. Non red-pit stuhus 

 verba prudentiae, nisi ea dixeris quae versantur in corde ejus. 



Unto this part touching Respective Duty doth also 

 appertain the duties between husband and wife, parent and 

 child, master and servant : so likewise the laws of friend- 

 ship and gratitude, the civil bond of companies, colleges, 

 and politic bodies, of neighbourhood, and all other pro- 

 portionate duties ; not as they are parts of government 

 and society, but as to the framing of the mind of par- 

 ticular persons. 



The knowledge concerning good respecting Society 

 doth handle it also not simply alone, but comparatively ; 

 whereunto belongeth the weighing of duties between 

 person and person, case and case, particular and public : as 

 we see in the proceeding of Lucius Brutus against his own 

 sons, which was so much extolled ; yet what was said ? 



Infelix, utcunque ferent ea facta minores. 



So the case was doubtful, and had opinion on both sides. 

 Again, we see when M. Brutus and Cassius invited to a 

 supper certain whose opinions they meant to feel, whether 

 they were fit to be made their associates, and cast forth 

 the question touching the killing of a tyrant being an 

 usurper, they were divided in opinion ; some holding that 

 servitude was the extreme of evils, and others that tyranny 

 was better than a civil war: and a number of the like cases 



