356 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



be likewise in the globe of crystal, or form ; that is that 

 ,~ there be not any thing in being and action, which should 

 not be drawn and collected into contemplation and doc- 

 trine. Neither doth learning admire or esteem of this 

 architecture of fortune otherwise than as of an inferior 

 work : for no man's fortune can be an end worthy of his 

 being, and many times the worthiest men do abandon their 

 fortune willingly for better respects : but nevertheless 

 fortune as an organ of virtue and merit deserveth the 

 consideration. 



First therefore, the precept which I conceive to be most 

 summary towards the prevailing in fortune, is to obtain 

 that window which Momus did require, who seeing in the 

 frame of man's heart such angles and recesses, found fault 

 there was not a window to look into them ; that is, to 

 procure good informations of particulars touching persons, 

 their natures, their desires and ends, their customs and 

 fashions, their helps and advantages, and whereby they 

 chiefly stand ; so again their weaknesses and disadvantages, 

 and where they lie most open and obnoxious; their friends, 

 factions, dependances ; and again their opposites, enviers, 

 competitors, their moods and times, Sola vin molles aditus 

 et tempora noras; their principles, rules, and observations, 

 and the like : and this not only of persons, but of actions ; 

 what are on foot from time to time, and how they are 

 conducted, favoured, opposed ; and how they import, and 

 the like. For the knowledge of present actions is not 

 only material in itself, but without it also the knowledge 

 of persons is very erroneous : for men change with the 

 actions ; and whiles they are in pursuit they are one, and 

 when they return to their nature they are another. These 

 informations of particulars touching persons and actions 

 are as the minor propositions in every active syllogism ; 

 for no excellency of observations (which are as the major 

 propositions) can suffice to ground a conclusion, if there be 

 error and mistaking in the minors. 



That this knowledge is possible, Solomon is our surety ; 

 who saith, Consilium in corde viri tanquam aqua profunda; 

 sed vir prudens exhauriet illud. And although the know- 



