THE SECOND BOOK 367 



Livia he saith, Et cum artibus mariti simulatione fitii bene 

 composita, for surely the continual habit of dissimulation 

 is but a weak and sluggish cunning, and not greatly politic. 



Another precept of this Architecture of Fortune is to 

 accustom our minds to judge of the proportion or value of 

 things as they conduce and are material to our particular 

 ends ; and that to do substantially, and not superficially. 

 For we shall find the logical part (as I may term it) of 

 some men's minds good, but the mathematical part 

 erroneous ; that is, they can well judge of consequences, 

 but not of proportions and comparison ; preferring things 

 of show and sense before things of substance and effect. 

 So some fall in love with access to princes, others with 

 popular fame and applause, supposing they are things of 

 great purchase ; when in many cases they are but matters 

 of envy, peril, and impediment. So some measure things 

 according to the labour and difficulty or assiduity which 

 are spent about them ; and think if they be ever moving, 

 that they must needs advance and proceed ; as Caesar 

 saith in a despising manner of Cato the second, when he 

 describeth how laborious and indefatigable he was to no 

 great purpose ; Hae c omnia magno studio agebat. So in 

 most things men are ready to abuse themselves in thinking 

 the greatest means to be best, when it should be the fittest. 



As for the true marshalling of men's pursuits towards 

 their fortune as they are more or less material, I hold them 

 to stand thus. First the amendment of their own minds ; 

 for the remove of the impediments of the mind will sooner 

 clear the passages of fortune, than the obtaining fortune 

 will remove the impediments of the mind. In the second 

 place I set down wealth and means ; which I know most 

 men would have placed first, because of the general use 

 which it beareth towards all variety of occasions. But that 

 opinion I may condemn with like reason as Machiavel 

 doth that other, that moneys were the sinews of the wars ; 

 whereas (saith he) the true sinews of the wars are the 

 sinews of men's arms, that is, a valiant, populous, and 

 military nation ; and he voucheth aptly the authority of 

 Solon, who when Croesus shewed him his treasury of gold 



