368 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



.said to him, that if another came that had better iron he 

 would be master of his gold. In like manner it may be 

 truly affirmed that it is not moneys that are the sinews of 

 fortune, but it is the sinews and steel of men's minds, wit, 

 courage, audacity, resolution, temper, industry, and the 

 like. In third place I set down reputation, because of the 

 peremptory tides and currents it hath ; which if they be 

 not taken in their due time are seldom recovered, it being 

 extreme hard to play an after-game of reputation. And 

 lastly I place honour, which is more easily won by any of 

 the other three, much more by all, than any of them can 

 be purchased by honour. To conclude this precept, as 

 there is order and priority in matter, so is there in time, 

 the preposterous placing whereof is one of the commonest 

 errors ; while men fly to their ends when they should 

 intend their beginnings, and do not take things in order 

 of time as they come on, but marshal them according to 

 greatness and not according to instance ; not observing the 

 good precept, Quod nunc instat agamus. 



Another precept of this knowledge is, not to embrace 

 any matters which do occupy too great a quantity of time, 

 but to have that sounding in a man's ears, Sed fugit interea, 

 fugit irreparabile tempus, and that is' the cause why those 

 which take their course of rising by professions of burden, 

 as lawyers, orators, painful divines, and the like, are not 

 commonly so politic for their own fortune, otherwise than 

 in their ordinary way, because they want time to learn 

 particulars, to wait occasions, and to devise plots. 



Another precept of this knowledge is to imitate nature 

 which doth nothing in vain ; which surely a man may do, 

 if he do well interlace his ^business, and bend not his mind 

 too much upon that which" he principally intendeth. For 

 a man ought in every particular action so to carry the 

 motions of his mind, and so to have one thing under 

 another, as if he cannot have that he seeketh in the best 

 degree, yet to have it in a second, or so in a third ; and if 

 he can have no part of that which he purposed, yet to turn 

 the use of it to somewhat else; and if he cannot make 

 any thing of it for the present, yet to make it as a seed of 



