ESSAYS CIVIL AND MORAL. 19 



man come in danger by it. The inclination to goodness is imprinted 

 deeply in the nature of man ; insomuch, that if it issue not towards 

 men, it will take unto other living creatures} as it is seen in the Turks, 

 a cruel people, who nevertheless are kind to beasts, and give alms to 

 dogs and birds : insomuch, as Busbechius reporteth, a Christian boy 

 in Constantinople had like to have been stoned, for gagging, in a 

 waggishness, a long-billed fowl. Errors, indeed, in this virtue of good 

 ness or charity may be committed. The Italians have an ungracious 

 proverb ; &quot; Tanto buon che val niente ;&quot; So good that he is good 

 for nothing. And one of the doctors of Italy, Nicholas Machiavcl, 

 had the confidence to put in writing, almost in plain terms, that tho 

 Christian faith had given up good men in prey to those that are tyran 

 nical and unjust : which he spake, because indeed there was never 

 law, or sect, or opinion, did so much magnify goodness as the Christian 

 religion doth : therefore to avoid the scandal and the danger both, it 

 is good to take knowledge of the Qrrors of an habit so excellent. Seek 

 the good of other men, but be not in bondage to their faces or fancies ; 

 for that is but facility or softness which taketh an honest mind 

 prisoner. Neither give thou yEsop s cock a gem, who would be better 

 pleased and happier if he had a barley-corn. The example of God 

 teachcth the lesson truly \ &quot; he scndcth his rain and makcth his sun 

 to shine upon the just and the unjust ;&quot; but he doth not rain wealth 

 nor shine honour and virtues upon men equally : common benefits arc 

 to be communicated with all, but peculiar benefits with choice. And 

 beware, how in making the portraiture thou breakest the pattern : for 

 divinity maketh the love of ourselves the pattern, the love of our neigh 

 bours but the portraiture : &quot; Sell all thou hast, and give it to the poor, 

 and follow me.&quot; But sell not all thou hast, except thou come and 

 follow me ; that is, except thou have a vocation, wherein thou maycst 

 do as much good with little means as with great : for otherwise, in 

 feeding the streams thou driest the fountain. Neither is there only 

 a habit of goodness directed by right reason ; but there is in some 

 men, even in nature, a disposition towards it i as on the other side 

 there is a natural malignity. For there be that in their nature do not 

 affect the good of others. The lighter sort of malignity turncth but to 

 a crossness, or frowardness, or aptness to oppose, or difticilcncss, or 

 the like, but the deeper sort to envy and mere mischief. Such men, in 

 other men s calamities, arc as it were in season, and are ever on the 

 loading part : not so good as the dogs that licked Lazarus sores, but 

 like flies that are still buzzing upon anything that is raw; Misanthropi, 

 that make it their practice to bring men to the bough, and yet have 

 never a tree for the purpose in their gardens, as Timon had. Such 

 dispositions arc the very errors of human nature, and yet they arc the 

 fittest timber to make great politics of; like to knee-timber, that is 

 good for ships that arc ordained to be tossed, but not for building 

 houses that shall stand firm. The parts and signs of goodness are 

 many. If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is 

 a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut oft from 

 other lands, but a continent that joins to them. If he be compassionate 



