40 ESS A YS CIVIL AND MORAL. 



beware of being too material, when there is any impediment or 

 obstruction in men s wills ; for pre-occupation of mind ever requircth 

 preface of speech ; like a fomentation to make the unguent enter. 



Above all things, order, and distribution, and singling out of parts, 

 is the life of despatch : so as the distribution be not too subtile : for 

 he that doth not divide, will never enter well into business : and he that 

 divideth too much, will never come out of it clearly. To choose time, 

 is to save time ; and an unseasonable motion is but beating the air. 

 There be three parts of business ; the preparation, the debate or 

 examination, and the perfection. Whereof, if you look for despatch, 

 let the middle only be the work of many, and the first and last the 

 work of few. The proceeding upon somewhat conceived in writing, 

 doth for the most part facilitate despatch : for though it should be 

 wholly rejected, yet that negative is more pregnant of direction than 

 an indefinite ; as ashes are more generative than dust. 



XXVI. OF SEEMING WISE. 



It hath been an opinion, that the French are wiser than they seem, 

 and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are. But howsoever it be 

 between nations, certainly it is so between man and man. For as the 

 apostle saith of godliness, &quot; having a show of godliness, but denying 

 the power thereof;&quot; so certainly there are in point of wisdom and 

 sufficiency that do nothing or little very solemnly ; &quot; magno conatu 

 nugas.&quot; It is a ridiculous thing, and fit for a satire to persons of 

 judgment, to sec what shifts these formalists have, and what prospec- 

 tives to make superficies to seem body that hath depth and bulk. 

 Some are so close and reserved, as they will not show their wares but 

 by a dark light ; and seem always to keep back somewhat ; and when 

 they know within themselves, they speak of that they do not well 

 know, would nevertheless seem to others to know of that which they 

 may not well speak. Some help themselves with countenance and 

 gesture, and are wise by signs ; as Cicero saith of Piso, that when he 

 answered him, he fetched up one of his brows up to his forehead, and 

 bent the other down to his chin : &quot; rcspondes, altcro r.d frontem sub- 

 lato, altero ad mentum depresso supcrcilio, crudelitatem tibi non 

 placere.&quot; Some think to bear it by speaking a great word, and being 

 peremptory ; and go on, and take by admittance that which they 

 cannot make good. Some, whatsoever is beyond their reach, will seem 

 to despise or make light of it as impertinent or curious ; and so would 

 have their ignorance seem judgment. Some are never without a 

 difference, and commonly, by amusing men with a subtilty, blanch the 

 matter ; of whom A. Gellius saith, &quot; hominen delirum, qui verborum 

 minutiis rerum frangit pondcra.&quot; Of which kind also, Plato in his 

 &quot; Protagoras &quot; bringeth in Prodicus in scorn, and makcth him make a 

 speech that consisteth of distinctions from the beginning to the end. 

 Generally such men in all deliberations find ease to be of the negative 

 side, and affect a credit to object and foretel difficulties : for when 

 propositions are denied, there is an end of them ; but if they be 



