44 ESS A YS CIVIL AND MORAL. 



one of his amigmas, Dry light is ever the best. And certain it is, that 

 the light that a man receiveth by counsel from another is drier and 

 purer, than that which comcth from his own understanding and judg 

 ment ; which is ever infused and drenched in his affections and 

 customs. So as there is as much difference between the counsel that 

 a friend giveth, and that a man giveth himself, as there is between the 

 counsel of a friend and of a flatterer. For there is no such flatterer as 

 is a man s self; and there is no such remedy against flattery of a man s 

 self, as the liberty of a friend. Counsel is of two sorts; the one con 

 cerning manners, the other concerning business. For the first, the 

 best preservative to keep the mind in health is the faithful admonition 

 of a friend. The calling a man s self to a strict account is a medicine 

 sometimes too piercing and corrosive. Reading good books of morality 

 is a little flat and dead. Observing our faults in others is sometimes 

 improper for our case : but the best receipt, best, I say, to work, and 

 best to take, is the admonition of a friend. It is a strange thing to 

 behold what gross errors and extreme absurdities many, especially of 

 the greater sort, do commit for want of a friend to tell them of them, 

 to the great damage both of their fame and fortune. For as St. Tames 

 saith, they are as men &quot; that look sometimes into a glass, and presently 

 forget their own shape and favour.&quot; As for business, a man may think 

 if he will, that two eyes sec no more than one ; or that a gamester 

 seeth always more than a looker-on ; or that a man in anger is as wise 

 as he that hath said over the four and twenty letters ; or that a musket 

 may be shot off as well upon the arm as upon a rest ; and such other 

 fond and high imaginations, to think himself all in all. But when all 

 is done, the help of good counsel is that which setteth business straight. 

 And if any man think that he will take counsel, but it shall be by 

 pieces; asking counsel in one business of one man, and in another 

 business of another man; it is well, that is to say, better perhaps than 

 if he asked none at all, but he runneth two dangers : one, that he shall 

 not be faithfully counselled ; for it is a rare thing, except it be from a 

 perfect and entire friend, to have counsel given, but such as shall be 

 bowed and crooked to some ends which he hath that giveth it. The 

 other, that he shall have counsel given, hurtful and unsafe, though with 

 good meaning, and mixed partly of mischief, and partly of remedy: even 

 as if you would call a physician that is thought good for the cure of the 

 disease you complain of, but is unacquainted with your body ; and 

 therefore may put you in way for a present cure, but overthroweth 

 your health in some other kind, and so cure the disease and kill the 

 patient. But a friend that is wholly acquainted with a man s estate, 

 will beware by furthering any present business how he dashcth upon 

 other inconvenience. And therefore rest not upon scattered counsels ; 

 they will rather distract and mislead, than settle and direct. 



After these two noble fruits of friendship, peace in the affections, 

 and support of the judgment, followeth the last fruit, which is like the 

 pomegranate, full of many kernels ; I mean aid, and bearing a part in 

 all actions and occasions. Here the best way to represent to life the 

 manifold use of friendship, is to cast and see how many things there 



