ESSAYS CIVIL AND MORAL. 



are which a man cannot do himself; and then it will appear that it 

 was a sparing speech of the ancients to say, That a friend is another 

 himself; for that a friend is far more than himself. Men have their 

 time, and die many times in desire of some things which they princi 

 pally take to heart ; the bestowing of a child, the finishing of a work, 

 or the like. If a man have a true friend, he may rest almost secure, 

 that the care of those things will continue after him. So that a man 

 hath as it were two lives in his desires. A man hath a body, and that 

 body is confined to a place ; but where friendship is, all offices of life 

 arc as it were granted to him and his deputy : kjr he may exercise 

 them by his friend. How many things are there which a man cannot 

 with any face or comeliness, say or do himself? A man can scarce 

 allcclge his own merits with modesty, much less extol them : a man 

 cannot sometimes brook to supplicate or beg ; and a number of the 

 like. But all these things are graceful in a friend s mouth, which arc 

 blushing in a man s own. So again, a man s person hath many pro 

 per relations, which he cannot put off. A man cannot speak to his 

 son, but as afather ; to his wife, but as a husband ; to his enemy but upon 

 terms ; whereas a friend may speak as the case requires, and not as it 

 sorteth with the person. But to enumerate these things were endless; 

 I have given a rule, where a man cannot fitly play his own part ; if he 

 have not a friend, he may quit the stage. 



XXVIII. OF EXPF.NCE. 



Riches are for spending ; and spending for honour and good actions. 

 Therefore extraordinary expence must be limited by the worth of the 

 occasion ; for voluntary undoing may be as well for a man s country, 

 as for the kingdom of heaven. But ordinary expence ought to be 

 limited by a man s estate, and governed with such regard as it be 

 within his compass ; and not subject to deceit and abuse of servants ; 

 and ordered to the best show, that the bills may be less than the 

 estimation abroad. Certainly if a man will keep but of even hand, his 

 ordinary expences ought to be but to the half of his receipts ; and if he 

 think to wax rich, but to the third part. It is no baseness for the 

 greatest, to descend and look into their own estate. Some forbear it, 

 not upon negligence alone, but doubting to bring themselves into 

 melancholy, in respect they shall find it broken. But wounds cannot 

 be cured without searching. He that cannot look into his own estate 

 at all, had need both choose well them whom he employetb, and 

 change them often : for new are more timorous and less subtile. He 

 that can look into his estate but seldom, it behoveth him to turn all 

 certainties. A man had need, if he be plentiful in some kind of 

 expence, to be as saving again in some other. As if he be plentiful in 

 diet, to be saving in apparel : if he be plentiful in the hall, to be saving 

 in the stable : and the like. For he that is plentiful in cxpcnces of all 

 kinds, will hardly be preserved from decay. In clearing of a mans 

 estate, he may as well hurt himself in being too sudden, as in letti 

 it run on too long : for hasty selling is commonly as disadvantagcabi* 



