

ESSAi S CIVIL AND MORAL. 79 



text ; without care what become of the suit when tint turn is served : 

 or generally, to make other men s business a kind of entertainment to 

 bring in their own. Nay, some undertake suits, with a full purpose to 

 let them fall ; to the end to gratify the adverse party or competitor. 

 Surely there is in some sort a right in every suit ; either a right of equity, 

 if it Ixj a suit of controversy ; or a right of desert, if it be a suit of peti 

 tion. If affection lead a man to favour the wrong side injustice, let 

 him rather use his countenance to compound the matter than to 

 carry it. If affection lead a man to favour the less worthy in desert, 

 let him do it without depraving or disabling the better deservcr. In 

 suits which a man doth not well understand, it is good to refer them 

 to some friend of trust and judgment, that may report whether he may 

 deal in thcjn with honour; but let him choose well his referendaries, 

 for else he may be led by the nose. Suitors arc so distasted with 

 delays and abuses, that plain dealing in denying to deal in suits at 

 first, and reporting the success barely, and in challenging no more 

 thanks that one hath deserved, is grown not only honourable, but also 

 gracious. In suits of favour, the first coming ought to take little place ; 

 so far forth consideration may be had of his trust, that if intelligence 

 of the matter could not otherwise have been had but by him, advan 

 tage be not taken of the note, but the party left to his other means, 

 and in borne sort recompensed for his discovery. To be ignorant of 

 the value of a suit, is simplicity ; as well as to be ignorant of the right 

 thereof, is want of conscience. Secrecy in suits is a great mean of 

 obtaining ; for voicing them to be in forwardness, may discourage some 

 kind of suitors; but doth quicken and awake others. Hut timing of the suit 

 is the principal : timing, I say, not only in respect of the person that 

 should grant it, but in respect of those which are like to cross it. Let 

 a man, in the choice of his mean, rather choose the fittest mean than 

 the greatest mean : and rather them that deal in certain things than 

 those that are general. The reparation of a denial is sometimes equal 

 to the first grant ; if a man show himself neither dejected nor discon 

 tented. &quot; In quum petas, ut ajquum feras ; &quot; is a good rule, where a 

 man hath strength of favour ; but otherwise a man were better rise in 

 his suit ; for he that would have ventured at first to have lost the suitor, 

 will not in the conclusion lose both the suitor and his own former favour. 

 Nothing is thought so easy a request to a great person, as his letter ; 

 and yet, if it be not in a good cause, it is so much out of his reputation. 

 There are no worse instruments than these general contrivers of suits ; 

 for they arc but a kind of poison and infection to public proceedings. 



L. OF STUDIES. 



Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their 

 ch n-f use for delight, is in privateness and retiring ; for ornament, is 

 in h-roursc; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of 

 business. Foi expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of par 

 ticulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and 

 mat Dialling of afters, come best from those that are learned. To 



