ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [Book 



s &amp;gt; again their weaknesses and disadvantages, and where they lie most 

 open and obnoxious ; their friends, factions, and dependencies ; and 

 again their oppositcs, cnvicrs, competitors, their moods and times, 

 &quot; Sola viri mollcs aditus ct tempo ra noras ;&quot; their principles, rules, and 

 observations, and the like : and this not only of persons but of actions, 

 what are on foot from lime to time, and how they are conducted, 

 favoured, opposed, and how they import, and the like. For the 

 knowledge of present actions is not only material in itself, but withou ; 

 it also the knowledge of persons is very erroneous ; for men chang:- 

 with the actions, and whilst they are in pursuit they arc one, and when 

 they return to their nature, they are another. These informations cf 

 particulars, touching persons and actions, arc as the minor pio- 

 positions in every active syllogism, for no excellency of observati ins, 

 which are as the major propositions, can suffice to ground a conclusion 

 if there be error and mistaking in the minors. 



That this knowledge is possible, Solomon is our surely, who saith, 

 &quot; Consilium in cordc viri, tanquam aqua profunda, scd vir prudens 

 cxhauriet illud : &quot; And although ihc knowledge ilsclf falleth not under 

 precept, because it is of individuals, yet the instructions for the 

 obtaining of it may. 



We will begin therefore with ihis precept, according to the ancient 

 opinion, that the sinews of wisdom are slowness of belief and distrust : 

 that more trust be given to countenances and deeds than to words ; 

 and in words rather to sudden passages and surprised words than to 

 set and purposed words. Neither let that be feared which is said, 

 Ft onti nulla fides ; which is meant of a general outward behaviour, 

 and not of the private and subtle motions and labours of the counte- 

 nancc and gesture ; which, as Q. Cicero elegantly saith, is animijanua^ 

 &quot; the gate of the mind.&quot; None more close than Tiberius, and yet 

 Tacitus saith of Callus, &quot; Etcnim vullu offensionem conjectaverat.&quot; 

 So again, noting the differing character and manner of his commending 

 Germanicus and Drusus in the senate, he saith, touching his fashion, 

 wherein he carried his speech of Germanicus, thus ; &quot; Magis in 

 spccicm adorna .is vcrbis, quani ut pcnitus sentire vidcrctur ;&quot; but of 

 Drusus thus, &quot; Paucioribus, scd intentior, et fida oratione : &quot; and in 

 another place, speaking of this character of speech when he did any 

 thing that was gracious and popular, he saith, that in other things he 

 was &quot; vclut cluctanlium vcrborum : &quot; but then again, &quot; Solutius vero 

 loqucbatur quando subveniret.&quot; So that there is no such artificer of 

 dissimulation, nor no such commanded countenance, vultus jitssits, 

 that can sever from a feigned tale some of these fashions, either a 

 more slight and careless fashion, or more set and formal, or more 

 tedious and wandering, or coming from a man more drily and hardly. 



Neither are deeds such assured pledges, as that they may be 

 trusted without a judicious consideration of their magnitude and 

 nature : &quot; Fraus sibi in parvis fidem pnestruit, ut majore emolumento 

 fallal :&quot; and ihe Italian ihinkelh himself upon Ihe point to be bought 

 and sold, when he is betlcr used than he was wont to be, without 

 manifest cause. For small favours, they do but lull men asleep both 



