II.] ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 235 



no man, I suppose, will think that I mean fortunes are not obtained 

 without all this ado ; for I know they come tumbling in some men s 

 laps, and a number obtain good fortunes by diligence in a plain way, 

 little intermeddling, and keeping themselves from gross errors. 



But as Cicero, when he sctteth down an idea of a perfect orator, 

 doth not mean that every pleader should be such ; and so likewise, 

 when a prince or a courtier hath been described by such as have 

 handled those subjects, the mould hath used to be made according to 

 the perfection of the art, and not according to common practice : so I 

 understand it, that it ought to be done in the description of a politic 

 man, I mean politic for his own fortune. 



But it must be remembered all this while, that the precepts which 

 we have set down are of that kind which may be counted and calleV 

 bona artes. As for evil arts, if a man would set down for himself thai 

 principle of Machiavel, &quot; that a man seek not to attain virtue itself, 

 but the appearance only thereof; because the credit of virtue is a help, 

 but the use of it is cumber:&quot; or that other of his principles, &quot; that he 

 presuppose that men are not fitly to be wrought otherwise but by fear, 

 and therefore that he seek to have every man obnoxious, low, and in 

 strait,&quot; which the Italians call &quot;seminar spine,&quot; to sow thorns : or that 

 other principle contained in the verse which Cicero citeth, &quot; Cadant 

 amici, dummodo inimici intcrcidant,&quot; as the Triumvirs, which sold, 

 every one to other, the lives of their friends, for the deaths of their 

 enemies : or that other protestation of L. Catilina, to set on fire, and 

 trouble states, to the end to fish in droumy waters, and to unwrap 

 their fortunes, &quot; Ego si quid in fortunis meis excitatum sit inccndium, 

 id non aqua, scd ruina rcstinguam :&quot; or that other principle of Lysander, 

 &quot; that children are to be deceived with comfits, and men with oaths :&quot; 

 and the like evil and corrupt positions, whereof, as in all things, there 

 are more in number than of the good : certainly, with these dispensa 

 tions from the laws of charity and integrity, the pressing of a man s 

 fortune may be more hasty and compendious. But it is in life as it is 

 in ways, the shortest way is commonly the foulest, and surely the fairer 

 way is not much about. 



But men, if they be in their own power, and do bear and sustain 

 themselves, and be not carried away with a whirlwind or tempest of 

 ambition, ought, in the pursuit of their own fortune, to set before their 

 eyes, not only that general map of the world, that &quot; all things are 

 vanity and vexation of spirit,&quot; but many other more particular cards 

 and directions : chiefly that, that being, without well-being, is a curse, 

 and the greater being the greater curse ; and that all virtue is most 

 rewarded, and all wickedness most punished in itself : according as 

 the poet saith excellently : 



Quce vobis, qucc digna, viri, pro laudibus istis 

 I ramia posse rear solvi ? pulcherrima primum 

 Dii moresque dabunt vestri. 



And so of the contrary. And, secondly, they ought to look up to the 

 eternal providence and divine judgment, which often subverteth the 

 wisdom of evil plots and imaginations, according to that Scripture, 



