It is in vain for princes to take counsel concerning matters, if they take no counsel likewise concerning persons; for all matters are as dead images, and the life of the execution of affairs resteth in the good choice of persons. ... In choice of committees for ripening business for the council, it is better to choose indifferent persons than to make an indifferency by putting in those that are strong on both sides. I commend, also, standing commissions-as for trade, for treasure, for war, for suits, for some provinces; for where there be divers particular councils, and but one council of estate (as it is in Spain), they are in effect no more than standing commissions, save that they have greater authority. Let such as are to inform councils out of their particular professions (as lawyers, seamen, mintmen, and the like), be first heard before committees, and then, as occasion serves, before the council. And let them not come in multitudes or in a tribunitious manner, for that is to clamour councils, not to inform them. A long table, and a square table, or seats about the walls, seem things of form, but are things of substance; for at a long table, a few at the upper end in effect sway all the business, but in the other form there is more use of the counsellors' opinions that sit lower. A king, when he presides in council, let him beware how he opens his own inclination too much in that which he propoundeth, for else counsellors will but take the wind of him, and, instead of giving free counsel, will sing him a song of 'Placebo.'*

*

The Twenty-first, entitled 'Of Delays,' first published in 1625, is very short: it concludes thus :—

Generally it is good to commit the beginnings of all great actions to Argus with his hundred eyes, and the ends to Briareus with his hundred hands-first to watch and then to speed. For the helmet of Pluto, which maketh the politic man go invisible, is secrecy in the council, and celerity in the execution; for when things are once come to the execution, there is no secrecy comparable to celerity-like the motion of a bullet in the air, which flieth so swift as it outruns the eye.

The Twenty-second,Of Cunning,' published in 1612, begins as follows:

:

We take cunning for a sinister or crooked wisdom. And

* I will make myself agreeable.

certainly there is great difference between a cunning man and a wise man, not only in point of honesty but in point of ability. There be that can pack the cards, and yet cannot play well; so there are some that are good in canvasses and factions that are otherwise weak men. Again, it is one thing to understand persons, and another thing to understand matters; for many are perfect in men's humours that are not greatly capable of the real part of business, which is the constitution of one that hath studied men more than books. Such men are fitter for practice than for counsel, and they are good but in their own alley; turn them to new men and they have lost their aim.

The Twenty-third, also published in 1612, is entitled 'Of Wisdom for a Man's Self,' and is thus wound up :

Wisdom for a man's self is, in many branches thereof, a depraved thing: it is the wisdom of rats, that will be sure to leave a house somewhat before it fall; it is the wisdom of the fox, that thrusts out the badger who digged and made room for him; it is the wisdom of crocodiles, that shed tears when they would devour. But that which is specially to be noticed, is, that those which (as Cicero says of Pompey) are Sui amantes sine rivali,* are many times unfortunate; and whereas they have all their time sacrificed to themselves, they become in the end themselves sacrifices to the inconstancy of fortune, whose wings they thought by their self-wisdom to have pinioned.

The Twenty-fourth Essay, entitled 'Of Innovations,' and first published in 1625, we give entire :

:

As the births of living creatures at first are ill shapen, so are all innovations, which are the births of time. Yet notwithstanding, as those that first bring honour into their family are commonly more worthy than most that succeed, so the first precedent (if it be good) is seldom attained by imitation. For ill to man's nature, as it stands perverted, hath a natural motion, strongest in continuance; but good, as a forced motion, strongest at first. Surely every medicine is an innovation, and he that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils, for time is the greatest innovator. And if time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter

*Lovers of themselves without a rival.

them to the better, what shall be the end? It is true, that what is settled by custom, though it be not good, yet at least it is fit. And those things which have long gone together are as it were confederate within themselves, whereas new things piece not so well; but though they help by their utility, yet they trouble by their inconformity. Besides, they are like strangers, more admired and less favoured. All this is true, if time stood still; which contrariwise moveth so round that a froward retention of custom is as turbulent a thing as an innovation, and they that reverence too much old times are but a scorn to the new. It were good, therefore, that men in their innovations would follow the example of time itself, which, indeed, innovateth greatly, but quietly and by degrees, scarce to be perceived; for otherwise, whatsoever is new is unlooked for, and ever it mends some and pairs other and he that is holpen, takes it for a fortune, and thanks the time; and he that is hurt, for a wrong, and imputeth it to the author. It is good also not to try experiments in states, except the necessity be urgent, or the utility evident; and well to beware, that it be the reformation that draweth on the change, and not the desire of change that pretendeth the reformation. And lastly, that the novelty, though it be not rejected, yet be held for a suspect; and as the Scripture saith, "That we make a stand upon the ancient way, and then look about us and discover what is the straight and right way, and so to walk in it.'

The following are the first and last paragraphs of the Twenty-fifth, entitled "Of Despatch," which is in the edition of 1612 :—

Affected despatch is one of the most dangerous things to business that can be. It is like that which the physicians call predigestion, or hasty digestion, which is sure to fill the body full of crudities and secret seeds of diseases: therefore measure not despatch by the time of sitting, but by the advancement of the business. And as in races it is not the large stride or high lift that makes the speed, so in business the keeping close to the matter and not taking of it too much at once procureth despatch. It is the care of some, only to come off speedily for the time, or to contrive some false periods of business, because they may seem men of despatch. But it is one thing to abbreviate by contracting, another by cutting off; and business so handled at several sittings or meetings goeth commonly backward and forward in an unsteady manner. I knew a wise man

E

that had it for a by-word, when he saw men hasten to a conclusion, Stay a little, that we may make an end the sooner.'

Above all things, order, and distribution, and singling out of parts, is the life of despatch, so as the distribution be not too subtile; for he that doth not divide will never enter well into business, and he that divideth too much will never come out of it clearly. To choose time is to save time, and an unseasonable motion is but beating the air. There be three parts of business-the preparation, the debate or examination, and the perfection; whereof, if you look for despatch, let the middle only be the work of many, and the first and last the work of few. The proceeding upon somewhat conceived in writing doth for the most part facilitate despatch; for though it should be wholly rejected, yet that negative is more pregnant of direction than an indefinite, as ashes are more generative than dust.

Here is the greater part of the Twenty-sixth, entitled "Of Seeming Wise," also published in 1612:—

It hath been an opinion that the French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are. But howsoever it be between nations, certainly it is so between man and man. For as the apostle saith of godliness, 'Having a show of godliness, but denying the power thereof;' so certainly there are in points of wisdom and sufficiency that do nothing or little very solemnly-Magno conatu nugas.* It is a ridiculous thing, and fit for a satire to persons of judgment, to see what shifts these formalists have, and what prospectives to make superficies to seem body that hath depth and bulk. Some are so close and reserved as they will not show their wares but by a dark light, and seem always to keep back somewhat; and when they know within themselves they speak of that they do not well know, would nevertheless seem to others to know of that which they may not well speak. Some help themselves with countenance and gestures, and are wise by signs, as Cicero saith of Pisothat when he answered him, he fetched one of his brows up to his forehead, and bent the other down to his chin' Respondes altero ad frontem sublato, altero ad mentum depresso supercilio, crudelitatem tibi non placere. Some think to bear it

*Trifles with great parade.

† You answer with one brow raised to your forehead, and the other depressed to your chin, that cruelty is not pleasing to you.

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by speaking a great word and being peremptory, and go on, and take by admittance that which they cannot make good. Some, whatsoever is beyond their reach will seem to despise or make light of it, as impertinent or curious, and so would have their ignorance seem judgment. Seeming wise men may make shift to get opinion, but let no man choose them for employment, for certainly you were better take for business a man somewhat absurd than over formal.

The Twenty-seventh, "Of Friendship," likewise in the collection of 1612, is long; but the following passages are the most notable, or those that best admit of being separated from the context:

Little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth; for a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.

It is a strange thing to observe how high a rate great kings and monarchs do set upon this fruit of friendship whereof we speak, so great as they purchase it many times at the hazard of their own safety and greatness. For princes, in regard of the distance of their fortune from that of their subjects and servants, cannot gather this fruit, except (to make themselves capable thereof) they raise some persons to be as it were companions, and almost equal to themselves, which many times sorteth to inconvenience.

Augustus raised Agrippa (though of mean birth) to that height, as when he consulted with Mæcenas about the marriage of his daughter Julia, Mæcenas took the liberty to tell him, 'That he must either marry his daughter to Agrippa, or take away his life, there was no third way, he had made him 80 great.' With Tiberius Cæsar, Sejanus had ascended to that height, as they two were termed and reckoned as a pair of friends. Tiberius, in a letter to him, saith,' Hæc pro amicitia nostra non occultavi ;'* and the whole senate dedicated an altar to Friendship, as to a goddess, in respect of the great dearness of friendship between them two. The like or more was between Septimius Severus and Plautianus, for he forced his eldest son to marry the daughter of Plautianus, and would maintain

*On account of our friendship I have not concealed these

matters.