of a suit is simplicity, as well as to bee ignorant of the right therof, is want of conscience. Secresie in suites is a great meane of obtaining; For voicing them to bee in forwardnesse, may discourage some kind of suitors, but doth quicken and awake others. But timing of the suits is the principall. Timing I say not onely in respect of the person that should grant it, but in respect of those which are like to crosse it. Let a man in the choise of his meane, rather chuse the fittest meane then the greatest meane, and rather them that deale in certaine things then those that are generall. The reparation of a deniall is sometimes equall to the first grant, if a man shew himselfe neither deiected, nor discontented. Iniquum petas vt æquum feras, is a good rule where a man hath strength of fauour; but otherwise a man were better rise in his suit; for hee that would haue ventured at first to haue lost the sutor, will not in the conclusion lose both the sutor and his owne former fauor. Nothing is thought so easie a request to a great person as his Letter; and yet if it be not in a good cause, so much out of his reputation.

32. OF FOLLOWERS AND FRIENDS.

COSTLY followers are not to bee liked, lest while a man maketh his traine longer, he make his wings shorter. I reckon to bee costly, not them alone which charge the purse, but which are wearisome and importune in suits. Ordinarie followers ought to challenge no higher conditions then countenance, recommenda

1 What follows, down to "former favor," is not in the MS.

Factious followers

tion, and protection from wrongs. are worse to bee liked, which follow not vpon affection to him with whom they range themselues, but vpon discontentment conceiued against some other. Wherupon commonly ensueth, that ill intelligence, that wee many times see beetweene great personages. Likewise glorious followers are full of inconueniency; for they teint businesse through want of secrecy, and they export honor from a man and make him a returne in enuy. The following by certaine States, answerable to that which a great person himselfe professeth, as of Souldiers to him that hath beene imploid in the warres, and the like, hath euer beene a thing ciuill, and well taken euen in Monarchies so it be without too much pompe or popularity. But the most honourable kind of following, is to be followed, as one that apprehendeth to aduance vertue and desart in all sort of persons. And yet where there is no eminent oddes in sufficiency, it is better to take with the more passable, then with the more able. In gouernment it is good to vse men of one rancke equally : For to countenance some extraordinarily, is to make them insolent, and the rest discontent; because they may claime a due. But in fauour to vse men with much difference and election, is good; For it maketh the persons preferred more thankfull, and the rest more officious; because all is of favour. It is good not to make to much of any man at the first, because one cannot hold out that proportion. To bee gouerned by one is not good, and to bee distracted with many, is worse; but to take aduise of some few friends, is euer honourable, For lookers on, many times

1 This sentence is not in the MS.

see more then gamesters, and the vale best discouereth the hill. There is little friendship in the world, and least of all between equals, which was wont to bee magnified. That that is, is betweene Superiour and Inferiour, whose fortunes may comprehend the one the other.

33. OF NEGOCIATING.

Ir is generallie better to deale by speach, then by letter, and by the mediation of a third, then by a mans selfe. Letters are good when a man would draw an answer by letter backe againe, or when it may serue for a mans iustification afterwards to produce his owne letter, or where it may bee danger to bee interrupted or heard by peeces.1 To deale in person is good when a mans face breeds regard, as commonly with inferiours, or in tender cases where a mans eie vpon the countenance of him with whom one speaketh, may giue him a direction how farre to goe, and generally where a man will reserue to himselfe libertie either to disaduowe or to expound. In choise of instruments it is better to choose men of a plainer sort, that are like to doe that, that is committed to them, and to report backe againe faithfully the successe, then those that are cunning to cotriue out of other mens busines, somewhat to grace themselues, and will helpe the matter in report for satisfaction sake. It is better to sound a person with whom one deales a farre off, then to fall vpon the point at first, except you meane to supprise him by some short question. It is better dealing with men in appetite, then with those which are where they

1 The last clause is not in the MS.

would bee. If a man deale with an other vpon conditions, the start or first performance is all, which a man cannot reasonably demand, except either the nature of the thing be such which must goe before, or else a man can perswade the other party, that hee shall still neede him in some other thing, or else that he be counted the honester man. All practise is to discouer or to worke. Men discouer themselues in trust, in passion, at vnawares, and of necessity, when they would haue somewhat done, and cannot finde an apt pretext. If you would worke any man, you must either know his nature, and fashions, and so leade him, or his endes, and so perswade him; or his weaknes or disaduantages, and so awe him, or those that haue interest in him, and so gouerne them. In dealing with cunning persons, we must euer consider their endes to interpret their speeches; and it is good to say little to them, and that which they least looke for.

34. OF FACTION.

MANY haue an opinion not wise; That for a Prince to gouerne his estate, or for a great person to gouerne his proceedings, according to the respect of factions, is the principall part of pollicy: whereas contrariwise, the chiefest wisdome is either in ordering those things which are generall, and wherein men of seuerall factions doe neuerthelesse agree, or in dealing with correspondence to particuler persons, one by one. I say not, that the consideration of factions is to be neglected. Meane men must adhere, but great men that haue strength in themselues were better to main

But

taine themselues indifferent, and neutrall. Yet enen in beginners to adhere so moderatly, as he be a man of the one faction, which is passablest with the other, commonly giueth best way. The lower and weaker faction is the firmer in coniunction. When one of the factions is extinguished, the remaining subdiuideth which is good for a second. It is cōmonly seene, that men once placed, take in with the contrary factio to that, by which they enter. The Traitor in factions lightly goeth away with it: for when matters haue stucke long in balancing, the winning of some one man casteth them and he getteth all the thankes. The euen carriage betweene two factions, proceedeth not alwaies of moderation, but of a truenesse to a mans selfe, with end to make vse of both. Certainely in Italie they hold it a little suspect in Popes, when they haue often in their mouth Padre Commune, & take it to a signe of one that meaneth to referre all to the greatnesse of his own house.

35. OF PRAISE.

PRAISE is the reflection of vertue: but it is as the glasse, or bodie is, which giueth the reflection. If it be from the common people, it is commonly false and naught; and rather followeth vaine persons, then vertuous for the common people vnderstand not many excellent vertues: the lowest vertues draw praise from them, the middle vertues worke in them astonishment, or admiration; but of the highest vertues they haue no sense or perceiuing at all. But shewes, and Species 1 The Essay ends here in the MS.