XI. OF GREAT PLACE Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state; servants of fame; and servants of business: so as they have no freedom, neither in their persons, nor in their actions, nor in their times. It is a strange desire, to seek power, and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others, and to conversus Deus, ut aspiceret opera, quæ fecerunt manus suæ, vidit quod omnia essent bona nimis; and then the Sabbath. In the discharge of thy place, set before thee the best 5 examples; for imitation is a globe of precepts. And after a time set before thee thine own example; and examine thyself strictly, whether thou didst not best at first. Neglect not also the examples of those, that have lose power over a man's self. The rising unto 10 carried themselves ill in the same place: not place is laborious; and by pains men come to greater pains; and it is sometimes base; and by indignities men come to dignities. The standing is slippery, and the regress is either to set off thyself by taxing their memory; but to direct thyself what to avoid. Reform therefore, without bravery or scandal of former times and persons; but yet set it a downfall, or at least an eclipse, which is a 15 down to thyself, as well to create good precmelancholy thing. Cum non sis qui fueris, non esse cur velis vivere. cannot when they would; Nay, retire men edents, as to follow them. Reduce things to the first institution, and observe wherein and how they have degenerated; but yet ask counsel of both times: of the ancient time what is best; and of the latter time what is fittest. Seek to make thy course regular; that men may know beforehand what they may expect: but be not too positive and peremptory; and express thyself well when thou digressest from thy rule. Preserve the right of thy place, but stir not questions of jurisdiction: and rather assume thy right in silence, and de facto, than voice it with claims and challenges. Preserve likewise the rights of inferior places; and think it more honour to direct in chief, than to be busy in all. Embrace and invite helps and advices touching the execution of thy place; and do not drive away such as bring when it were reason: but are impatient of privateness, even in age and sickness, which 20 require the shadow: like old townsmen, that will be still sitting at their street door, though thereby they offer age to scorn. Certainly great persons had need to borrow other men's opinions to think themselves happy; for if 25 they judge by their own feeling, they cannot find it; but if they think with themselves what other men think of them, and that other men would fain be as they are, then they are happy as it were by report, when 30 perhaps they find the contrary within. For they are the first that find their own griefs; though they be the last that find their own faults. Certainly men in great fortunes are strangers to themselves, and while they are 35 thee information, as meddlers, but accept of them in good part. The vices of authority are chiefly four; delays, corruption, roughness, and facility. For delays; give easy access; keep times appointed; go through For in the puzzle of business, they have no time to tend their health either of body or mind. Illi mors gravis incubat, qui notus nimis omnibus, ignotus moritur sibi. In place there is license to do good and evil; whereof the 40 with that which is in hand; and interlace not latter is a curse; for in evil the best condition is not to will; the second not to can. But power to do good is the true and lawful end of aspiring. For good thoughts, though God accept them, yet towards men are little 45 better than good dreams, except they be put in act; and that cannot be without power and place; as the vantage and commanding ground. Merit and good works is the end of man's motion; and conscience of the same is 50 without manifest cause, giveth suspicion of the accomplishment of man's rest. For if a man can be partaker of God's theatre, he shall likewise be partaker of God's rest. Et business but of necessity. For corruption; do not only bind thine own hands, or thy servants' hands, from taking, but bind the hands of suitors also from offering. integrity used doth the one; but integrity professed, and with a manifest detestation of bribery, doth the other: and avoid not only the fault, but the suspicion. Whosoever is found variable, and changeth manifestly corruption. Therefore always when thou changest thine opinion or course, profess it plainly, and declare it, together with the and imaginations stream into their minds better, and as it were more divinely. Natures that have much heat, and great and violent desires and perturbations, are not 5 ripe for action, till they have passed the meridian of their years: as it was with Julius Cæsar, and Septimius Severus. Of the latter of whom it is said, Juventutem egit erroribus, imo furoribus, plenam. And reasons that move thee to change; and do not think to steal it. A servant or a favourite, if he be inward, and no other apparent cause of esteem, is commonly thought but a by-way to close corruption. For roughness, it is a needless cause of discontent; severity breedeth fear, but roughness breedeth hate. Even reproofs from authority ought to be grave, and not taunting. As for facility, it is worse than bribery. For bribes come but 10 yet he was the ablest emperor almost of all now and then; but if importunity or idle respects lead a man, he shall never be without. As Salomon saith; to respect persons is not good; for such a man will transgress for a piece the list. But reposed natures may do well in youth: as it is seen in Augustus Cæsar, Cosmos, duke of Florence, Gaston de Fois, and others. On the other side, heat and for business. Young men are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and fitter for new projects than for settled business. For the experience of age, in things that fall within the compass of it, directeth them; but in new things abuseth them. The errors of young men are the ruin of business; but the errors of aged men amount but to this; that more might have been done, or sooner. Young men, in the conduct and manage of actions, embrace more than they can hold; stir more than they can quiet; fly to the end, without consideration of the means and degrees; pursue some few principles, which they have chanced upon, absurdly; care not to innovate, which draws unknown inconveniences; use extreme remedies at first; and, that which doubleth all errors, will not acknowledge or retract them; like an unready horse, that will neither stop nor turn. Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period; but content themselves of bread. It is most true that was anciently 15 vivacity in age is an excellent composition spoken, A place showeth the man: and it showeth some to the better, and some to the worse; omnium consensu, capax imperii, nisi imperasset, saith Tacitus of Galba: but of Vespasian he saith; solus imperantium Ves- 20 pasianus mutatus in melius. Though the one was meant of sufficiency, the other of manners and affection. It is an assured sign of a worthy and generous spirit, whom honour amends. For honour is, or should be, the 25 place of virtue: and as in nature things move violently to their place, and calmly in their place; so virtue in ambition is violent, in authority settled and calm. All rising to great place is by a winding-stair; and if there 30 be factions, it is good to side a man's self whilst he is in the rising; and to balance himself when he is placed. Use the memory of thy predecessor fairly and tenderly; for if thou dost not, it is a debt will sure be paid 35 when thou art gone. If thou have colleagues, respect them, and rather call them when they look not for it, than exclude them when they have reason to look to be called. Be not too sensible, or too remembering of thy place in 40 with a mediocrity of success. Certainly conversation, and private answers to suitors; but let it rather be said, When he sits in place he is another man. XLII. OF YOUTH AND AGE it is good to compound employments of both; for that will be good for the present, because the virtues of either age may correct the defects of both: and good for succession, 45 that young men may be learners, while men in age are actors: and, lastly, good for extern accidents, because authority followeth old men, and favour and popularity youth. But for the moral part, perhaps youth A man that is young in years, may be old in hours, if he have lost no time. But that happeneth rarely. Generally youth is like the first cogitations, not so wise as 50 will have the pre-eminence, as age hath the second. For there is a youth in thoughts, as well as in ages. And yet the invention of young men is more lively than that of old; for the politic. A certain Rabbin upon the text, Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; inferreth, men use them: for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute; nor 5 to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of that young men are admitted nearer to God than old; because vision is a clearer revelation than a dream. And certainly the more a man drinketh of the world, the more it intoxicateth; and age doth profit rather in the powers of understanding, than in the virtues of the will and affections. There be some have an over-early ripeness in their years, which fadeth betimes: these are, first, such as have brittle wits, the edge whereof is 10 books are to be read only in parts; others soon turned; such as was Hermogenes the rhetorician, whose books are exceeding subtile; who afterwards waxed stupid. A second sort, is of those that have some natural dispositions, which have better 15 them by others; but that would be only grace in youth than in age: such as is a fluent and luxuriant speech; which becomes youth well, but not age. So Tully saith of Hortensius; idem manebat, neque idem decebat. The third is, of such as take 20 ference a ready man; and writing an exact too high a strain at the first; and are magnanimous, more than tract of years can uphold. As was Scipio Africanus, of whom Livy saith in effect; ultima primis cedebant. L. OF STUDIES in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books: else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man; con man. And therefore if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much 25 cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend: Abeunt studia in mores. Nay, there is no stond or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies; like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises: bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for the head; and the like. So if a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again: if his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen; for they are cymini sectores: if he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, 30 is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general 35 counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies, is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by 40 their rules, is the humor of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions 45 another, let him study the lawyer's cases: too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies; simple men admire them; and wise so every defect of the mind may have a special receipt. 1597, 1612, 1625 Joseph Hall (1574–1656) CHARACTERS CHARACTERS OF VIRTUES THE HONEST MAN actions, not the sequel. If he see what he must do, let God see what shall follow. He never loadeth himself with burdens above his strength, beyond his will; and, once 5 bound, what he can he will do; neither doth he will, but what he can do. His ear is the sanctuary of his absent friend's name, of his present friend's secret: neither of them can miscarry, in his trust. He remembers the wrongs of his youth, and repays them with that usury, which he himself would not take. He would rather want than borrow, and beg than not pay. His fair conditions are without dissembling; and he loves actions He looks not to what he might do, but what he should. Justice is his first guide: the second law of his actions, is Expedience. He would rather complain, than offend: 10 and hates sin more for the indignity of it, than the danger. His simple uprightness works in him that confidence, which ofttimes wrongs him, and gives advantage to the subtle; when he rather pities their faith- 15 above words. Finally, he hates falsehood lessness, than repents of his credulity. He hath but one heart and that lies open sight; and, were it not for discretion, he never thinks ought, whereof he would avoid a worse than death: he is a faithful client of truth; no man's enemy; and, it is a question, whether more another man's friend, or his own. And, if there were no heaven, yet he witness. His word is his parchment and his 20 would be virtuous. THE HYPOCRITE A Hypocrite is the worst kind of player, ise: neither saith he, 'This I saw not,' but, 25 by so much as he acts the better part: which hath always two faces; oft times, two hearts:_ that can compose his forehead to sadness and gravity, while he bids his heart be wanton and careless within and in the meantime laughs within himself, to think how smoothly he hath cozened the beholder: in whose silent face are written the characters of religion, which his tongue and gestures pronounce but his hands recant: that hath a clean face and garment, with a foul soul: whose mouth belies his heart, and his fingers belie his mouth. Walking early up into the city, he turns into the great church, and salutes one of the pillars on one knee; "This I said.' When he is made his friend's executor, he defrays debts, pays legacies; and scorneth to gain by orphans or to ransack graves: and therefore will be true to a dead friend, because he sees him not. All 30 his dealings are square, and above the board: he bewrays the fault of what he sells, and restores the overseen gain of a false reckoning. He esteems a bribe venemous, though it comes gilded over with the colour of 35 gratuity. His cheeks are never stained with the blushes of recantation; neither doth his tongue falter to make good a lie, with the secret glosses of double or reserved senses: and, when his name is traduced, his 40 worshipping that God, which, at home, he innocency bears him out with courage: then, lo, he goes on in the plain way of truth, and will either triumph in his integrity, or suffer with it. His conscience overrules his providence: so as, in all things, 45 our frozen charity; commends the ancient. good or ill, he respects the nature of the cares not for; while his eye is fixed on some window, or some passenger; and his heart knows not whither his lips go: he rises, and, looking about with admiration, complains of At church, he will ever sit where he may be brief, he is the stranger's saint; the neighbour's disease; the blot of goodness; a rotten stick in a dark night; the poppy in a cornfield; an ill tempered candle with a 5 great snuff that in going out smells ill; an angel abroad, a devil at home; and worse when an angel than when a devil. 1608 Sir Thomas Overbury (1581-1613) CHARACTERS seen best; and in the midst of the sermon, pulls out his tables in haste as if he feared to lose that note; when he writes either his forgotten errand or nothing: then, he turns his Bible with a noise to seek an omitted quotation; and folds the leaf, as if he had found it; and asks aloud the name of the preacher and repeats it; whom he publicly salutes, thanks, praises, invites, entertains with tedious good counsel, with good discourse, 10 if it had come from an honester mouth. He can command tears when he speaks of his youth; indeed because it is past, not because it was sinful; himself is not better, but the times are worse. All other sins he reckons up 15 with detestation, while he loves and hides his darling in his bosom. All his speech returns to himself, and every occurrent draws in a story to his own praise. When he should give, he looks about him, and says, 20 at the best, his fashion exceeds the worth 'Who sees me?' No alms, no prayers fall from him without a witness; belike lest God should deny that He hath received them; and when he hath done, lest the world should not know it, his own mouth is his 25 or to keep Cupid from hitting the black. trumpet to proclaim it. With the superfluity of his usury he builds a hospital; and harbours them whom his extortion hath spoiled: so, while he makes many beggars, AN AMORIST Is a man blasted or planet-stroken, and is the dog that leads blind Cupid; when he is of his weight. He is never without verses and musk comfits, and sighs to the hazard of his buttons; his eyes are all white, either to wear the livery of his mistress' complexion, He fights with passion, and loseth much of his blood by his weapon; dreams, then his paleness. His arms are carelessly used, as if their best use was nothing but embrace ungartered, not out of carelessness, but care; his farthest end being but going to bed. Some times he wraps his petition in neatness, but he goeth not alone; for he he keeps some. He turneth all gnats into 30 ments. He is untrussed, unbuttoned and camels: and cares not to undo the world, for a circumstance: flesh on a Friday is more abomination to him than his neighbour's bed: he abhors more not to uncover at the name of Jesus than to swear by the 35 makes some other quality moralise his name of God. When a rhymer reads his poem to him, he begs a copy, and persuades the press. There is nothing that he dislikes in presence; that, in absence, he censures affection, and his trimness is the grace of that grace. Her favour lifts him up, as the sun moisture; when she disfavours, unable to hold that happiness, it falls down in not. He comes to the sick-bed of his step- 40 tears; his fingers are his orators, and he ex presseth much of himself upon some instrument. He answers not, or not to the purpose; and no marvel, for he is not at home. He scotcheth time with dancing mother and weeps; when he secretly fears her recovery. He greets his friend in the street, with so clear a countenance, so fast a closure, that the other thinks he reads his heart in his face; and shakes hands, with 45 with his mistress, taking up of her glove, an indefinite invitation of 'When will you come?' and, when his back is turned, joys that he is so well rid of a guest: yet if that guest visit him unfeared, he counterfeits a smiling welcome; and excuses his cheer, 50 when closely he frowns on his wife for too much. He shews well, and says well; and himself is the worst thing he hath. In and wearing her feather; he is confined to her colour, and dares not pass out of the circuit of her memory. His imagination is a fool, and it goeth in a pied-coat of red and white: shortly, he is translated out of a min into folly; his imagination is the glass of lust, and himself the traitor to his own discretion. |