ESSAY XLVIII.

OF FOLLOWERS AND
FRIENDS.

COSTLY

I

YOSTLY followers are not to be liked, lest, while a man .maketh his train longer, he make his wings shorter. reckon to be costly, not them alone which charge the purse, but which are wearisome and importune' in suits. Ordinary followers ought to challenge no higher conditions than countenance, recommendation, and protection from wrongs. Factious followers are worse to be liked, which follow not upon affection to him with whom they range themselves, but upon discontentment conceived against some other; whereupon commonly ensueth that ill intelligence that we many times see between great personages. Likewise glorious followers, who make themselves as trumpets of the commendation of those they follow, are full of inconvenience; for they taint business through want of secrecy; and they export honour from a man, and make him a return in envy. There is a kind of followers, likewise, which are dangerous, being indeed espials, which inquire the secrets of the house, and bear tales of them to others; yet such men many times are in great favour, for they are officious, and commonly exchange tales. The following by certain estates of

Importune. Importunate.

'More shall thy penytent sighs, his endlesse mercy please;

Than their importune suits which dreame that wordes God's wrathe appease.'—

Surrey. 2 Upon. In consequence of. Upon pity they were taken away; upon ignorance they were again demanded.'-Hayward.

Discontentment. Discontent. Tell of your enemies, and discontentments.'State Trials, 1600.

'He lived rather in a fair intelligence, than in

Ill intelligence. Bad terms. any friendship with the favourites.'-Clarendon.

Glorious. Boastful.

men, answerable to that which a great man himself professeth (as of soldiers to him that hath been employed in the wars, and the like), hath ever been a thing civil,' and well taken even in monarchies, so it be without too much pomp or popularity: but the most honourable kind of following is to be followed as one that apprehendeth to advance virtue and desert in all sorts of persons; and yet, where there is no eminent odds in sufficiency,' it is better to take with the more passable than with the more able: and, besides, to speak truth, in base times active men are of more use than virtuous. It is true, that in government it is good to use men of one rank equally: for to countenance some extraordinarily is to make them insolent, and the rest discontent, because they may claim a due; but contrariwise in favour, to use men with much differences and election, is good; for it maketh the persons preferred more thankful, and the rest more officious; because all is of favour. It is good discretion not to make too much of any man at the first, because one cannot hold out that proportion. To be governed (as we call it) by one, is not safe, for it shows softness, and gives a freedom to scandal and disreputation; for those that would not censure or speak ill of a man immediately, will talk more boldly of those that are so great with them, and thereby wound their honour; yet to be distracted with many, is worse, for it makes men to be of the last impression, and full of change. To take advice

Civil. Decorous.

6

'Where civil speech and soft persuasion hung.'-Pope. 2 Apprehend. To conceive; to take in as an object.

'Can we want obedience, then,

To Him, or possibly his love desert,

Who formed us from the dust, and placed us here,
Full to the utmost measure of what bliss
Human desires can seek, or apprehend.'-Milton.

Sufficiency. Ability. See page 294.

• Discontent. Discontented.

The discountenanced and discontent, these the

Earl singles out, as best for his purpose.'-Hayward.

5 Difference. Distinction. 'Our constitution does not only make a difference between the guilty and the innocent, but even among the guilty, between such as are more or less observed.'-Addison.

'Disreputation. Disrepute. Gluttony is not in such disreputation among men as drunkenness.'-Bishop Taylor.

of some few friends, is ever honourable; for lookers-on many times see more than gamesters; and the vale best discovereth the hill. There is little friendship in the world, and least of all between equals, which was wont' to be magnified. That that is, is between superior and inferior, whose fortunes may comprehend the one the other.

ANNOTATIONS.

They taint business through want of secrecy.

Henry Taylor, in the Statesman, has a good remark on the advantage of trusting thoroughly rather than partially. For there are some who will be more likely to betray one secret, if one only is confided, than if they felt themselves confidants altogether. They will then, he thinks, be less likely to give a boastful proof, of the confidence reposed in them, by betraying it.

"A kind of followers which bear tales.'

It is observable that flatterers are usually tale-bearers. Thus we have in Proverbs the caution, 'He that goeth about as a tale-bearer, revealeth secrets; therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.'

'Lookers-on many times see more than gamesters.'

This proverbial maxim, which bears witness to the advantage sometimes possessed by an observant bystander over those actually engaged in any transaction, has a parallel in an Irish proverb:

Is mar an tiomande an te bjos ar en geloje

He is a good hurler that's on the ditch.2

I Wont. Accustomed. See page 462.

2 In Ireland, a bank is so called.

'To countenance some extraordinarily is to make them insolent.

Men very often raise up some troublesome persons into importance, and afterwards try in vain to get rid of them. So also, they give encouragement to some dangerous principle or practice, in order to serve a present purpose, and then find it turned against themselves. The horse in the fable, who seeking aid against his enemy, the stag, had allowed an insidious ally to mount, and to put his bit into his mouth, found it afterwards no easy matter to unseat him. Thus, too, according to the proverb, the little birds, which are chasing about the fullgrown cuckoo, had themselves reared it as a nestling.

'The Spring was come, and the nest was made,
And the little bird all her eggs had laid,
When a cuckoo came to the door to beg
She would kindly adopt another egg;
For I have not leisure, upon my word,

To attend to such things, said the roving bird.
There was hardly room for them all in the nest,
But the egg was admitted along with the rest;
And the foster-birds played their part so well,
That soon the young cuckoo had chipped the shell:
For the silly birds! they could not see
That their foster-chick their plague would be;
And so big and saucy the cuckoo grew,

That no peace at last in the nest they knew.
He peck'd and he hustled the old birds about;

And as for the young ones, he jostled them out.
Till at length they summoned their friends to their aid,
Wren, robin, and sparrow, not one delay'd,

And joining together, neighbour with neighbour,
They drove out the cuckoo with infinite labour.
But the cuckoo was fledged, and laughed to see
How they vainly chased him from tree to tree:
They had nursed him so well, he was grown the stronger,
And now he needed their help no longer.

Give place, or power, or trust, to none

Who will make an ill use of what they have won
For when you have rear'd the cuckoo-guest,
'Twill be hard to drive him out of the nest;
And harder still, when away he's flown,
To hunt down the cuckoo now fully grown."

From a periodical called The True Briton.

KK