ESSAY XLVIII. OF FOLLOWERS AND COSTLY FRIENDS. NOSTLY followers are not to be liked, lest, while a man maketh his train longer, he make his wings shorter. I 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 discontentment3 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 6 '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. 3 Discontentment. Discontent. Discontent. 'Tell of your enemies, and discontentments.”— State Trials, 1600. * Ill intelligence. Bad terms. 'He lived rather in a fair intelligence, than in any friendship with the favourites.'-Clarendon. 5 Glorious. Boastful. We have not Received into our bosom, and our grace, 6 Espials. Spials; spies. See page 436. 7 Officious. Useful; doing good offices. 'Yet, not to earth are those bright luminaries 8 Estates of men. 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 difference 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 2 6 1 Civil. Decorous. Where civil speech and soft persuasion hung.'-Pope. Apprehend. To conceive; to take in as an object. 'Can we want obedience, then, To Him, or possibly his love desert, Who form'd 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 273. 4 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. • Softness. 7 Weakness. 'Under a shepherd softe and negligent, The wolfe hath many a sheep and lambe to rent.'-Chaucer. ▾ 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. .6 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 by-stander over those actually engaged in any transaction, has a parallel in an Irish proverb: Is majt aŋ Tjohanjy;de ai te bjos ar an gcloide. He is a good hurler that's on the ditch. 1 Wont. Accustomed. See page 435. '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, To attend to such things, said the roving bird. 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. And joining together, neighbour with neighbour, 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, 1 From a periodical called The True Briton. MAN ESSAY XLIX. OF SUITORS. 2 3 ANY ill matters and projects are undertaken, and private suits do putrefy the public good. Many good matters are undertaken with bad minds-I mean not only corrupt minds, but crafty minds, that intend not performance. Some embrace suits, which never mean to deal effectually in them; but if they see there may be life in the matter, by some other mean,' they will be content to win a thank, or take a second reward, or, at least, to make use in the meantime of the suitor's hopes. Some take hold of suits only for an occasion to cross some other, or to make an information, whereof they could not otherwise have apt pretext, without care what become of the suit when the turn is served; or, generally, to make other men's business a kind of entertainment" to bring in their own; nay, some undertake suits with a full purpose to let them fall, to the end to gratify the adverse party, or competitor. Surely there is in some sort a right in every suit: either a right of equity, if it be a suit of controversy, or a right of desert, if it be a suit of petition. If affection lead a man to favour the wrong side in justice, let him rather use his countenance to compound the matter than to carry it. If affection lead a man to favour the less worthy in desert, let him do it without depraving or disabling the better deserver. In suits which a man doth not well understand, it is good to refer them to some friend of trust 2 1 1 Mean. Means. See page 201. A thank. Seldom used in the singular. The fool saith I have no thank for all my good deed; and they that eat my bread speak evil of me.'-Ecclus. xx. 16. 3 Second. Secondary; inferior. 4 Make. xiv, 18. Each glance, each grace, Keep their first lustre and maintain their place, Not second yet to any other face.'-Dryden. Give. They all with one consent began to make excuse.—Luke 5 Entertainment. Preliminary communication. The queen desires you to use some gentle entertainment to Laertes, before you fall to play.'-Shakespere. 6 Deprave. To vilify. And that knoweth conscience, ich cam nogt to chide, ne to deprave the personne.'-Piers Ploughman. Envy is blind, and can do nothing but deprave and speak ill of virtuous doing.'-Bennett. |