for it maketh the Perfons preferred more thankful, and the Reft more officious, because all is of Favour. It is good Discretion not to make too much of any Man at the firft; because one cannot hold out that Proportion. To be governed (as we call it) by One is not safe; for it shews 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 fo great with them, and thereby wound their Honour. Yet to be diftracted with many is worse.; for it makes Men to be of the laft Impreffion, and full of Change. To take Advice of fome few Friends is ever honourable; for Lookers on many times fee more than Gamefters; and the Vale best difcovereth the Hill. There is little Friendship in the World, and leaft 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. 2 As in the ancient relations of friendship, such as Damon and Pythias, &c. Johnson, on the contrary, (in the Rambler, No. 64) fays, "Friendship is feldom lafting but between equals, or where the fuperiority on one fide is reduced by some equivalent advantage on the other." But Jeremy Taylor feems to incline to Bacon's opinion in his Meafures and Offices of Friendship. "He only is fit to be chosen for a friend who can give counsel, or defend my cause, or guide me right, or relieve my need, or can and will, when I need it, do me good: . . . . My friend is a worthy perfon when he can become to me instead of a God, a guide or a fupport, an eye or a hand, a staff or a rule. . . . . And when we confider that one man not better than another, neither towards God nor towards man, but by doing better and braver things; we shall also see that that which is most beneficent is also most excellent, and therefore those friendships must needs be most perfect, where the friends can be most useful." XLIX. Of Suitors. ANY ill Matters and Projects are undertaken; and private Suits do putrify the publick 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 fecond Reward, or at least to make Ufe in the mean time of the Suitor's Hopes. Some take hold of Suits only for an Occafion to cross fome other; or to make an Information, whereof they could not otherwise have apt Pretext; without Care what become of the Suit when that Turn is served: or generally to make other Men's Business a kind of Entertainment to bring in their own. Nay, fome undertake Suits with a full Purpose to let them fall; to the end to gratify the adverse Party, or Competitor. Surely, there is in fome fort a Right in every Suit; either a Right of Equity, if it be a Suit of Controverfy; or a Right of Defert, if it be a Suit of Petition. If Affection lead a Man to favour the wrong Side in Juftice, let him rather ufe his Countenance to compound the Matter than to carry it. If Affection lead a Man to favour the lefs Worthy in Defert, let him do it without depraving or difabling the better Deferver. In Suits which a man doth not well understand, it is good to refer them to fome Friend of Truft and Judgement, that may report whether he may deal in them with Honour : but let him choose well his Referendaries; for elfe he may be led by the Nofe. Suitors are fo diftafted with Delays and Abuses that plain Dealing in denying to deal in Suits at first, and reporting the Succefs barely, and in challenging no more Thanks than one hath deserved, is grown not only honourable but also gracious. In Suits of Favour, the first coming ought to take little Place: So far forth Confideration may be had of his Truft, that if Intelligence of the Matter could not otherwise have been had but by him, Advantage be not taken of the note but the Party left to his other Means; and in fome fort recompensed for his Difcovery. To be ignorant of the value of a Suit is Simplicity; as well as to be ignorant of the Right thereof is Want of Confcience. Secrecy in Suits is a great Mean of Obtaining; for voicing them, to be in Forwardness may discourage some Kind of Suitors, but doth quicken and awake Others. But Timing of the Suit is the principal: Timing, I say, not only in respect of the Person that should grant it, but in respect of those which are like to cross it. Let a Man, in the choice of his Mean, rather choose the fittest Mean than the greatest Mean; and rather them that deal in certain Things than those that are general. The Reparation of a Denial is fometimes equal to the first Grant; if a Man fhew himself neither dejected nor difcon tented. Iniquum petas, ut Equum feras;1 is a good Rule, where a Man hath Strength of Favour; but otherwise, a Man were better rife in his Suit; for he that would have ventured at firft to have loft the Suitor, will not, in the Conclufion, lofe both the Suitor and his own former Favour. Nothing is thought so easy a Request to a great Perfon as his Letter; and yet, if it be not in a good Cause, it is fo much out of his Reputation. There are no worse Inftruments than these general Contrivers of Suits: for they are but a kind of Poison and Infection to publick Proceedings. L. Of Studies.' TUDIES ferve for Delight, for Orna- courfe; and for Ability is in the Judgement and Difpofition of Business. For expert Men can execute, and perhaps judge of Particulars, one by one; but the general Counfels, and the Plots and marfhalling of Affairs come beft from those that are learned. To spend too much Time in Studies is floth; to use them too much for Ornament is Quintil. Inft. Or. iv. 5: "Nec omnino fine ratione eft, quod vulgo dicitur, Iniquo petendum, ut æque feras." Erafmus thinks the proverb allufive to the cuftom of chapmen afking more for their goods than they are worth, in order eventually to accept the true value. This forms the first Effay in the firft and fecond Editions, 1597 and 8. Affectation; to make Judgement wholly by their Rules is the Humour 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 too much at Large, except they be bounded in by Experience. Crafty Men contemn Studies; fimple Men admire them; and wife Men use them for they teach not their own Use; but that is a Wisdom without them, and above them, won by Obfervation. Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find Talk and Difcourfe; but to weigh and confider. Some Books are to be tafted, others to be swallowed, and fome Few to be chewed and digested: that is, fome Books are to be read only in Parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and fome Few to be read wholly, and with Diligence and Attention. Some Books alfo may be read by Deputy, and Extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important Arguments, and the meaner Sort of Books: elfe diftilled Books are like common diftilled Waters, flashy Things. Reading maketh a full Man ;2 2 2 This Effay on Study ftands first in the original edition of 1597, but in a tract printed in 1596, entitled "The Landgrave of Hessen his princely receiving of her Majefties Embaffador," dedicated by the author, Edward Moneys, to Mary, Countess of Warwick, we have the following paffage :-"It is education prince-like, generally knowen in all things, and excellent in many; seasoning his more important ftudies for ability in judgement, with studies of pastime for retiring; as in poetrie, muficke and the Mathematikes: and for ornament in discourse in the languages, French, Italian, and English, wherein he is expert; reading much, conferring and writing much, he is a full man, a readie man, an exaƐt man.” We can hardly fuppofe that this is an accidental resemblance, |