enemy to prepare all kinds of obstacles; and then, when he had begun his march, to be forced to turn back, from having left his pontoons and his artillery behind!

'To shoot off before the time, or to teach dangers to come on by over-early buckling towards them, is another extreme.'

This error of taking some step prematurely, or of doing at one stride what had better have been done gradually, arises often, in a sensible man, from a sense of the shortness and uncertainty of life, and an impatience to see of the labour of his soul and be satisfied,' instead of leaving his designs to be carried into execution, or to be completed, by others, who may perhaps not do the work so well, or may be defeated by some rally of opponents.

And sometimes it is even wise, under the circumstances, to proceed more hastily than would have been advisable if one could have been sure of being able to proceed without obstacles. It would have been, for instance, in itself, better to relax gradually the laws interfering with free trade, than to sweep them away at once. But the interval would have been occupied in endeavours, which might have been successful, to effect a kind of counter-revolution, and re-establish those laws. And so it is with many other reforms.

A man who plainly perceives that, as Bacon observes, there are some cases which call for promptitude, and others which require delay, and who has also sagacity enough to perceive which is which, will often be mortified at perceiving that he has come too late for some things, and too soon for others;—that he is like a skilful engineer, who perceives how he could, fifty years earlier, have effectually preserved an important harbour which is now irrecoverably silted up, and how he could, fifty years hence, though not at present, reclaim from the sea thousands of acres of fertile land at the delta of some river. Hence the proverb—

'He that is truly wise and great,
Lives both too early and too late."

1See Proverbs and Precepts for Copy-Pieces for Schools.

WE

ESSAY XXII. OF CUNNING.

E take cunning for a sinister, or crooked wisdom; and certainly there is a great difference between a cunning man and a wise man, not only in point of honesty, but in point of ability. There be that can pack the cards, and yet cannot play well; so there are some that are good in canvasses and factions, that are otherwise weak men. Again, it is one thing to understand persons, and another thing to understand matters; for many are perfect in men's humours, that are not greatly capable of the real part of business, which is the constitution of one that hath studied men more than books. Such men are fitter for practice than for counsel, and they are good but in their own alley: turn them to new men, and they have lost their aim; so as1 the old rule, to know a fool from a wise man, 'Mitte ambos nudos ad ignotos, et videbis," doth scarce hold for them. And because these cunning men are like haberdashers of small wares, it is not amiss to set forth their shop.

It is a point of cunning to wait3 upon him with whom you speak, with your eye, as the Jesuits give it in precept—for there be many wise men that have secret hearts and transparent countenances; yet this would be done with a demure abasing of your eye sometimes, as the Jesuits also do use.

Another is, that when you have anything to obtain of present dispatch, you entertain and amuse the party with whom you deal with some other discourse, that he be not too much awake to make objections. I knew a counsellor and secretary, that never came to Queen Elizabeth of England with bills to sign, but he would always first put her into some discourse of state, that she might the less mind the bills.

The like surprise may be made by moving things when the

1 As. That. See page 23.

2 Send both naked to strangers, and thou shalt know.'

3 Wait upon him with your eye. To look watchfully to him. 'As the eyes of

servants look unto the hands of their masters,

Lord our God.'-Ps. cxxiii. 2.

+ Would.

5 Move.

Should.

To propose.

so our eyes wait upon the

'Let me but move one question to your daughter.'-Shakespere.

party is in haste, and cannot stay to consider advisedly of that' is moved.

If a man would cross a business that he doubts some other would handsomely and effectually move, let him pretend to wish it well, and move it himself, in such sort as may foil it.

The breaking off in the midst of that one was about to say, as if he took himself up, breeds a greater appetite in him with whom you confer to know more.

And because it works better when anything seemeth to be gotten from you by question, than if you offer it of yourself, you may lay a bait for a question, by showing another visage and countenance than you are wont; to the end, to give occasion for the party to ask what the matter is of the change, as Nehemiah did,—' And I had not before that time been sad before the king."

In things that are tender and unpleasing, it is good to break the ice by some whose words are of less weight, and to reserve the more weighty voice to come in as by chance, so that he may be asked the question upon the other's speech; as Narcissus did, in relating to Claudius the marriage of Messalina and Silius.*

In things that a man would not be seen in himself, it is a point of cunning to borrow the name of the world; as to say, 'The world says,' or, 'There is a speech abroad.'

I knew one that, when he wrote a letter, he would put that which was most material in the postscript, as if it had been a bye matter.

I knew another that, when he came to have speech, he would pass over that he intended most, and go forth, and come back again, and speak of it as a thing he had almost forgot.

Some procure themselves to be surprised at such times as it is like the party, that they work upon, will suddenly come upon them, and be found with a letter in their hand, or doing somewhat which they are not accustomed, to the end they may

To your quick-conceiving discontent,

I'll read you matter deep and dangerous.'-Shakespere.

3 Nehemiah ii. I.

4 Tacit. Ann. xi. 29, seq.

be apposed' of those things which of themselves they are desirous to utter.

It is a point of cunning to let fall those words in a man's own name which he would have another man learn and use, and thereupon take advantage. I knew two that were competitors for the secretary's place, in Queen Elizabeth's time, and yet kept good quarter between themselves, and would confer one with another upon the business; and the one of them said, that to be a secretary in the declination3 of a monarchy was a ticklish thing, and that he did not affect it; the other straight caught up those words, and discoursed with divers of his friends, that he had no reason to desire to be secretary in the declining of a monarchy. The first man took hold of it, and found means it was told the queen; who, hearing of a declination of monarchy, took it so ill, as she would never after hear of the other's suit.

There is a cunning, which we in England call 'the turning of the cat in the pan ;" which is, when that which a man says to another, he lays it as if another had said it to him; and, to say truth, it is not easy, when such a matter passed between two, to make it appear from which of them it first moved and began.

It is a way that some men have, to glance and dart at others by justifying themselves by negatives; as to say, 'This I do not;' as Tigellinus did towards Burrhus, saying, 'Se non

1 Apposed. Questioned. (From appono, Lat.) Whiles children of that age were playing in the streets, Christ was found sitting in the Temple, not to gaze on the outward glory of the house, or on the golden candlesticks, or tables, but to hear and appose the doctors.'-Bishop Hall.

(The office of Foreign Apposer' exists to this day in the Court of Exchequer.) * Quarter. Amity; concord.

Friends, all but now,

In quarter.'-Shakespere.

3 Declination. Decay.

Hope waits upon the flow'ry prime ;
And summer though it be less gay,
Yet is not look'd on as a time

Of declination or decay.'-Waller.

4 Affect. Aim at; endeavour after. See page 1. Divers. Several; more than one.

Boyle.

6 As.

That. See page 23.

Divers friends thought it strange.'

7 Cat' in the pan. Pan-cake. (Cate-cake-pan-cake.) Usually turned by a dexterous toss of the cook. A pan-cake is, in Northamptonshire, still called a pan-cate.

Р

diversas spes, sed incolumitatem imperatoris simpliciter spectare."

Some have in readiness so many tales and stories, as there is nothing they would insinuate but they can wrap it into a tale; which serveth both to keep themselves more in' guard, and to make others carry it with more pleasure.

It is a good point of cunning for a man to shape the answer he would have in his own words and propositions, for it makes the other party stick3 the less.

It is strange how long some men will lie in wait to speak somewhat they desire to say, and how far about they will fetch, and how many other matters they will beat over to come near it; it is a thing of great patience, but yet of much use.

A sudden, bold, and unexpected question, doth many times surprise a man, and lay him open. Like to him that, having changed his name, and walking in Paul's, another suddenly came behind him, and called him by his true name, whereat straightways he looked back.

But these small wares and petty points of cunning are infinite, and it were a good deed to make a list of them; for that nothing doth more hurt in a State than that cunning men pass for wise.

But certainly some there are that know the resorts and falls" of business, that cannot sink into the main of it; like a house that hath convenient stairs and entries, but never a fair room: therefore you shall see them find out pretty' looses in the con

1 'He did not look to various hopes, but solely to the safety of the emperor.'Tacit. Ann. xiv. 57.

2 In.

3 Stick.

On. Let fowls multiply in the earth.'-Genesis i.

To hesitate; to scruple. Rather than impute our miscarriages to our own corruption, we do not stick to arraign Providence.'-South. 4 Straightways. Immediately.

Resorts. Springs.

6 Falls.

7 Pretty.

8 Looses. deliberation.

Fortune,

Whose dark resorts since prudence cannot know,
In vain it would provide for what shall be.'-Dryden.
Chances. To resist the falls of fortune.'-Golden Book.
Suitable; fit; tolerable.

'My daughter's of a pretty age.'-Romeo and Juliet.

Issues; escapes from restraint, such as is difficulty or perplexity in

And shot they with the square, the round, or forket pile, (head of an arrow) The loose gave such a twang as might be heard a mile.'-Drayton.