or sect, or opinion, did so much magnify goodness as the Christian religion doth. Therefore, to avoid the scandal and the danger both, it is good to take knowledge of the errors of an habit so excellent. Seek the good of other men, but be not in bondage to 5 their faces or fancies; for that is but facility or softness, which taketh an honest mind prisoner. Neither give thou Esop's cock° a gem, who would be better pleased and happier if he had a barleycorn. The example of God teacheth the lesson truly: "He 10 sendeth his rain, and maketh his sun to shine, upon the just and unjust;" but he doth not rain wealth, nor shine honour and virtues, upon men equally. Common benefits are to be communicate with all, but peculiar benefits with choice. And beware how in 15 making the portraiture thou breakest the pattern; for divinity maketh the love of ourselves the pattern, the love of our neighbours but the portraiture. "Sell all thou hast, and give it to the poor, and follow me.”° But sell not all thou hast except thou come and follow 20 me; that is, except thou have a vocation, wherein thou mayest do as much good with little means a with great; for, otherwise, in feeding the streams thou driest the fountain. Neither is there only a habit of goodness directed 25 by right reason, but there is in some men, even in nature, a disposition towards it; as on the other side there is a natural malignity. For there be that in their nature do not affect the good of others. The lighter sort of malignity turneth but to a crossness, 30 or frowardness, or aptness to oppose, or difficileness, or the like; but the deeper sort to envy and mere mischief. Such men in other men's calamities are, as it were, in season, and are ever on the loading part°; 5 not so good as the dogs that licked Lazarus' sores,' but like flies that are still buzzing upon anything that is raw misanthropi,° that make it their practice to bring men to the bough, and yet have never a tree for the purpose in their gardens, as Timon° had. 10 Such dispositions are the very errors of human nature and yet they are the fittest timber to make great politics of; like to knee-timber, that is good for ships that are ordained to be tossed, but not for building houses that shall stand firm. 15 The parts and signs of goodness are many. If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world,° and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them. If he be compassionate towards the 20 afflictions of others, it shows that his heart is like the noble tree that is wounded itself when it gives the balm. If he easily pardons and remits offences, it shows that his mind is planted above injuries, so that he cannot be shot. If he be thankful for small 25 benefits, it shows that he weighs men's minds, and not their trash. But, above all, if he have St. Paul's perfection, that he would wish to be an anathema from Christ for the salvation of his brethren, it shows much of a divine nature, and a kind of con 30 formity with Christ himself. о XIV. OF NOBILITY о A WE will speak of nobility, first as a portion of an estate, then as a condition of particular persons. monarchy where there is no nobility at all, is ever a pure and absolute tyranny, as that of the Turks; for nobility attempers sovereignty, and draws the 5 eyes of the people somewhat aside from the line royal. But for democracies, they need it not; and they are commonly more quiet, and less subject to sedition, than where there are stirps of nobles; for men's eyes are upon the business, and not upon the persons; 10 or if upon the persons, it is for the business' sake, as fittest, and not for flags and pedigree. We see the Switzers last well, notwithstanding their diversity of religion, and of cantons, for utility is their bond, and not respects. The United Provinces of the 15 Low Countries in their government excel; for where there is an equality, the consultations are more indifferent, and the payments and tributes more cheerful. A great and potent nobility addeth majesty to a monarch, but diminisheth power; and 20 putteth life and spirit into the people, but presseth° their fortune. It is well when nobles are not too great for sovereignty nor for justice, and yet maintained in that height as the insolency of inferiors may be broken upon them, before it come on too fast upon 25 the majesty of kings. A numerous nobility causeth poverty and inconvenience in a state, for it is a sur O charge of expense; and, besides, it being of necessity that many of the nobility fall in time to be weak in fortune, it maketh a kind of disproportion between honour and means. 5 As for nobility in particular persons, it is a reverend thing to see an ancient castle or building not in decay, or to see a fair timber-tree sound and perfect; how much more to behold an ancient and noble family which hath stood against the waves and 10 weathers of time. For new nobility is but the act of power, but ancient nobility is the act of time. Those that are first raised to nobility are commonly more virtuous, but less innocent, than their descendants, for there is rarely any rising but by a commix15 ture of good and evil arts; but it is reason the memory of their virtues remain to their posterity, and their faults die with themselves. Nobility of birth commonly abateth industry, and he that is not industrious envieth him that is. Besides noble persons 20 cannot go much higher; and he that standeth at a stay, when others rise, can hardly avoid motions of envy. On the other side, nobility extinguisheth the passive envy from others towards them, because they are in possession of honour. Certainly, kings that 25 have able men of their nobility shall find ease in employing them, and a better slide into their business; for people naturally bend to them, as born in some sort to command. XV. OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES SHEPHERDS of people had need know the calendars of tempests in state, which are commonly greatest when things grow to equality; as natural tempests are greatest about the equinoctia. And as there are certain hollow blasts of wind, and secret swellings of 5 seas, before a tempest, so are there in states: "Ille etiam cæcos instare tumultus Sæpe monit, fraudesque et operta tumescere bella." Libels and licentious discourses against the state, when they are frequent and open, and in like sort 10 false news often running up and down to the disadvantage of the state, and hastily embraced, are amongst the signs of troubles. Virgil, giving the pedigree of Fame, saith she was sister to the giants: O "Illam Terra parens, ira irritata Deorum, Extremam, ut perhibent, Cao Enceladoque sororem 15 As if fames were the relics of seditions past; but they are no less indeed the preludes of seditions to come. Howsoever he noteth it right, that seditious 20 tumults and seditious fames differ no more but as brother and sister, masculine and feminine; especially if it come to that, that the best actions of a state, and the most plausible, and which ought to give greatest contentment, are taken in ill sense and 25 traduced; for that shows the envy great, as Tacitus |