THAT MOST MEN HAVE THEIR WEAKNESSES.

THOUGH it be not necessary to labor for a flowing wealth, yet it is fit we have so much as we need ; and not for the want of wealth expose ourselves to be necessitated to ill. As a man would willingly have wherewithal to do good, so he may be happier to be in such a condition, as not to be obliged to inconvenience through defect, nor endangered by plenty to be proud and petulant. The poor are so fettered by their poverty, that they may easily be taken by the assault of any that will but pretend their relief. The rich are taken by their own ambition, by their passion or their appetite, their liberty or wantonness; that it is no easy matter, in the extreme of either fortune, to resist a fierce temptation when it is offered. And besides all these, in any estate our own inclinations are the powerfullest motive-trains to lead

us.

Whosoever shows a passion or an avidity to any thing, he thereby tells his enemy where he is weak, and in what muse we may set a snare to take him. And it is a rare thing to find any man so fortified on all sides, that he can rest staunch against all the baits that are cast out to catch him. Every man hath some

thing whereby he may be taken; and it is rare to find that fish that, at some time or other, will not bite, if the bait be such as likes him. Even Augustus had his Mæcenas, and Alexander his Hephæstion. And it is well, if we be drawn at all, that we happen to be led by a noble conduct. Though it is best when a man can be his own Solomon and his own honest Hushai, to support himself and overthrow the designs of his enemies; yet he is next to best, that, being in doubt, will take advice from the oracle, rather than the cheating augur.

But vicious men, or such as are not balanced by true honor, have not only some peculiar enormity, but they have every thing that is sensual to enslave them. And sometime even the meanest and the most petty thing, as a chain, can lead them any where. If they be but paper kites, even a little boy, with a slender thread, can pull them where he pleaseth, and draw them down from heaven unto earth; a horse, a dog, a landscape, or some lighter thing. Vitellius and Apicius were for gormandizing and gluttony. Vespasian and Didius Julianus were for profit. Nero might be catched with a song, and Domitian with a fly. Claudius had his beloyed mushroom, and Crassus wept for the death of his dear muræna. Nor is it love alone, but hate as well as it, that

places us in the disadvantage. A known antipathy gives our enemy help to subdue us. Even beasts, that reason want, have yet the sense to make their advantage of it. The fox, that knows the badger hateth sluttishness, by fouling of his entrance he drives him out of his earth. And it is a vast prerogative, that man hath over the rest of the creatures, by only knowing their inclinations and abhorrencies. He knows both with what baits to incite them, and with what shewels to drive into the net and toil. By knowing this, and appropriating to their appetites and fears, he becomes a master of those, that by his power and the corporeal endowments of nature he never would be able to conquer. What force could seize the uncontrolled lion, if it were not tempted by the lamb upon the post, or terrified by the fire that he hates and trembles at ? What swiftness could overtake or draw the mounting falcon from the clouds, if the pigeon on the lure should not stoop her to the small reward on the extended fist?

Doubtless, he that hath the fewest fancies, that is free from the sting of pointed and pricking want, that is not tumored with the too much barm of wealth, that can most conceal or master those ticklings and asperities that he hath in himself, is the nearest to a contentful

enjoyment at home, and an unenvied peril from abroad. I have never read of any island so impregnable, but nature had left in it some place or other, by which it might be vanquishable. So it is most rare to find out any person so at all points armed, but there is some way left, whereby he may be sometime surprised; this passion, that affection, this friend, or that kinsman, this or that delight or inclination. He is the strongest that hath fewest accesses. But as those places are the weakest that lie open to every invader, so certainly he is the most subject to be overcome, whose easiness exposes him to be prevailed upon by every feeble attempt. And however by nature he may be fertile, and of a good soil, yet if he lies unmounded, he shall be sure to be always low. At least, a man would have a fence and a gate, and not let every beast that hath but craft or impudence, to graze or dung upon him. In any estate it is most conducing to freedom, not to be behind hand. He that puts himself into a needy condition, he walks with manacles on his hands; and to every one he deals with he gives power to lock them on. Necessity is stronger than either wine or women; and if a man be taken in that, he is but as a withe in the hand of a giant; he can neither buy nor sell like other men, but, wearing his own chains, is at the mercy of him that will lead him.

OF BUSINESS.

THERE are some men that have so great an aversion to business, that you may as soon persuade a cat into water, or an ape to put his fingers into the fire, as to get them to enter upon any thing that may prove trouble, or beget attendance. But these, for the most part, are persons that have passed their youth undisciplined, and have been bred up in that delicacy and tenderness, that they know no other business but their pleasures, and are impatient of any thing that looks but like a hindrance of that; yet this, in the end, does many times produce effects that prove ungrateful and destructive. For hereby the management of affairs do often fall into inferior hands, that, through covetousness and ambition, and for want of skill, put all the wheels of government out of order, till they run both themselves and the state into ruin. Like unpractised and ignorant apothecaries, they do so disproportion their ingredients, that, instead of saving physic, they minister but disease and poison. There are another sort of men quite contrary to these, whom custom and quotidian practice has made so much in love with action, that if they once come to be put by their employment, even life