thereof; fo certainly there are in points of wifdom and fufficiency, that to do nothing or little very folemnly; Magno conatu nugas. It is a ridiculous thing, and fit for a Satyr, to persons of judgment, to see what thifts these Formalifts have, and what profpectives to make Superficies to feem Body, that hath depth and bulk. Some are fo close reserved, as they will not shew their Wares, but by a dark light; and feem always to keep back fomewhat: And when they know within themselves, they speak of that they do not well know, would nevertheless feem to others, to know of that which they may not well fpeak. Some help themselves with countenance and gefture, and are wife by Signs; as Cicero faith of Pifo, that when he answered him, he fetched one of his Brows up to his Forehead, and bent the other down to his Chin: Refpondes, altero ad Frontem fublato, altero ad Mentum depresso Supercilio, crudelitatem tibi non placere. Some think to bear it, by speaking a great word, and being peremptory; and go on, and take by admittance that which they cannot make good. Some, whatsoever is beyond their reach, will feem to defpife or make light of it, as impertinent or curious, and so will have their Ignorance feem Judgment. Some are never without a difference, and commonly by arufing men with a fubtilty, blanch the matter; of whom A. Gellius faith, Hominem delirum qui verborum minutiis rerum frangit pondera. Of which kind alfo Plato in his Protagoras bringeth in Prodicus in fcorn,

and

and maketh him make a Speech, that confifteth of diftinctions from the beginning to the end. Generally fuch men in all deliberations find ease to be of the Negative fide, and affect a credit to object and foretel difficulties: For when Propofitions are denied, there is an end of them; but if they be allowed, it requireth a new work which falfe point of wisdom is the bane of businefs. To conclude, there is no decaying Merchant, or inward Beggar, hath fo many tricks to uphold the credit of their Wealth, as thefe empty Perfons have to maintein the credit of their fufficiency. Seeming Wife Men may make shift to get opinion, but let no man chufe them for employment; for certainly you were better take for business a man fomewhat abfurd, than over-formal.

IT

XXVII.

Of Friendship.

T had been hard for him that spake it, to have put more truthand untruth together in few words, than in that Speech, Whofoever is delighted in folitude, is either a wild Beast, or a God. For it is moft true, that a natural and fecret hatred, and averfation towards Society in any Man, hath fomewhat of the favage Beaft; but it is most untrue, that it fhould have any charaeter at all of the Divine Nature, except it pro

ceed

ceed not out of a pleasure in Solitude, but out of a love and defire to fequefter a mans self for a higher conversation; fuch as is found to have been falfely and feignedly in fome of the Heathen, as Epimenides the Candian, Numa the Roman, Empedocles the Sicilian, and Apollonius of Tyana; and truly and really in divers of the ancient Hermits, and Holy Fathers of the Church. But little do men perceive what Solitude is, and how far it extendeth: for a Crowd is not Company, and Faces are but a Gallery of Pictures, and Talk but a Tinkling Cymbal, where there is no Love. The Latine Adage meeteth with it a lit tle, Magna Civitas, magna folitudo; because in a great Town Friends are fcattered, fo that there is not that fellowship, for the most part, which is in lefs Neighbourhoods. But we may go further, and affirm moft truly, that it is a meer and miferable folitude to want Friends, without which the World is but a Wilderness: and even in this Senfe alfo of Solitude, whosoever in the Frame of his Nature and Affections is unfit for Friendship, he taketh it of the Beast, and not from Humanity.

A Principal Fruit of Friendship is, the Ease and Discharge of the Fulness and Swellings of the Heart, which Paffions of all kinds do caufe and induce. We know Diseases of Stoppings and Suffocations are the moft dangerous in the Body, and it is not much otherwife in the Mind; You may take Sarza to open the Liver, Steel to open the Spleen, Flower of Sulphur for the Lungs, Caftoreum

Caftoreum for the Brain; but no Receipt openeth the Heart, but a true Friend, to whom you may impart Griefs, Joys, Fears, Hopes, Sufpicions, Counfels, and whatsoever lieth upon the Heart to oppress it, in a kind of Civil Shrift or Confeffion.

It is a strange thing to obferve, how high a Rate great Kings and Monarchs do fet upon this Fruit of Friendship whereof we speak; fo great, as they purchase it many times at the hazard of their own Safety and Greatnefs. For Princes, in regard of the distance of their Fortune from that of their Subjects and Servants, cannot gather this Fruit, except (to make Themselves capable thereof) they raise fome Perfons to be, as it were, Companions, and almoft Equals to themselves, which many times forteth to Inconvenience. The modern Languages give unto fuch Perfons the name of Favorites or Privadoes, as if it were matter of Grace or Conversation. But the Roman name attaineth the true Use and Cause thereof, naming them Participes Curarum, for it is that which tyeth the knot. And we fee plainly that this hath been done, not by weak and Paffionate Princes only,but by the Wifett,and most Politick that ever reigned: who have oftentimes joyned to themselves fome of their Servants,whom both themselves have called Friends, and allowed others likewife to call them in the fame manner, ufing the word which is received between private men:

L. Syllas

L. Sylla, when he commanded Rome, raised Pompey (after furnamed the Great to that Height, that Pompey vaunted himself for Sylla's Over-match: for when he had carried the Confulship for a Friend of his against the pursuit of Sylla, and that Sylla did a little resent thereat, and began to speak great, Pompey turned upon him again, and in effect bad him be quiet; For that more men adored the Sun-rifing than the Sunfetting. With Julius, Decius Brutus had obtained that Intereft, as he fet him down in his Teftament, for Heir in Remainder after his Nephew. And this was the man that had power with him, to draw him forth to his Death. For when Cafar would have discharged the Senate, in regard of fome ill prefages, and fpecially a Dream of Calpurnia, This Man lifted him gently by the Arm out of his Chair, telling him, he hoped he would not difmifs the Senate, till his Wife had dreamed a better Dream.

And it

feemeth his favour was fo great, as Antonius in a Letter which is recited verbatim in one of Cicero's Philippiques, called him Venefica, Witch, as if he had enchanted Cæfar. Auguftus raised Agrippa (though of mean Birth) to that Heighth, as when he confulted with Maecenas about the Marriage of his Daughter Julia, Macenas took the Liberty to tell him, That he must either marry his Daughter to Agrippa, or take away his life, there was no third way, he had made him fo great. With Tiberius Cafar, Sejanus had afcended to that Heighth, as they two were termed and reckoned

as