beds will shew more than if they did grow in one bed, so as all those beds be within a plot, that they be object to view at once, otherwise not; and therefore men whose living lieth together in one shire, are commonly counted greater landed than those whose livings are dispersed, though it be more, because of the notice and comprehension.

A third case wherein this colour deceiveth, and it is not so properly a case or reprehension as it is a counter colour, being in effect as large as the colour itself, and that is, omnis compositio indigentiæ cujusdam videtur esse particeps [all composition implies some neediness]: because if one thing would serve the turn it were ever best, but the defect and imperfections of things. hath brought in that help to piece them up; as it is said, Martha, Martha, attendis ad plurima, unum sufficit. [Martha, thou art busied about many things: one thing sufficeth.] So likewise hereupon sop framed the fable of the fox and the cat; whereas the fox bragged what a number of shifts and devices he had to get from the hounds, and the cat said she had but one, which was to climb a tree, which in proof was better worth than all the rest; whereof the proverb grew, Multa novit vulpes, sed felis unum magnum. And in the moral of this fable it comes likewise to pass, that a good sure friend is a better help at a pinch than all the stratagems and policies of a man's own wit. So it falleth out to be a common error in negociating, whereas men have many reasons to induce or persuade, they strive commonly to utter and use them all at once, which weakeneth them. For it argueth, as was said, a neediness in every of the reasons by itself, as if one did not trust to any of them, but fled from one to another, helping himself only with that, Et quæ non prosunt singula, multa juvant : [One will not help, but many will.] Indeed in a set speech in an assembly it is expected a man should use all his reasons in the case he handleth, but in private persuasions it is always a great error.

A fourth case wherein this colour may be reprehended, is in respect of that same vis unita fortior; according to the tale of the French King, that when the Emperor's ambassador had recited his master's stile at large, which consisteth of many countries and dominions, the French King willed his Chancellor or other minister to repeat and say over France as many times as the other had recited the several dominions; intending

it was equivalent with them all, and besides more compacted and united.

There is also appertaining to this colour another point, why breaking of a thing doth help it, not by way of adding a shew of magnitude unto it, but a note of excellency and rarity; whereof the forms are, Where shall you find such a concurrence? Great but not complete; for it seems a less work of nature or fortune to make anything in his kind greater than ordinary, than to make a strange composition.

Yet if it be narrowly considered, this colour will be reprehended or encountered by imputing to all excellencies in compositions a kind of poverty, or at least a casualty or jeopardy; for from that which is excellent in greatness, somewhat may be taken, or there may be decay, and yet sufficiency left; but from that which hath his price in composition, if you take away anything, or any part do fail, all is disgraced.

VI.

Cujus privatio bona, malum; cujus privatio mala, bonum. [That which it is good to be rid of is evil; that which it is evil to be rid of is good.]

The forms to make it conceived, that that was evil which is changed for the better, are, He that is in hell thinks there is no other heaven. Satis quercus; Acorns were good till bread was found, &c. And of the other side, the forms to make it conceived that that was good which was changed for the worse, are, Bona magis carendo quam fruendo sentimus: [it is by missing a good thing that we become sensible of it:] Bona a tergo formosissima: Good things never appear in their full beauty, till they turn their back and be going away, &c.

The reprehension of this colour is, that the good or evil which is removed, may be esteemed good or evil comparatively, and not positively or simply. So that if the privation be good, it follows not the former condition was evil, but less good for the flower or blossom is a positive good, although the remove of it to give place to the fruit be a comparative good. So in the tale of Æsop, when the old fainting man in the heat of the day cast down his burthen and called for death, and when death came to know his will with him, said it was for nothing but to help him up with his burthen again: it doth not follow that

because death, which was the privation of the burthen, was ill, therefore the burthen was good. And in this part, the ordinary form of malum necessarium aptly reprehendeth this colour; for privatio mali necessarii est mala, [to be deprived of an evil that is necessary, is evil,] and yet that doth not convert the nature of the necessary evil, but it is evil.

Again, it cometh sometimes to pass, that there is an equality in the change or privation, and as it were a dilemma boni or a dilemma mali: so that the corruption of the one good is a generation of the other; Sorti pater æquus utrique est : [there is good either way:] and contrary, the remedy of the one evil is the occasion and commencement of another, as in Scylla and Charybdis.

VII.

Quod bono vicinum, bonum; quod a bono remotum, malum. [That which is next to a good thing is good; that which is far off, is evil.]

Such is the nature of things, that things contrary and distant in nature and quality are also severed and disjoined in place, and things like and consenting in quality are placed and as it were quartered together: for partly in regard of the nature to spread, multiply, and infect in similitude, and partly in regard of the nature to break, expel, and alter that which is disagreeable and contrary, most things do either associate and draw near to themselves the like, or at least assimilate to themselves that which approacheth near them, and do also drive away, chase, and exterminate their contraries. And that is the reason commonly yielded, why the middle region of the air should be coldest, because the sun and stars are either hot by direct beams or by reflexion. The direct beams heat the upper region, the reflected beams from the earth and seas heat the lower region. That which is in the midst, being furthest distant in place from these two regions of heat, are most distant in nature, that is, coldest; which is that they term cold or hot per antiperistasin, that is invironing by contraries: which was pleasantly taken hold of by him that said, that an honest man in these days must needs be more honest than in ages heretofore, propter antiperistasin, because the shutting of him in the midst of contraries must needs make the honesty stronger and more compact in itself.

The reprehension of this colour is, first, many things of amplitude in their kind do as it were ingross to themselves all, and leave that which is next them most destitute: as the shoots or underwood that grow near a great and spread tree is the most pined and shrubby wood of the field, because the great tree doth deprive and deceive them of sap and nourishment. So he saith well, divitis servi maxime servi, [the servants of a rich man are most servants;] and the comparison was pleasant of him that compared courtiers attendant in the courts of princes, without great place or office, to fasting-days, which were next the holy-days, but otherwise were the leanest days. in all the week.

Another reprehension is, that things of greatness and predominancy, though they do not extenuate the things adjoining in substance, yet they drown them and obscure them in show and appearance. And therefore the astronomers say, that whereas in all other planets conjunction is the perfectest amity; the sun contrariwise is good by aspect, but evil by conjunction.

A third reprehension is, because evil approacheth to good sometimes for concealment, sometimes for protection; and good to evil for conversion and reformation. So hypocrisy draweth near to religion for covert and hiding itself; sæpe latet vitium proximitate boni, [vice lurks in the neighbourhood of virtue;] and sanctuary-men, which were commonly inordinate men and malefactors, were wont to be nearest to priests and prelates, and holy men; for the majesty of good things is such, as the confines of them are revered. On the other side, our Saviour, charged with nearness of publicans and rioters, said, The physician approacheth the sick rather than the whole.

VIII.

Quod quis culpa sua contraxit, majus malum, quod ab externis imponitur, minus malum. [The ill that a man brings on himself by his own fault is greater; that which is brought on him from without is less.]

The reason is, because the sting and remorse of the mind accusing itself doubleth all adversity: contrariwise, the considering and recording inwardly that a man is clear and free from fault and just imputation doth attemper outward calamities. For if the evil be in the sense and in the conscience

both, there is a gemination of it; but if evil be in the one and comfort in the other, it is a kind of compensation. So the poets in tragedies do make the most passionate lamentations, and those that fore-run final despair, to be accusing, questioning, and torturing of a man's self.

Seque unum clamat causamque caputque malorum.

And contrariwise, the extremities of worthy persons have been annihilated in the consideration of their own good deserving. Besides, when the evil cometh from without, there is left a kind of evaporation of grief, if it come by human injury, either by indignation and meditating of revenge from ourselves, or by expecting or fore-conceiving that Nemesis and retribution will take hold of the authors of our hurt; or if it be by fortune or accident, yet there is left a kind of expostulation against the divine powers;

Atque Deos atque astra vocat crudelia mater.

But where the evil is derived from a man's own fault, there all strikes deadly inwards and suffocateth.

best.

The reprehension of this colour is first in respect of hope; for reformation of our faults is in nostra potestate, but amendment of our fortune simply is not. Therefore Demosthenes in many of his orations saith thus to the people of Athens: That which having regard to the time past is the worst point and circumstance of all the rest, that as to the time to come is the What is that? Even this, that by your sloth, irresolution, and misgovernment, your affairs are grown to this declination and decay. For had you used and ordered your means and forces to the best, and done your parts every way to the full, and notwithstanding your matters should have gone backward in this manner as they do, there had been no hope left of recovery or reparation; but since it hath been only by your own errors, &c. So Epictetus in his degrees saith, The worst state of man is to accuse extern things; better than that to accuse a man's self; and best of all to accuse neither.

Another reprehension of this colour is in respect of the well bearing of evils wherewith a man can charge nobody but himself, which maketh them the less.

Leve fit quod bene fertur onus.

[The burden is lightened which is well borne.]