Of Wisdom FOR A MAN'S SELF

AN ANT is a wise creature for itself, but it is a

 shrewd thing, in an orchard or garden.  And

certainly, men that are great lovers of themselves,

waste the public.  Divide with reason; between self-

love and society; and be so true to thyself, as thou

be not false to others; specially to thy king and

country.  It is a poor centre of a man's actions, him-

self.  It is right earth.  For that only stands fast upon

his own centre; whereas all things, that have af-

finity with the heavens, move upon the centre of

another, which they benefit.  The referring of all

to a man's self, is more tolerable in a sovereign

prince; because themselves are not only them-

selves, but their good and evil is at the peril of the

public fortune.  But it is a desperate evil, in a ser-

vant to a prince, or a citizen in a republic.  For

whatsoever affairs pass such a man's hands, he

crooketh them to his own ends; which must needs

be often eccentric to the ends of his master, or state.

Therefore, let princes, or states, choose such ser-

vants, as have not this mark; except they mean

their service should be made but the accessory.

That which maketh the effect more pernicious, is

that all proportion is lost.  It were disproportion

enough, for the servant's good to be preferred be-

fore the master's; but yet it is a greater extreme,

when a little good of the servant, shall carry things

against a great good of the master's.  And yet that

is the case of bad officers, treasurers, ambassadors,

generals, and other false and corrupt servants;

which set a bias upon their bowl, of their own

petty ends and envies, to the overthrow of their

master's great and important affairs.  And for the

most part, the good such servants receive, is after

the model of their own fortune; but the hurt they

sell for that good, is after the model of their

master's fortune.  And certainly it is the nature of

extreme self-lovers, as they will set an house on fire,

and it were but to roast their eggs; and yet these

men many times hold credit with their masters,

because their study is but to please them, and profit

themselves; and for either respect, they will aban-

don the good of their affairs.
 
 

Wisdom for a man's self is, in many branches

thereof, a depraved thing.  It is the wisdom of rats,

that will be sure to leave a house, somewhat before

it fall.  It is the wisdom of the fox, that thrusts out

the badger, who digged and made room for him.

It is the wisdom of crocodiles, that shed tears when

they would devour.  But that which is specially to

be noted is, that those which (as Cicero says of

Pompey) are sui amantes, sine rivali, are many

times unfortunate.  And whereas they have, all

their times, sacrificed to themselves, they become

in the end, themselves sacrifices to the inconstancy

of fortune, whose wings they thought, by their

self-wisdom, to have pinioned.