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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A29590 Humane prudence, or, The art by which a man may raise himself and fortune to grandeur by A.B. De Britaine, William. 1682 (1682) Wing B4805A; ESTC R36376 38,385 145

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the midst of them lived in Peace and Prosperity Factions in State never long hold their ground for if they be not suppressed by the power of the State they will be ruined by some Distempers rising in their own Party But in Popular Commotions if you stand Neutral you will be sure to run the fortune of the Bat to be picked by the Birds and to be bitten by the Mice I am of that boon Courage that I had rather be devoured by a Lion than stung to death by Flies Neither can I suit my self with those Persons who act for their advantage like the Bird whereof Leo Affricanus makes mention which when the King of Birds demanded Tribute would always rank himself amongst Fish and when the King of Fishes required his Service would be always with the Birds But if any signal infelicity shall happen to fall upon you the only way is not to sit still but to resolve upon action for so long as nothing is done the same accidents which caused your misfortune do still remain but if you act something you may deliver your self However you express a brave Spirit that you durst attempt it But that which is out of your power let it be out of your ear you may if you think fit give your self much trouble but leave God to govern the World as himself pleaseth If you will live comfortably let God alone with his Providence and Men with their Rights SECT 24. IF you aim at advancement be sure you have Jovem in Arca otherwise your flight to Preferment will be but slow without some Golden Feathers You must study to enworthy your self into the favour of some great Person upon whom you must lean rather than upon your own Vertues if not you will be like a Hop without a Pole for every one to tread upon Though Vertue be a Patient for Honour and Preferments ought to be an encouragement for Worth Yet in the Epoche and Account of Times we have observed that Men of the greatest Abilities are on Design supprest and they deal with Persons of the best Accomplishment as the Birds in Plutarch did who beat the Jay for fear in time she might become an Eagle And it hath been the unhappy sate of many Vertuous Persons who like the Axe after it hath hewed out the hard Timber to be hanged up against the Wall unregarded or like a Top which hath been for a long time scourged and run well yet at last to be lodged up for a Hobler But methinks it 's great pity to see the Courtain drawn between a Vertuous Person and Preferment Yet I cannot with Carneades maintain that Injustice is to be preferred before Justice or that it 's better to be a Knave than a Vertuous Honest Man But many times I am under such a Paroxism that I am almost induced to think that it 's better to be Fortunate than Wise or Just and cannot but with Brutus cry out virtus colui te ut rem at tu nomen es inane Therefore if you design to rise and become great I would not advise you to accomplish your self overmuch or study to be very Learned or Wise for I have observed that Wisdom many times gives a check to Confidence which is the Scale and Rundle by which many climb up to the Pinacle and I find by experience that under Heads and narrow Souls by Industry accompanied with Ambition and Covetousness work Wonders and do the Business of the World A little good Fortune is better than a great deal of Vertue and the least Authority hath advantage over the greatest Wit SECT 25. BUt let nothing disquiet you a Vertuous Person will at one time or another be thought good for something and a Wise Man will once in an Age come in fashion I am much pleasd with the Remarks of Themistocles upon the Atheneans who resembled himself to a Plane-tree the Leaves and Boughs whereof Men break off in fair Weather and run under it for shelter in a Storm You must know that Honours and Preferments are rarely the reward of Vertue but the Issue of Pleasure or Interest Is it not strange to observe a Person raised to the Dignity of a Constable of France for having taught Magpies to fly at Sparrows To what Grandeur do you think such another Person as Domitian if he had lived in that Princes time would have advanced himself unto who was so excellent at catching of Flies But let Honour be your Merit not your Expectation and attain to Preferment not by Winding Stairs but by the Scale of your own Vertues If you miss of it you must be content there is a Reward for all things but for Vertue And it 's sometimes a greater Honour to fail of the Reward of Merit than to receive it the glory and highest recompence of Noble Actions is to have done them and Vertue out of it self can find no Retribution worthy of her SECT 26. BEware of Ambition that over-rides without Reins lest you catch a Fall God gives Wings to the Ant that she may destroy her self the sooner And many Men like sealed Doves they study to rise higher and higher they know not whither little considering that when they are mounted to the Solstice of their Greatness every step they set is paved with Fate and their Fall how gentle soever will never suffer them to rise again Let it be your Ambition to be Wise and your Wisdom to be Good Reject Opinion and you are like a Ship in the Harbour safe It 's the unhappiness of many Men to covet the greatest things but not to enjoy the least The Desire of that which we neither have nor need takes from us the true use and fruition of that we have already A Wise Man like Empedocles Sphere is round and all like it self That which a Sober Man hath to do in this World is to make his life comfortable Ever think it 's the best living in the Temperate Zone between nec splendide nec misere If Heaven shall vouchsafe me such a Blessing that I may enjoy a Groat or a Mole-hill with content I can look upon all the great Kingdoms of the Earth as so many little Birds Nests And I can in such a Territory prune my self as much as Alexander did when he fancied the whole World to be one great City and his Camp the Castle of it If I were advanced to the Zenith of Honour I am at the best but a Porter constellated to carry up and down the World a vile Carcass I confess my Mind the Nobler Part of Me now and then takes a Walk in the large Campagne of Heaven and there I contemplate the Universe the Mysterious Concatenation of Causes and the Stupendious Efforts of the Almighty In Consideration whereof I can chearfully bid adieu to the World Depone hoc apud te nunquam plus agere sapientem quam cum in conspectu ejus divina atque Humana venerunt You will find by Experience which