others, we make it our whole business to lay ourselves upon them,
and are more concerned how to expose and set out our own
commodities, than how to increase our stock by acquiring new. Silence,
therefore, and modesty are very advantageous qualities in
conversation. One should, therefore, train up this boy to be sparing
and a husband of his knowledge when he has acquired it; and to forbear
taking exceptions at or reproving every idle saying or ridiculous
story that is said or told in his presence; for it is a very
unbecoming rudeness to carp at everything that is not agreeable to our
own palate. Let him be satisfied with correcting himself, and not seem
to condemn everything in another he would not do himself, nor
dispute it as against common customs. "Licet sapere sine pompa, sine
invidia." Let him avoid these vain and uncivil images of authority,
this childish ambition of coveting to appear better bred and more
accomplished, than he really will, by such carriage, discover
himself to be. And, as if opportunities of interrupting and
reprehending were not to be omitted, to desire thence to derive the
reputation of something more than ordinary. For as it becomes none but
great poets to make use of the poetical license, so it is
intolerable for any but men of great and illustrious souls to assume
privilege above the authority of custom; "si quid Socrates aut
Aristippus contra morem et consuetudinem fecerunt, idem sibi ne
arbitretur licere: magnis enim illi et divinis bonis hanc licentiam
assequebantur." Let him be instructed not to engage in discourse or
dispute but with a champion worthy of him, and, even there, not to
make use of all the little subtleties that may seem pat for his
purpose, but only such arguments as may best serve him. Let him be
taught to be curious in the election and choice of his reasons, to
abominate impertinence, and, consequently, to affect brevity; but,
above all, let him be lessoned to acquiesce and submit to truth so
soon as ever he shall discover it, whether in his opponent's argument,
or upon better consideration of his own; for he shall never be
preferred to the chair for a mere clatter of words and syllogisms, and
is no further engaged to any argument whatever, than as he shall in
his own judgment approve it: nor yet is arguing a trade, where the
liberty of recantation and getting off upon better thoughts, are to be
sold for ready money: "neque, ut omnia, quae praescripta et imperata
sint, defendat, necessitate ulla cogitur."

    If his governor be of my humor, he will form his will to be a very
good and loyal subject to his prince, very affectionate to his person,
and very stout in his quarrel; but withal he will cool in him the
desire of having any other tie to his service than public duty.
Besides several other inconveniences that are inconsistent with the
liberty every honest man ought to have, a man's judgment, being bribed
and prepossessed by these particular obligations, is either blinded
and less free to exercise its function, or is blemished with
ingratitude and indiscretion. A man that is purely a courtier, can
neither have power nor will to speak or think otherwise than favorably
and well of a master, who, among so many millions of other subjects,
has picked out him with his own hand to nourish and advance; this
favor, and the profit flowing from it, must needs, and not without
some show of reason, corrupt his freedom and dazzle him; and we
commonly see these people speak in another kind of phrase than is
ordinarily spoken by others of the same nation, though what they say
in that courtly language is not much to be believed.

    Let his conscience and virtue be eminently manifest in his
speaking, and have only reason for their guide. Make him understand,
that to acknowledge the error he shall discover in his own argument,
though only found out by himself, is an effect of judgment and
sincerity, which are the principal things he is to seek after; that
obstinacy and contention are common qualities, most appearing in
mean souls; that to revise and correct himself, to forsake an unjust
argument in the height and heat of dispute, are rare, great, and
philosophical qualities. Let him be advised; being in company, to have
his eye and ear in every corner, for I find that the places of
greatest honor are commonly seized upon by men that have least in
them, and that the greatest fortunes are seldom accompanied with the
ablest parts. I have been present when, while they at the upper end of
the chamber have only been commending the beauty of the arras, or
the flavor of the wine, many things that have been very finely said at
the lower end of the table have been lost or thrown away. Let him
examine every man's talent; a peasant, a bricklayer, a passenger:
one may learn something from every one of these in their several
capacities, and something will be picked out of their discourse
whereof some use may be made at one time or another; nay, even the
folly and impertinence of others will contribute to his instruction.
By observing the graces and manners of all he sees, he will create
to himself an emulation of the good, and a contempt of the bad.

    Let an honest curiosity be suggested to his fancy of being
inquisitive after everything; whatever there is singular and rare near
the place where he is, let him go and see it; a fine house, a noble
fountain, an eminent man, the place where a battle has been
anciently fought, the passages of Caesar and Charlemagne:

          "Quae tellus sit lenta gelu, quae putris ab aestu,

           Ventus in Italiam quis bene vela ferat."

    Let him inquire into the manners, revenues and alliances of
princes, things in themselves very pleasant to learn, and very
useful to know.

    In this conversing with men, I mean also, and principally, those
who only live in the records of history; he shall, by reading those
books, converse with the great and heroic souls of the best ages. 'Tis
an idle and vain study to those who make it by so doing it after a
negligent manner, but to those who do it with care and observation,