[6-text p 215] bifore / that is to seye / þat they be trewe / wise / and of old experience / [2360] And werk nat alwey in euery nede / by o conseillour allone / for som tyme bihoueth it to be conseiled by manye / [2361] for Salomon seith / Saluacion of thynges / is wher as ther ben manye conseilours
[2362] ¶ Now sith þat I haue told yow / of which folk ye sholde be conseilled / now wol I teche yow / which conseil ye oghte eschue [2363] ¶ ffirst ye shul eschue / the conseillyng of fooles / for Salomon seith / take no con|seil of a fool / for he ne kan nat conseille / but after his owene lust and his affeccion / [2364] ¶ The book seith / that the propretee of a fool is this ‖ he troweþ lightly / harm of euery wight & lightly troweth alle bountee in hym self // [2365] Tow shalt eek eschue / the conseillyng of alle flaterers / swiche as enforcen hem rather to preise youre persone by flaterye / than for to telle yow the sooth|fastnesse of thynges
[2366] ¶ Wherfore Tullius seith / Among alle the pestilences þat been in frendshipe / the gretteste is fiaterye / And therfore is it moore nede / þat thow eschue & drede flaterers / than any oother peple ‖ [2367] The book seith / thow shalt rather drede & flee fro the swete wordes / of flaterynge preiseres / than fro the egre wordes of thy freend / that seith thee thy sothes [2368] ¶ Salomon seith / that the wordes of a flaterere / is a Snare to cacchen Innocentz ‖ [2369] He seith also / þat he þat speketh to his freend / wordes of swetnesse / and of [folio 221b] plesance / setteth a Net biforn his feet to cacchen hym ‖ [2370] And therfore / seith Tullius ‖ Enclyne nat thyne erys to flatereres / ne tak no conseil / of wordes of flaterye [2371] ¶ And Caton seith ‖ Auyse thee wel / & eschue wordes of swetnesse & of plesance [2372] ¶ And eek thow shalt eschue / the conseillyng of thynne olde enemys þat ben reconsiled ‖ [2373] The book seith / that no wight retourneth saufly in to the
