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IF you aim at advancement, be sure you have Jovem in Arca, otherwise your flight to Pre∣ferment 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 Ver∣tues; 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 Accom∣plishment as the Birds in Plutarch did, who beat the Jay for fear in time she might become an Ea∣gle.
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 unre∣garded; 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 Prefer∣ment.
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 in∣duced 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 ad∣vise you to accomplish your self o∣vermuch, or study to be very Learned or Wise; for I have ob∣served 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 un∣der
Heads and narrow Souls by In∣dustry, accompanied with Ambi∣tion and Covetousness, work Won∣ders, 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.