[ 613] Prudence and worldly Policy, uncertain.
THe Chirurgion that dealeth with an outward wound, seeth what he doth, and can tell whether he can heal it or no,* 1.1 and in what time; but he that is to make an incision within the body, be it for the Stone, or the like disease, he doth but as it were, grope in the dark, and may as well take hold of that he should not, as of that which he would; And the Artizan that worketh in his shop, and hath his tools about him, can promise to make up his dayes work to his best advantage; But the Merchant Adventurer that is to cut the Seas, and hath need of one wind to bring him out of the Haven, another to bring him out to the Lands end, ano∣ther perhaps to bring him to the place of Traffick, where he would be, he can pro∣mise nothing, neither touching his return, neither touching the making of his Commodity, but as the wind and the weather, and the men of War by the way, and as the honesty and skill of them whom he tradeth with, shall give him leave. Ju•••• so it fareth in matters of prudence and worldly Policy, they are conjectural, they are not demonstrative, and therefore there is no Science of them; they have need of con∣currence of many causes that are casual, of many mens minds that are mutable, therefore uncertain, not to be built upon.