and not long after having with a mountebank’s method pronounced them worth thousands, impawneth them for a few shillings.  Upon festival days he goes to court, and salutes without resaluting; at night in an ordinary he canvasseth the business in hand, and seems as conversant with all intents and plots as if he begot them.  His extraordinary account of men is, first to tell them the ends of all matters of consequence, and then to borrow money of them; he offers courtesies to show them, rather than himself, humble.  He disdains all things above his reach, and preferreth all countries before his own.  He imputeth his want and poverty to the ignorance of the time, not his own unworthiness; and concludes his discourse with half a period, or a word, and leaves the rest to imagination.  In a word, his religion is fashion, and both body and soul are governed by fame; he loves most voices above truth.

A WISE MAN

Is the truth of the true definition of man, that is, a reasonable creature.  His disposition alters; he alters not.  He hides himself with the attire of the vulgar; and in indifferent things is content to be governed by them.  He looks according to nature; so goes his behaviour.  His mind enjoys a continual smoothness; so cometh it that his consideration is always at home.  He endures the faults of all men silently, except his friends, and to them he is the mirror of their actions; by this means, his peace cometh not from fortune, but himself.  He is cunning in men, not to surprise, but keep his own, and beats off their ill-affected humours no otherwise than if they were flies.  He chooseth not friends by the Subsidy-book, and is not luxurious after acquaintance.  He maintains the strength of his body, not by delicates but temperance; and his mind, by giving it pre-eminence over his body.  He understands things, not by their form, but qualities; and his comparisons intend not to excuse but to provoke him higher.  He is not subject to casualties, for fortune hath nothing to do with the mind, except those drowned in the body; but he hath divided his soul from the case of his soul, whose weakness he assists no otherwise than commiseratively—­not that it is his, but that it is.  He is thus, and will be thus; and lives subject neither to time nor his frailties, the servant of virtue, and by virtue the friend of the highest.

A NOBLE SPIRIT

Hath surveyed and fortified his disposition, and converts all occurrents into experience, between which experience and his reason there is marriage; the issue are his actions.  He circuits his intents, and seeth the end before he shoot.  Men are the instruments of his art, and there is no man without his use.  Occasion incites him, none enticeth him; and he moves by affection, not for affection.  He loves glory, scorns shame, and governeth and obeyeth with one countenance, for it comes from one consideration.  He calls