AN ANT is a wise creature for itself, but it is a
shrewd thing, in an orchard or garden. And
certainly, men that are great lovers of themselves,
waste the public. Divide with reason; between self-
love and society; and be so true to thyself, as thou
be not false to others; specially to thy king and
country. It is a poor centre of a man's actions, him-
self. It is right earth. For that only stands fast upon
his own centre; whereas all things, that have af-
finity with the heavens, move upon the centre of
another, which they benefit. The referring of all
to a man's self, is more tolerable in a sovereign
prince; because themselves are not only them-
selves, but their good and evil is at the peril of the
public fortune. But it is a desperate evil, in a ser-
vant to a prince, or a citizen in a republic. For
whatsoever affairs pass such a man's hands, he
crooketh them to his own ends; which must needs
be often eccentric to the ends of his master, or state.
Therefore, let princes, or states, choose such ser-
vants, as have not this mark; except they mean
their service should be made but the accessory.
That which maketh the effect more pernicious, is
that all proportion is lost. It were disproportion
enough, for the servant's good to be preferred be-
fore the master's; but yet it is a greater extreme,
when a little good of the servant, shall carry things
against a great good of the master's. And yet that
is the case of bad officers, treasurers, ambassadors,
generals, and other false and corrupt servants;
which set a bias upon their bowl, of their own
petty ends and envies, to the overthrow of their
master's great and important affairs. And for the
most part, the good such servants receive, is after
the model of their own fortune; but the hurt they
sell for that good, is after the model of their
master's fortune. And certainly it is the nature of
extreme self-lovers, as they will set an house on fire,
and it were but to roast their eggs; and yet these
men many times hold credit with their masters,
because their study is but to please them, and profit
themselves; and for either respect, they will aban-
don the good of their affairs.
Wisdom for a man's self is, in many branches
thereof, a depraved thing. It is the wisdom of rats,
that will be sure to leave a house, somewhat before
it fall. It is the wisdom of the fox, that thrusts out
the badger, who digged and made room for him.
It is the wisdom of crocodiles, that shed tears when
they would devour. But that which is specially to
be noted is, that those which (as Cicero says of
Pompey) are sui amantes, sine rivali, are many
times unfortunate. And whereas they have, all
their times, sacrificed to themselves, they become
in the end, themselves sacrifices to the inconstancy
of fortune, whose wings they thought, by their
self-wisdom, to have pinioned.
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