all tempests what becomes of the ship of state, so they may save
themselves in the cockboat of their own fortune; whereas men that
feel the weight of duty and know the limits of self-love use to make
good their places and duties, though with peril; and if they stand
in seditious and violent alterations, it is rather the reverence
which many times both adverse parts do give to honesty, than any
versatile advantage of their own carriage. But for this point of
tender sense and fast obligation of duty which learning doth endue
the mind withal, howsoever fortune may tax it, and many in the depth
of their corrupt principles may despise it, yet it will receive an
open allowance, and therefore needs the less disproof or excuse.

(7) Another fault incident commonly to learned men, which may be
more properly defended than truly denied, is that they fail
sometimes in applying themselves to particular persons, which want
of exact application ariseth from two causes--the one, because the
largeness of their mind can hardly confine itself to dwell in the
exquisite observation or examination of the nature and customs of
one person, for it is a speech for a lover, and not for a wise man,
Satis magnum alter alteri theatrum sumus. Nevertheless I shall
yield that he that cannot contract the sight of his mind as well as
disperse and dilate it, wanteth a great faculty. But there is a
second cause, which is no inability, but a rejection upon choice and
judgment. For the honest and just bounds of observation by one
person upon another extend no further but to understand him
sufficiently, whereby not to give him offence, or whereby to be able
to give him faithful counsel, or whereby to stand upon reasonable
guard and caution in respect of a man's self. But to be speculative
into another man to the end to know how to work him, or wind him, or
govern him, proceedeth from a heart that is double and cloven, and