< Page:Essays of Francis Bacon 1908 Scott.djvu
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BACON'S ESSAYS

the execution. For when things are once come to the execution, there is no secrecy comparable to celerity; like the motion of a bullet in the air, which flieth so swift as it outruns the eye.


XXII. Of Cunning.

We take Cunning for a sinister or crooked wisdom. And certainly there is a great difference between a cunning man and a wise man; not only in point of honesty, but in point of ability. There be that can pack the cards, and yet cannot play well; so there are some that are good in canvasses and factions, that are otherwise weak men. Again, it is one thing to understand persons, and another thing to understand matters; for many are perfect in men's humours, that are not greatly capable of the real part of business; which is the constitution of one that hath studied men more than books. Such men are fitter for practice than for counsel; and they are good but in their own alley:[1] turn them to new men, and they have lost their aim; so as the old rule to know a fool from a wise man, Mitte ambos nudos ad ignotos, et videbis,[2] doth scarce hold for them. And because these cunning men are like haber-

  1. ↑ Alley. A long narrow passage for playing at bowls; a metaphor from the game of bowls.
  2. ↑ Send both naked to those who do not know, and you will see. Diogenes Laertius, II. 73, attributes this saying to Aristippus. "One of the philosophers was asked; What a wise man differed from a fool? He answered; Send them both naked to those that know them not, and you shall perceive." Bacon. Apophthegmes New and Old. 255 (189).
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