to a conclusion, Stay a little, that we may make an end the sooner.[1]
On the other side, true dispatch is a rich thing. For time is the measure of business, as money is of wares; and business is bought at a dear hand where there is small dispatch. The Spartans and Spaniards have been noted to be of small dispatch; Mi venga la muerte de Spagna;[2] Let my death come from Spain; for then it will be sure to be long in coming.
Give good hearing to those that give the first information in business; and rather direct them in the beginning, than interrupt them in the continuance of their speeches; for he that is put out of his own order will go forward and backward, and be more tedious while he waits upon his memory, than he could have been if he had gone on in his own course. But sometimes it is seen that the moderator is more troublesome than the actor.
Iterations[3] are commonly loss of time. But there is no such gain of time as to iterate often the state of the question; for it chaseth away many a frivolous speech as it is coming forth. Long and curious speeches are as fit for dispatch, as a robe or mantle with a long train is for race. Prefaces and passages,[4]
- ↑ "Sir Amice Pawlet, when he saw too much haste made in any matter, was wont to say, Stay a while, that we may make an end the sooner." Bacon. Apophthegmes New and Old. 76 (71). Sir Amias Paulet or Poulet, 1536(?)–1588, was keeper of Mary Queen of Scots from 1585 to her execution in 1587–1588. When Paulet was sent as the Queen's ambassador to France, in 1576, Bacon, then a lad of about sixteen, accompanied him as a member of his household.
- ↑ This proverb is a curious mixture of Italian and Spanish. It is an Italian saying and should read, Mi venga la morte di Spagna.
- ↑ Iteration. Repetition.
"O, thou hast damnable iteration, and art, indeed, able to corrupt a saint."
Shakspere. I. King Henry IV. i. 2.
- ↑ Passages. Interchange of communications, negotiations.
