and tenderly; for if thou dost not, it is a debt will sure be paid when thou art gone. If thou have colleagues, respect them, and rather call them when they look not for it, than exclude them when they have reason to look to be called. Be not too sensible or too remembering of thy place in conversation and private answers to suitors; but let it rather be said, When he sits in place he is another man.
XII. Of Boldness.
It is a trivial grammar-school text, but yet worthy a wise man's consideration. Question was asked of Demosthenes,[1] what was the chief part of an orator? he answered, action: what next? action: what next again? action. He said it that knew it best, and had by nature himself no advantage in that he commended. A strange thing, that that part of an orator which is but superficial, and rather the virtue of a player, should be placed so high, above those other noble parts of invention, elocution, and the rest; nay almost alone, as if it were all in all. But the reason is plain. There is in human nature generally more of the fool than of the wise; and therefore those faculties by which the foolish part of men's minds is taken are most potent. Wonderful like is the case of Boldness, in civil business;
- ↑ Demosthenes, born 384 or 385, died 322 B.C., the greatest Greek orator. His best orations are the three Philippics, 351, 344, and 341 B.C., and the famous speech, On the Crown, 330 B.C.
