and excusations,[1] and other speeches of reference to the person, are great wastes of time; and though they seem to proceed of[2] modesty, they are bravery. Yet beware of being too material[3] when there is any impediment or obstruction in men's wills; for preoccupation of mind ever requireth preface of speech; like a fomentation[4] to make the unguent[5] enter.
Above all things, order, and distribution, and singling out of parts, is the life of dispatch; so as the distribution be not too subtle: for he that doth not divide will never enter well into business; and he that divideth too much will never come out of it clearly. To choose time is to save time; and an unseasonable motion is but beating the air. There be three parts of business; the preparation, the debate or examination, and the perfection. Whereof, if you look for dispatch, let the middle only be the work of many, and the first and last the work of few. The proceeding upon somewhat conceived in writing doth for the most part facilitate dispatch: for though it should be wholly rejected, yet that negative is more pregnant of direction than an indefinite; as ashes are more generative than dust.
- ↑ Excusations. Excuses.
- ↑ Of. From. "And thou shalt receive them of their hands, and burn them upon the altar for a burnt offering, for a sweet savour before the Lord: it is an offering made by fire unto the Lord." Exodus xxix. 25.
- ↑ Material. Full of matter.
"A material fool!"
Shakspere. As You Like It. iii. 3.
- ↑ Fomentation. The application to the surface of the body either of flannels, etc., soaked in hot water, whether simple or medicated, or of any other warm, soft, medicinal substance.
- ↑ Unguent. Any soft, substance used as an ointment or for lubrication.
