Of Followers and Frends

Costly Followers are not to be liked; Lest while a Man maketh his Traine Longer, hee make his Wings Shorter. I reckon to bee Costly, not them alone, which charge the Purse, but which are Wearisome and Importune in Sutes. Ordinary Followers ought to challenge no Higher Conditions, then Countenance, Recommendation, and Protection from Wrongs. Factious Followers are worse to be liked, which Follow not upon Affection to him, with whom they range Themselves, but upon Discontentment Conceived against some Other: Whereupon Commonly ensueth, that Ill Intelligence, that we many times see betweene Great Personages. Likewise Glorious Followers, who make themselves as Trumpets, of the Commendation of those they Follow, are full of Inconvenience; For they taint Businesse through Want of Secrecie, And they Export Honour from a Man, and make him a Returne in Envie. There is a Kinde of Followers likewise, which are Dangerous, being indeed Espials; which enquire the Secrets of the House, and beare Tales of them to Others. Yet such Men, many times, are in great Favour; For they are Officious, And Commonly Exchange Tales. The Following by certaine Estates of Men, answerable to that, which a Great Person himselfe professeth, (as of Soldiers to him that hath been Employed in the Warres, and the like,) hath ever beene a Thing Civill, and well taken even in Monarchies; So it be without too much Pompe or Popularitie. But the most Honourable Kinde of Following, is to be Followed, as one that apprehendeth, to advance Vertue and Desert, in all Sorts of Persons. And yet, where there is no Eminent Oddes in Sufficiencie, it is better to take with the more Passable, then with the more Able. And besides, to speake Truth, in Base Times, Active Men are of more use, then Vertuous. It is true, that in Government, it is Good to use Men of one Rancke equally: for to countenance some extraordinarily, is to make them Insolent, and the rest Discontent; Because they may claime a Due. But contrariwise in Favour, to use Men with much Difference and Election, is Good; For it maketh the Persons Preferred more Thankfull, and the Rest more officious; Because all is of Favour. It is good Discretion, not to make too much of any Man, at the first; Because One cannot hold out that Proportion. To be governed (as we call it) by One, is not safe: For it shewes Softnesse, and gives a Freedome to Scandall and Disreputation: For those that would not Censure, or Speake ill of a Man immediatly, will talke more boldly of Those, that are so great with them, and thereby Wound their Honour. Yet to be Distracted with many is Worse; For it makes Men, to be of the Last Impression, and full of Change. To take Advice of some few Frends is ever Honourable; For Lookers on, many times, see more then Gamesters; And the Vale best discovereth the Hill. There is Little Frendship in the World, and Least of all betweene Equals, which was wont to be Magnified. That that is, is between Superiour and Inferiour, whose Fortunes may Comprehend, the One the Other.