In some it is a conceit that is almost a nature, which is, that men
can hardly make themselves believe that they ought to change their
course, when they have found good by it in former experience. For
Machiavel noted wisely how Fabius Maximus would have been
temporising still, according to his old bias, when the nature of the
war was altered and required hot pursuit. In some other it is want
of point and penetration in their judgment, that they do not discern
when things have a period, but come in too late after the occasion;
as Demosthenes compareth the people of Athens to country fellows,
when they play in a fence school, that if they have a blow, then
they remove their weapon to that ward, and not before. In some
other it is a lothness to lose labours passed, and a conceit that
they can bring about occasions to their ply; and yet in the end,
when they see no other remedy, then they come to it with
disadvantage; as Tarquinius, that gave for the third part of
Sibylla's books the treble price, when he might at first have had
all three for the simple.
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