(40) Another precept of this knowledge is to imitate nature, which
doth nothing in vain; which surely a man may do if he do well
interlace his business, and bend not his mind too much upon that
which he principally intendeth. For a man ought in every particular
action so to carry the motions of his mind, and so to have one thing
under another, as if he cannot have that he seeketh in the best
degree, yet to have it in a second, or so in a third; and if he can
have no part of that which he purposed, yet to turn the use of it to
somewhat else; and if he cannot make anything of it for the present,
yet to make it as a seed of somewhat in time to come; and if he can
contrive no effect or substance from it, yet to win some good
opinion by it, or the like. So that he should exact an account of
himself of every action, to reap somewhat, and not to stand amazed
and confused if he fail of that he chiefly meant: for nothing is
more impolitic than to mind actions wholly one by one. For he that
doth so loseth infinite occasions which intervene, and are many
times more proper and propitious for somewhat that he shall need
afterwards, than for that which he urgeth for the present; and
therefore men must be perfect in that rule, Haec oportet facere, et
illa non imittere.
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