That which looketh _bold_ is a great Object that the People can discern; But that which is _wise_ is not so easily seen: It is one part of it that it is not seen, but at the _End_ of a Design. Those who are disposed to be wise too late, are apt to be valiant too early. Most Men enter into a Party rashly, and retreat from it as shamefully. As they encourage one another at first, so they betray one another at last: And because every Qualification is capable of being corrupted by the Excess, they fall upon the extream, to fix mutual Reproaches upon one another. Party is little less than an Inquisition, where Men are under such a Discipline in carrying on the common Cause, as leaves no Liberty of private Opinion. It is hard to produce an Instance where a Party did ever succeed against a Government, except they had a good handle given them. No original Party ever prevailed in a turn; it brought up _something else_, but the first Projectors were thrown off. If there are two Parties, a Man ought to adhere to that which he disliketh least, though in the whole he doth not approve it: For whilst he doth not list himself in one or the other Party, he is looked upon as such a Straggler, that he is fallen upon by both. Therefore a Man under such a Misfortune of Singularity, is neither to provoke the World, nor disquiet himself, by taking any particular Station. It becometh him to live in the Shade, and keep his Mistakes from giving Offence; but if they are his Opinions, he cannot put them off as he doth his Cloaths. Happy those who are convinced so as to be of the general Opinions. Ignorance maketh most Men go into a Party, and Shame keepeth them from getting out of it. More Men hurt others, they do not know why, than for any reason. If there was any Party entirely composed of honest Men, it would certainly prevail; but both the honest Men and the Knaves resolve to turn one another off when the Business is done. They by turns defame all _England_, so nobody can be employed that hath not been branded: There are few Things so criminal as a Place. _Of_ COURTS. The Court may be said to be a Company of well-bred fashionable Beggars. At Court, if a Man hath too much Pride to be a Creature, he had better stay at home: A Man who will rise at Court must begin, by creeping upon All-four: A Place at Court, like a Place in Heaven, is to be got by being much upon _one's Knees_. There are hardly two Creatures of a more differing Species than the same Man, when he is pretending to a Place, and when he is in Possession of it. Mens Industry is spent in receiving the Rents of a Place, there is little left for discharging the Duty of it. Some Places have such a corrupting Influence upon the Man, that it is a supernatural thing to resist it. Some Places lye so fair to entertain Corruption, that it looketh like renouncing a due Perquisite, not to go into it. If a getting Fool would keep out of Business, he would grow richer in a Court than a Man of Sense.