All that can be said of him is, that he maketh the best of the General Mistake. It is the Fools and the Knaves that make the Wheels of the World turn. _They_ are _the World_; those few who have Sense or Honesty sneak up and down single, but never go in Herds. To be too much _troubled_ is a worse way of over-valuing the World than the being too much _pleased_. A Man that steps aside from the World, and hath leisure to observe it without Interest or Design, thinks all Mankind as mad as they think him, for not agreeing with them in their Mistakes. _Of_ AMBITION. The serious Folly of wise Men in _over-valuing the World_, is as contemptible as any thing they think fit to censure. The first Mistake belonging to Business is the going into it. Men make it such a Point of Honour to be fit for Business, that they forget to examine whether Business is fit for a Man of Sense. There is Reason to think the most celebrated Philosophers would have been Bunglers at Business; but the Reason is because they despised it. It is not a Reproach but a Compliment to Learning, to say, that _Great Scholars_ are less fit for Business; since the truth is, Business is so much a lower thing than Learning, that a Man used to the last cannot easily bring his Stomach down to the first. The Government of the World is a great thing; but it is a very coarse one too, compared with the Fineness of Speculative Knowledge. The Dependance of a great Man upon a greater, is a Subjection that lower Men cannot easily comprehend. Ambition hath no Mean, it is either upon _all four_ or upon _Tiptoes_. Nothing can be humbler than Ambition, when it is so disposed. Popularity is a Crime from the Moment it is sought; it is only a Virtue where Men have it whether they will or no. It is generally an Appeal to the People from the Sentence given by Men of Sense against them. It is stepping very low to get very high. Men by Habit make irregular Stretches of Power, without discerning the Consequence and Extent of them. Eagerness is apt to overlook Consequences, it is loth to be stopt in its Career; for when Men are in great haste, they see only in a straight Line. _Of_ CUNNING _and_ KNAVERY. Cunning is so apt to grow into Knavery, that an honest Man will avoid the Temptation of it. But Men in this Age are half bribed by the Ambition of circumventing, without any other encouragements. So proud of the Character of being _able_ Men, that they do not care to have their Dexterity confined. In this Age, when it is said of a Man, He knows _how to live_, it may be imply'd he is not very honest. An honest Man must lose so many Occasions of Getting, that the World will hardly allow him the Character of an Able one. There is however more _Wit_ requisite to be an honest Man, than there is to be a Knave. The most necessary thing in the World, and yet the least usual, is to reflect that those we deal with, may know how to be as arrant Knaves as ourselves.