XXX. The noise and clamour that men of great abilities are neglected, and lie hid in corners, is a mere fable; and if they do not voluntarily hide themselves, totally void of truth, or if this is not the case, they are neglected, because to their great talents, there are annexed great defects. I have gone about and seen the world, but to this day, have not observed a man of distinguished abilities, (who was not blemished with glaring defects,) slighted and disregarded; however, as we ought in every instance to speak the truth, the esteem for him, has not always been in proportion to his degree of merit. Some maintain an opposite sentiment to that we have been advancing, but if you attend to them, they do not so much complain of other peoples’ slights and disappointments as of their own. With their tongues, they lament that men of talents are despised; in reality, they only grieve that those are despised who are void of them, which are themselves; and under the pretence of zeal for the public good, they vent their own private spleen. It is the vulgar artifice of people of extreme incapacity to censure the partial distribution of favours, and it has been remarked, that if one of these censurers ever ascended to what he aspired at, he immediately approved of all those measures of government, which he had before clamoured against; from whence it may be inferred, that all the merit he before lamented to have been trodden under foot, he considered as centered and collected together in his own person. I have seen some unworthy men exalted, but do not remember an instance of a great man without spot ever having been despised or contemned. SECT. IX. XXXI. It is now time for us to treat of the inconvenience of low policy. The celebrated Bacon, calls it the asylum of those, who for want of talents, are incapable of pursuing the sublime path of heroic policy: _Quid si quis ad hunc judicii, & discretionis gradum ascendere non valeat, ei relinquitur tanquam tatissimum, ut sit rectus & dissimulator_ (_de Inter. rer. cap. 6._). This maxim, coincides with that which Plutarch cites of the General Lysander. The Lacedæmonians remonstrated with him, that on account of his little faith and truth, he degenerated from Hercules whom they boasted being the descendants of. To which he answered wittily, alluding to the habit Hercules used to wear, that for want of the skin of a lion, he was obliged to make use of the skin of a fox.