8. It is also the law of nature, _That no man obtrude or press his advice or counsel to any man, that declareth himself unwilling to hear the same_. For seeing a man taketh counsel concerning what is good or hurt of himself only, and not of his counsellor, and that counsel is a voluntary action, and therefore tendeth also to the good of the counsellor, there may be often just cause to suspect the counsellor: and though there be none, yet seeing counsel unwillingly heard, is a needless offence to him that is not willing to hear it, and offences tend all to the breach of peace, it is therefore against the law of nature to obtrude it. [Sidenote: How to know suddenly what is the law of nature.] 9. A man that shall see these laws of nature set down and inferred with so many words, and so much ado, may think there is yet much more difficulty and subtlety required to acknowledge and do according to the said laws in every sudden occasion, when a man hath but a little time to consider. And while we consider man in most passions, as of _anger_, _ambition_, _covetousness_, _vain glory_, and the like, that tend to the excluding of natural equality, it is true. But without these passions, there is an easy rule to know upon a sudden, whether the action I be to do, be against the law of nature, or not. And it is but this: _That a man imagine himself in place of the party with whom he hath to do, and reciprocally him in his_. Which is no more but a changing, as it were, of the scales. For every man’s passion weigheth heavy in his own scale, but not in the scale of his neighbour. And this rule is very well known and expressed in this old dictate, _Quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri ne feceris_. [Sidenote: That the law of nature taketh place after security from others to observe the same.]