Affected dispatch is one of the most dangerous things to business
that can be; it is like that which the physicians call predigestion,
or hasty digestion, which is sure to fill the body full of crudities,
and secret seeds of diseases. Therefore, measure not dispatch by the
times of sitting, but by the advancement of the business; and as in
races, it is not the large stride, or high lift, that makes the speed,
so in business, the keeping close to the matter, and not taking of it
too much at once, procureth dispatch. It is the care of some, only to
come off speedily for the time, or to contrive some false periods of
business, because they may seem men of dispatch; but it is one thing to
abbreviate by contracting,[290] another by cutting off; and business so
handled at several sittings, or meetings, goeth commonly backward and
forward in an unsteady manner. I knew a wise man[291] that had it for
a byword, when he saw men hasten to a conclusion, “Stay a little, that
we may make an end the sooner.”
On the other side, true dispatch is a rich thing; for time is the
measure of business, as money is of wares; and business is bought at
a dear hand where there is small dispatch. The Spartans and Spaniards
have been noted to be of small dispatch: “Mi venga la muerte de
Spagna;” “Let my death come from Spain;” for then it will be sure to be
long in coming.
Give good hearing to those that give the first information in business,
and rather direct them in the beginning, than interrupt them in the
continuance of their speeches; for he that is put out of his own order
will go forward and backward, and be more tedious while he waits upon
his memory, than he could have been if he had gone on in his own
course; but sometimes it is seen that the moderator is more troublesome
than the actor.
Iterations are commonly loss of time; but there is no such gain of time
as to iterate often the state of the question; for it chaseth away many
a frivolous speech as it is coming forth. Long and curious speeches
are as fit for dispatch as a robe, or mantle, with a long train, is
for a race. Prefaces, and passages,[292] and excusations,[293] and
other speeches of reference to the person, are great wastes of time;
and though they seem to proceed of modesty, they are bravery.[294]
Yet beware of being too material when there is any impediment, or
obstruction in men’s wills; for preoccupation of mind[295] ever
requireth preface of speech, like a fomentation to make the unguent
enter.
Above all things, order and distribution, and singling out of parts,
is the life of dispatch, so as the distribution be not too subtile;
for he that doth not divide will never enter well into business; and
he that divideth too much will never come out of it clearly. To choose
time is to save time; and an unseasonable motion is but beating the
air. There be three parts of business,—the preparation; the debate, or
examination; and the perfection. Whereof, if you look for dispatch, let
the middle only be the work of many, and the first and last the work of
few. The proceeding, upon somewhat conceived in writing, doth for the
most part facilitate dispatch; for though it should be wholly rejected,
yet that negative is more pregnant of direction than an indefinite, as
ashes are more generative than dust.