It cannot be denied, but outward accidents conduce much to fortune;
favor, opportunity, death of others, occasion fitting virtue; but,
chiefly, the mould of a man’s fortune is in his own hands: “Faber
quisque fortunæ suæ,”[421] saith the poet; and the most frequent
of external causes, is that the folly of one man is the fortune of
another; for no man prospers so suddenly as by others’ errors. “Serpens
nisi serpentem comederit non fit draco.”[422] Overt and apparent
virtues bring forth praise: but there be secret and hidden virtues that
bring forth fortune; certain deliveries of a man’s self, which have no
name. The Spanish name, “disemboltura,”[423] partly expresseth them,
when there be not stonds[424] nor restiveness in a man’s nature, but
that the wheels of his mind keep way with the wheels of his fortune;
for so Livy (after he had described Cato Major in these words, “In
illo viro, tantum robur corporis et animi fuit, ut quocunque loco
natus esset, fortunam sibi facturus videretur,”)[425] falleth upon
that, that he had “versatile ingenium:”[426] therefore, if a man look
sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she be
blind, yet she is not invisible. The way of Fortune is like the milky
way in the sky; which is a meeting, or knot, of a number of small
stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together; so are there a
number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties
and customs, that make men fortunate. The Italians note some of them,
such as a man would little think. When they speak of one that cannot
do amiss, they will throw in into his other conditions, that he hath
“Poco di matto;”[427] and, certainly, there be not two more fortunate
properties, than to have a little of the fool, and not too much of
the honest; therefore, extreme lovers of their country, or masters,
were never fortunate; neither can they be, for when a man placeth
his thoughts without himself, he goeth not his own way. A hasty
fortune maketh an enterpriser and remover (the French hath it better,
“entreprenant,” or “remuant”); but the exercised fortune maketh the
able man. Fortune is to be honored and respected, and it be but for her
daughters, Confidence and Reputation; for those two Felicity breedeth;
the first within a man’s self, the latter in others towards him. All
wise men, to decline the envy of their own virtues, use to ascribe them
to Providence and Fortune; for so they may the better assume them;
and, besides, it is greatness in a man to be the care of the higher
powers. So Cæsar said to the pilot in the tempest, “Cæsarem portas,
et fortunam ejus.”[428] So Sylla chose the name of “Felix,”[429] and
not of “Magnus;”[430] and it hath been noted, that those who ascribe
openly too much to their own wisdom and policy, end unfortunate. It
is written, that Timotheus[431] the Athenian, after he had, in the
account he gave to the state of his government, often interlaced his
speech, “and in this Fortune had no part,” never prospered in any
thing he undertook afterwards. Certainly there be, whose fortunes are
like Homer’s verses, that have a slide[432] and easiness more than
the verses of other poets; as Plutarch saith of Timoleon’s fortune in
respect of that of Agesilaus or Epaminondas; and that this should be,
no doubt it is much in a man’s self.