136                            OF CUNNING.
 

XXII.

OF CUNNING,

We take cunning for a sinister or crooked wisdom.
And certainly there is great difference between a
cunning man and a wise man, not only in point of
honesty but in point of ability. There be that can
pack the cards, and yet cannot play well; so there
are some that are good in canvasses and factions,
that are otherwise weak men. Again, it is one
thing to understand persons and another thing to
understand matters; for many are perfect in men's
humours that are not greatly capable of the real
part of business, which is the constitution of one
that hath studied men more than books. Such men
are fitter for practice than for counsel, and they are
good but in their own ally ; turn them to new men
and they have lost their aim. So as the old rule, to
know a fool from a wise man—Mitte ambos nudos ad
ignotos et videbis—doth scarce hold for them. And
because these  cunning  men   are   like haberdashers