OF SUSPICION                             187
 

XXXI.

OF SUSPICION.

Suspicions amongst thoughts are like bats amongst
birds, they ever fly by twilight. Certainly, they are
to be repressed, or at the least well guarded ; for they
cloud the mind, they leese friends, and they check
with business, whereby business cannot go on cur¬
rently and constantly. They dispose kings to
tyranny, husbands to jealousy, wise men to irresolu¬
tion and melancholy. They are defects, not in the
heart, but In the brain ; for they take place in the
stoutest natures, as in the example of Henry the
Seventh of England. There was not a more suspi¬
cious man, nor a more stout; and in such a composi¬
tion they do small hurt, for commonly they are not
admitted but with examination whether they be
likely or no ; but in fearful natures they gain
ground too fast. There is nothing makes a man
suspect much more than to know little ; and there¬
fore men should remedy suspicion  by procuring to