OF NEGO TIA TING.                          257

Hving plants and bushes set in them, that the birds
may have more scope and natural nestling, and that
no foulness appear in the floor of the aviary. So I
have made a platform of a princely garden, partly
by precept, partly by drawing, not a model, but
some general lines of it ; and in this I have spared
for no cost. But it is nothing for great princes that,
for the most part taking advice with workmen, with
no less cost set their things together, and sometimes
add statues and such things for state and magnifi¬
cence, but nothing to the true pleasure of a garden.
 

XLVII.
OF NEGOTIATING,

It is generally better to deal by speech than Ly
letter, and by the mediation of a third than by a
man's self. Letters are good when a man would
draw an answer by letter back again, or when it
may   serve   for a man's   justification, afterwards to

I