THE SECOND BOOK 201 



ticulars, touching persons and actions, are as the minor 

 propositions in every active syllogism ; for no excel 

 lency of observations (which are as the major propo 

 sitions) can suffice to ground a conclusion, if there be 

 error and mistaking in the minors. 



15. That this knowledge is possible, Salomon is our 

 surety, who saith, Consiliurn hi corde viri tanquam 

 aqua profunda ; sed vir prudens exhauriet illud. And 

 although the knowledge itself falleth not under precept, 

 because it is of individuals, yet the instructions for the 

 obtaining of it may. 



16. We will begin therefore with this precept, accord 

 ing to the ancient opinion, that the sinews of wisdom 

 are slowness of belief and distrust ; that more trust be 

 given to countenances and deeds than to words ; and in 

 words rather to sudden passages and surprised words 

 than to set and purposed words. Neither let that be 

 feared which is said, Fronti nulla fides, which is meant 

 of a general outward behaviour, and not of the private 

 and subtile motions and labours of the countenance and 

 gesture ; which, as Q. Cicero elegantly saith, is Animi 

 janua, the gate of the mind. None more close than 

 Tiberius, and yet Tacitus saith of Gallus, * Etenim vultu 

 offensionern conjectaverat. So again, noting the differ 

 ing character and manner of his commending Germanicus 

 and Drusus in the senate, he saith, touching his fashion 

 wherein he carried his speech of Germanicus, thus ; 

 * Magis in speciem adornatis verbis, quam ut penitus 

 eentire crederetur : but of Drusus thus ; * Paucioribus 

 sed intentior, et fida oratione : and in another place, 

 speaking of his character of speech, when he did any 

 thing that was gracious and popular, he saith, that in 

 other things he was velut eluctantium verborum ; 

 but then again, solutius loquebatur quando subveniret. 

 So that there is no such artificer of dissimulation, nor 

 no such commanded countenance (vultus jussus), that 

 can sever from a feigned tale some of these fashions, 

 either a more slight and careless fashion, or more set 

 and formal, or more tedious and wandering, or coming 

 from a man more drily and hardly. 



