366 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



Drusus * Paucioribus sed intentior, et fida oratione/ ** 

 Again, Tacitus sketches the manner of the emperor on 

 other occasions when he was less crafty, and sums up his 

 remarks thus: &quot;Quin ipse compositus alias atque velut 

 eluctantium verborum; solutius promptiusque loquebatur 

 quoties subveniret.&quot; 66 And indeed, it is hard to find so 

 great and masterly a dissembler, or a countenance so well 

 broke and commanded, as to carry on an artful and counter 

 feit discourse without some way or other betraying it. 



2. The words of men are full of deceit; but this is well 

 detected in two ways; viz., either when words are spoken on 

 the sudden, or in passion. So Tiberius, being suddenly 

 surprised and hurried beyond himself, with a stinging 

 speech from Agrippina, went a step out of his natural dis 

 simulation; for, says Tacitus, she thus drew an uncommon 

 expression from his secret breast, and he rebuked her as 

 being offended because she did not rule. 68 Whence the poet 

 not unjustly calls these perturbations tortures, mankind 

 being compelled by them to betray their own secrets. 



&quot;Vino tortus et ira.&quot; 67 



And experience shows that there are very few so true to 

 their own secrets, and of so close a temper, as not some 

 times, through anger, ostentation, love to a friend, impo 

 tence of mind, or some other affection, to reveal their own 

 thoughts. But nothing searches all the corners of the mind 

 so much as dissimulation practiced against dissimulation, 

 according to the Spanish proverb, &quot;Tell a lie and find a 

 truth.&quot; 



3. Even facts themselves, though the surest pledges of 

 the human mind, are not altogether to be trusted, unless 

 first attentively viewed and considered as to their magnitude 

 and propriety; for it is certain that deceit gets itself a credit 

 in small things, that it may practice to more advantage in 



64 Annals, i. 52. 65 Annals, iv. 31. 66 Annals, iv. 52. 



67 Hor. Ep. ii. 18, v. 38. It must be remembered that Augustus had some 

 intention of conferring the empire upon her husband Germanicus. Ed. 



