322 JLDVAXCEMEXT OF LEARXINM. [rOOlC YIII. 



And experience shows tliat there are very few so tnie to 

 theii* own secrets, and of so close a temper, as not sometimes, 

 through anger, ostentation, love to a friend, impotence of 

 mind, or some other affection, to reveal their own thoughts. 

 But nothing searches all the corners of the mind so much as 

 dissimulation practised against dissimulation, according to 

 the Spanish proverb, " Tell a lie and find a truth." 



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 practise to more advantage in 

 larger. And the Italian thinks himself upon the cross with 

 the crier, or put up to sale, when, without manifest cause, he 

 is treated better than usual; for small favours lull mankind, 

 and disarm them both of caution and industry; whence they 

 are properly called by Demosthenes the baits of sloth. 

 Again, we may clearly see the crafty and ambiguous nature 

 of some actions which pass for benefits, from that trick 

 practised by Mucianus upon Antony ; for after a pretended 

 reconciliation he most treacherously advanced many of An- 

 tony's friends to lieutenancies, tribuneships, &c., and by this 

 cunning entirely disarmed and defeated him ; thus winning 

 over Antony's friends to himselfy 



But the surest key for unlocking the minds of others turns 

 upon searcliing and sifting either their tempers and natures, 

 or their ends and designs ; and the more weak and simple 

 are best judged by their temper, but the more prudent and 

 close by their designs. It was prudently and wittily, tliough 

 in my judgment not substantially, advised by the pope's 

 uimcio as to the choice of another to succeed him in his resi- 

 lence at a foreign court, that they should by no means send 

 one remarkably but rather tolerably wise ; because a man 

 wiser than ordinary could never imagine what the people of 

 that nation were likely to do. It is doubtless a common 

 error, particularly in prudent men, to measure others by 

 the model of their own capacity; whence they frequently 

 overshoot the mark, by supposing that men project and form 

 greater things to themselves, and practise more subtile arti 



T Tacjt Hint. XV- 



