12 BACON'S ESSAYS 



And again, when Mucianus encourageth Vespasian to take 

 arms against Vitellius, he saith, 'We rise not against the 

 piercing judgment of Augustus, nor the extreme caution 

 or closeness of Tiberius/ These properties, of arts or 

 policy and dissimulation or closeness, are indeed habits and 

 faculties several, and to be distinguished. For if a man 

 have that penetration of judgment as he can discern what 

 things are to be laid open, and what to be secreted, and 

 what to be shewed at half lights, and to whom and when, 

 (which indeed are arts of state and arts of life, as Tacitus 

 well calleth them,) to him a habit of dissimulation is a 

 hinderance and a poorness. But if a man cannot obtain 

 to that judgment, then it is left to him generally to be 

 close, and a dissembler. For where a man cannot choose 

 or vary in particulars, there it is good to take the safest 

 and wariest way in general ; like the going softly, by one 

 that cannot well see. Certainly the ablest men that ever 

 were have had all an openness and frankness of dealing ; 

 and a name of certainty and veracity ; but then they were 

 like horses well managed ; for they could tell passing well 

 when to stop or turn ; and at such times when they 

 thought the case indeed required dissimulation, if then 

 they used it, it came to pass that the former opinion 

 spread abroad of their good faith and clearness of dealing 

 made them almost invisible. 



There be three degrees of this hiding and veiling of a 

 man's self. The first, Closeness, Reservation, and Secrecy ; 

 when a man leave th himself without observation, or with- 

 out hold to be taken, what he is. The second, Dissimula- 

 tion, in the negative ; when a man lets fall signs and 

 arguments, that he is not that he is. And the third, 

 Simulation, in the affirmative ; when a man industriously 

 and expressly feigns and pretends to be that he is not. 



For the first of these, Secrecy ; it is indeed the virtue of 

 a confessor. And assuredly the secret man heareth many 

 confessions. For who will open himself to a blab or 

 babbler ? But if a man be thought secret, it inviteth dis- 

 covery : as the more close air sucketh in the more open ; 

 and as in confession the revealing is not for worldly use, 



