ESS A ys CIVIL AND MORAL. 



against the piercing judgment of Augustus, nor the extreme caution or 

 closeness of Tiberius. These properties of arts or policy, and dissimu 

 lation or closeness, are indeed habits and faculties several, and to be 

 distinguished. For if a man have that penetration of judgment as he 

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

 and what to be showed at half-lights, and to whom and when, which 

 indeed are arts of state, and arts of life, as Tacitus well calleth them, 

 (o 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 leaveth him 

 self without observation, or without hold to be taken, what he is. The 

 second, dissimulation in the negative, when a man lets fall signs and 

 arguments, that he is not that he is. And a third, simulation in the 

 affirmative, when a man industriously and expressly feigns and pre 

 tends to be that he is not. 



For the first of these, secrecy ; it is indeed the virtue of a con 

 fessor ; and assuredly the secret man hcareth many confessions ; for 

 who will open himself to a blab or a babbler ? but if a man be thought 

 secret, it inviteth discovery ; as the more close air sucketh in the more 

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

 the ease of a man s heart ; so secret men come to knowledge of many 

 things in that kind ; while men rather discharge their minds, than 

 impart their minds. In a few words, mysteries are due to secrecy. 

 Besides, to say truth, nakedness is uncomely as well in mind as body ; 

 and it addeth no small reverence to men s manners and actions if they 

 be not altogether open. As for talkers and futile persons, they are 

 commonly vain and credulous withal. For he that talketh what he 

 knoweth, will also talk what he knowcth not. Therefore set it down, 

 [hat a habit of secrecy is both politic and moral. And in this part it 

 * good that a man s face give his tongue leave to speak. For the 

 bcovcry of a man s self by the tracts of his countenance is a great 



akness and betraying ; by how much it is many times more marked 

 and believed than man s words. 



For the second, which is dissimulation; it followcth many times 



n secrecy, by necessity : so that he that will be secret must be a 



in some degree. For men are too cunning to suffer a man 



p an indifferent carriage between both, and to be secret, without 



swaying the balance on either side. They will so beset a man with 



