36 ESSA YS CIVIL AND MORAL. 



handsomely and effectually move, let him pretend to wish it well, and 

 move it himself in such sort as may foil it. 



The breaking off in the midst of that one was nbout to say, as if 

 he took himself up, breeds a greater appetite in him with whom you 

 confer, to know more. 



And because it works better when anything secmeth to be gotten 

 from you by question, than if you offer it of yourself, you may lay 

 a bait for a question, by showing another visage and countenance than 

 you are wont : to the end to give occasion for the party to ask what 

 Ihe matter is of the change ; as Nehemiah did, &quot; And I had not before 

 mat time been sad before the king.&quot; 



In things that are tender and unpleasing, it is good to break the ice 

 by some whose words are of less weight, and to reserve the more 

 weighty voice to come in as by chance, so that he may be asked the 

 question upon the other s speech ; as Narcissus did, in relating to 

 Claudius the marriage of Messalina and Silius. 



In things that a man would not be seen in himself, it is a point of 

 cunning to borrow the name of the world ; as to say, The world says, 

 or, There is a speech abroad. 



I knew one, that when he wrote a letter, he would put that 

 which was most material in the postscript, as if it had been a bye- 

 matter. 



I knew another, that when he came to have speech, he would pass 

 over that that he intended most ; and go forth, and come back again, 

 and speak of it as a thing that he had almost forgot. 



Some procure themselves to be surprised at such times, as it is like 

 the party that they work upon will suddenly come upon them ; and to 

 be found with a letter in their hand, or doing somewhat which they 

 arc not accustomed ; to the end they may be apposed of those things, 

 which of themselves they are desirous to utter. 



It is a point of cunning to let fall those words in a man s own name, 

 which he would have another man learn and use, and thereupon take 

 advantage. I knew two that were competitors for the secretary s place 

 in queen Elizabeth s time, and yet kept good quarter between them 

 selves, and would confer one with another upon the business ; and the 

 one of them said, that to be a secretary in the declination of a monarchy 

 was a ticklish thing, and that he did not affect it : the other straight 

 caught up those words, and discoursed with divers of his friends, that 

 he had no reason to desire to be secretary in the declination of a 

 monarchy. The first man took hold of it, and found means it was told 

 the queen ; who hearing of a declination of the monarchy, took it so 

 ill, as she would never after hear of the other s suit. 



There is a cunning which we in England call, the turning of the 

 cat in the pan ; which is, when that which a man saith to another, he 

 lays it as if another had said it to him ; and to say truth, it is not easy, 

 when such a matter passed between two, to make it appear from which 

 of them it first moved and began. 



It is a way that some men have, to glance and dart at others, by 

 justifying themselves by negatives ; as to say, This I do not : as 



