232 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [Book 



them too much about one matter, win opinion of moderation, please 

 the most, and make a show of perpetual felicity in all they undertake ; 

 which cannot but mightily increase reputation. 



Another part of this knowledge seemeth to have some repugnancy 

 with the former two, but not as I understand it, and it is that which 

 Demosthenes uttered in high terms : &quot; Et quemadmodum receptum 

 est, ut exercitum ducat imperator sic et a cordatis viris res ipsas du- 

 cendae ; ut qua? ipsis videntur, ea gerantur, et non ipsi eventus tantum 

 persequi cogantur. For, if we observe, we shall find two differing 

 kinds of sufficiency in managing of business : some can make use of 

 occasions aptly and dexterously, but plot little : some can urge and 

 pursue their own plots well, but cannot accommodate nor take in ; 

 either of which is very imperfect without the other. 



Another part of this knowledge is the observing a good mediocrity 

 in the declaring, or not declaring a man s self : for although depth of 

 secrecy, and making way, &quot;qualis est via navis in mari,&quot; which the 

 French calleth &quot; sourdes mendes,&quot; when men set things in work without 

 opening themselves at all, be sometimes both prosperous and admir 

 able, yet many times &quot; Dissimulatio errores parit, qui dissimulatorem 

 ipsum illaqueant.&quot; And therefore, we see, the greatest politicians 

 have in a natural and free manner professed their desires, rather than 

 been reserved and disguised in them : for so we see that Lucius Sylla 

 made a kind of profession, &quot;that he wished all men happy or unhappy,as 

 they stood his friends or enemies.&quot; So Ca:sar, when he went first into 

 Gaul, made no scruple to profess, &quot;that he had rather be first in a 

 village, than second at Rome.&quot; So again, as soon as he had begun 

 the war, we see what Cicero saith of him, Alter,&quot; meaning of Caesar, 

 &quot; non recusat, sed quodamodo postulat, ut, ut est, sic appelletur, tyran- 

 nus.&quot; So we may see in a letter of Cicero to Atticus, that Augustus 

 Caesor, in his very entrance into affairs, when he was a darling of the 

 senate, yet in his harangues to the people would swear, &quot; Ita parentis 

 honores consequi liceat&quot; (which was no less than the tyranny), save 

 that, to help it, he would stretch forth his hand towards a statue of 

 Caesar s, that was erected in the same place : and men laughed, and 

 wondered, and said, Is it possible, or. Did you ever hear the like? and 

 yet thought he meant no hurt, he did it so handsomely and ingenuously. 

 And all these were prosperous : whereas Pompey, who tended to the 

 same ends, but in a more dark and dissembling manner, as Tacitus 

 saith of him, &quot;Occultior, non melior,&quot; wherein Sallust concurreth, &quot;ore 

 probo, animo inverecundo,&quot; made it his design, by infinite secret 

 engines, to cast the state into an absolute anarchy and confusion, that 

 the state might cast itself into his arms for necessity and protection, 

 and so the sovereign power be put upon him, and he never seen in it : 

 and when he had brought it, as he thought, to that point when he was 

 chosen consul alone, as never any was, yet he could make no great 

 matter of it, because men understood him not ; but was fain in the end 

 to go the beaten track of getting arms into his hands, by colour of the 

 doubt of Caesar s designs : so tedious, casual, and unfortunate are these 

 deep dissimulations ; whereof, it seemeth, Tacitus made this judgment, 



