Dissimulation is but a faint kind of policy, or wisdom; for it
asketh a strong wit, and a strong heart, to know when
to tell truth,
and to do it. Therefore it is the weaker sort of politics, that are
the great dissemblers.
Tacitus saith, Livia sorted well with the arts of her husband, and
dissimulation of her son; attributing arts or policy to Augustus,
and dissimulation to Tiberius. 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 showed 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 leaveth
himself 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 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 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 the knowledge
of many things in that kind; while men rather discharge their minds,
than impart their minds. In 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 knoweth not. Therefore set it down,
that an habit of secrecy, is both politic and moral. And in this part,
it is good that a man''s face give his tongue leave to speak. For the
discovery of a man''s self, by the tracts of his countenance, is a
great weakness and betraying; by how much it is many times more
marked, and believed, than a man''s words.
For the second, which is dissimulation; it followeth many times upon
secrecy, by a necessity; so that he that will be secret, must be a
dissembler in some degree. For men are too cunning, to suffer a man to
keep an indifferent carriage between both, and to be secret, without
swaying the balance on either side. They will so beset a man with
questions, and draw him on, and pick it out of him, that, without an
absurd must show an inclination one way; or if he do
not, they will gather as much by his silence, as by his speech. As for
equivocations, or oraculous speeches, they cannot hold out long. So
that no man can be secret, except he give himself a little scope of
dissimulation; which is, as it were, but the skirts or train of
secrecy.
But for the third degree, which is simulation, and false profession;
that I hold more culpable, and less politic; except it be in great and
rare matters. And therefore a general custom of simulation (which is
this last degree) is a vice, rising either of a natural falseness or
fearfulness, or of a mind that hath some main faults, which because
a man must needs disguise, it maketh him practise simulation in
other things, lest his hand should be out of use.