I know both when and where my tongue to hold,
And when with safety to be freely bold.[72]
For they that are brought up under a truly generous and royal education
learn first to be silent, and then to talk. And therefore King
Antigonus, when his son asked him when they should discamp, replied,
What! art thou afraid of being the only man that shall not hear the
trumpet? So loath was he to trust him with a secret, to whom he was
to leave his kingdom; teaching him thereby, when he came to command
another day, to be no less wary and sparing of his speech. Metellus
also, that old soldier, being asked some such question about the
intended march of his army, If I thought, said he, that my shirt were
privy to this secret, I would pull it off and throw it into the fire.
Eumenes also, when he heard that Craterus was marching with his forces
against him, said not a word of it to his best friend, but gave out
all along that it was Neoptolemus; for him his soldiers contemned, but
they admired Craterus’s fame and virtue; but nobody knew the truth but
Eumenes himself. Thereupon joining battle, the victory fell to their
side, and they slew Craterus, not knowing whom he was till they found
him among the slain. So cunningly did taciturnity manage this combat,
and conceal so great an adversary; so that the friends of Eumenes
admired rather than reproved him for not telling them beforehand. For
indeed, should a man be blamed in such a case, it is better for him to
be accused after victory obtained by his distrust, than to be obliged
to blame others after an overthrow because he has been too easy to
impart his secrets.
10. Nay, what man is he that dares take upon him the freedom to blame
another for not keeping the secret which he himself has revealed to
him? For if the secret ought not to have been divulged, it was ill
done to break it to another; but if, after thou hast let it go from
thyself, thou wouldst have another keep it in, surely it is a great
argument that thou hast more confidence in another than in thyself;
for, if he be like thyself, thou art deservedly lost; if better, then
thou art miraculously saved, as having met with a person more faithful
to thee than thou art to thy own interest. But thou wilt say, he is
my friend. Very good: yet this friend of mine had another, in whom he
might confide as much as I did in him; and in like manner his friend
another, to the end of the chapter. And thus the secret gains ground,
and spreads itself by multiplication of babbling. For as a unit never
exceeds its bounds, but always remains one, and is therefore called a
unit; but the next is two, which contains the unlimited principle of
diversity,—for it straightway departs from out of itself (as it were)
and by doubling turns to a plurality,—so speech abiding in the first
person’s thoughts may truly be called a secret; but being communicated
to another, it presently changes its name into common rumor. This is
the reason that Homer gives to words the epithet of winged; for he that
lets a bird go out of his hand does not easily catch her again; neither
is it possible for a man to recall and cage again in his breast a word
let slip from his mouth;[73] for with light wings it fetches many a
compass, and flutters about from one quarter to another in a moment.
The course of a ship may well be stayed by cables and anchors, which
else would spoon away before a fresh gale of wind; but there is no fast
riding or anchor-hold for speech, when once let loose as from a harbor;
but being whirled away with a sonorous noise and loud echo, it carries
off and plunges the unwary babbler into some fatal danger.
For soon a little spark of fire, let fly,
May kindle Ida’s wood, so thick and high;
What one man to his seeming friend lets go,
Whole cities may with ease enquire and know.[74]
11. The Senate of Rome had been debating among themselves a certain
piece of secrecy for several days, which caused the matter to be so
much the more suspected and listened after. Whereupon a certain Roman
lady, discreet enough in other things, but yet a woman, laid at her
husband day and night, and mournfully importuned him what the secret
might be. Oaths, you may be sure, she was ready to make, and to curse
herself if ever she revealed whatever he should tell; nor was she
wanting in tears, and many moist complaints of her being a woman so
little to be trusted by a husband. The Roman thus beset, yet willing
in some measure to make trial of her fidelity and convince her of
her folly, Thou hast overcome me, wife, said he, and now I’ll tell
thee a most dreadful and prodigious thing. We were advertised by the
priests, that a lark was seen flying in the air, with a golden helmet
upon her head and a spear in one of her claws; now we are consulting
with the augurs or soothsayers about this portent, whether it be good
or bad. But keep it to thyself, for it may be of great concernment
for the commonwealth. Having so said, he walked forth toward the
market-place. No sooner was he gone, but his wife caught hold of the
first of her maids that entered the room, and then striking her breast
and tearing her hair, Woe is me, said she, for my poor husband and
dearest country! What will become of us?—prompting the maid, as if she
were desirous that she should say to her, Why? What is the matter,
mistress? Upon which she presently unfolded all that her husband
had told her; nay, she forgot not the common burden with which all
twattle-baskets conclude their stories; But, hussy, said she, for
your life, be sure you say not a word of this to any soul living. The
wench was no sooner got out of her mistress’s sight, but meeting with
one of her fellow-servants that had little to do, to her she unbosoms
herself; she, big with the news, with no less speed runs away to her
sweetheart, who was come to give her a visit, and without any more to
do tells him all. By this means the story flew about the market-place
before the first deviser of it could get thither. Presently one of his
acquaintance meeting him asked, Did ye come straight from your house?
Without stop or stay, replied the other. And did ye hear nothing? says
his friend. Why? quoth the other, Is there any news? Oh! quoth his
friend, a lark has been seen flying in the air, with a golden helmet
upon her head and a spear in her claw, and the Senate is summoned to
consult about it. Upon which the gentleman, smiling: God a mercy, wife,
quoth he, for being so nimble! One would have thought I might have got
into the market-place before a story so lately told thee; but I see
’twas not to be done. Thereupon meeting with some of the senators, he
soon delivered them out of their pain. However, being resolved to take
a slight revenge of his wife, making haste home, Wife, said he, thou
hast undone me; for it is found out that the great secret I told thee
was first divulged out of my house; and now must I be banished from my
native country for your wicked gaggling tongue. At first his wife would
have denied the matter, and put it off from her husband by telling him
there were three hundred more besides himself that heard the thing, and
why might not one of those divulge it as well as he? But he bade her
never tell him of three hundred more, and told her it was an invention
of his own framing to try her and to avoid her importunity. Thus this
Roman safely and cautiously made the experiment of his wife’s ability
to keep a secret; as when we pour into a cracked and leaky vessel, not
wine nor oil, but water only.
But Fulvius, one of Augustus Caesar’s minions and favorites, once
heard the emperor deploring the desolation of his family, in regard
his two grandchildren by his daughter were both dead, and Postumius,
who only remained alive, upon an accusation charged against him was
confined to banishment, so that he was forced to set up his wife’s son
to succeed him in the empire, yet upon more compassionate thoughts,
signifying his determination to recall Postumius from exile. This
Fulvius hearing related the whole to his wife, and she to Livia.
Livia sharply expostulated the matter with Caesar; wherefore, seeing
he had projected the thing so long before, he did not send for his
daughter’s son at first, but exposed her to the hatred and revenge
of him that he had determined to be his successor. The next morning
Fulvius coming into Augustus’s presence, and saluting him with Hail, O
Caesar! Caesar retorted upon him, God send thee more wit, Fulvius. He,
presently apprehending the meaning of the repartee, made haste home
again; and calling for his wife, Caesar understands, said he, that I
have discovered his secret counsels, and therefore I am resolved to
lay violent hands upon myself. And justly too, said she, thou dost
deserve to die, since having lived so long with me, thou didst not know
the lavishness of my tongue, and how unable I was to keep a secret.
However, suffer me to die first. And with that, snatching the sword out
of her husband’s hands, she slew herself before his face.
12. Truly therefore was it said by Philippides the comedian, who being
courteously and familiarly asked by King Lysimachus, what he should
bestow upon him of all the treasure that he had, made answer, Any
thing, O King, but your secrets.
But there is another vice no less mischievous that attends garrulity,
called Curiosity. For there are a sort of people that desire to hear
a great deal of news, that they may have matter enough to twattle
abroad; and these are the most diligent in the world to pry and dive
into the secrets of others, that they may enlarge and aggravate their
own loquacity with new stories and fooleries. And then they are like
children, that neither can endure to hold the ice in their hands nor
will let it go; or rather they may be said to lodge other men’s secrets
in their bosoms, like so many serpents, which they are not able to keep
there long, because they eat their way through. It is said that the
fish called the sea-needle and vipers rive asunder and burst themselves
when they bring forth; in like manner, secrets, dropping from the
mouths of those that cannot contain them, destroy and overthrow the
revealers. Seleucus Callinicus, having lost his whole army in a battle
fought with the Galatians, threw off his royal diadem, and flew away
full speed on a horse with three or four attendants, wandering through
by-roads and deserts, till at last he began to faint for want of food.
At length coming to a certain countryman’s house, and finding the owner
himself within, he asked him for a little bread and water; which the
countryman not only readily fetched him, but what else his ground would
afford he very liberally and plentifully set before the king and his
companions, making them all as heartily welcome as it was possible for
him to do. At length, in the midst of their cheer, he knew the king’s
face. This overjoyed the man to such a degree,—that he should have the
happiness to relieve the king in his necessity,—that he was not able to
contain himself or dissemble his knowledge of the king; but after he
had rode a little way with him and came to take his leave; Farewell,
King Seleucus, said the poor man. But then the king, stretching forth
his right hand and pulling his host to his breast, as if he had
intended to kiss him, nodded to one of his followers to strike off the
countryman’s head with his sword.