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 politicians that are the great
dissemblers.
Tacitus saith, "Livia sorted well with the arts of her husband and
dissimulation of her son;" attributing arts of 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 hindrance 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 a 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 silence, he 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 practice simulation in other
things, lest his hand should be out of use.
The great advantages of simulation and dissimulation are three. First,
to lay asleep opposition, and to surprise; for where a man's intentions
are published, it is an alarum to call up all that are against them. The
second is, to reserve to a man's self a fair retreat; for if a man
engage himself by a manifest declaration, he must go through or take a
fall. The third is, the better to discover the mind of another; for to
him that opens himself men will hardly show themselves adverse, but will
fair let him go on, and turn their freedom of speech to freedom of
thought. And therefore it is a good shrewd proverb of the Spaniard,
"Tell a lie and find a troth;" as if there were no way of discovery but
by simulation. There be also three disadvantages to set it even. The
first, that simulation and dissimulation commonly carry with them a show
of fearfulness; which in any business doth spoil the feathers of round
flying up to the mark. The second, that it puzzleth and perplexeth the
conceits of many that perhaps would otherwise co-operate with him, and
makes a man walk almost alone to his own ends. The third and greatest
is, that it depriveth a man of one of the most principal instruments for
action; which is trust and belief. The best composition and temperature
is, to have openness in fame and opinion; secrecy in habit;
dissimulation in seasonable use; and a power to feign if there be
no remedy.