_English Diplomacy_ v. _Russian_.--A friend of Sir Henry Wotton's being
designed for the employment of an ambassador, came to Eton, and requested
from him some experimental rules for his prudent and safe carriage in his
negociations; to whom he smilingly gave this for an infallible
aphorism,--that, to be in safety himself, and serviceable to his country,
he should always, and upon all occasions, speak the truth (it seems a state
paradox). "For," says Sir Henry Wotton, "_you shall never be believed_; and
by this means your truth will secure yourself, if you shall ever be called
to any account; and 'twill also put your adversaries (who will still hunt
counter) to a loss in all their disquisitions and undertakings."
(_Reliquiae Wottonianae_.)