VIII. There are qualities also, which give people the reputation of able
and learned men, when in reality they are quite the reverse. Gravity
and circumspection, whether they are natural or artificial, contribute
much to produce this effect. Gravity, says Magdalen Scuderi in one of
her moral conversations, is a bodily mystery, invented to conceal the
defects of the mind; and if it is carried to excess, elevates the person
who wears this appearance, to the rank of an oracle. But I can see no
reason why a person on this account, should be esteemed more than a man,
because that the nearer he resembles a statue, he in reality is by so
much less than a man; nor why risibility, being the distinguished mark
of rationality, he should be esteemed the most rational, who is the
least addicted to laughter. The ingenious French author Montaigne, says
pleasantly, that among the whole brute creation, there is no animal so
grave as an ass.
IX. Aristotle considered melancholy as a token of ingenuity. But I can’t
tell why he did this; for every day’s experience convinces us, that
there are melancholy people who are very dull and stupid. If we were to
judge of things as they appear to us at first sight, we might be easily
induced to confound the stupid with the thoughtful, and to mistake the
one for the other. People of dark and gloomy geniuses, have in some
measure, the air and appearance of profound thinkers; but if we reflect,
we shall be convinced, that insociability is not a characteristic quality
appertaining to a rational being. In those who look as if they were
always absorbed in thought, the negotiation or operation of the interior
part of the soul seems to be inverted. Instead of the understanding
surveying and contemplating the species, the species seem to seize upon,
and take possession of the understanding; and instead of the mind being
master of the object, the object appears as if it was master of the mind;
and the species that appear to seize upon it seem as if they bound it
down, and kept it confined. A person in this state should not be said to
be contemplative, but ought more properly to be compared to a man that is
stunned; the immobility of whose thoughts, keeps his reason in a state
of suspence. I observe, that there is no brute of a more festive and
sociable disposition than a dog; and that there is no one which is endued
with a more noble instinct; yet, maugre this experience, I look upon the
opposite extreme to excessive gravity to be the worst symptom of the
two; for men who are always giggling and bantering, are generally very
superficial.
X. But both the silent and the loquacious have their partizans. Some
consider men of few words to be the most sagacious, and others give the
preference to those who are rather prodigal in their use of them. The
talking but little, is occasioned either by excessive caution, or by
fear, or else is the effect of modesty, and the want of a ready flow of
words; but not, as is commonly thought, does this indicate a want of
knowledge. There is no man, who if he was to speak all he thinks, or that
occurs to him, would not talk a great deal.
XI. There are some, who observe an artificial medium between talking
and holding their tongues, which is very well adapted to attract the
veneration of the vulgar; that is, they speak with confidence upon
such things as they understand, and take care to be silent upon such
as they are ignorant of; but this they do, in a manner as if their
silence proceeded from reserve, and an unwillingness to enter upon the
subject. By these artifices, men of very moderate capacities, and whose
informations are very limited, pass themselves upon the world for persons
of deep penetration, and a sort of walking libraries; and although they
are possessed of only a very minute or abstracted portion of whatever is
the subject of conversation, they engage in the argument in very general
terms, always taking care not to advance too far, and to retreat in time;
which they do in a manner, as if they were tired of talking further upon
the question at present, and therefore would be glad to postpone it,
to be discussed more at large another time. In reality, they have said
all they know, but behave in this manner, in order to have it thought
they have only given a small specimen of their knowledge of the thing;
although, like the painter who undertook to paint the eleven thousand
virgins, but never finished more than five of them, and declared that all
the rest should be supposed coming behind in procession, they would be
glad, that what they have already said should conclude the debate; still,
if any one, aware of their tricks, should then press them to a further
discussion of the point, they either artfully turn the conversation, or
affect a scornful dislike to discussing so weighty a matter before so
thin an audience; or else get rid of the invitation made to them, with
a disdainful smile, and treat both the proposal and the proposer, as if
they were beneath their notice. These people are very ready at such sort
of expedients, because they study them much, and have a great deal of
practice in them.
XII. There are others again, who have recourse to ambiguous and confused
expressions; which seem to say a great deal, when in reality they
say nothing; and which, like the answers of the oracles of old, are
applicable to all kinds of events. In fact, they may be termed the images
of those oracles; for although they are listened to with attention, they
are little better than mere stocks or stones. The obscurity with which
they talk is a dark shade, that conceals what they are ignorant of; and
they make use of the stratagem of those who have no other but false
money; that is, take care to pass it off under the cover of the night.
But notwithstanding all these glaring appearances, there are not wanting
weak people, who esteem their embarrassment and confusion as marks of
their learning, and who think, that men are like mountains, which the
more elevated and sublime they are, the more liable to be covered with
clouds, and to cause dark shades which obstruct the fertility, and
obscure the chearful appearance of the vallies.
_Majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbræ._
XIII. This deception, is commonly kept up and assisted by a persuasive
carriage, and by certain mysterious gestures and distortions of the
features; such as wrinkling the forehead, knitting the eye-brows, rolling
the eyes, swelling out the cheeks, thrusting forth the under-lip, and
shaking the head; all which affected tokens of wisdom and importance,
are displayed and accompanied, with a kind of disdainful countenance.
These are a sort of men, who have more than half the wisdom they seem to
possess lodged in their features and muscles, which serve them to exhibit
and express these symptoms of profundity. Tully very justly ridiculed
this artifice in Pison in the following words: _Respondes, altero ad
frontem sublato, altero ad mentem depresso supercilio, crudelitatem tibi
non placere._