Of Simulation AND DISSIMULATION

DISSIMULATION is but a faint kind of pol-

icy, 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; attri-

buting arts or policy to Augustus, and dissimula-

tion to Tiberius.  And again, when Mucianus

encourageth Vespasian, to take arms against Vitel-

lius, 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 distin-

guished.  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 dis-

simulation is a hinderance and a poorness.  But if

a man cannot obtain to that judgment, then it is

left to bim generally, to be close, and a dissembler.

For where a man cannot choose, or vary in parti-

culars, there it is good to take the safest, and wari-

est 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 opin-

ion, spread abroad, of their good faith and clear-

ness of dealing, made them almost invisible.
 
 

There be three degrees of this hiding and veil-

ing 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 ex-

pressly 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 con-

fession, 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 un-

comely, 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 credu-

lous 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 fol-

loweth 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 bal-

ance 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 can-

not hold out long.  So that no man can be secret,

except he give himself a little scope of dissimula-

tion; 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 mat-

ters.  And therefore a general custom of simulation

(which is this last degree) is a vice, using 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.
 
 

The great advantages of simulation and dissi-

mulation 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 dissi-

mulation commonly carry with them a show of

fearfulness, which in any business, doth spoil the

feathers, of round flying up to the mark.  The sec-

ond, 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 in-

struments 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.