ESSAY VI. OF SIMULATION AND DIS SIMULATION. 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 greatest dissemblers. Tacitus saith, 'Livia sorted' well with the arts of her husband, and dissimulation of her son," attributing arts or 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 to turn, and at such times when they thought the 'Simulation. The pretending that to be which is not. The feigning to be what one is not by gesture, action, or behaviour, is called simulation.'-South. 2 Sort. To fit; suit. 'It sorts well with you fierceness.'-Shakespere. Tacit. Annal. v. 1. Several. Different; distinct. 'Four several armies to the field are led, Which, high in equal hopes, four princes lead.'-Dryden. A That. See page 23. 7 Obtain to. Attain to. case indeed required dissimulation, if then they usea 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 blabber? But if a man be thought secret, it inviteth discovery, as the more close air sucketh in the more open; and as in confessing, 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 in 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 That. What; that which. To do always that is righteous in thy sight.'English Liturgy. 2 Futile. Talkative; loquacious. The parable (Prov. xxix. 2), it seems, especially corrects not the futility of vaine persons which easily utter as well what may be spoken as what should be secreted; not garrulity whereby they fill others, even to a surfeit; but the government of speech.'-On Learning. By G. Watts. Tracts. Traits (traicts); features. 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 practise simulation in other things, lest his hand should be out of use. The 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 alarm 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 averse, but will (fair3) 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, Indifferent. Impartial. That they may truly and indifferently minister justice.'-Prayer for the Church Militant. Oraculous. Oracular. 'He spoke oraculous and sly; He'd neither grant the question nor deny.'-King. 'Fair (adverb). Complaisantly. • Round. Thus fair they parted till the morrow's dawn.'-Dryden. 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 te feign, if there be no remedy. It is a pity that our language has lost the word 'simulation; so that we are forced to make 'dissimulation' serve for both senses. 'Id quod abest, simulat, dissimulat quod adest." 'The allest men have all had an openness and frankness,' &c. There is much truth in Bacon's remark in the Antitheta, that those whose whole conduct is open and undisguised deceive 1 Conceits. Conceptions—as: Temperature. brain.'- Watts. 'You have a noble and a true conceit Of godlike amity.'-Shakespere. Constitution. Memory depends upon the temperature of the Simulates that which is not; dissimulates that which is people not the less, because the generality either do not understand them, or do not believe them. And this is practically the case when those you have to deal with are of a crafty cha racter. They expend great ingenuity in guessing what it is you mean, or what you design to do, and the only thing that never occurs to them is just what you have said. It is to be observed, however, that some persons, who are not really frank and open characters, appear such from their want of delicacy and of refined moral taste. They speak openly of things pertaining to themselves (such as most people would suppress), not from incapacity for disguise, or from meaning to make a confidant of you, but from absence of shame. And such a person may be capable of much artifice when it suits his purpose. It is well, therefore, that the inexperienced should be warned against mistaking shamelessness for sincerity of character. Those who are habitually very reserved, and (as Miss Edgeworth expresses it in one of her tales), 'think that in general it is best not to mention things,' will usually meet with fewer tangible failures than the more communicative, unless these latter possess an unusual share of sagacity; but the latter will (unless excessively imprudent) have a greater amount of success, on the whole, by gaining many advantages which the others will have missed. 'They will so beset a man with questions.' There is, as Bacon observes, a great difficulty in dealing with such persons; for a true answer to their impertinent questions might do great mischief; and to refuse an answer would be understood as the same thing. Pray, do you know the author of that article? Is it your friend Mr. So-and-so?' or, 'Is it true that your friend Such-a-one has had heavy losses, and is likely to become insolvent?" or, "Is he concealed in such-andsuch a place?' &c. If you reply, 'I do not chuse to answer,' this will be considered as equivalent to an answer in the affir mative. It is told of Dean Swift, that when some one he had lampooned came and asked him whether he was the writer of those verses, he replied, that long ago he had consulted an experienced |