ANALYSIS OF ESSAY V.

I. Heathens have spoken nobly of adversity:

I. Seneca.

2. Fable of Prometheus.

II. The blessing of adversity:

I. It engenders fortitude.

2. It is especially the blessing of the New Testament, though not unmentioned in the Old.

3. Its comforts appear all the brighter for it.

4. It fosters virtue.

VI. OF SIMULATION AND DISSIMULATION. (1625.)

DISSIMULATION1 is but a faint 2 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 politics that are the great dissemblers.

6

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,1o as Tacitus well calleth them), to him a habit of dissimulation is a hindrance and a poorness. But if a man cannot attain to that judgment, then it is left to him generallyll 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.12

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 13 and expressly feigns and pretends to be that he is not.

17

For the first of these, secrecy, it is indeed the virtue of a Confessor; 14 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, 15 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.16 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, 18 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: 19 and in this part it is good that a man's face give his tongue leave to speak; 20 for the discovery 21 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 22 and believed than a man's words.

For the second, which is dissimulation, it followeth many times upon secrecy by a necessity; 23 so that he that will be 24 secret must be a dissembler in some degree; for men are too cunning 25 to suffer a man to keep an indifferent carriage 26 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,27 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,28 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 ure.29

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 alarum 30 to call up all that are against them: the second is, to reserve to a man's self a fair retreat;31 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 32 the mind of another; for to him that opens himself men will hardly show themselves adverse; but will (fair) 33 let him go on, and turn their freedom of speech to freedom of thought; 34 and therefore it is a good shrewd proverb of the Spaniard, 'Tell a lie and find a truth;' 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 commo carry with them a show of fearfulness, which

business doth spoil the feathers of round 35 flying up to the mark; the second, that it puzzleth and perplexeth the conceits 36 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 37 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.

NOTES ON ESSAY VI.

I. 'Dissimulation.' As explained in the third paragraph of this essay, Bacon distinguishes between three things, each of which is treated of in its place-secrecy, dissimulation, and simulation. According to his distinction, secrecy is a man's concealment of his true character or object; dissimulation consists of artifices intended, without direct falsehood, to mislead others as to that character and object; simulation is downright hypocrisy, by which a man pretends and explicitly professes to be other than what he really is.

Perhaps his distinction can be best exhibited by illustration: In a case of smuggling, if the smugglers attempt to land their goods without observation by any one in the darkness of night, that would be secrecy; if they attempted it in broad daylight, seeking to avoid detection by a mere affectation of carelessness and openness, that would be dissimulation; if they pretended to be engaged in fishing, and made pretence of using their nets so as to avoid detection, that would be simulation. Or again, if an important private meeting is to be held, and some unauthorised person who wishes to be present hides himself in the room, in order to hear the proceedings, Bacon would call that secrecy; if he attempted to gain admittance by boldly and openly walking in just as if he had a right to enter, that would be dissimulation; if he got in by presenting a forged ticket of admission, and actually pretended that he had a right of entry, that would be simulation or hypocrisy.

'faint'-weak, spiritless, cowardly. So in the proverb, 'Faint
heart never won fair hand.'

'-the antecedent to this pronoun is the infinitive phrase
hat follows-to know when to tell truth and to do it.'
olitics'-politicians.

5. sorted' agreed. So the verb to sort, when used transitively, means to arrange or group in classes things that agree together, which classes themselves constitute sorts.

6. he saith.' Tacitus, Annals, v, I, and ii, 76.

7. 'several'-different, distinct.

8. that

'Four several armies to the field are led '-Dryden.

as'-such.... that.

9. half-lights'-not fully hidden nor wholly disclosed, but having some amount of light thrown on them. (So twilight -i.e. doubtful light).

10. 'arts of state and arts of life'-accomplishments necessary both for statesmanship, and also for ordinary life. II. 'generally' - always, invariably, without exception. Our present use of the word generally for frequently is liable to mislead us in the English of the seventeenth century. ‘I counsel that Israel be generally gathered together'-2 Sam. xvii, 2; also in the Prayer-Book, generally (i.e. unexceptionably) necessary to salvation,' 'this kingdom in general' (i.e. the whole kingdom).

Bacon uses the word (like 'in general' immediately afterwards) in contradistinction to 'in particulars; the one referring to all cases, the other to individual cases; and says that if a man is not shrewd enough to discern readily those cases in which it would be well to be open, from those in which he should be secret, the only alternative open to him is generally (i.e. always) to be secret; to have a general (i.e. invariable) rule of caution; just as persons who are partially blind have to acquire the habit of always walking cautiously. 12. 'invisible '-unsuspected.

13. 'industriously '-intentionally, purposely.

14. 'Confessor'-a priest who hears private confessions.

15. discovery'. -disclosure.

16. Men usually keep their affairs and their secrets to themselves, not caring to impart them to others except when they are burdensome, in which case they are often glad to be discharged of them.

17. 'mysteries are due to secrecy'-i.e. the habit of secrecy not only invites confession of others' secrets ('mysteries'), but claims them as its due.

18. futile persons'-blabbers, talkative or loquacious persons. So also Bacon says: 'One futile person that maketh it his glory to tell, will do more hurt than many that know it their duty to conceal'-Essay XX, Of Counsel.

19. 'moral'-mannerly, as it should be, belonging to good manners. 20. i.e. that a man should never betray his secrets by his face, but should always look impassive, and make disclosures only by his tongue. discovery'-disclosure; tracts'-traits.

21.

22. 'marked '-observed, noticed.