judge therefore of the pleasure of the heart, by the
pleasure of the eye. Certainly virtue is like precious
odors, most fragrant when they are incensed, or
crushed: for prosperity doth best discover vice, but
adversity doth best discover virtue.




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-