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