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-