For so we see
Tiberius, upon a stinging and incensing speech of Agrippina, came a
step forth of his dissimulation when he said, "You are hurt because
you do not reign;" of which Tacitus saith, Audita haec raram occulti
pectoris vocem elicuere: correptamque Graeco versu admonuit, ideo
laedi quia non regnaret. And, therefore, the poet doth elegantly
call passions tortures that urge men to confess their secrets:-
"Vino torus et ira."
And experience showeth there are few men so true to themselves and
so settled but that, sometimes upon heat, sometimes upon bravery,
sometimes upon kindness, sometimes upon trouble of mind and
weakness, they open themselves; specially if they be put to it with
a counter-dissimulation, according to the proverb of Spain, Di
mentira, y sacar as verdad: "Tell a lie and find a truth."
(19) As for the knowing of men which is at second hand from reports:
men's weaknesses and faults are best known from their enemies, their
virtues and abilities from their friends, their customs and times
from their servants, their conceits and opinions from their familiar
friends, with whom they discourse most.
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