For if we observe we shall find two differing
kinds of sufficiency in managing of business: some can make use of
occasions aptly and dexterously, but plot little; some can urge and
pursue their own plots well, but cannot accommodate nor take in;
either of which is very imperfect without the other.
(36) Another part of this knowledge is the observing a good
mediocrity in the declaring or not declaring a man's self: for
although depth of secrecy, and making way (qualis est via navis in
mari, which the French calleth sourdes menees, when men set things
in work without opening themselves at all), be sometimes both
prosperous and admirable; yet many times dissimulatio errores parit,
qui dissimulatorem ipsum illaqueant. And therefore we see the
greatest politiques have in a natural and free manner professed
their desires, rather than been reserved and disguised in them. For
so we see that Lucius Sylla made a kind of profession, "that he
wished all men happy or unhappy, as they stood his friends or
enemies." So Caesar, when he went first into Gaul, made no scruple
to profess "that he had rather be first in a village than second at
Rome.
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