(16) We will begin, therefore, with this precept, according to the ancient opinion, that the sinews of wisdom are slowness of belief and distrust; that more trust be given to countenances and deeds than to words; and in words rather to sudden passages and surprised words than to set and purposed words.  Neither let that be feared which is said, Fronti nulla fides, which is meant of a general outward behaviour, and not of the private and subtle motions and labours of the countenance and gesture; which, as Q. Cicero elegantly saith, is Animi janua, “the gate of the mind.”  None more close than Tiberius, and yet Tacitus saith of Gallus, Etenim vultu offensionem conjectaverat.  So again, noting the differing character and manner of his commending Germanicus and Drusus in the Senate, he saith, touching his fashion wherein he carried his speech of Germanicus, thus:  Magis in speciem adornatis verbis, quam ut penitus sentire crederetur; but of Drusus thus:  Paucioribus sed intentior, et fida oratione; and in another place, speaking of his character of speech when he did anything that was gracious and popular, he saith, “That in other things he was velut eluctantium verborum;” but then again, solutius loquebatur quando subveniret.  So that there is no such artificer of dissimulation, nor no such commanded countenance (vultus jussus), that can sever from a feigned tale some of these fashions, either a more slight and careless fashion, or more set and formal, or more tedious and wandering, or coming from a man more drily and hardly.

(17) Neither are deeds such assured pledges as that they may be trusted without a judicious consideration of their magnitude and nature:  Fraus sibi in parvis fidem praestruit ut majore emolumento fallat; and the Italian thinketh himself upon the point to be bought and sold, when he is better used than he was wont to be without manifest cause.  For small favours, they do but lull men to sleep, both as to caution and as to industry; and are, as Demosthenes calleth them, Alimenta socordiae.  So again we see how false the nature of some deeds are, in that particular which Mutianus practised upon Antonius Primus, upon that hollow and unfaithful reconcilement which was made between them; whereupon Mutianus advanced many of the friends of Antonius, Simul amicis ejus praefecturas et tribunatus largitur:  wherein, under pretence to strengthen him, he did desolate him, and won from him his dependents.

(18) As for words, though they be like waters to physicians, full of flattery and uncertainty, yet they are not to be despised specially with the advantage of passion and affection.  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:-