(35) Another part of this knowledge seemeth to have some repugnancy with the former two, but not as I understand it; and it is that which Demosthenes uttereth in high terms:  Et quemadmodum receptum est, ut exercitum ducat imperator, sic et a cordatis viris res ipsae ducendae; ut quaeipsis videntur, ea gerantur, et non ipsi eventus persequi cogantur.  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.”  So again, as soon as he had begun the war, we see what Cicero saith of him, Alter (meaning of Caesar) non recusat, sed quodammodo postulat, ut (ut est) sic appelletur tyrannus.  So we may see in a letter of Cicero to Atticus, that Augustus Caesar, in his very entrance into affairs, when he was a darling of the senate, yet in his harangues to the people would swear, Ita parentis honores consequi liceat (which was no less than the tyranny), save that, to help it, he would stretch forth his hand towards a statue of Caesar’s that was erected in the place:  and men laughed and wondered, and said, “Is it possible?” or, “Did you ever hear the like?” and yet thought he meant no hurt; he did it so handsomely and ingenuously.  And all these were prosperous:  whereas Pompey, who tended to the same ends, but in a more dark and dissembling manner as Tacitus saith of him, Occultior non melior, wherein Sallust concurreth, Ore probo, animo inverecundo, made it his design, by infinite secret engines, to cast the state into an absolute anarchy and confusion, that the state might cast itself into his arms for necessity and protection, and so the sovereign power be put upon him, and he never seen in it:  and when he had brought it (as he thought) to that point when he was chosen consul alone, as never any was, yet he could make no great matter of it, because men understood him not; but was fain in the end to go the beaten track of getting arms into his hands, by colour of the doubt of Caesar’s