describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities[1] of Salomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and Adversity is not without comforts and hopes. We see in needle-works and embroideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad[2] and solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground: judge therefore of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye. Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed[3] or crushed: for Prosperity doth best discover vice, but Adversity doth best discover virtue.
Dissimulation is but a faint kind of policy or wisdom; for it asketh a strong wit and a strong heart to know when to tell truth, and to do it. Therefore it is the weaker sort of politics that are the great dissemblers.
Tacitus saith, Livia sorted well with the arts of her
- ↑ Felicities. Prosperous circumstances, successes.
- ↑ Sad. Dark-colored. "This is a gentleman every inch of him, and a virtuoso, a clean virtuoso—a sad-coloured stand of claithes, and a wig like the curled back of a mug-ewe." Scott. The Monastery. Introductory Epistle.
- ↑ Incensed. Enkindled, set on fire. "The same Mr. Bettenham [Reader of Gray's Inn] said: That virtuous men were like some herbs and spices, that give not their sweet smell, till they be broken and crushed." Bacon. Apophthegmes New and Old. 253.
- ↑ Simulation. The act of simulating or feigning; pretense, usually for the purpose of deceiving.
- ↑ Dissimulation. Deceit, hypocrisy.
