by a dark light; and seem always to keep back somewhat; and when they know within themselves they speak of that they do not well know, would nevertheless seem to others to know of that which they may not well speak.[1] Some help themselves with countenance and gesture, and are wise by signs; as Cicero saith of Piso,[2] that when he answered him, he fetched one of his brows up to his forehead, and bent the other down to his chin; Respondes, altero ad frontem sublato, altero ad mentum depresso supercilio, crudelitatem tibi non placere.[3] Some think to bear[4] it by speaking a great word, and being peremptory; and go on, and take by admittance that which they cannot make good. Some, whatsoever is beyond their reach, will seem to despise or make light of it as impertinent[5] or curious;[6] and so would have their ignorance seem judgment. Some are never without a difference,[7] and commonly by amusing men with a subtilty, blanch[8] the matter; of whom A. Gellius[9]
- ↑ "Gravity is a mysterious carriage of the body, invented to cover the defects of the mind." Maximes et Réflexions Morales du duc de La Rochefoucauld. 257. (Paris. 1828.)
- ↑ Lucius Calpurnius Piso, Consul with Gabinius, 58 B.C., the year of Cicero's exile, father-in-law of Julius Caesar. Cicero's bitterest invective speech was delivered in the senate, against Piso, 55 B.C.
- ↑ With one brow elevated to your forehead, and the other depressed to your chin, you respond that cruelty is not pleasing to you. M. Tullii Ciceronis in L. Calpurnium Pisonem Oratio. vi. 14.
- ↑ Bear. Carry on, deal with.
"Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
Bear 't that th' opposèd may beware of thee."
Shakspere. Hamlet. i. 3.
- ↑ Impertinent, Latin sense, not pertaining to, irrelevant.
- ↑ Curious. Over-nice, exacting.
- ↑ Difference. A subtile distinction.
- ↑ Blanch. Evade, pass over.
- ↑ Aulus Gellius, born about 130 A.D., Roman grammarian; he wrote Nodes Atticae, in twenty books, first printed in 1469.
