Eighth Book, Chapter I (7)

Civil Knowledge divided into the Art of Conversation, the Art of Negotiation, and the Art of State Policy

THERE goes an old tradition, excellent King, that many Grecian philosophers had a solemn meeting before the ambassador of a foreign prince, where each endeavored to show his parts, that the ambassador might have somewhat to relate of the Grecian wisdom; but one among the number kept silence, so that the ambassador, turning to him, asked, “But what have you to say, that I may report it?” He answered, “Tell your king that you have found one among the Greeks who knew how to be silent.” Indeed, I had forgot in this compendium of arts to insert the art of silence. For as we are now soon to be led, by the course of the work, to treat the subject of government; and knowing that I write to a king who is so perfect a master of this science since his infancy, and being also mindful of the high office I hold under your Majesty, we thought we could not have a better occasion for putting the art of silence in practice. Cicero makes mention not only of an art, but even of an eloquence to be found in silence; and relates in an epistle to Atticus, how once in conversation he made use of this art: “On this occasion,” says he, “I assumed a part of your eloquence; for I said nothing.” And Pindar, who peculiarly strikes the mind unexpectedly with some short surprising sentence, has this among the rest: “Things unsaid have sometimes a greater effect than said.” And, therefore, I have determined either to be silent upon this subject, or, what is next to it, very concise.

Civil knowledge turns upon a subject of all others the most immersed in matter, and therefore very difficult to reduce to axioms. And yet there are some things that ease the difficulty. For, 1, as Cato said, “that the Romans were like sheep, easier to drive in the flock than single”; so in this respect the office of ethics is in some degree more difficult than that of politics. 2. Again, ethics endeavors to tinge and furnish the mind with internal goodness, while civil doctrine requires no more than external goodness, which is sufficient for society. Whence it often happens, that a reign may be good and the times bad. Thus we sometimes find in sacred history, when mention is made of good and pious kings, that the people had not yet turned their hearts to the Lord God of their fathers. And therefore, in this respect also, ethics has the harder task. 3. States are moved slowly, like machines, and with difficulty; and consequently not soon put out of order. For, as in Egypt, the seven years of plenty supplied the seven years of famine; so in governments, the good regulation of former times will not presently suffer the errors of the succeeding to prove destructive. But the resolutions and manners of particular persons are more suddenly subverted; and this, in the last place, bears hard upon ethics, but favors politics.

Civil knowledge has three parts, suitable to the three principal acts of society; viz., 1. Conversation; 2. Business; and 3. Government. For there are three kinds of good that men desire to procure by civil society; viz., 1. Refuge from solitude; 2. Assistance in the affairs of life; and 3. Protection against injuries. And thus there are three kinds of prudence, very different, and frequently separated from each other; viz., 1. Prudence in conversation; 2. Prudence in business; 3. Prudence in government.

Conversation, as it ought not to be overaffected, much less should it be slighted; since a prudent conduct therein not only expresses a certain gracefulness in men’s manners, but is also of great assistance in the commodious despatch both of public and private business. For as action, though an external thing, is so essential to an orator as to be preferred before the other weighty and more internal parts of that art, so conversation, though it consist but of externals, is, if not the principal, at least a capital thing in the man of business, and the prudent management of affairs. What effect the countenance may have, appears from the precept of the poet—“Contradict not your words by your look”—

“Nec vultu destrue verba tuo.”

For a man may absolutely cancel and betray the force of speech by his countenance. And so may actions themselves, as well as words, be destroyed by the look; according to Cicero, who, recommending affability to his brother toward the provincials, tells him it did not wholly consist in giving easy access to them, unless he also received them with an obliging carriage. “It is doing nothing,” says he, “to admit them with an open door and a locked-up countenance.”

“Nil interest habere ostium apertum, vultum clausum.”

We learn also that Atticus, previous to the first interview between Cicero and Cæsar, in which the issue of the war was involved, seriously advised his friend, in his letters, to compose his countenance and assume a calm tranquillity. But if the management of the face alone has so great an effect, how much greater is that of familiar conversation, with all its attendants. Indeed the whole of decorum and elegance of manners seems to rest in weighing and maintaining, with an even balance, the dignity between ourselves and others; which is well expressed by Livy, though upon a different occasion, in that character of a person, where he says, that I may neither seem arrogant nor obnoxious; that is, neither forget my own nor others’ liberty.

On the other side; a devotion to urbanity and external elegance terminates in an awkward and disagreeable affectation. For what is more preposterous than to copy the theatres in real life? And though we did not fall into this vicious extreme, yet we should waste time and depress the mind too much by attending to such lighter matters. Therefore, as in universities, the students, too fond of company, are usually told by their tutors, that friends are the thieves of time; so the assiduous application to the decorum of conversation steals from the weightier considerations. Again, they who stand in the first rank for urbanity, and seem born, as it were, for this alone, seldom take pleasure in anything else, and scarce ever rise to the higher and more solid virtues. On the contrary, the consciousness of a defect in this particular makes us seek a grace from good opinion, which renders all things else becoming; but where this is wanting, men endeavor to supply it by good breeding. And further, there is scarce any greater or more frequent obstruction to business, than an overcurious observance of external decorum, with its attendant too solicitous and scrupulous a choice of times and opportunities. Solomon admirably says, “He that regards the winds shall not sow, and he that regards the clouds shall not reap.” For we must make opportunities oftener than we find them. In a word, urbanity is like a garment to the mind, and therefore ought to have the conditions of a garment; that is—1, it should be fashionable; 2, not too delicate or costly; 3, it should be so made, as principally to show the reigning virtue of the mind, and to supply or conceal deformity; 4, and lastly, above all things, it must not be too strait, so as to cramp the mind and confine its motions in business. But this part of civil doctrine relating to conversation is elegantly treated by some writers, and can by no means be reported as deficient.