Page:The Book of the Courtier.djvu/206

, seeing them do well in that which is not their profession, think they can do far better in that which they make their profession. This art, if it be accompanied by good judgment, is by no means unpleasing to me."

40.— Then my lord Gaspar Pallavicino replied:

"This seems to me not art but mere deceit; nor do I think it fitting for him who would be a man of honour, ever to deceive."

"It is an embellishment, which graces what he does," said messer Federico, "rather than deceit; and even if it be deceit, it is not to be censured. Will you not also say that of two men fencing, the one who touches the other, deceives him? And this is because the one has more art than the other. And if you have a jewel that is beautiful without setting, and it afterwards comes into the hands of a good goldsmith, who by skilful setting makes it look far more beautiful, will you not say that this gold- smith deceives the eyes of anyone who sees it? And yet he deserves praise for his deceit, for with good judgment and art his master hand often adds grace and beauty to ivory or silver, or to a beautiful stone by encircling it with fine gold. Therefore let us not say that art,— or such deceit as this, if you will call it so,— deserves any censure.

"Nor is it unseemly for a man who is conscious of doing something well, dexterously to seek occasion for showing himself therein, and at the same time to conceal what he thinks undeserving of praise,— but always with a touch of wary dissimulation. Do you not remember that without appearing to seek them. King Ferdinand32 found opportunities now and then to go about in his doublet ? and this because he felt himself to be very agile; and that, as his hands were not over good, he rarely or almost never took off his gloves? And there were very few that perceived his cunning. Moreover I think I have read that Julius Caesar liked to wear the laurel wreath to hide his baldness.184 But in all these matters it is needful to be very cautious and to use good judgment, in order not to go beyond bounds; for in avoiding one errour a man often runs into another, and in his wish to win praise, receives censure.

41.—" Hence in our mode of life and conversation, it is a very