Solemn Dissertation on the Philosophy of Silence

DE PHILOSOPHIA SILENTII.

...can be applied to the golden sentence of Solomon, Proverbs 21:23: "He who guards his tongue guards his own soul." Finally, taciturnity will be like a handmaiden to faith, which is concerned with the intention of not divulging what another has entrusted to me, especially if it can be established that great inconveniences would redound upon him. Suppose it is also a committed crime, but a secret one, which he entrusted to our faith: I consider it worthy of correction, not detection. For as long as it lies hidden, it is an offense to no one. But as soon as it is indicated, it despoils the other of a good reputation. Even if he suffers the loss of this through his own fault; nevertheless, it is thought that I have stumbled into the same through my imprudence and broken faith. Concerning occult matters, the court does not judge. Something else must be pronounced if the crime is to be future, e.g., theft, sedition, where silence held by given faith will rightly be counted as a crime. And in such a case, it is very much in the interest of others to obtain my admonition, so that the less cautious are not harmed. Marius Celsus, the Roman Consul, is read in Tacitus, Histories, book 1, chap. 71, to have confessed to Otho the crime of faith kept toward Galba, which the honorable President chose to explain for himself in a separate work. I at least gather from what has been said that the judgment of Ambrose, Book 1 on Duties, chap. 27, is true, saying: "Virtues are indivisible, but separated by the opinion of the mob." For this reason, the philosophy of silence confers such great utility that it always repairs the broken bond of virtue.

Not only individual men, but also entire nations have sacredly cultivated the pursuit of silence. Who is such a stranger to all history that he does not know that the Egyptians, a most ancient people, were so sparing in speech in conversation that they were silent more than they spoke? Compare Strabo, Book 17, Geography, as well as in the institution of the arts, inasmuch as they made them arcane through hieroglyphic signs, symbols, and other enigmas. See above §. IV and Nicolaus Caussin On the Occult Wisdom of the Egyptians, and also the Blessed D. Conring in Hermetic Medicine. The Persians appear to be their rivals in this matter, according to the testimony of Xenophon, among whom it was not even permitted for a servant, even one serving the table, to open his mouth or speak in the least. For he says: "They indicated to boys as if they were deaf what needed to be done."