BOOK I PART III
ference by general and common rules, that are
palpable and undeniable.
To this explication of the different influence
of open and concealed flattery or satire, I shall
add the consideration of another phenomenon,
which is analogous to it. There are many par-
ticulars in the point of honour both of men
and women, whose violations, when open and
avowed, the world never excuses, but which
it is more apt to overlook, when the appear-
ances are saved, and the transgression is se-
cret and concealed. Even those, who know
with equal certainty, that the fault is commit-
ted, pardon it more easily, when the proofs
seem in some measure oblique and equivocal,
than when they are direct and undeniable. The
same idea is presented in both cases, and, prop-
erly speaking, is equally assented to by the