I have been reading Lord Bacon's essay on "Cunning," and it certainly shows that the people who lived hundreds of years ago, were at least as cunning as they are now.
Listen to this: "It is a point of cunning, when you have anything to obtain of present despatch, to amuse the party with whom you deal, with some other discourse, that he may not be too much awake to make objections.
"I knew a secretary who never came to Queen Elizabeth of England, with bills to sign, but he would always first put her in some discourse of state, that she might the less mind the bills."
And this: "The breaking off in the midst of that, one was about to say, as if he took himself
up, breeds a greater appetite in him, with whom you confer, to know more."
Did you never hear girls talk together according to this hint?
"Girls, it was the queerest thing you ever heard of! And then Minnie said—but dear me! I don't suppose I ought to tell you that—"
At which the girls are almost sure to say, "Oh, yes, do! We'll never repeat it in the world!"
It is my opinion that a great many boys and girls must have studied Bacon very carefully.
Here is another wise saying: "In things that a man would not be seen in himself, it is a point of cunning to borrow the name of the world: beginning, 'the world says,' or, 'there is a speech abroad.'"