Flatter and sell the secret

Meaning

Heuchlen means flattering or dissembling towards the rich and godless in order to secure support. The main treatise presents material provision as protection against this dependency: philosophers can pursue study without poverty forcing them to flatter patrons or disclose the art for money.

The argument is not simply that wealth is intrinsically desirable. Its value here lies in preserving intellectual and moral independence and sparing wisdom the humiliation of begging. The English clarifies the German’s compressed syntax as being ‘spared having to flatter’. Revealing the secret for payment is a separate pressure alongside flattery, not an authorized method of funding the work.