1. Plato, being desired by the Cyreneans to prescribe to them good
laws and to settle their government, refused to do it, saying that it
was a hard matter to give them any law whilst they enjoyed so much
prosperity, since nothing is so fierce, arrogant, and untamable, as a
man that thinks himself to be in a happy condition. Wherefore it is
very difficult to give counsel to princes in matters of government; for
they fear to receive advice as a thing seeming to command them, lest
the force of reason should seem to lessen their power, by obliging it
to submit to truth. And they consider not the saying of Theopompus,
king of Sparta, who, being the first in that country that joined the
Ephori with the Kings, was reproached by his wife, because by this
means he would leave the kingdom to his children less than he found it;
to whom he replied, that he should render it so much the greater, the
firmer it was. For, by holding the reins of government somewhat loose,
he avoided envy and danger; nevertheless, since he permitted the stream
of his power to flow so freely into other channels, what he gave to
them must needs be a loss to himself. Though philosophy possessing a
prince as his assistant and keeper, by taking away the dangerous part
of fulness of power (as if it were fulness of body), leaves the sound
part.
2. But many kings and princes foolishly imitate those unskilful
statuaries who think to make their images look great and fierce if
they make them much straddling, with distended arms, and open mouth.
After the same manner they, by the grave tone of their voice, stern
countenance, morose behavior, and living apart from all society, would
affect a kind of majestic grandeur, not unlike those statues that
without seem to be of an heroic and divine form, but within are filled
with nothing but earth, stone and lead;—with this only difference, that
the weight of these massy bodies renders them stable and unmovable;
whereas unlearned princes, by their internal ignorance, are often
shaken and overthrown, and in regard they do not build their power on
a true basis and foundation, they fall together with it. For, as it is
necessary at first that the rule itself should be right and straight,
before those things that are applied to it can be rectified and made
like unto it; so a potentate ought in the first place to learn how
to govern his own passions and to endue his mind with a tincture of
princely virtues, and afterwards to make his subjects conformable
to his example. For it is not the property of one that is ready to
fall himself to hinder another from tripping, nor of one that is rude
and illiterate to instruct the ignorant; neither can a person govern
that is under no government. But most men, being deceived by a false
opinion, esteem it the chiefest good in ruling to be subject to no
authority; and thus the Persian king accounted all his servants and
slaves except his wife, whose master he ought more especially to have
been.
3. Who then shall have power to govern a prince? The law, without
doubt; which (as Pindar saith) is the king of mortal and immortal
beings; which is not written without in books nor engraven on wood or
stone, but is a clear reason imprinted in the heart, always residing
and watching therein, and never suffering the mind to be without
government. The king of Persia indeed commanded one of his lords
that lay in the same chamber to attend him every morning, and to
sound these words in his ears: Arise, O king! and take care of those
affairs and duties that Oromasdes requires of thee. But a wise and
prudent prince hath such a monitor within his breast as always prompts
and admonishes him to the same effect. It was a saying of Polemon,
that Love was the minister of the Gods, appointed to take care of
the education of youth; but it might be more truly affirmed, that
princes are the administrators of the divine power, for the safety
and protection of mankind, to distribute part of those goods that God
bestows on men, and to reserve part for themselves.
Dost thou behold the vast and azure sky,
How in its liquid arms the earth doth lie?[115]
The air indeed disperses the first principles of convenient seeds,
but the earth causeth them to spring forth; some grow and thrive
by the means of moderate and refreshing showers, some delight in
gentle breezes of wind, and some are cherished by the influences of
the moon and stars; but it is the sun that perfects and beautifies
all, inspiring them with the principle of mutual sympathy and love.
Nevertheless, all these so many and so great benefits, that are the
effects of the divine munificence and liberality, cannot be enjoyed or
duly made use of, without a law, justice, and a prince; for justice is
the end of the law, the law is the prince’s work, and the prince is the
image of God, that disposeth all things. He doth not stand in need of a
Phidias, a Polycletus, or a Myro; but by the practice of virtue makes
himself most like the divine nature, and becomes a most delectable
object to God and man. For as God hath placed the sun and moon in
heaven, as manifest tokens of his power and glory, so the majesty of
a prince is resplendent on earth, as he is his representative and
vicegerent,