THE PRINCE.  
Written in French  
By monsieur du Balzac.  
NOW Translated into English.  
LONDON, Printed for M. Meighen, and G. Bedell, and are to be sold at their shop at the Middle-Temple gate. 1648.   

To my worthy friend colonel Gervas holes.  
SIR,  
I Have sent you Balzac's Prince made English: Those that have red the author in his own words;( which indeed is a handsome piece,) will judge it a strange presumption to make a Frenchman,( so much that Mode is doted on) speak any other language then his own: But your acceptance will countervail their Censure, which you will extremely assure me of, if, in case it venture further abroad, you will give it leave to be happy in this address it desires to appear under. You have placed all hazards below the service to your King, you may the better therefore protect a Prince: Not that I would entitle you to those faults the Translation may labour under; a friend is to bee made use of in a more noble employment; such I have found you, whose patience, when you first red these papers, hath engaged you to this second trouble of accepting them wholly for your own, from him who is  
Your most affectionate friend H. G.   

To my LORD the cardinal of Richelieu.  
My Lord,  
I Am very sorry that my indisposition cannot permit me to obey the command which you have enjoined me, and to bee myself the Bearer of the book which I sand you. Yet since you receive it from better and more worthy hands then mine, and that M. the Bishop of Nantz hath done me the honour to carry it, I need not fear it should run any hazard in my absence. If the King vouchsafe to cast his eyes upon it for the testimony you bear it, I dare promise my Lord, that he will find something that will please him for the remembrance of what is passed, and that his virtue being without example, he will take pleasure to see that I speak thereof after a manner which is not altogether common. I protest freely that the consideration of so high a virtue, hath given me thoughts which I cannot expect from the mediocrity of my wit: and I have been so extraordinarily transported, that oftentimes I knew not what I was about to writ. It alone, hath discovered to me the idea of this Art which commands all others, which excites and calms the passions as seemeth good to it; which is not content to please by the purity of the Style, and the graces of language, but which undertakes to persuade by the force of learning and abundance of reason. I have sought it hitherto unprofitably; the Life of the King hath taught me more then all the precepts of the Rhetoricians; and I owe all the merit of my work to the happiness of his reign. It is at least one advantage which I have above those who have lived before me. Their memory is otherways venerable to me; and since I honour men of threescore yeares, I have no mind to contemn the Antiquity of many Generations. For strangers that believe themselves to have the possession of wit, we are not bound to yield them the same respect; and I think I may say without offence, that as they have not a Master of so much worth as ours, neither would it be reasonable for us to be inferior to them; and that the worthiest Prince of the world should command a people of less worth then others: In my opinion you will state this question in our Favour: But I hope more My Lord, if you take notice of the carriage of the discourse, and consider how I get out of ill passages, you will do me the honour to avow, that though I walk upon thorns I am not pricked, and that in the most dangerous matters I have kept that temper which ought to be held Inter abruptam audaciam,& deform obsequium: Between presumptuous boldness and deformed flattery. If sometimes I have most free expressions, me thinks my liberty is like that of well polliced Republickes, where they leave not off to obey the laws, and together withall to preserve their liberty.  
When I shall be at Milan or at Brussels, I shall not know how to handle the Princes of the house of Austria with more respect and reverence then I do; and it is in my opinion all that they can expect from the discretion of a man that is not their Subject. For not to dare to speak of the Ambition of the Spaniards, of the maxims of the counsel of spain, and of the design to conquer, which the King will change when he shall please, into a necessity of defending themselves; would be already one beginning of slavery which wee should pay them; and they are, I assure myself, too just to be willing that wee should thank them for the wrong they have done us.  
There may be some other passages which ill Interpreters will wrong in the explication, chiefly where it is spoken of Ministers and Favourites: But keeping myself in general Thesise's, and not designing the persons in particular, my proceeding seems to me very innocent. Neither can I hinder those that find themselves guilty to have remorse, or that wounded faces should not see their scars when they behold themselves in a glass. If it were forbidden to make profession of Truth, I should not presently turn rebel, nor oppose myself to an established order: I would obey so perverse a Law, because I am a good Citizen, but it should be by my silence, and not by my cowardliness, and at the charges of not speaking at all, but not of speaking against my conscience. God be thanked, we are not upon these terms; and I also enjoy the good fortune of the times, and knowing well, that whatever falls out, servile spirits are suspected, that their Testimony is not received, and that they do injury to Reason itself when they make use thereof, I would be bold sometimes, to be credible always, and to make that pass for absolute Truth, which otherwise might be disputed.  
There are that accuse me of a contrary 'vice, and who say that I flatter because in some places I strive to adorn truth: I would not do an ill office to any person; But assure yourself, my Lord, that these kind of People are Enemies rather of my Subject, then of my Book, and wish more against the Prince, then against the orator. I protest, had I been able to express myself in a loftier strain, I could have made it appear in this occasion; neither had it been as was sometime said to employ the arrows of Philoctetes to kill birds, nor to raise storms upon a Rivulet: It is not fit to speak meanly of that which is the highest next under Heaven, and sovereignty which is adored all alone, deserves without doubt a double veneration when it hath virtue for a Companion. One cannot writ of the King in terms too high nor too magnificent; and wee may for many just reasons allow him that, which heretofore hath been conferred upon wicked Princes merely in respect of their Character. I will not represent you My Lord, with what honour and what humility, or rather with what worship and religion the roman Princes have been entertained by their Subjects. I will not trouble myself to make you consider that they bestowed upon them Eternity and Divinity; as wee give our sovereigns, majesty and Highnesse, that what is now called the Crime of Felony, was in those times called the Crime of Impiety, and that our Rebels were their Ungodly ones.  
I will not allege that in the Code of Theodosius, the Answers of the Emperours are styled Oracles; their Edicts Divine Letters, their Aspects a celestial splendour, their palace, the Divine House, their Closet the Sanctuary: I onely entreat you to remember that this Style is the Style of the roman Empire, which had already received Christianity, and that not only the Courtiers and the orators have spoken thus, but also the Holy Fathers and the councils. Saint Gregory Nazianzen in his first Invective against Julian, calleth Constance most Divine Prince, though this most Divine Prince had persecuted the faithful, driven the Popes out of their seat, and dyed in the Arrian heresy. Anastasius was also an heretic Emperour, and was slain with a Thunderbolt by a just punishment of Heaven; and yet Sabas the good servant of God speaking of this wicked Prince, said, that he was come to adore the steps of his imperial Piety: and an Historian of his time called him Saint Anastasius. The Fathers of the sixth council of Constantinople, do call Justinian, Saint Justinian, and his Wife Saint Theodora, though the Life of both of them was fuller of Monsters, then of Miracles, and that Theodora particularly made use of the power of the Empire onely to do mischief to the Church: After the same manner theodoric the Arrian is called Saint theodoric by the council of Rome, and according to the relation of Eusebius; Dennis of Alexandria, the Martyr of our Lord, gave the Title of most Holy, to Valerian the Pagan Emperour, though wee attribute it now only to the supreme Head of Christian Religion.  
Now if this be so, and that the Fathers and the councils have spoken of the holinesse of heretics and Pagans, which proceeded only from the Character and unction which they received, and which consequently was external and came from without; why is it not lawful for me to aclowledge another holinesse joined to this? a Holinesse which is not superficial and borrowed; but which hath its foundation in the innocency of life; which is not tied to the Dignity, but inherent in the Person; which is not an impression of the finger of God upon a fortuitous matter, but an effusion of his grace in a soul chosen and predestined. Whoever finds excess in my words, knows not what is the duty of a Subject, nor has that opinion which he ought to have concerning his own Prince. He carries his sight too boldly upon so elevated a greatness, and measures not the distance which is between his Judgement and the worth of the King. Provided that the honour which is rendered to these Sacred Persons be not injurious to God, there can be no excess in honouring them; provided that the Praises which are given them, do not offend a greater majesty then theirs, they cannot be immoderate; wee ought to reverence even their shadow,& bow the knee before their picture: All that comes near them ought to appear to us more pure, and more full of lustre by the participation which it receives from their rays. The respect which is born them ought to proceed even to their Liveries and ordinary Servants, and with greater reason to be extended to their affairs and Ministers: For whom you may remember if you please, that the ancient Christians were wont to pray publicly, and to ask of God their preservation, though thereby they entreated for the preservation of their persecutors, and of those who exposed them daily to Lions in the amphitheatre.  
After this Example I have no mind to murmur against the Government of my country, nor to find fault with that which passeth over my head. I am always content with the present honesty, and the wisdom which is in use; I never dispute against the pilot that carries me, nor am curious after a novelty, to which, though it may chance prove good, I shall have much trouble to accustom myself. I suffer tyranny, and desire the upright administration of Justice: When my superiors are froward and perverse, I have docility and patience; when they are such as they ought to be, I have thankful acknowledgement,& love. To those that are bad I give my silence and discretion, but neither do I forbear to speak well of those that are good, nor to praise things that are praiseworthy. For what concerns you, My Lord, I know that you endeavour more for the solidity of virtue, then for its pomp, and that you had rather fight, then triumph. Yet since your modesty is such, that it oftentimes rejects truth, you ought not to be believed in your own cause, and I lawfully except against you. Your Moderation must not hinder our acknowledgement, nor must wee be ungrateful, because you are shamefast. It is true, there are certain bounds within which the most violent affections ought to contain themselves, and because I have begun to quote latin, I will owe you that saying of Tacitus, Pessimum Inimicorum genus Laudantes: praisers are the worst kind of Enemies. But communicating to no other what is due to the King alone, nor bestowing the honour of successses elsewhere; they cannot take it ill that I represent you as a wise and faithful Minister, that acts by the orders and commands of a great Prince, and who seeks for no other glory but that of obeying and serving well. Men need not be astonished, that among so many unjust passions and groundless murmurings, there are found free judgements and voices that bless your carriage of businesses. And certainly, in a time when you are so powerfully and so violently assaulted, there would be a want of the duties of humanity not to study to find out some consolation for your displeasures, and to see an Innocent suffer without giving him one sigh, or comforting him with one word. It is not enough, My Lord, that you are assured of the Protection of your Master, and of the good state of your Conscience, you have still need of the opinion of men, and of the Testimony of the public. You apprehended not the danger of your Person, nor the ruin of your fortune, but you apprehended blame, and evil reputation; You are afraid of dishonest things though you contemn dangerous ones. And therefore this ought to bee a sweet sadness, and a misfortune, which you may style glorious; to know, together with all good men, that you suffer for Justice, and that your cause is that of the King, and of the State. If it grieves you that you are not in the favour of a great princess, at least you have not any remorse for being unfaithful to her; and if you have not had complacency enough to perform all her desires, wee know that you have too much honesty to have done any thing against her service. It is no small comfort to your mind, that the taking of Rochell, where you did most profitable service; and the relief of Cazal, to which you contributed very much, are the onely Crimes which make you guilty; and that the lustre of what you have done abroad being not able to be supported at the Court, strangers are come to mingle themselves in this domestic jealousy, and to try to ruin him, whom they could not gain.  
This is the fountain of our last evils. The Credulity of the best queen in the world hath served for an innocent Instrument for the malice of our enemies, and the Request she made to the King, to remove you from his affairs, was not so much an effect of her indignation against you, as the first blow of the conspiracy framed against France, and which was disguised to her under the vail of devotion, that she might believe she merited in ruining you. The King would have given her all the reasonable satisfaction hereupon that shee could desire. he was many times your Advocate, and intercessor towards her: he would have been your surety, and have answered for your fidelity. On your part My Lord, you have forgot nothing whereby to endeavour to assuage her spirit; she hath seen you at her feet asking her favour, though you might have demanded justice: she hath seen you make yourself guilty and wronging your own Innocency to give her place to pardon you. You have put yourself in all postures of duty to move her, and if she would have believed no body but herself you had prevailed with her: But those evil spirits which environed her, and who more desired your destruction then her contentment, made new batteries, thereby to harden her heart, which began to be mollified: They hindered the effect which wee expected from your submissions and from the Kings entreaties, they wrought upon her good disposition which began to yield and relent, and had it not been for their devilish sleights we should have seen her full of glory and majesty, bearing a part in all the thoughts of her Son; and wee should see you again receiving ordinarily from her mouth the commands of your Master: But she disrellisheth the one and the other, and will remain still in her former persuasion. The King, who hath granted her the pardon of more then forty thousand guilty persons, could not obtain from her the favour for one Innocent; and he that is come to the end of the obstinacy of the Rebels, nor hath undertaken any thing without success, hath petitioned his Mother to no purpose. This made Him oppose a necessary constancy against so strange a resolution, and to resolve not to pleasure his Enemies with the banishment of his servants. he retained you then, when you pressed him to give you leave to retire; and being ready to yield to the times, and to give place to envy, he made it appear that he was stronger then malice, and that he could change the time when he pleased: he did not believe that he offended Nature not to abandon virtue, nor that it was a sin against maternal Duty, not to violate friendship: and remembering perhaps that our Lord called his disciples his Mother and his Brethren, and said in the same place, That he that doth his will, the same is his Brother, and Sister, and Mother, He considered that Kings ought not so to respect Proximity, as to make no account of affection; and that to reign, they have indeed need of Alliances and Kindred, but neither must they let pass servants and obedience.  
Behold then yourself, My Lord, maintained by the necessity of your Services, and the Interests of State, behold your self above the winds and tempests. The complaints made against you have onely assured your Master, that you are more to him then they could desire; The blow wherewith they thought to make you fall, served onely to set you the faster, and that force which gave the shock to your fortune, without being able to shake it, shew'd us the solidity of its matter. nevertheless being good and virtuous as you are, I imagine you are not content with this Fortune if you possess it not with the consent of the whole world: It cannot be more powerful and more firm then it is, but it may be more sweet and delightful. You never received so great honours, but you have tasted purer joys: Never were there more victories nor more advantages over the Stranger, and never more intestine mischiefs and tumult in the House. This disorder which you have no way caused greatly afflicts you, and I know you would with all your heart that every thing were in its place. I doubt not but you bewail the misfortune of a mistress whom you have conducted by your Services to the utmost degree of felicity, and that having laboured so long and so affectionately the perfect Union of their Majesties, it is a sensible displeasure to you at this day to see your labours ruined, and your work fallen to the ground: You would be willing I assure myself, you had dyed at Rochel, because till then you were in the queens good opinion. I believe amid the complaints that she makes, all the praises that come to you from elsewhere are importunate, and that even your merit is in some sort odious to you, since it hath not her approbation. God will dispel one day these clouds, and will sand her more upright thoughts of your fidelity.  
But expecting till this bee brought to pass, and that businesses receive some accommodation, it shall not trouble you if for some houres I turn your eyes from these sad objects which afflict you, and present you with the Image of a happier season then this here present. I think I am inspired by my good Angel to bound my design with the first voyage for Italy; Before, My Lord, that your prosperity was envied, that your friends failed of their fidelity, that the queen had changed her affections, and that the exploits of the army were weakened by the close dealings of the Closet. I meddle not with these hateful Subjects, nor have the heart to handle wounds so fresh and bleeding. I will onely speak of what hath preceded our miseries, and in all this I will onely warrant my intention. It is very good, My Lord, and hath nothing for its object but the service of the King, but perhaps it is ill managed, and arrives not whither it tends. I know I am a good Frenchman, and extremely love my country; but I know not whether I am a good Politician, or sufficiently acquainted with our affairs; without doubt I have more courage, then strength, and more zeal then knowledge: And this protestation I made at the entrance into my work; that no body might de deceived, and that they might search there rather for something which may excite love towards their country, then which should instruct them with things new and curious. I declare from the beginning that I have not any bodies assistance, that I have received neither Notes nor instructions, and that I walk without a guide or a Companion; And therefore if I commit any faults, I have onely done what I should, and they must be taken as proceeding from a man who sees things afar off, and from without, and stays at the appearance of public affairs, without penetrating into their inward parts which are hide from him.  
I could enter presently upon my matter, and take a shorter way then that which I have followed; but I had a design to prepare their minds by a pleasant discourse to one more serious, and to defer something after the manner of the ancients. You know my Lord, that the most part of them, make Proems to their books which have no agreement with their Subject, and which are like heads fastened on, which you may put upon all bodies. And this is so true, that Cicero writes of himself that he had a volume of reserves whence he drew out when he had any need for the beginning of his works. So that by chance having prefixed before his book of Glory, the same Preface which he had already put to his third book of the Academickes, he requested Atticus very pleasantly to cut off that first book, and put another which he sent him in its place. In these Prefaces they did ordinarily discourse of the affairs and Government of the Common-wealth, they complained of the corruption of the Age, they related to the world their employments in the City, and their exercises in the field; and after that, instead of descending gently, and as it were by degrees into their matter in hand, you would say that they precipitated themselves, so suddenly and all at once do they fall upon it. All the Exordiums of sallust are of this kind, and would as well fit Cicero's Books, as his: After he hath declaimed of 'vice and virtue, and has thrown himself upon an infinite reasoning, he goes not out at the door, where he sees himself shut up, but escapes forth by a breach, and breaking off on a sudden where they thought he would have gone on; let us come saith he to the business in hand; The Greekes are more licentious herein, then he. Dion Chrysostome enters not ordinarily upon his subject till the end of his discourse; and if we take from his Master Plato his long Prefaces, his fabulous narrations, his importunate Digressions, we shall make him shorter by half then he is: Both of them are like little women undressed, who having put off their tires and their Cheopines, are but a piece of themselves. Plutarch doubtless is one of the most advised and most judicious of the latter Greeks, but yet he is fallen into the 'vice of his age and of his country; and he who can rid himself of the Treatise which he hath made of the Familiar spirit of Socrates, shall easily be able to get out of a Labyrinth. Christian authors ought to be more austere, and less curious after strange ornaments, yet they cease not to give something to custom, and to wanton it out of their Subject.  
And not to trouble you with a tedious ennumeration: The Dialogue which Minutius Felix hath made to justify our Religion against the Calumnies of the Pagans, hath a beginning no whit at all serious, and very far from the gravity of his matter. And Saint Cyprian in that letter so much esteemed which he wrote to Donatus being a very severe Censure of the manners of his age by a description purely poetical, and by a Discourse as gaudy and florid as if he would have spoken of Love or rehearsed a Fable.  
As for me who have undertaken a labour of a long breath, I would not altogether imitate the ancients, which to their works fasten others, neither would I altogether avoid them. I have made a Preface where I have spoken as pleasantly as I could of the pleasures of the autumn, because it was the time of the conception of my Prince: Neither have I forgotten the country where I was, because it is the place of his birth, I have been very glad to give account upon occasion of the entertainment of my Solitude, and to justify the leisure of a retired person against those that accuse him of sloth and idleness. Besides that by the Conclusion you may see the whole business is to my purpose, and the adventure which gave occasion to my design, and which is historical and true, happening to me at the River side which I describe, whereof my descriptions which are not perhaps tedious, are sometimes necessary, and may be considered as Circumstances of the Action which I represent, &c.  
Desunt caetera. March 3. 1631.   

To my LORD the cardinal of Richelieu.  
My Lord,  
BEing still detained here by some affairs which I cannot neglect without losing them; I suffer with much grief so hard a necessity, and esteem myself as it were banished in my own country, seeing I am so long separated from you. I deny not but the victorious and triumphant news, which comes daily to us from the army, gives me some motion of Joy, and that I am very sensibly affencted with the noise which your Name makes on all sides. But my satisfaction cannot be entire to learn from the relations of another, those things whereof I myself should bear witness. And I conceive so much pleasure to consider you in your Glory, that there is not any soldier beyond the Mountaines under your Command, whose good fortune I do not envy.  
I forbear not therefore, My Lord, since I cannot serve you with my body and my actions, to adore you night and day in my thoughts, and to employ so deserved a worship the noblest part of myself. You are next after the King the eternal object of my mind; I scarce ever divert it from the course of your Life; and if you have more diligent Courtiers then I, and which render you their respects with more show and ostentation, I am certain you have not any servant more faithful, nor whose affection comes more from the heart, or is more lively and natural: But that my words may not seem vain and groundless, I sand you the proof of what I say, whereby you shall know, that a man persuaded has a great inclination to persuade others, and that discourse grounded upon things, and animated with truth, moves the minds of men with more force, and procures more credit and belief, then that which busy's itself to counterfeit only and declaim.  
It is a part My Lord, drawn from its body, a piece which I have snatched from the labours I have undertaken: To whose perfection I protest freely, that all the houres of leisure more quiet then mine, and all the powers and faculties of a soul more elevated then ordinarily, had found enough wherewith to be employed. Here are handled the virtue and victories of the King; the Justice of his arms: Royalty, and Tyranny: 'tis a discourse of usurpers and of lawful Princes, of Rebellion chastised, and liberty maintained: But seeing the Prince, of whom I speak, makes no stop, and that following him I must needs engage myself into an infinite subject, I have prescribed myself some bounds which I could not meet with in his actions; And after the Example of Homer, who ended his Iliads with the death of Hector, though then there was not an end of the war, I would not proceed further then the taking of Suza, though it was but the beginning of those wonders which we have seen. Now, your Lordship knows, that this was of writing which I have proposed to myself, is, without comparison the barrenest that is, and which can hardly continue active, o● make any durable onsets. This praise is given to orators; t● those I say that know how to persuade; who can please with profiting; who render people capable of the secrets of civill policy. For as for Philosophers who hav● written thereof, their discourse i● commonly so dry and sapless; tha● their intention seems to be rather to instruct, then to please; and besides their style is so intricate and thorny, that it seems they are willing to teach none but the learned. This hath no more difficulty in it, then to heal those that are well; and to be obscure there is no more required then to stay at the first notions which wee have of truth, which are never very neat nor well extracted, and which fall from the fancy upon the paper in the same confusion they are first presented to it, resembling rather deformed abortions, then perfect productions. Besides, in the composure of a history where the Politician bears rule, an author is carried by his matter, and the things being done ready to his hand, which easeth him of the trouble of Invention, as the progress of time gives him his order, he is scarce bound to any thing else then to contribute words: which some have accounted so small; that Menander being prest to put forth a piece that he had promised, It is already, said he, there wants onely the words. But in the persuasive way, besides that wee must make use of the choicest words, and place them with greater evenness then in bare narrations, which for all their lustre and richness of expression desire onely the perspicuity and propriety of the terms. Those that desire to succeed effectually herein, force themselves to put in use,& to reduce into action the most subtle Ideas of rhetoric; to raise their reason to the highest point of things; to seek out in every matter things least exposed to the common view, and to render them se● familiar, that those that cannot perceive them, may yet touch them. Their design is to join pleasure with profit, to mingle delight with plenty, and to fight not onely with good and strong arms, but also with faire and glittering ones. They try to civilize Learning, changing it from the fashion of the college, and delivering it out of the hands of Pedants who spoil, and defile it in the handling; who are, as we may so say, its Corrupters and Adulterers, ●●d abuse in the face of all the world a thing so faire and excellent: They never defend themselves from rocks, by turning from them, but try to slide gently over them: to escape out of difficult places and not to avoid them: to go before malicious Interpreters by a word which destroys the conclusion they thought to draw thence; and to make it appear that there is nothing so harsh, nothing so distasteful which is not tempered and made soft by discourse. At last they suffer themselves sometimes to be carried away with that rational fury which rhetoricians know very well; but which is beyond their rules and precepts: which moves the orator with such strange passions, that they seem rather inspired then natural, and with which Demosthenes●nd Cicero being possessed, the one swore by those that dyed at Marathon, and deified them by his own private authority: The other asked the Hills and Forrests of Alba, as if it had been their duty to answer him. But if I were arrived to so noble a height, which I neither dare, nor can believe, and could I show strange Nations, that in France all things are changed into the better under so happy a reign as that of the Kings, and that he augments our wit, as well as increaseth our Courage, I should not for all this deserve the glory, but I must refer it wholly to the felicity, of my times and to the force of my subject.  
If in all cases My Lord, I cannot obtain a place among knowing and skilful men, I will not be denied one amongst honest and affectionate Servants; and if my capacity be not worthy to be had in consideration of, by you, my zeal at least deserves not to be rejected. Certainly I am many times so moved, that I doubt not but my resentments please you, and it is a pleasant recreation for you to behold a Philosopher in anger. And though true love bee sufficiently content with the Testimony of the conscience, and I render you many proofs of my most humble service, that I assure myself you could never know, I desire nevertheless some times for your satisfaction, that you could hear me from the place where you are, and see with what advantage I dispute the public cause: How I confute the false news which are made currant, and how I stop their mouths that would speak disadvantageously of our affairs: It is certain they cannot be more flourishing, nor the success of the Kings Army more glorious, nor the rest of the people more assured, nor your administration more judicious. And yet wee meet with some spirits who are vexed at their own good, who cannot endure their happiness, nor be kept in a good belief but by supernatural prosperities, who have no more faith assoon as there ceaseth to be a miracle. When the present affairs are in good condition they make evil judgements of the future, and in prosperous events their presages are always tragical; they swear they esteem nothing but strangers and foreign things: They admire Spinola, because he is an Italian and not of their Party; and they are troubled to praise the King because he is a Frenchman and their Master; they will scarce confess he hath conquered after so many Cities taken, so many Factions ruined, who are the eternal Monuments of his Victories, and it hath been easier for him to merit esteem over all Europe, then to gain their approbation. They would persuade us if they could, that he had raised the siege from before Rochell, and made a dishonourable peace with the Hugenotes; that he hath been beaten by the English, and that the Spaniards have made him flee: If they could they would blot out his History, and quench the greatest splendour which ought to enlighten posterity. I doubt not but they look with evil eyes in any book upon the Images of things which so greatly offend them: And those that believe Fables& Romances, and grow extreme passionate for a Hercules or an Achilles, who it is possible never were; who are transported when they read the Actions of Roland, and Rennould, which were acted onely upon the paper, will not relish Truth because it bears witness to the virtue of their Prince. They will be content, that against the faith of all Antiquity, Xenophon who was a graecian, and no Persian hath dreamed out a life of Cyrus according to his fancy, and that he makes him die in his bed, among his friends, though the truth is, that he dyed in the war and was overcome by a woman.  
They allow that Pliny should lie in a full Senate, and praise Trajan for his Temperance and Chastity, though it be true that he was given to wine, and to another 'vice so foul, that it cannot honestly bee name; and yet they take it ill that being born the Kings Subject, I speak of him what no body can deny, and that resolving to present an example to Princes, I choose rather his life, then Cyrus'es which is fabulous, or then that of Trajan which is not very clean: Not to speak of Caesar Borgia's all black with Crimes and laziness: Heaven cannot make these people a Superior to please them; He that was after Gods own heart, would not bee after theirs: They would not find Solomon wise enough, nor Alexander valiant enough. They are generally enemies to all Masters, and the Accusers of all present businesses; they will break a mans head with crying, that it was not necessary t● make war in Italy; but if you had stayed at Paris, they had cried louder, that it had been dishonesty to suffer his allies to be lost. Because some of our Kings have made unfortunate voyages beyond the Mountaines, therefore they maintain that he who follows not the same Counsels, must nevertheless fall into the same misfortunes They fight against your managing of businesses with old Proverbs, because they cannot touch it with good reasons: They allege that Italy is the burial place of the French, and being not able to observe one fault that you have committed in that country, they reproach you with that of our Fathers, and accuse you of the imprudence of CHARLES the eight. I suppose they sin rather out of infirmity, then malice; that they are rather passionate through their opinions, then Pensionaries of our Enemies; and that they have more need of the Remedies of physic, then of those of the laws.  
Therefore it is a vexation to see the Impertinents of this Age hold the same language with the Rebels of the passed, and to abuse the benefit of Liberty against him that hath procured it for us. They come every day to tell me that wee shall receive much disadvantage from the discontent of a Prince which is separated from us; and I answer them, it is much better to have a weak Enemy to combat with, then a querulous friend to preserve.  
They will have the King at any rate to relieve Cazal, and I say he hath done it already by the Conquest of Savoy, and in the condition he hath now put his affairs, at the worst, it will be taken onely to be surrendered again. They are not content to have you execute extraordinary actions, They would have you do impossible ones: And though there grow sometimes such difficulties in things which cannot be surmounted by reason of the repugnancy of the Subject, and not for the default of the undertaker, they are not answered with those reasons wherewith wise men rest satisfied, and many times would have the King do that which the great turk and the Persian joined together cannot d●.  
All this, My Lord, would cause in me a great indignation, neither should I bee able to endure that excess of Ingratitude, but that I know there was a malicious spirit which found fault with the works of God, and was not afraid to say, that had he been of his counsel, as well in the Creation of the world, as in the Government of it, he could have given him better advice then he had taken, and then usually he followed. After so high a folly you need not think it strange that some men are extravagant; The Common People have always been an unequal Judge of virtue; but yet she hath never wanted admirers; and if those who have nothing but a little Instinct, and can onely murmur are not favourable to her, it is our part My Lord to bear witness that reasonable men, and those that know how to speak are of the good Party.  
Your most humble and most obedient Servant Balzac. Aug. 4. 1630.   

The Preface.  
I Have been long enough in the world, but have lived onely during the last autumn; and because it is not possible to recall those happy dayes which were so dear to me, I shall endeavour to retain some relish of them by remembrance and discourse. The liberty wherein I found myself after 3. years Captivity,( for so I call my abode in the City) the purity of the air which I began to breath, and as eagerly drew in, as if it had been some new-found nourishment; the smiling face of the field, which yet shewed forth some part of its riches, and dressed itself with the last presents it would bestow on us mortals, all these rendered my thoughts so delightful and calm, that not at all stirred with the passion of joy, I remained possessed of its pleasure.  
Those other more importunate maladies of the soul, which torment the Court, and solemn Assemblies, did not at all approach our village; I knew not what it was to hope or fear; nor was I any longer acquainted with suspicion, distrust, or jealousy. All my own passions were at rest, and those of others reached not me. envy and hatred which are so cruelly fastened to that small shadow of good, which some men seemed to discern among my many faults, assaulting me where I was not, did me no hurt that I felt; and the present objects did so fill my spirits, and so clearly deface the impression of what had passed, that as they left no place for future apprehensions, so there remained no disquietness to trouble my memory.  
In this condition, far different from the tumult from whence I departed, and under the serenity of so benign an Influence of heaven, I seemed to be really new born, and to assist at this new production of all things. And truly had wee, during that season, obtained the Government of the world, and been ourselves permitted to make the dayes; we could not have had fairer; nor have dispensed shade and light, could and heat with a more equal measure.  
There arose a small thin mist from the neighbouring River which wrapped up as it were in a bottom, thence dispersed itself over the surface of the earth. But for as much as it tarried not for the Sun to dispel it, neither could abide its first rays, it never had so much strength as to ascend as high as our lowest windows; and we enjoyed a most faire calm and lively brightness, whilst there was some trouble and smoke below us. Before wee were dressed and had said our prayers, that moisture which had bedewed onely the tops of the grass, was wholly wiped off, and the freshness of the morning was no longer moist or sharp, so that there was left a convenient time to take a walk till noon, and to do those exercises, which recreate the body without wearying it, and which moderately awaken the appetite without carrying it to a disorderly hunger, which commonly follows violent motions, and retains something of a disease.  
The former part of the afternoon, was passed over in familiar discourse; from whence we banished all affairs of State, controversies of Religion, and questions of Philosophy. There none eagerly disputed whether the Pope was above a council; no body troubled himself to unite the Princes of christendom; to make a league against the turk; It was not violently debated, who was the greatest captain, marquis Spinola, or Count Tilly: No body reformed kingdoms, nor would change their Governments; It was not permitted so much as to name the public, nor the age; we talked of nothing but the goodness of our Melons, the reaping of our corn, the hope of our vintage. Our discourse once ended, the Company partend, and of four which wee were, one went to the Groves, another to the Garden, a third to a Gallery where there were Cards and Tables; for me, I retired to my Chamber, and tried to slumber over a book, as little serious as our former discourse had been: But the day beginning to decline, and the remainder of the heat being now no more troublesone to be endured then the steam of a luke-warm Bath, I usually went a horseback, and road from my lodging thorough a long alley of white mulberries, which lead me to the River; then whose crystal streams nothing could be seen more clear and pleasant; and Ronsard doth great wrong to derive it from Acheron, and to conceive that it is an arm of that dismal Lake, whose waters are represented to us so black and muddy: It is rather a continued fountain from its first rise till it empties itself into the Sea; where, after it hath run 30. Leagues, it entereth so fresh and pure, as if but then it issued from the Spring head: It generally manures all that it watereth, and if the same country be extremely barren and extremely fertile, they are the effects of its remoteness& of its presence. At that part of it where I did chiefly rest myself, it runs beneath certain little hills, which are green from the top to the bottom with a brushie wood which they bear; and the descent being very steep, you would say the trees are not planted there but tied, or that they creep there, and not grow, they seem to have such slender hold. In some places the river is broad enough in others the channel so thrusts itself together, that the Pop lars which grow on each sid seem to kiss, and joining they boughs toge her, embrace one another with so handsome an evenness, that an Arbour cannot bee better made if art and the workmans violence had twisted them.  
There, not being able to do what Scipio and Laelius did at the Sea-side, where they onely counted the waves and gathered Cockles; I had the pleasure to behold in the bottom of the water those things which passed in the air, and to see that swim, which looking up I saw fly above.  
This med●tation entertained me whilst I expected the setting of the Sun, at what time I never failed to be in the middle of the meadow that I might consider at my ease that rich effussion of Colours which it sheds abroad at its withdrawing, and wherein the beams seem to be tempered and allayed, thereby to render themselves supportable, sweetly mollifying its lustre, if by that means it may favour the sight of the earnest beholder.  
But having but a very short time to enjoy the contentment I received every evening in admiring this faire spectacle, and viewing those precious tracks it leaveth behind in the heaven, at its farewell, together with that diversity of Colours, which are produced at the dissolution of its rays; there was no way to make me return to my lodging, but that night came on, and drawing a curtain over this glory, put a period to the magnificence of the sight which detained me abroad. And because so happy a season could not be long, I was willing to enjoy every instant; and I had so well managed the smallest parts of its stay, that I choose rather to take the coolness of the Even, then to lose the rest of the day. And as we double our embraces to persons whom wee love, when we are presently to part; and as old men more earnestly desire that life which they are now bidding adieu to: so had I the most violent passions for a Good which began to desert me, and which the near approach of the winter threatened every hour to ravish from me. When I saw it begin to approach, I was not seen any longer to follow my former kind of life, nor to do as I did heretofore many pieces of the afternoon. I was sociable but till noon, presently after I went abroad all alone, and had no patience till I came to my dear river; along which as I walked one day after my usual custom,( and it was, if I remember, the very same day that w● received the news of the surrender of Rochel) I perceive● on a sudden beyond the river I know not what yellow and blue, which appeared among the poplars, and made th● weeds to shake. Virgils Aeneid which by chance I had in my hands, and where I was reading the Apparition of tiber to Aeneas, which happened much after this manner, had so filled my spirits with the follies of Poetry, that I began to imagine that the fantasme which I discovered might be the God of our river: But I quickly corrected the extravagancy of my fancy, and saw distinctly a slaxen haired man which held toward me a blue plush bonnet: Whereat knowing that he stood in need of my charity,& the channel being not narrow enough in that place to throw him that alms I would give him, I beckoned to a Fisherman, who was spreading his nets some twenty paces from me, to go fetch him over in his boat. He was a Gentleman of Flanders who came from Spain, and though very poor and ill clad, did notwithstanding give proof he was well born, and of good education, though at present he were in very bad equipage. He  told me that coming from Loretto, he was taken by a Turkish vessel, and carried to Algiers with some other Christians; who, to save the charges which they should have made by land, hired a bark at Ancona, which was to carry them to Marseilly. He  told me a long story of his misfortunes; the bad entertainment he received from different Masters, which had bought him one from another, and the insupportable humour of the Last, who, having neither reason nor humanity, doubled all the employments of his service, and at last put him in such a condition, that being altogether unprofitable, he was constrained to leave him, for a Pistolet, to a Religious man of Mercy. He did not forget to describe to me those two terrible Prisons which are under the City of Algier, and which may very well be called the sepulchres of the living; for there they inter every night twelve thousand Slaves, and let them out in the morning, to sand them to their ordinary Labour. And certainly he did so please himself with this matter, and was so overwhelmed therewith sometimes, that I perceived very well, that his passed pains were his present contentments; and that the good which we hope for doth not more flatter our imagination, then the evil which wee have suffered contenteth our memory. I gave him then to oblige him, the most quiet and favourable hearing that he could desire from so curious an auditor: I interested myself in his disgraces by the frequent exclamations wherewith I accompanied that which he said, and suffered him to say the same thing over and over without interrupting him, that I might not seem to deprive him of that liberty, which he onely came to recover.  
Thus having long heard him with content, I as'kd him many questions for my particular satisfaction, and perhaps wearied him to answer so many interrogatories. I desired to know what policy the Moores use, what customs they observe, and to what exercises they are addicted. Amongst other things he  told me, that every Friday they made public prayers to God, to restore to them the kingdom of Granada, and cursed the memory of the last King, who could not defend it against Ferdinand. He informed me of many such particulars, which History never taught me, and though it were impossible to retain him longer then two dayes, whatever entreaty I made him, I received at my ease during that time all the profit he had drawn from a sad experience, and the multitude of his misfortunes.  
But truly that which pleased me most in his discourse, and left me fully satisfied for the chance of meeting with him, was that after I had asked him if the Moores had as much curiosity as I, or if like other barbarous people, they lived in a profound ignorance of foreign affairs; he made me answer, that there was no other discourse at this day in Affrica, but of the victories of our King, and that Rochel had been the Cause, that year, of a thousand wagers, and almost of as many quarrels; so far, that among the Slaves, a Frenchman being incensed against a Spaniard, who maintained it would never be taken, and that the King could never compass his end without the assistance of the King of spain, the Frenchman not able to endure that word, and having nothing to repulse it, made his chains serve for weapons, wherewith he strook his fellow so violently, that he stretched him stark dead at the feet of their Common Master.   


CHAP. I.  
certainly that action seemed to me so extraordinary, that if he that  told me had not assured me of the truth thereof by most great and religious oaths, I must needs protest there was too much gallantry in it to be true. But I had no reason to suspect the testimony he gave me, partly, for that it proceeded from the mouth of a Gentleman originally a Spaniard of Flanders, and consequently a Subject to the same Prince with him that was slain, as also for other sufficient considerations. I was ravished with content to see in the extreme old age of the world, and in the decay of all things, France should yet bring forth Children worthy the first vigour of their Mother. One so generous an example produced in me at the same time Love and jealousy, I was extremely moved, and said within myself; Since poor Captives, who can hardly breath under the weight of their Irons, love a Prince so dearly, who hath not delivered them from slavery; and to say truly, having neither hands nor strength, do kill the enemies of his Crown by their bare courage: Since the Slaves of Algier become the Souldiers of Lewis the Just, and those that partake not at all in his prosperity, share nevertheless in his glory; What pretence is there, that living in a Province, whereof he is more particularly the Freer then of the rest of France; and the principal fruit of his travels belonging to my country, that I should behold with an indifferent mind so many good deeds which he hath done, and secretly enjoy, without speaking a word, a lazy and stupid felicity? What show of reason is there, that living in the field of victory, and seeing nothing round about me but people ransomed, and Enemies vanquished, that the presence of so glorious an object cannot stir up my idle dulness, and furnish me with one generous thought? What colour is there, that I am not awakened at this great noise, which rising here, makes itself to be heard to the utmost parts of the earth, and that I receive no impression of a light so near and full of lustre; which spreading itself already over the Sea, shines forth even to the very Dens and Caves of the Barbarians.  
We must be more lively touched with the good fortune of the Common-wealth, and take more knowledge of our proper happiness; we must produce some act of our joy, if there be now no more time to give proofs of our courage, and give testimony that wee love the State, though we have not been in a condition to serve it. We must no longer rest in the slumber and silence of admiration; Neither ought I to be the onely mute among the acclamations of the people, nor the onely unprofitable Artisan in the preparations for this triumph.  
Yet now that I consider these things more calmly, and that I am return'd out of that ecstasy wherewith I was transported, I am afraid that the poverty of the place where I am, will not furnish me with any thing wherewith I may worthily enough take pains in so noble and glorious an employment: We have no quarries of Marble, nor mines of gold, whence I may take out those ornaments which I desire.  
The wealth of Paris is not found in our village; our Land sufficeth for necessity, but affords us no delicates. In vain also do I seek for the conversation of another, and look after the helps of conference, beholding no objects but those that speak not at all; and passing my life among dead things and inanimate. What can trees and rocks teach me? what agreement is there between Husbandry and the peacocks? whom can I consult where I find no body? Since the Court is so far distant, news grows old before it comes to our hands? Am not I one of the last to whom the renown is brought? or do I know any thing till it is published and in print. I have gained the knowledge of many things in the world no otherways. No body hath furnished me with Commentaries and instructions to supply the want of that knowledge which I have not. I walk without a guide and without company. All the advantages which another might have I am destitute of, and I protest, I am very ill provided of necessary abilities to undergo the dignity of that design I now take in hand. Yet I feel myself, as it were, compelled to venture abroad in this occasion. It is not possible for me to resist that inward motion which driveth me forward.  
I cannot hinder myself from speaking of the King and of his virtue: to cry aloud to all Princes, that this is the example which they ought to follow; to ask all people and all ages of the world, if they have ever seen any such like thing. A hermit is about to speak his advice of the most magnificent and stateliest thing in an active life. I will throw myself with my single common sense into the greatest affairs of christendom: I will cross the Se● in a wicker-boate. Wherefore I doubt not what extreme hazard I run, and how much I am in danger to be ship-wrack'd in the very Haven. My rashness cannot prove successful but by a miracle; I can only make myself remarkable by my errors: It will easily be seen by the mistakes in my writings, that I am a stranger to the world, and the inhabiter of a desert.  
Yet forasmuch as herein I exercise no civill nor military charge; I give no arrests nor lead men to war, and a private man may fail and his errors not be dangerous, I comfort myself, that mine shall no ways injure my country, and that my grossest ignorance shall not cost her the life of the most unprofitable Citizen. I utterly renounce whatever I have pretended to in the art of speaking well, to acquit me of an action of piety: my reputation is not so dear to me as my duty; and I had rather you should blame my zeal then my roughness, my violence then my lazy slackness: I aim not at glory, I only satisfy my conscience. And if it be true, that no body is more sensible of the enjoyment of rest, then he that can taste it by the rules of philosophy, which teacheth one his duty well enough, though it give nothing wherewith to be discharged of it; I should commit a fault if making profession of so noble a study, I did not rise from the effects to the Cause, and did not give in some proof of acknowledgement toward the second founder of this State; By whose benefit I live here in safety upon the borders of Charante: I consider at my ease the divers beauties of nature, and possess without trouble all the riches of the country.   

CHAP. II.  
THose formidable fortresses which hindered us from beholding the heavens; which were built with the blood and tears of our Fathers, and whose shadow was so tragical to three neighbouring Provinces, do now no more threaten our liberty. The Asylum of wicked men is fallen to the ground, there remains nothing but ruins which are shewed to passengers: The Church hath its revenge for those holy places which were beaten down, and for those Images which were broken to pieces. There is not so much as a hole or Cave for that furious beast to retire into, which broke in even to our very gates, and returned proud and fierce with the trophies of our spoils. She is now exposed to the sports and laughter of children, she is become the wonder and astonishment of the people. She hath onely her heart left to defend herself with, her teeth and nails are broken off. It was certainly no small enterprise, and which needed no less courage then that of the King: And when I consider that our own Brothers were our natural Enemies, and that there was more difference between two Frenchmen, then between a Frenchman and a Moscovite; and that now this brave Prince hath reconciled us by his victory, and we are all united in his service, I see ● Conquest which can offer itself ● his ambition, able to countervai● this he hath already obtained.  
The advantages which arise hence have very much lustre to dazzle th● eyes of the vulgar, and they hav● as much solidity to content th● judgements of the wise. The glor● which accrues to him carrieth a● much true weight as glitterin● pomp; it is the perfect Cure of th● kingdom, and no vain ornamen● to the history of our King.  
And indeed, besides that he hat● taken more towns then are in the kingdom of Naples, and sicily that he hath so often weakene● the Stranger, and so often made him return with dishonour, that he hath always made him receive losses o● affronts: Besides that he hath put a yoke upon the proudest part of Nature; that he hath planted artificial rocks in the Sea to shipwreck the Fleets of his Enemies; and that the strength of his resolution, hath surmounted the violence of the Elements and of the stars: We may further add this truth, that he hath made all the world wise, and hath got other Subjects, and another people; and that the conditions to which he hath reduced the factious, are such, that the worst they can do, is to wish ill, and to desire that the times may change.  
The Peace which he hath procured us, is certainly a more substantial and durable good then all those we have seen. It is neither the necessity of affairs, nor the wearisomeness of the war, nor the consideration of his divers events which hath obliged him to bestow it upon us; It hath flowed freely from his own good disposition, after an entire and full victory; after the last roote of evil was cut, and that things were put out of the power of Fortune. It is built upon the destruction of whatever could trouble it, and our rest is so firmly and securely established that if the admiral of— and the Marshall of— should return into the world, with all their subtleties, and cunning plots, they would not be able to give us one false alarm. We need not fear then that those great Spirits, who have kept the age in perpetual unquietness, who have raised storms in the serenity of the most halcyon dayes, and who now would remain idle knowing not how to do us hurt, have left Schollers more cunning then themselves, and more ingenuous, for the ruin of their country.  
We need not fear( as heretofore) that the discontents of some particular men should beget public miseries, nor that the first motion of their anger should be followed with the taking of towns, and the desolation of the country. All their ill humours will spend themselves for the future in their closet, and against their domestic servants: They will grow angry at less charges then they did, when there were not offices and governments enough to appease them. The State will be no more troublesone to be governed, then a well ordered house: All will obey from the children to the hirelings, and that multitude of Kings who have so long shared France, will at last be brought to the common right, and render to one that sovereignty which was divided among many.  
Who is there think you, that would add his own misfortunes to those of another, and follow the example of those men who have lost themselves, or who appear yet wet, and come forth dropping from the wrack? who can so much as dream of new stirs and tumults if he but call to mind what he hath seen, which he may hope to do if he have not altogether lost his memory? what rashness shall he be guilty of who shall place himself before that impetuous prosperity which hath master the Bearne, Guienne, Languedoc a● Dauphine? or where shall a poo● rebel hid himself, when neither on the one side, the labour of ● yeares, and the industry of all t● Mathematicians of Europe; nor, ● the other side, the Sea and Engla● were able to protect Rochel in i● disobedience? There is nothing ● strong by nature, nor of such perfection by the art of men, that can resist the presence of the King. There is no greatness but humbleth itself before his: There is not any cunningnesse of contrivance, whic● proves not weak against his prudence.  
Those places which have endured the fury of the Cannon these 1● yeares, will surrender themselves a● the first view of his summons: Two lines signed with his hand, and carried by a Lackey, will make them obey, who the other day would have required Treaties of peace, and Articles of Conference to enter with ceremony into their duty. Let him but command any one to come and render him account of his actions, he will not deliberate whether he ought to go or no, though he may very well fear the success of his journey; he will bring his head, and not sand a Declaration. Let him when ever he pleaseth release Prisoners; they are not less in his power for being at liberty, he will not disseise himself of their persons, he will onely enlarge the circuit of their prison; He will only hold them by a longer chain then formerly he did, and permitting them to live with the rest of his Subjects, he will only increase the number of their keepers; so that tortures and punishments will bee no more needful in his kingdom; Men will not make use any more of those harsh remedies which the weakness and impotency of some have put in execution, and which cannot preserve the whole without the loss of some one part. The State will maintain itself by the reputation of the Prince, and the Prince will be reverenced by his sole authority.  
I speak of that which remains for him to do in Languedoc, as of a thing already done; His fortune is too well known to us to doubt of the success of an action, which, as things now stand would be easy for an unfortunate man to compass; things would throng to be surrendered to him.  
Wise men will not search for glory in a false reputation of constancy: They will take counsel of their present condition, without remembering themselves to no purpose o● their past prosperity. They will no● stay till necessity force them to beg peace in a white sheet, and wil● choose rather to trust a word that cannot fail, then walls which may be taken. Let the worst come, he will fight against people, whom he hath been used to conquer, and being no longer upheld but with some small despair which supports them, they will presently sink under his forces, and lie prostrate before his courage and good fortune. There is no need that our heretics make any more account of Heads of Parties, of towns, nor of Assemblies, they will have nothing left them but their heresy, which being stripped naked, and despoiled of these human advantages which covered its natural deformity will every day loose its old Patriots, and get no new ones.  
Some may perhaps hold up still for commodity; and because it troubleth lazy people to remove from one place to another; yet no body will stand still to be knocked in the head, and the most obstinate will not torment themselves to dispute an unfortunate cause, so often and so solemnly lost; forsaken of God and men, M. the Mareschall of— and M. the Mareschall of— the most advised and considerable of that Sect, are inhabitants of Paris, and the King is not less assured of them then of the Provost of the Merchants. One of them is glutted with civill war; the other would never yet taste it, and both of them know well enough what slavery it is to command Rebels, amongst whom, besides that the best actions have need to be abolished, and that their victories are parricides, and that there is no hope to receive an honourable death; they can moreover neither bring nor find confidence, because it is an act of merit to deceive them, and in deserting the●● party men do their duty.   

CHAP. III.  
FOr M de— I do not believe that he is of an incurable disposition, and that he follows evil by election: The Tempest hath thrown him into the Revolt, and he knows very well, that the worst place about the King is better then the Generalship of his Army. he doth well to be active and laborious, his enterprises are like the startings of a man in a dream, he takes pains and troubleth himself to no purpose. We cannot do things in despite of heaven; he seeth a superior power, which overturns from on high all his designs, and all human prudence brought down by the force of destiny.  
Furthermore in what place soever he is, he is slave to a world of Masters, and fears as much his own side as his Enemies; his authority which hath no foundation but the passion of the Common people, is built upon the mud; it depends upon the fancy of an Artisan which believes he hath right to demand reason of whatever he doth, or leaveth undone, and to call him traitor as often as he shall be unfortunate. The firmest servant that he hath is not made trial of under a thousand crownes pension: he hath not one man under his command which yields him true obedience, and to whom he must not promise one thing to obtain another: They all generally think to be equal to him by the society of the same fault, and that every one hath an equal share in that power which belongeth lawfully to no body: So that to preserve this vain Image of a fancied command, he must govern them with dishonest arts, and at first must allow of licence even against his own person.  
He must be the Flatterer and corrupter of his own Army, and must every day invent news to entertain their hopes; He must compose Prophesies to amuse the credulous, and assure them that the Casimirs shall pass the loire, and overrun France once more with their Lansquenets and Reisters. And after this he must counterfeit letters from Bethlem Gabor, signifying that the turk is making hast towards them, because England and Germany have failed; and in the very apprehension of his approaching ruin, and amid all the horrors of desperation, he must have all the countenances and appearances of a contented man. In the mean time I am confident for these two yeares he hath received no other joys but those which miserable men feel between their sentence and execution. The bad dayes that he spends are not followed with better nights; and if he would take any rest, in the mean time his imagination which wakeneth, represents to him a mutiny in the camp, or a sedition in the City, which seizeth him to make their peace more advantageous, or one of his own who holds a poniard at his breast, or the angry incensed countenance of his Master, who reproacheth him with his Felony, and at last abandons him to the ordinary course of Justice. Certainly if one could see the torments and Agitations of his poor soul, I doubt not but it would move him to compassion.  
Wee have not one Voluntiere in all our troops who would change conditions with this unfortunate general; and who understands not in this sense the words which Homer speaks to his Achilles, That those who obey in this world are better then those that command in hell.  
It is no hard matter then to believe, if he were to begin again but he would prefer a voluntary banishment before the condition of being head of a party, and that now looking at the future, which presents nothing but what is sad and tragical, he already envieth the prisoners of Bois de Vincennes which expect at least in rest the mercy of the King. He looketh on all sides how he may get out of this confusion of various misfortunes, and seeketh for a passage to return to his duty: But there are no degrees in a precipice; We never see them go up again who have thrown themselves down thence, and there is no less danger for a man to be discharged of Tyranny, then there was to begin it. Phalaris was ready to desert it, but he demanded a God for Caution, who should bee responsible for his life, if he despoiled himself of his authority. And it hath ever been a common opinion that those that have taken up arms against their Country or their Prince, are in some sort reduced to a necessity to do ill, by reason of the little security they can find in doing well: They dare not become innocent for fear of putting themselves to the mercy of the laws which they have offended, and do continue their faults, because they conceive no body is satisfied with their repentance. Yet the goodness of the King may assure the spirits whom these maxims would have affrighted; It is not subject to the rules of vulgar policy, and is in a condition to sweeten, and change them at his pleasure.  
The rigour and courtesy which is used in the uncertainty of events, and in the violence of doing ill, are the effects rather of necessity then of virtue. There are, to speak truly, honest and specious fears which give testimony that we would not have powerful enemies, when wee do the worst we can to ours; and when we deal gently with them, that we expect also like entertainment: But the continual prosperity of the King, leaves no place for such thoughts, it taketh away all suspicion of hypocrisy from his virtue, and leaveth it to his choice to use justice or mercy as seemeth him best. He onely can recover M. de— from the extremity he is fallen into, and afford him a means, how he may purchase a glorious death in some foreign occasion, which looketh at his service, or to pass a quiet old age in the feasts and triumphs of the Court. His hands are not shortened since his last deeds of clemency. And if they extend themselves towards one that sinneth with remorse; who hath not forgotten his name nor his birth, and who certainly deserves to be preserved; Men will praise him every where, for that after he hath suppres'd the pride of the Rebels, he doth not quarrel with the misfortune of the afflicted.  
I dare not say that the Authors of the revolt who have denied their Prince, and would sell their country to a stranger, ought to receive so favourable an entertainment, or that there should fail to be some example to appease the souls of the dead, and to give satisfaction to the public.  
The King nevertheless can do herein that which no body can ask him a reason of; and the sweetness of his disposition hath oftentimes corrected the severity of the office he dischargeth: But when he would be liberal of his injuries, in pardoning those who have so sensibly offended him, what should they do with that Grace, which they cannot possibly enjoy, in the midst of a provoked Nation? What use could they make of liberty if it were more dangerous to them then a prison? Or what good were it to escape the Justice of the Parliament to be exposed to the vengeance of the people? They are so odious in the whole kingdom, that they can onely go abroad in the night. The most tenderest natures are not touched with their disgraces, and though it be the nature of misfortune to move compassion in those that behold it, they are hated as if they were not at all miserable.  
It comes into mens minds that they have always kindled those combustions which we have seen; that they have been the first perjured, and the first breakers of the public faith, that they raised commotions when trouble itself was at rest, and have advanced the insurrection of their party by the impatiency of their own Rebellion; It will be remembered, how in a full peace they they were the pirates of our Seas, and the violators of the freedom of our Havens; That they opposed themselves to the greatness of France; That they envied the glory of the King, and averted his inclination from a noble enterprise out of this kingdom, by domestic hindrances which they raised within. We know that they have divided Kings, and broken the Alliances of the Crown; That their seditious speeches have spread the fire, and blown it on all sides; That they endeavoured to stir up all Europe against their Country; That they have been at the end of the world to seek enemies for us; and have made so small account of the name of France, that they were not ashamed to wait the rising of a favourite of England, and to bow the knee before a foreign power. The Rebels abroad do look upon them as the evil Angels which tempted them, and inspired them with the first fury of Arms, which have succeeded so unluckily.  
It is very true that they pressed the succours which came to them, and have made use of our Neighbours with affection and care; But they have not been so good Conductors of their Troops, as good solicitors of their affairs; and after they had prepared the War and engaged Souldiers, they have for the most part always contented themselves to give bold counsels, and to deliberate courageously; Thus they have thrust those upon dangers whom they should have lead thither; who reproach them continually with their wounds and their losses, and believe they commit a crime to live after the ruin of their Party.  
They are in no better esteem among strangers, and if it were possible to gather the voices of all people together, they would be condemned by the Common Jury of mankind, and driven from all the Sanctuaries of the earth.   

CHAP. IV.  
NOw without doubt, as I conceive, the extreme hatred which is born them comes from the extreme love men have to the King. The injuries which are done to a just Prince excite universal resentments, and appertain to the whole Common-wealth. Every man is a soldier against the Enemies of most excellent virtue; there is none so uninteressed whom it doth not engage into her party; none so could, in whom she doth not move passion; nor so contrary that she changeth not: In what place soever she sheweth herself, she gains esteem, which is the foundation of authority; afterward she produceth more pleasant and tender longings, and never leaveth, those that she combats and pursues the liberty not to love her. Wee see the inhabitants of sacked Cities, reverencing the virtue of their destroyers; who bless the thunder that smote them, and aclowledge that the war which was made against them, was neither any headlong motion of anger, nor any effect of an evil will towards them; but a necessary conclusion of all the principles of wisdom, and the only remedy which could put them in a better condition: They confess they enjoy in the loss of Rochel that security which they could not find in her prodigious fortifications, and complain no more of their fall since they lie in the bosom of their Father. They make it not strange to protest that they are obliged to the victory of the King for their peace and tranquillity, who hath given them leisure to attend their particular employments, in discharging them of those of their party: And since neither their life, their liberty, nor their fortune was touched, in ridding them of those places which did not belong to them, they are freed from nothing but cares, unquietnesses and troubles.  
As the most impetuous and coldest winds grow mild and gentle sometimes passing thorough a temperate region: so the most severe and harshest actions retain something of the quality of the person that undertakes them, and loose some part of their sharpness and austerity in the managing of so prudent and well advised a Prince; The King hath handled this matter with so much discretion, that in doing justice he received praises from the mouths of the guilty; and hath carried his resentment to a full satisfaction of the offence which he had received, without an● bitterness in his proceeding, or motion in his mind. He acted no mo● then the laws, which ordain tortures and punishments without being at all in anger, and are never passionate, though they may be hars● and inflexible.  
All the world admired the subtlety of that hand which at the same time saved the body and slay the Serpent twisted about it; who hath innocently employed the sword, and the fire, rigour and vengeance; wh● hath exercised so charitable an hostility, that the vanquished do at thi● day give thanks to the victor. He● enjoyeth therefore by good right th● favour of the Universe, and the goo● will of both sides: In so just an affection the Hugenote is a rival with the catholic; all France is equally in love with her King: And though in parting so far from her he hath left her peace and other precious engagements; Though he acquires no glory but only for her, and every day sends home Trophies of honour, yet she cannot comfort her self with his absence, who hath placed her in so high a degree of reputation in separating her from him. She envies the good fortune of his Enemies, who at least behold that face which makes them tremble, and enjoy that light which dazzleth them.  
Our eyes which are never satisfied with the same objects, but would always have change of beauties, and which are sometimes troubled at the day, and light itself, are never weary in looking upon our Prince. When he hath passed one street, the people run to another to have a second sight of him; and yet it is not the external form which we so earnestly follow after, though Philosophers esteem it the third part of the supreme good. Our affection is more spiritual, and more remote from sense; we are attracted by a far nobler force: I have already said that he hath gained us by his merit: By this he reign in the hearts of his Subjects, and consequently possesseth the place of the truest affections, that where me bestow their wives and children, and other things which are dear unto them; The place which hath resisted the power of conquerors, which hath held out against Caesar, which is shut to those to whom the gates of Castles stand open, which retaineth its liberty when Tyranny overwhelmes the whole earth.  
Certainly if people have some times had violent passions for those Princes whom they could never know, and who had done them neither good nor hurt: If Rome idolized young Marcellus who yet shewed forth only some signs and presages of a future greatness, and which was extinguished as soon as it began to shine.  
If for this end he were the short and unhappy loves of the people of Rome, who bewailed his death most bitterly, and was extremely afflicted for losing only that which they hoped to enjoy, that is to say, for losing what they never had; it would be a shane if benefits already received should find less acknowledgement then such as are in a possibility of being received; That wee should make less reckoning of a true and real possession, then others have of an imaginary and desired one. That Rome admired the buds and blossoms of an inclination to good, and France not be ravished to gather the fruit of a ripe and consummated virtue.  
It would be a great injustice if a Prince who hath conquered and traveled so much for us, have not been able to make himself acceptable by his pains and victories; if Crowns and acclamations should be wanting to him after the safety of the State, and quiet of the Church which he hath procured, and if perfect obligations should produce but ordinary and vulgar resentments.   

CHAP. V.  
I Suppose no body will accuse me for playing the orator, or being willing to aggravate small things. I offend rather in defect then excess, and am farther from extremes which they lash into who abuse their wit, then from that lowness which they fall into who have none at all. My design is neither to gain belief to a falsehood, nor to bring blandishments to a truth: We live not under those unfortunate reigns where to speak well of their Master it is necessary to speak improperly; and to call every thing by another name.  
In those times when a Prince exercised great cruelties, they said he made great examples; he received thanks for all actions for which he deserved blame: When he paid Tribute to his Enemies they would persuade him that he gave pensions to his neighbours, and changed an effect of bondage into a mark of superiority. They praised his valour for having once put his horse into a rage, or seeming to sign with regret a treaty of peace.  
There was no flight so shameful but had the reputation of an honourable retreat: They called him lion whom they durst not call wolf, and generally turned all words from their true and ancient signification, that so they might disguise all things. An Emperour hath triumphed over the Ocean for having lead an Army from Rome to Calais, and for being content, having looked upon the Sea, to make his Souldiers gather Cockles upon the shore.  
There have been who have tied to their closets of gold white men whom they had blacked over, without taking pains to go and conque● Ethiopia: others have clothed romans in the habit of Persians● make a show of Prisoners from tho● Provinces which they never vanquished: and all sorts have not wanted orators who have conjured them in the name of the public, not to hazard their Persons any more is so dangerous occasions, and to use their courage for the future, with more staidness and moderation Flattery hath given majesty t● those sovereigns that would hav● had much ado to find their State i● the Map: It blesseth the unjust dominions, and makes vows for th● prosperity of the wicked: It buildeth Temples to those who have no● deserved sepulchres; and they flatter their memory when they can n● longer flatter their Persons. On● swears that he saw Romulus ascen● into heaven armed at all points, an● that he commanded him to go an● give the Senate notice thereof.  
Claudius the weak, is made a God, as well as Augustus the wise; one and the same authority halloweth their ashes and designs them celestial honours: Priests are ordained, Incense burnt, Sacrifices offered to the soul of a dull stupid Emperour; to him, who in the judgement of his own mother, was but the abortive beginning of a man.  
There is not at this day any Prince so mean, in whom the prophesy of the ruin of the turk must not be fulfilled, if we must believe some paltry book which hath been made in favour thereof. There have ever been in Courts Idols and Idolaters; There hath been laziness where ever there hath been Tyranny: authority, though never so unjust and odious, hath at all times been adored; But observe also it hath been by Persons who were fearful, or had need of it; who were either Subjects, or dependents; For else these forced honours have lasted no longer then their slavery, and have been payed only there, where it was dangerous to withhold them.  
The first beam of Liberty hath laid the foundation of all Statua● which have been erected to wicked Princes. That ambitious man who had filled the capital City of Greece with his own, outlived all those faire Monuments of his vanity, and had the grief, before he dyed, to see them made utensiles for a kitchen. In many places, at the same time when they cry, God save the King, they wish him dead. Oftentimes they mock that privately, which they admired in public, and strangers have given the lie to those Histories which domestics have published.  
Being to speak of the King, we shall not run this fortune; the Escuriall valves him as much as the Lovire. His reputation obtains reverence afar off, as well as near: He is praised even in the Closet of his Enemies; and this voice is heard loud enough among our neighbours: Who can resist us if we have so brave a Master? So that I speak nothing that's new to any, nothing but what is confirmed upon common reputation, which the Germans and the Spaniards will say, as well as I. It is no elegy nor Panogyrick which I writ; It is a testimony which I pay this Age and posterity. It is a Confession which the right of Nations, and universal Justice will extort from the mouths of all men: Even those men who are separated from us the breadth of the Sea, who behold another day and other stars, are not ignorant of this truth, and are astonished, that there is in Europe something more excellent and more perfect then the power that they obey.  
I am not troubled to enlarge the subject of my discourse; it is so diffused and vast, that I know not where to bestow that which remains: I leave much more then ● take, and find fewer words the● things.  
This encounter at once discover the barrenness of my wit, the poverty of my language, the weakness● of my rhetoric; It is a Scienc● which hath deceived me, and from whence I expected greater helps. Its liveliest Colours are too dull to represent so glorious and bright a life as that of the Kings: Its stronges● Figures can but slowly follow, and at a distance, the progress of so active a courage; All terms are inferiou● to his actions, and therefore let ● aclowledge the advantage whic● our matter hath, as well over o● understanding, as our art. They bestow blandishments upon others, b● we must take away some from hence and endeavour not to spoil tha● which cannot possibly be adorned.   

CHAP. VI.  
I Will not prevent the judgement of the Church, nor answer for a virtue, which God hath not yet rewarded with the felicities of another life. I only say, there is no body in the world that knoweth that the King sins, and the boldest and most unjust reproach, which can be fastened upon holy things, can find nothing to object against his actions, with any colour.  
Are there any children that complain that the Prince is heir to their fathers? Are there any Fathers who beg for those children which the Prince hath ravished from them, and who weep over them before they are dead? Where is that beauty which he permits not to be chast? where are the Ministers of his cruelty and of his pleasure? In what place hath he  shed one drop of innocent blood? where are the cries and groans heard of those families which he hath mad● desolate? show me at last but ot● mark by which Posterity may kno● that he was young. When you● and power meet together, they ar● capable of producing strange effects even to set the whole world in ● combustion: It is a Conjunctio● much like that in the heavens, whe● two stars equally malignant meet ● and if the violence which ordinarily accompanieth this age, is not ●●●portable in a private condition, though the fear of the laws restra● it, and though it be bound in wit● a thousand chains; I leave you t● think what it may do being arme● with the forces of a great kingdom, having Magistrates and Justice at its feet, and finding no hindrance for its desires, nor limits to its power.  
Behold yet a man, who in the flower of his age, and in a sovereign fortune, allows his passions no more liberty then what wisdom ordains, and shuts up from them that large passage which majesty sets open. Behold a man who can abstain in the midst of plenty, and when he hath an appetite; who by his virtue knows how to set bounds to a power which hath none at all; and though a Prince, leads a more modest and regular life then the meanest Citizen in the smallest republic! Behold under the laws and in his Duty, him, who seeth nothing but Heaven above him, who can sin against none but God onely; Who wears a Crown as Independent as any in the world can be; and f r whom, the Church, which spends her thunders upon all others heads, hath nothing but blessings and graces: He, I say, pays so perfect an obedience to reason; and manageth his actions with so exact an honesty, that I seem, in stead of the King of France, to see the King of lacedaemon, who had no other advantage above his Subjects, but that he was suffered to be more valiant, and to commit fewer faults.  
I wonder not that sin is so little known in Villages, and that men preserve their innocence where it is hard to lose it. That man is very unfortunate that drowns himself where there is scarce water enough to quench his thirst; and who falls down when no body pusheth him. But when al the powers of hell rise up at once to assault him; when his eyes, his ears, and all the other inlets of his heart are besieged, and that the enemy seeks to enter at every gate, he doth certainly, as it were, more then he ought, if he withstand such violent onsets, and resist so many assailants.  
When pleasant objects press him and pursue him on all sides, and the end of the fairest things is to render themselves worthy of his love. When the sparkling of Diamonds kindles in his soul a desire to have them, and the bigness of the Jewel sets him a lingering after it; and for the small account he makes of wronged majesty, all that is anothers may presently become his. When Fortune her self opens him a passage to the conquest of the Universe, and disposeth all things so for him, that for all the pain of the execution she leaveth him only the glory of the success; when it depends only upon himself that he turns not his Neighbour out of house and home, and that within fifteen daies he removes not the Frontiers of his State fifty leagues: He must needs love virtue very well who will not forsake her, in an encounter where 'vice offereth so large a reward, if he will follow her, and when he hath great pretences in another world, to contemn the blessings and hopes of this here.  
philosophy, though never so presumptuous, hath not been able to arrive thus far, and whatever vanity she boasts of; She promiseth much but often breaketh her word. She hath courage enough to aspire t● perfection, but wanteth ability t● compass it; This force is prop● and particular to the faithful, wh● can do all in Him that helpeth them It is nothing but the Morality of Jesus Christ which can form so excellent an habit; and it is This which raiseth the King so much above the great ones of the world and placeth him so near the beginning of all greatness; that though apparently there be nothing more eminent then sovereignty, yet he must descend from a higher place, and debase himself as often as he will sit upon the Throne of his Fathers, and communicate with mortals. He already beholds the earth as those that look down upon it from Heaven; Nothing appear great to him in so small a space: He finds nothing worthy whereon to rest his thoughts, or to take up his desires: All that it contains will but half fill him; The only enjoyment of God is capable to satisfy so large a heart; which so is it, to say no more, his love and Ambition, his part and inheritance. The People and States which he governs are but consequences to this, and Accessories.  
That which takes pleasure to crown shepherds, and to put Kings in chains,( which is equally cursed and adored in the world;) Fortune I mean, causeth all her disorders below him, and is too weak to attach his constancy, too poor to tempt his moderation. He knows no prosperous, or ill fortune, but a good and bad conscience. He is much more glorious by his baptism then his Coronation, and valves more the least privilege of Grace, then all the advantages of Nature. Never was any mind better persuaded of what we expect hereafter, then his; nor ever did any receive more lively impressions of Truth, or think higher of the dignity of Christianity, or exhibit fairer and more glorious demonstrations of h●s belief.   

CHAP. VII.  
LEt no man talk to me of that dull imitation of Piety which only looks for Spectators; which amuseth the world with countenances, and busieth itself rather to order the motions of the head, and to appear in certain postures of the face, then to regulate the affections of the soul: This is a mere action of the body, and of very easy performance; the greatest dissability is corrected at the first trial; There needeth neither strength nor industry, and requires no more pains then those easy sports which recreate without wearying, and are learnt without a Master.  
It is a kind of laziness disguised under an honester name then its own; or at most, but a faint and idle employment, which a man may very worthily discharge, when he can do nothing, and which is wholly taken up either in mumbling some confused words, or in a mere moving of the lips, or lastly in a soft glance of the eyes after a counterfeited sadness.  
There is another kind of false Devotion more dangerous then this; I mean that fearful trembling devotion, which imagines that God is busied in his Blessed rest, only to prepare pain and punishments for him; and that he afflicts kingdoms and sends pestilence and famines, only for the hatred he bears them. Visions go forth as in a throng of his troubled imagination, which afterward come before him as so many strange and unknown Monsters.  
There passeth no night but the Ghosts of dead men appear unto him, with strange shapes and fearful attendance, which his fancy bestows upon them. He never hears a cry in the night but he believes it to be the complaint of a departed soul; If he see one part of the air blacker and more thick then another, he presently conceives it a phantasm. All maladies are with him Possessions, and where there is need only of a physician, he makes use of Exorcists.  
This so weakens the spirit and abates the courage, that those that are smitten with it, dare not enjoy themselves in time of peace, nor defend themselves in the necessity of war. One foolish dream is enough to make them desist from a good design; of five dayes they reckon four unlucky, and make choice of those houres and moments, which they have marked with white, before they undertake any the least business; so that oftentimes the opportunity slips over before they have fixed their resolution. They are half-overcome at the croaking of a Raven, or at the meeting of a Weezell, and they so fond cherish their error, that to keep up the credit of their opinion, they will rather deliver themselves to their Enemies, then suffer one omen to prove false.  
These men adore all their suspicions, and their doubts; They make Saints by their own private authority, without tarrying till they are dead, or for the Oracle of the supreme Bishop. They give Divine honours to those that are yet subject to human infirmities; who are liable to the inquisition, and know not whether they are worthy of love or of hatred; yet these superst●tious ones canonize them in their hearts, in despite of Rome and the Consistory; and passing from an extreme fear to an extreme rashness, and from the despair of their own salvation to the distribution of glory to another, they address their vows to them, and pray unto them as if already they were in a state to hear their petitions, and being guilty themselves could notwithstanding pardon their companions.  
After this the grossest and the fullest bodies appear to them transparent and full of light; There's not a hair of the head which they reverence, but seems to them a ray of its Crown; They think that to be a Saint in an ecstasy, which is but a woman in a swoon: They swear that they have revelations of things to come, and yet they scarce know the ordinary news of the time when one hath  told them. In their opinion, it is as easy to raise a dead man, as to awaken one asleep.  
If you will believe them, the world is continually troubled with prodigies, and they can more easily persuade themselves, that something happens contrary to the ordinary course of nature, then that he that relates it should be a liar. The calmest fits of so troublesone a malady are not without much extravagancy. There are who to mary more Christianly, have taken wives out of the stews, that so( as they say) they may gain souls to our Lord.  
Some being to receive money which was due to them, have been scrupulous to receive it in Jacobissis, because they come from an excommunicated country: Others have confessed they served the State in its troubles, and yet were not of the league; And I know some who believe, they are bound in conscience to betray their country, and give advice to the contrary Party, because the holy scripture hath commanded them to do good to their Enemies.   

CHAP. VIII.  
YEt the most of these contain themselves within the bounds of an innocent folly; their will is entire, though their judgement be corrupted: They are deceived by some shadow and Image of Religion which is presented to them, but they make not use of Religion to deceive others; nor subject to their particular designs that which ought to be the Queen and mistress of all human things. We see then Cheaters in the world, who appear to be what they are not, and praise justice that they may be more unjust afterwards. There are Pharisees who make clean the outside of the cup, being full of rapine and filth within; who build the sepulchers of the Prophets, and erect Monuments of Saints, whom they are still ready to kill, if they should return into the world again to tell them the Truth, and reprove their wicked life. The judgement which is made of the goodness of things by their mere outside and external appearance, is not always infallible: Sometimes a lie is more likely then Truth, and wickedness makes a fairer show then goodness itself. No man doubts but that it is a work of mercy to redeem prisoners, to pay the debts of miserable men, to distribute corn to the people in time of dearth; and yet in well-ordered Common-wealths, men have been punished for exercising such works of mercy, and many wicked Citizens have by this means made themselves Tyrants.  
How many false Philosophers have there been, who under an austere visage have concealed most inordinate affections; who have despised glory out of pride not humility; who have professed poverty to make Princes reverence them. In the scrip of that famous cynic who lived in the dayes of Lucian, where one would have thought there was nothing but beans and course bread, were found a bale of Dice, a box of Perfumes, and the portraiture of a woman. He that you think is fled into the wilderness to be at leisure to contemplate, with less disturbance, is gone thither, perhaps, to make false money with more security.  
We have heard of a Prince who retired himself very orderly every holiday into religious houses, and there, while people thought that he examined his conscience and performed other spiritual exercises, he was taken many times making dispatches, and entertaining secret audiences. Do not trust a feigned humility, not the evil deportment of that director of consciences, who always seems prepared to die; for within he is clothed with purple; he hath the ambition of four Kings; he hath designs for another age. But above all, defy those workers of iniquity, powerful in malice, who lift up polluted hands to Heaven, and are not afraid to approach our our most sacred mysteries being yet bloody with their parricides.  
They are cruel, Incestuous, Sacrilegious, and yet cease not to be devout: Their devotion corrects their gestures, reforms their hair, but doth not at all touch their passions, nor meddle with their vices. They make it all their virtue to praise catholics and speak evil of Hugenotes: Oh what great exploits would they do in a massacre, and how valiant would they be against men asleep, and invited to a marriage.  
Their zeal, which according to the meaning of the Holy Ghost, ought to devour themselves, devoureth their Neighbour, and burneth Towns and Provinces; They gain nothing by frequenting holy things, but the contempt which grows from familiarity,& the custom to violate them. They became more bold to commit wickedness, and not at all more honest, they lose the scruple, and leave not the sin; so that we may believe they come not so much to Church to ask pardon for their faults, as leave to commit more, and to sin with authority.  
And as some of the Primitive Christians made nothing of it to drink overmuch, sitting upon the Tombs of the Martyrs; they fancy also, that all wickedness is permitted them, provided they retain some show of piety,  
The most part of great men have always had this specious devotion; and though it be a usual vizard, and known to every one, yet they cease not to make use of it, thereby to abuse the people.  
Do we not know those that mingle God among their passions, who engage him in their Interests, and employ him upon all occasions? If they usurp a Kingdom, over which they have no right but that of conveniency or force, they say it is to hinder the Enemies of the Church from seizing upon it, and to prevent an evil, which possibly would never fall out.  
If their Avarice makes them cross the Seas, and run to the worlds end, they publish, it is for the good of souls, and the desire they have to save Infidels, that draws them thither; and yet it is very true, that the charity of these good Christians, carries them only to those Countries where the Sun warms the earth into gold; and is not at all employed towards the furthest part of the North, where are souls enough to be converted, but where they can only get frost and Snow. They are solicitous only for the salvation of the people of Peru and Mexica, and being arrived thither, they speak so little to them of our faith, and sell a confused and imperfect picture at so dear a rate, that it is easy to see, the pretence which they make is not the cause of their voyage; At their first landing, they lad their vessels with all sort of riches which the country affords, and spend whole ages to seek more which are hide in Mines, insomuch, that there scarce comes one pistol into Europe, which doth not cost the life of an Indian, and is not the sin of a catholic. In the mean time, they suffer ancient divinity to cry in the schools and Pulpits, where she is listened to only by women and children. She saith sufficiently, that the least evil is forbidden, though it produce never so great a good. That if the world cannot be preserved without a sin, let it perish: That it is not for us to trouble the course of Providence, and to interest ourselves in things above: That God hath put in our hands his Commandements, and not the guidance of the Universe; and bids us do our Duty, and let God alone with his own work.  
There is sprung up since, another Divinity more sweet and pleasant, which can better fit itself to the humour of great ones, which accommodates all these maxims to their Intentions, and is not rude and uncivil as that former.  
The Court hath brought forth some Doctors, who have found out the means, to make 'vice agree with virtue, and to unite extremes so far opposite. They allow expediences for those who have taken other folks goods, for a power to keep them with a safe conscience. They teach Princes to enterprise upon the life of other Princes, after they have declared them heretics in their Closet. They teach them to shorten wars, which they apprehended long and chargeable, by Assassinats, where they hazard only the person of a traitor, and to discharge themselves of their children without any legal proceeding, provided it be with the consent of their confessor.  
Besides, as if our Lord were mercenary, and would be corrupted with gifts: as if he were the Pagans Jupiter, whom they call to share in their spoils and Booties; after a number of infinite crimes whereof they are guilty, they require of them neither tears, restitution, nor pennance; It is enough that they bestow some small alms upon the Church. They compound with them for that which they have taken from a thousand persons, for a small part which they give to others to whom they owe nothing: And they are made believe, that the Foundation of a Convent, or the guilding of a chapel, dispenseth with them for all obligations of christianity, and all virtues of morality.   

CHAP. IX.  
WE have a Prince who doth not make use of these Guides for the direction of his conscience, and who derives from a better fountain the maxims by which he governs. He would not behold with so evil eyes those men that should come purposely to poiso● him, as such Doctors, who would corrupt him with their breath; and he would with more patience suffer in his Court Jews and Magicians, that is to say, declared Enemies to the truth, then those servants, who wear the Livery of Iesus Christ, and are at his wages for no other end but to betray him. But what need is there of a pleasing divinity, when it doth nothing but what the severest enjoins him to? To what use are the sellers of paint and plasters, since he hath no spot to cover, nor deformity to disguise? Or what pleasure can he take in the wrangling of three or four Sophisters among the applaudings of the people, and the praises of renown?  
Knowing that our Religion commands us to abstain from all appearance of evil, and to do that which is good, not only before God, but also before men; he contents not himself with a secret piety, and bare worship of the spirit, but believeth, that he is bound to give something to the eyes of the world, and hath a care by his example to edify his people.  
The least Ceremonies which respect divine worship, he esteems highly of: he mingles his voice, sometimes, with the public prayers, and is mindful of the Speech of a King, like himself: I am weary of crying, I am hoarse, mine eyes fail for crying, and looking after my God.  
Yet this devotion hath always more substance then show, and is like those Trees whose roots are longer then their branches: It is not bodily, nor tied to sensible objects: It hath its seat in the understanding which is perfectly enlightened, which hath no mean belief concerning the things of heaven; nor hath any, but most found and reasonable opinions of this first and excellent cause, of which most men make such rash and precipitated judgments.  
But because this quality would be, as it were, dead, and of no use, if it came not from the highest region of the soul, where the discourse and the understanding are formed, and seeing it must equally reside in the second part, where the affections and the desires receive their birth; he maketh it descend from the head to the heart, that that which was light, may become fire, and that so high and elevated a knowledge, which ought to be fertile in great operations, and issueth forth by admirable effects, may not be terminated in itself, nor rest in the idle desires of a bare speculation.  
Let us not therefore consider it only at the Altar, and in the Oratory, where without any danger it treateth with God, and exerciseth a peaceable intercourse, which no body can disturb: for it is found in the occasions of war as well as there. It appears in the head of our Troops, it goes into the Trenches; and exposeth to all the injuries of the time, to all the ambushments of fortune, the most precious life which is this day in the world. It is not employed only to the structure and garnishing of some stones, but it fasteneth the Altars, and assures the foundations of the Church: It provideth English cloth, which he fills with store of Converts, who, to become good, had need to have the power of doing ill taken from them.  
These are the effects of his devotion, which is active, and taketh pains without rest, and thereby prevails with the Lord of Hosts, for victories full of wonders, as well upon the earth, as upon the Sea. And it is so, as I conceive, that God will be prayed unto in the time of war. Who refuseth nothing in these occasions to earnest and stirring men, and heareth much more willingly, the courageous then the lazy; and those who set themselves forward for his graces, and are prepared to receive them, then those who expect them at their lodging, without putting themselves in any condition to deserve them.  
That Regiment of Christians, who in the time of Marcus Aurelius, and under his Banners, caused thunder to fall from heaven upon their enemies from, whence they merited the name of the Thundering Legion, did not obtain so marvelous a success with their arms a cross, but in the pursuit of a fierce and bold assault, and fighting on all sides.  
And when the winds and the hail armed themselves at the prayer of the Emperour Theodosius, against the Tyrant Eugenes, it was a prayer which he made on horseback, after he had performed the duty of a good Captain, and rendered himself worthy so great a miracle: For otherwise to desire of God to favour the unworthy, and that he should bestow upon the cowardly and fearful, the recompense which is due to labour and valour, would be to make use of him indiscreetly, and to solicit him to injustice.  
It is necessary therefore, that a Prince be devout in this first kind, and as the King was at the fight of Ree, in the defeat of the English. He could not produce a more eminent act of piety; and if it be inferior to that of Martyrs, which I can hardly confess, it is only in one degree, because in the humility of Christianity, suffering is more esteemed, then doing.  
But be it as it will, this victorious Devotion is such, that it hath gained our Kings the name of Most Christian, which was unknown before them, and which must be expressed against the use of all languages, for an honour to their victories and their zeal.  
The same Devotion hath received these Testimonies from the mouth of the supreme Bishops; That God made use of the Kings of France, as of his principal forces, and as an invincible Bulwark to defend the Christian republic: That their kingdom was his Quiver, from whence he drew all his arrows with which he shoots against Tyrants. The same at this day deserves the same eulogies,& carries the King to such high enterprises, that they cannot be drawn into example; And besides, the valour which is born with him, and which he hath gained by reason, a third kind of courage doth inspire him, which is a species of Divine fury, with which the Orthodox Princes have heretofore been agitated, when their bare presence hath put Armies to flight, and the Enemies have discovered something extraordinary in their faces, which they durst not resist.  
As it is not always a mere exhalation lifted up from the earth which causeth strange and fearful fires; which far exceed the material and Elementary one: But they are often the effects of Spirits which enter into natural causes: So sometimes into human actions there descends a beam of Divinity, which enforceth and perfecteth them, extending their power and virtue almost to infiniteness, which draws after it the astonishment and admiration of the people.  
And if it be true that the innocence which our first Father lost, stamped upon him a character of Authority, which the wild beasts acknowledged, and which made him be reverenced of what was most cruel and terrible in nature; I wonder not that a man, who by his virtue seemeth to have recovered this original and ancient righteousness, have an advantage over other men, and that for the most part he finds submission where wicked men meet with resistance. I wonder not, that having a mind voided of all remorse and tears which accompany sin, he is extremely valiant; and feeling neither trouble nor disorder in himself, which makes a diversion of his thoughts, he fight with more liberty then sinners, who are wearied and hurried w●th an internal and secret war, when they march against their enemies. A troubled conscience presumes cruel things: Malice is fearful, and given to a man for condemnation; and therefore a Prince, who hath none but holy intentions, can have none but good hopes: Enterprises of the greatest danger are of no difficulty with him. He goeth with a firm belief, that what was not esteemed feasible by his Predecessors, is reserved for his piety, and he is never in pain for the uncertainty of the event, because he is not engaged upon the faith of an almanac, and the propositions of an Astrologer, but he follows the Inspirations of the God of Christians, who in the same place where he is called wonderful, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, is also called, The counsellor. He rests himself upon his word that cannot lie, and who hath promised those that serve him, to assist them visibly with his Angels. To go himself in person to be their sword and buckler, to hid them in his Tabernacle in the time of adversity, and to preserve them in the secret place of his pavilion, to sand his fear before them, and to affrighten all people against whom they shall come; to drive out Nations before them, and to divide the Land to them for an Inheritance. But let the worst come, when these temporal promises shall not be punctually performed, and that good success shall not of necessity follow a good cause: When the Just shall not flourish as the engraff, nor be lifted up as the Cedar in Libanus; it is impossible that a religious Prince should fear death, beyond which he seeth so great rewards which attend him; and that he should be loathe to leave a kingdom enclosed between the Alps and the Pyrencan hills to go and take possession of another kingdom which hath no bounds nor limits.   

CHAP. X.  
THe Piety of the King is eminently shown in that generous contempt which he makes of the most terrible of all terrible things. But universally it appears in all kind of good works, which are the true and essential works of Christian Discipline; for it is most certain, that without them Faith is not recompensed with happiness. The knowledge of heavenly things doth not merit Heaven; Prayer is but a mere noise; and Sacrifices no other then murders. And indeed, though in Exodus they are called, more then once, the meat and nourishment of the Lord; yet for the reason I have alleged, it is written in other places: The Sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord; He which offereth a Sacrifice of the substance of the poor, is as if he sacrificed a Son in the presence of his Father: God receiveth not wicked gifts, and the offerings of sin. He protesteth to Believers, That he knoweth not what to do with the multitude of their Oblations; That he is full; That he desires not the fat and the blood of Beasts; That Incense is an abomination to him; That he cannot abide their new-Moons, nor their Sabbaths, nor their other Feasts: That his soul hateth their new-Moons, and their Solemn Assemblies; That they are a burden to him, that he cannot away with them: That he will not hear them when they multiply many prayers, because their hands are full of blood, that when they stretch them out towards him, he will turn his face from them. Moreover as, in the Law, he did not receive for an offering neither the price of a dog, nor the hire of an harlot; so under the Gospel he desires that Alms be given of those things which are lawfully gotten. He will have the Piety of Christians active, their simplicity advised, their wisdom befiting; and admonisheth us in express terms, that we shall know his by their fruits, And that men do not gather grapes of thorns, nor ●igs of thistles. Think you, if grief could enter into Heaven, and if the blessed spirits who inhabit there, had carried their passions with them, it would not grieve them, that there is so much Ceremony spent in celebrating their Festivals, and so little care taken in imitating their virtues. And can you imagine that the Holy of Holies would have a better devotion from us, then that which brings us nearest to him by the exercise of honest things? Or that he hath any more pleasant object, when he looks down upon earth, then to consider the progress which the King makes in the design he hath to follow him? For to speak truly, it is not in counterfiteing Thunder, nor in carrying a Trident in one hand, and a Globe in the other; nor in commanding to be called Eternals, that Princes resemble him; But in governing the people wisely, in delivering the feeble from the oppression of the mighty, and in doing good to all the world. It is not the power of God which men must imitate, but his goodness and Justice, whereof we may represent some draughts and shadows; and which the King possesseth with so full and liberal a Communication, that it would be as hard to led the Sun out of his course, and to disorder the motions of the heavens, as to turn him from honesty. Wherefore though he is oftentimes seen prostrated before his Confessor, and all his majesty humbled at the feet of one of his Subjects; we are not to conceive that his habit of sinning, renders that action more familiar. For speaking after the manner of men, and in the rigor of our justice, he seemeth scarce to have lost his innocence. He hath not therefore always need of the power of the Priest, but he demands comfort sometimes from Divinity: Sometimes he easeth his spirit overwhelmed with business, with the entertainment of a man of God: Sometimes he receiveth councils which he hath already prevented by his actions: He washeth himself sometimes to be refreshed, not to be cleansed: He takes remedies to preserve his health, not to heal him: He seeks for perfection with so much fervour and violence, that when there is place to do better, he accounts good a sin. Hence it comes that he ordinarily practised hard and dangerous virtues; That he prevents those occasion which he might stay for, and when he might be at quiet, he prefers honest dangers, before unworthy security. And hence it is, that he useth not always his natural liberty, but is constrained to hid his proper sweetness under a borrowed severity; and with the heart of a Father he exerciseth the office of a Judge: That sometimes he hath taken the public cause against his own feelings and particular affections, and hath passed by all kind of respects to obey Reason as the sovereign.  
At the beginning of the last war, which may be called partly foreign, and partly Civill, in a time when men of service were not so common, but that their loss was remarkable, did he not suffer his Justice to ravish from him persons who were dear unto him, and whom he would have ransomed with all the Jewels of his Crown, but whom he would not save by one word of weakness? In this occasion the Services of three Constables, the merit of the blood of montmoremcy, the valour of the top of that house, always so dear and so necessary for France, have gained nothing upon him, but grief, for not being able to contribute any thing to so powerful considerations.  
He resisted the tears of Princesses, the prayers of the Court, his own will; as in other encounters, where the sweetness of revenge might seem lawful, or where he might glut himself with the blood and slaughter of a whole people, he partend, for the love of the public, with his just resentments, and eased himself by the same motive wherewith he was straitned; making it appear throughout, that he moves only by the line of Reason, and that the King is so separated from the man, and the spirit hath so subdued the matter, that the Interests of his State retain in him at this day, the place of the passions of his soul. Insomuch, that he cares not to extend his supreme Authority further then needs must, since he confines himself within civill Justice: He matters not to do that which is forbidden, because he abstains from that which is permitted; He takes no care to indulge wicked desires, and to give up himself to pleasure, since he denies many things to necessity and nature itself. In a word, he is not careful to enjoy those pleasures which are common to men with beasts, since he neglects those which are common to him with other men, and knows no contentments but those serious ones, which arise out of the satisfaction of a good conscience, and proceed from the glory of great actions, which are always fresh and new, and which the Laws do not tolerate as Remedies of human infirmity, but which wise men propose as the reward of heroic virtue.   

CHAP. XI.  
I Know very well, that in this discourse, I esteem a virtue contemned of the world; and that the most part of those who profess gallantry, will reproach me, that I praise men for the virtues of women; but I value not the opinions of so debauched an age as ours is.  
To go right, I go against the stream of the torrent, and the present corruption. And since the eternal Word speaks what truth is, and not what custom is, I had rather speak truly, then according to the sense of many, and to hold myself to reason, however abandoned, then to custom, though never so much followed.  
It is certain, that all bold actions are not performed in the war; There is required resolution and courage to be chast, and fair things are commonly more to be feared then evil things. Grief assaults the strongest part of our soul, where it meets with despite and anger which defend it: but pleasure combats the naked'st and weakest passages, where it finds nothing but self-love, which presently surrenders; And therefore, as it is not so hard a matter to hold out within the walls, as to maintain a breach, so it is less to resist grief, then pleasure. And herein Religion agrees with philosophy: and forasmuch, as in the judgement of the Son of God, to root up concupiscence, is no less then to pluck out an eye, or to cut off a hand: And that Saint Paul speaks ordinarily of crucifying it, and saith, that our Affections are our Members: There are in the Church that have believed Continency to be an unbloody martyrdom, and a persecution truly invisible, but the longest, most obstinate, and most violent of all others.  
I shall not be afraid therefore, to praise the King for his purity, because it makes up one part of his valour, and he owes it to the strength of his reason, not to the weakness of his appetites, and for that, the peace of his Conscience comes not from the impotency of his nature, but from the labour and conquest of his spirit; He is not ashamed that men know him to be King of himself, as well as of his people; That he is absolute within, as well as without, That he is above all kind of Enemies; That there is no combat, whether against strangers, against his own Subjects, or against his passions, but he remains Master.  
Now it is without difficulty granted, that from these acts of valour, there grow such perfect joys that out of heaven he cannot receiv● the like; and that the victorious a● the most satisfied of all people. Le● men boast as much as they will, t● fairest eyes that ever have enlightened the world, and the worth of those proud Creatures who lead Princes Captives after them: I● all the Empire of pleasure, there i● no enjoyment so sweet, as that of a City taken, or of a Battle gained Leuctres and mantinaea have more delighted Epaminondas, then Tha● and Phryne all their Lovers.  
And though he lost his life in the last of these two Journeys, nor could possess his glory above half an hour, and that in the dolours of a mortal wound; He dyed notwithstanding more happily, then the Effeminate live; and would not have exchanged one moment of that time, for their long and unprofitable old age.  
But if Epicurus himself had the courage to say, that virtue could not be miserable upon the wheel; That the remembrance of what was past, obliged him to confess, that he found himself well there, and that the grief, which made his executioners rage, did only tickle him; shall we doubt that in a calm condition, and in a pure prosperity it doth not feel incomparable contentments, a thousand times more lively, more subtle, and more penetrating, then all the effects of the most artificial delights, which the wit of man hath invented to flatter the body?  
We embrace some objects in this world, which slide away and melt between our hands: which are continually threatened with an end, or with a change, which we are assured either suddenly to hate, or to contemn, or else to love no more. Their nature being to be corrupted, as soon as they are brought forth, the affection which we bear them, vanisheth with them; and because they are not infinite, they must needs perish by their own growth; their desires ending by enjoyment, and their motion by we●rinesse.  
Therefore, let us admire our wise Prince, that knows how to place his passions upon those objects which he may always love, and which always will be lovely; which are not defiled with the filth of earthly things, which raise his desires to the highest and first beauty, estranging them from body and matter, as the dregs and impurity of the Creatures. Pleasure with all her inventions and allurements, cannot gain upon him one beginning of a will, nor please him at all in surprising him. He will sooner purify the Court by his Example, then the Court corrupt him with its delights. In all his life there never proceeded one word out of his mouth, which might receive a dishonest meaning; nor was it possible to finish an immodest speech before him, for any man who should dare to begin it. The modesty of his Countenance, together with a pleasant mixture of sweetness and severity, which appeared in his eyes, stisted evil thoughts in the very souls of men, and reformed, at the first view, whatsoever approached him: so that in his presence, the most debauched resemble the modestest, and his bare look had power either to change, or to suspend their Inclination.  
So rare and difficult a virtue, is indeed the gift of heaven, and a privilege of his birth, but it is also an effect of his full manner of living, and the fruit of his continual employments. He gave 'vice neither means nor time to assault him; he never yet had leisure to do ill; and his evil Angel hath always found him busy elsewhere, when he hath assayed to carry him thither. If he could not always be in war, or at Counsel, yet his sports and recreation were austere and toilsome, his delights martiall and virile. Pleasure cannot gain upon him by other charms, nor draw him to her but by labour. All his exercises serve for his principal profession; They have some relation or resemblance with Arms, and are either the Images, or the Meditations of war. The most part of Princes that we have known, and of whom we have heard speak, are not of this humour; they are not active with so much vigour as appears in him at his relaxations, and the rest in which they languish is so shameful, that it were more for their honour if it were a pure lethargy. Some grow old at the Table and spend their dayes and nights in the pleasure of feasting: others employ the third part of their life in curling their hairs and consulting the glass, and those that are most honestly employed, bestow all their time and their wit, either in furnishing a Gallery with pictures, or in extracting the essence of Iesimin, or in drawing a fountain some four leagues to adorn a Garden, or to calculate their traffic, or to hear the propositions of an alchemist. They are hide many times at the bottom of a palace, where their own happiness disquiets them, where they complain of the misery of their condition, because there are no more new pleasures to be discovered: Or in the midst of their Treasures and delights, they become poor and lean by their desires, when within they are fatted as drams to be immolated: They are perfumed as bodies to be embalmed: They have Torches lighted to them at mid-day, that the Pomp of their life may be the beginning of the preparations to their Funerals, and when one passeth by their door, they may say with reason, Here lies such a Prince. If at any time the noise of the victories of the King, awaken their lazy spirits; and if so lively a light pierce the thickness and obscurity of their prisons; perhaps they will come a little out of this profound slumber, and feel some light touch of glory: But the heart is not yet broken up, and these good motions produce onely faire wishes: Instead of imitating the virtue of so brave a Prince, they envy his fortune. If sometimes they dare endure the day, and undergo the hazard of seeing the Sun, to which they are strange and unacquainted, never think that it is to take in hand some long journey, or in Person to assist their Allies, that they quit their darkness and solitude; They go not out of their lodgings, but to make Love in the City, and to force that chastity whicih resists, or to corrupt that which is inclinable to yield. And at their departure from thence, when they have glutted their brutish passions; when they have violated the sanctity of Marriage, and dishonoured poor Families, they call it sport, and seek good words to guild over villainous actions. Was there not one lately, who boasted he had triumphed over the fairest part of the world, speaking of the Ladies he had loved? And did not another say he deserved the title of Father of his People, he got the most Children he could of the Wives of his Subjects? In these lascivious and debauched Courts, the most sacred Dignities are oftentimes the recompense of a night, which the Prince hath spent pleasantly. Nothing is refused to the embracements of an artificial woman, who can make use of her charms, nothing is impossible to her kisses. The least of her dalliances are able to pardon the guilty, and procure the condemnation of the Innocent; and that which could not pass in the Counsel, receives no difficulty in the Bed.  
But God be thanked, we are secure from this misfortune, and our Court is pure from this defilement. The desire of true glory cannot subsist where there are smaller affections; and in the heart of the King this ardent passion consummates, to speak truth, all the others; being so active as he is without ceasing, how can he dream of pleasure? and being, as he is, extremely laborious, how should he fall into the sin of sluggards? Whatsoever recreations are presented to him, they never withdraw his mind from the affairs of his kingdom; and though he may cast a look sometimes upon other objects, yet his sight is still fixed there. What ever he doth, and to whatsoever he applies himself, he never forgets to reign; he never lets down his majesty into low employments, and unbeseeming his condition. His whole Life, is, as it were, equally serious.   

CHAP. XII.  
YOu need not fear that he shuts himself up whole dayes to set together the several pieces of a Clock, or to play a game at Chess: He knows not how to bury himself about vain employments, or to study for trivial things. He will not take pains to no purpose, but reserves all the Intentions of his mind, to seek means to come to that great end which he proposeth to himself. Games of hazard please him not much more, whether because it troubles him to be moved at things of so small importance, or because he had rather give then lose, or win; or whether he would not have the least part of his life subject to fortune: For wrestling, running and fencing, which some nations so much esteem, he holds they may be the Pleasures of a Prince, b● not his Actions; and is ashamed t● gain reputation from a thin● which the Romans would not le● their Children learn, but taught it their slaves only; and so to receive praises common to the lowest of the people. He brings nothing therefore to such pastimes, but hi● eyes and his presence; and comes to them, rather to seem not to condemn them, or not to be of an ill humour at a public time of rejoicing, then to take delight in them, or at all to be moved with such poor entertainments.  
I doubt not, but he hath red with disdain, the History of King Renes, Count of Provence, who was found finishing the picture of a Partridge, by the man that brought him the news of the loss of his kingdom of Scicilie: And I am confident, that if Selim Emperour of the Turks, in a Tablet which he made and published, had not painted a battle which he had gained, he would hardly have pardonned himself, for letting the world know he was a Painter. Not that he is averse to curiosities, or an Enemy to neatness and innocent inventions, which comfort and sweeten the vexations of this life; For contrarily, he beholds distinctly in the Arts, those beauties and graces which are hide to us. He discovers in the workmanship, that which is more subtle and spiritual; That which is separated from the rest, and retains nothing of the matter; that which easily escapes a sight not purged by an exact and subtle knowledge.  
And indeed, it is not without reason, that we laugh at the rudeness of those Princes, one of which, thought the neighing of his horse more pleasant then any music; Another preferred the smell of garlic before the artificial skill of Perfumers.  
A Lord of Saxony walking in the Galleries of the Market at Rome, stood still at a Picture which he saw every man admiring, where was represented a great withered man, full of age and diseases, who learned upon a staff: But as the Merchant, who thought to make a fortune by the sale of that rare piece, asked him how he liked his old man, he answered innocently, he did not at all like it, and that he would never have it, though a man would give it him for nothing.  
And in the memory of our Fathers, when our Pope Adrian, the sixth, was shown Laocoon, at the Garden of Belveder, and some other relics of the Roman magnificence, he commanded in anger that they should take away those Pagan Idols from before him, and was ready to have it made lime to build some ruinous places of the walls of the City. In these uncivil and injurious contempts of Antiquity, there is either a gross and brutish ignorance, or a presumptuous and froward severity; and to be less then a Scythian, you cannot blame the King; for having the senses, which have the most commerce with the Spirit, naturally very pure, and to have gained the utmost perfection by Art and Discipline. You cannot blame him for seeing and hearing with knowledge, and for having the hands ready and ingenious, and to be able to draw a combat upon a Cloath, or to paint a Siege which he shall come to make. He will only let the world know, that he understands many things, which he doth not busy himself in; That he can deeply judge of the profession of others, and perfectly discharge his own; and that he doth not hate the Muses and their honest exercises, but that war and his affairs allow him no liberty, to bestow any time in them. It is certain, that the principal Science of Kings ought to have for its object Royalty: Their Philosophy ought to be practical, and to quit the shade and Gardens, where they spend a pleasant and obscure life, to appear in the Lists and great theatre of the world, covered over with sweat and dust; Their study ought not to be employed in seeking out unprofitable verities, which make those that find them out, neither better nor happier then they were; It must labour for the acquisition of active virtues, and such as are necessary for the world; such as work out the happiness of the State, and not the bare contentments of the mind, making experience of those things which the Schools can only discourse of.  
When I consider, that the Emperour Numerian commanded this Inscription to be set over his Statuas; To Numerian the best orator of his Court: And that that other Ridiculous Prince dispatched Posts in all places of his Dominion, to give notice of the victory which he had gained in the olympic Games; to wit, over bad Poets, and bad Musicians; I cannot sufficiently wonder at their low ambition, and so ill grounded a vanity. The Kings knowledge far exceeds all that, and his Art is more noble, though he do not exercise it with so much pomp and ostentation: He understands that Science, under whose protection all others are safe, and every society of men maintains itself; The Science, I mean, of Governing: He will not dispute the glory of Language with his Subjects, and the Authors of his time; But he can contend for that of Valour and Justice, with his Ancestors, and all Antiquity.  
The former Lacedemonians who were demigods, and not Men, were less knowing then he: They went not to Athens to learn words and subtleties, nor did desire to confer with the Egyptians, to resolve their doubts, because they did believe, that the Laws of Lycurgus had forgotten nothing, and that any other adventitious knowledge was evil and unprofitable.  
It would have been a hard matter, to have observed distinctly in their discourse, the parts of Eloquence, and to separate the Exordium from the Narration, and the Confirmation from the Epilogue; They expressed themselves only, as it were, by Monosyllables, and if they could have been understood without taking the pains to speak, they would have spared themselves those few words they then made use of.  
For the Romans, who appeared so often in that work, and before and after whom, there was nothing but essays or imitations of their wisdom; It is very true, that they have done all those great things which we admire, without knowing how to make a Dilemma, or a syllogism: But as soon as this perfect virtue gave itself scope, and when with less care they had husbanded their natural good inclinations, they became curious after foreign rarities; as soon as they began to study, they began to be corrupted, and Greece conquered her Masters by her Vices and Sciences.  
It hath therefore been always a common opinion among them, that it was enough to taste only of philosophy, but by no means to be glutted with it: That they might pass by the Academy and the Lyceum, provided they did not take up their rest there; and that according to the ages and conditions of men, there might be intemperance in the search of the best things; wherefore when old Cato set himself at the end of his dayes to learn a strange language, they mocked him as one that prepared himself to make speeches in another world, and was afraid that Minos, who was a graecian, did not understand latin: without doubt, Age had altered him, and his judgement had a sense of the infirmity of his yeares, seeing that a little before, he made open profession, that he hated the Greek tongue; that he accounted Socrates for a mover of sedition and a babbler; and was of opinion, that when all the world ran after the ●hilosopher Carneades, that they should sand him quickly to his School, to dispute with the Grecia● Boyes, and leave the Romans to obey the Laws and Governours of their country.  
These Sage and virtuous Magistrates resisted as much as they could, this violent passion of the youth: They chased away many times, not only the Mathematicians and the Philosophers, but also the Rhetoricians; and behold one of their Inditements upon this Subject, wherein may yet be seen, the greatness and majesty of the expired Common-Wealth. We are  told, that certain men, who call themselves Rhetoricians, would introduce a new kind of discipline, and that the young men assemble themselves where they are diligent to hear them. Our Fathers have ordained that which they desired their children should learn. These novelties contrary to our Ordinances, and to our customs, are not pleasing to us, nor do seem good.  
Certainly, there is no better means to soften the courages of men, then to busy their wits with still and sedentary exercises; and cowardliness cannot enter into well ordered States, by a more subtle or dangerous cheat then that of Learning. They are these idle and lazy persons, who in part, have ruined Trade and Husbandry; who are the Causes of the weakness of our State, and the unmanlinesse of the age.  
And if in a great kingdom, w● can now a daies raise but sma● Armies; If France sends not no● as heretofore, a hundred thousan● fighting men into the Holy La● it is not because she is less people● then she was, nor that women a● become barren, nor that more d● then did in that time; but it is because the most part of those, wh● made up those formidable Armies embrace a Profession contrary to that of Arms,& that there is a great company of people altogether unprofitable, who spend all their Anger in suits of Law, and make to use of their hands, but to writ and make Books.  
When a whole Nation is sick of logic, or of Poetry; and when in a country they deal more in spheres and Astrolabes, then in other necessaries, it is a most certain sign of its approaching ruin: whoever will undertake it, shall easily compass it, and shall have to do with men, who will not awake, but at extremit, yout of their profound speculations; who in a City already taken, will understand neither the sound of Trumpets, nor the noise of weapons, nor will perceive that there is any danger, till the fire hath seized upon their Study, and their Chamber be almost burnt.   

CHAP. XIII.  
IT is not my Intent for all this to make the world brutish, and to quench one of the greatest lights of human life; Nor would I bring back that obscure night which covered the face of the earth, when the Princes of clois, and those of Medici, were divinely sent to chase away barbarism from the Ages past. I know, that as Nature casts the seeds of goodness into our soul, so their maturity depends upon study and exercise; That as she oftentimes effects more then the half of things, so Art must finish them; and discipline direct and set in order unpolished and disorderly virtues.  
This Discipline serves at least for a key more seasonably to open the mind; it makes it capable of affairs, without the expectation of a tedious success, or length of experience, and spares a man that great expense of time, which would be necessary of itself to arrive to wisdom; And indeed, if common sense, and mere Reason, ought to be highly esteemed; I know not why any man should despise knowledge, which is like sense collected from many heads, and as it were the Common Reason of many Sages. But here also we must distinguish, and make a difference of Sciences. I intend not to blame good Literature; I only maintain that there is that is bad; which is nothing but the vain and idle amusements of the mind; The dreams and visions of men awake; labours that aim at nothing, nor bring any strength or ornament to their country. I laugh at those gnostics, who are only cunning in those things which never come into use, and are ignorant of nothing which is unprofitable: Who run day and night after the Quadrature of a circled, and the perpetual motion, without being able to attain one or other. I approve not of those Doctors, who use their Learning no more then covetous men do their Riches; who are always full, but never draw forth any thing; who spend their life in the search of some words, and the understanding of a Language; who mistake the means for the End, and the Way for the Town. These men are very unfit for a civill life: So far are they from being good Princes, that they would not be so much as tolerable Subjects. These are Members to be cut off from a commo● Society; The superfluities of a Common-wealth; and to use the expression of an Ancient Greek, They are good for nothing but to people Deserts and Solitudes. We reject not Science absolutely, but we reject theirs. We condemn not those Orators who persuade Truth, and beget a Love of virtue in the hearts of men( and it may be they will one day believe that we have some interest to defend them) but we condemn those importunate ones, whose discourses are nothing but noises and sounds which beat the air, and pass no further the● the ear; and vent for Eloquence a facility to speak ill; who deliver fooleries wisely, and pronounce evil things with a good grace. We expel not from the State, the study of wisdom, but we especially admit into the palace two parts of it, whereof one regulates man as he is a Creature endued with reason; The other guides him as he is born for Society: The one hath for its end virtue, and a mans own good, The other the happiness and good of the public. To which Kings, me thinks, may add the reading of History, which is a more popular philosophy, and more delightful then that which is gathered from the dryness of Precepts, amongst the thorns and briars of Disputation. By it all the virtue of the Ancients is ours, and they have lived, to speak truly, but onely to ●●trust us; nor did any good Actions, but to leave us good examples. It gives a Prince the industry of his Predecessors, to join to his own; It presents him sincere counsels, which are not suspected of flattery, nor proceed from passion, in which there enters no particular Interest. It shows him the issues whereby wise men have delivered themselves out of the hardest passages, and the way which they made when they found none. He that is not acquainted with this, and of all times knows only the present, is surprised with the novelty of an Accident which he had not foreseen; he suffers himself to be shaken with the first blast of a contrary wind, and imagining that a misfortune must last always, hath never the courage to hope well.  
On the other side, he that seems to be of all Countreys, to have lived in all ages, to have been present at all Counsels and all public Assemblies, draws thence powerful helps to resist adversity; at least, he meets with nothing strange and new; he expects good fortune after bad, and judgeth better of one action by another. For in effect, it i● not from the Aspect of Constellations; from the flight and chatterin● of birds, nor from the heart and entrails of slain beasts, that thi● judgement is formed, but ordinarily from things passed, we learn what is to come. And though the affairs of the world many times change their Course, taking another way then their ordinary custom, and that this only is likely, as Agathon said, that many things happen contrary to appearance.  
Yet to speak ordinarily, like enterprises produce like effects; and though the Actors be divers, 'tis the same theatre upon which they represent, and the same Parts which they play.  
There is no doubt, but so profitable a knowledge is very worthy the Curiosity of great men, whereof they make use upon divers occasions. With this kind of learning, the King is always pleased to entertain himself: He hath always taken delight to hear the relation of passed actions; and not to seek for more particular proofs of what I say; the wonders we have received from him, are sufficient to make us see, that he takes not his Examples from among us, nor are they the men of our times whereof he is jealous.  
Moreover, his private life is so free from blame, nay even from suspicion; his public carriage so full of discretion and lawful arts; all his actions so conformable to the Rules, which the Masters of Manners, and the Doctors of the State have left us, that if he had not learnt Morality and the Politiques, they would have been natural to him, and he had received a Soul from God fully instructed and intelligent.  
For other barren studies, and of no use, which require a violent Intention, and a servile assiduity, which have need of a mans whole leisure and of every minute of a● hour, they may in my opinion be profitably neglected by a man of his Condition, and are scarce compatible with the offices of Royalty, which require the whole entire Man; and so, that in matter of Government, there is scarce day and night enough for the necessary labour; and there will need some time to refresh himself, which will hardly be found out. There are more businesses then moments; The slowest Death surprises Princes always, and leaves their works imperfect; Few of these Artists finish their business in this world.  
The King therefore, that would come to the end of what he undertakes, doth not amuse himself with any thing else; He thinks of nothing but his Charge, and his Duty; and the order which hath been established from the first constitution of things being not to be reformed; he prolongs by art, a life of itself very short: He spares all those houres, which are wont to be employed in evil and superfluous occasions, and gains that from his diligence, which he cannot obtain from the Liberality of Nature.   

CHAP. XIV.  
IT is now ten years that he watcheth continually, that he is, as it were, always on horseback; that he runs whithersoever the public necessity calls him.  
And forasmuch as he knows very well, that Kings and kingdoms cannot enjoy one and the same rest, he is content, that the troubles and dangers be for himself, the peace and security for France. His white hairs are come upon him from noble and glorious cares, which have produced the tranquillity of the people.  
It reins and snows all the winter upon the first head of the world; It the most violent heats of Summer, when we make use of all means, we can imagine, to procure shade and coolnesse, his Countenance is scorched with the Sun of Languedoc, and it is commonly in the open field, and ten dayes journey from the Louvire, that he suffers the injuries of the weather, and the inconveniencies of the season.  
Some of his Predecessors had more ado to move themselves, and to pass from their Chamber to their Closet, then he to go from one end of the kingdom to the other. He makes his Galleries and his walks from Paris to Guyenna, or the Dauphine: and there is not any part of the State afflicted, be it never so remote, which having discovered its wounds and made him acquainted with its distress, doth not presently feel the comfort which his Presence brings where ever it shows itself.  
For this end, Nature hath given him a Body which doth not at all oppress his mind;& being extremely active and vigorous, finds not much difficulty to follow the motions of his courage.  
The continual Agitation in which he hath been bread, will not suffer those heaps of humours to grow together, and that excess of superfluous flesh, which idleness engendereth, and which oftentimes is a burden to the soul; besides that, he is not pestered with that long equipage of Debauchery, which the Voluptuous lead after them, not makes war after the manner of the Princes of Asia: There are no Troops of women and eunuchs, and another Army of useless persons; that follow his.  
He needs not an incredible number of wagons to carry Lutes, Viols, Looking-Glasses, and Perfumes, as Mark-Anthony was fain to have, when he marched with Cleopatra: The first pleasant object that he meets with in the way, doth not oblige him to stand still; nor doth he encamp at the side of pleasant Rivers, instead of passing over them, nor set up his Tents in delightful valleys, when he is to pass the Mountains. He is free from those hindrances which effeminate Men either make or find, and which are the cause of a notable loss of time, which to a Prince ought to be the most precious thing in the world, and of which he may be covetous without losing the Title of liberal. If the King did not know how to use it with much Oeconomie, and were not an excellent Steward of so frail a good, and of so had a Guard, he had not, as he hath done, in less then six years, begun, pursued and ended a labour which in all appearance might have been the exercise of his successors, and have continued to his posterity. He had not been Master at home, and Judge amongst his Neighbours, nor had he quenched, as he hath, Rebellion; disarmed Error, upheld weakness, abased Tyranny. A Prince indifferenly diligent, had been yet but the half way of so painful a journey, and under another King then ours, we should yet make prayers to arrive at that Haven, in which now we give thanks for our safety. Let us not speak slenderly of the prosperity of our affairs; Let us not contradict the public voice; Let us not weaken Truth by malicious exceptions, and conditional praises. Let us avow upon all occasions, the obligation we have to the King, if we cannot acknowledge them. Never was there seen so great a disposition to happiness, as the Politicians seek for; Never were future promises so faire: We no more fear the ruin of our State; we hope for Eternity. All the pieces of this proud Lump, which hath tottered so long, are now firm; all is enclosed with an admirable evenness; not one ston jets out beyond its line and level; Nothing offends the eyes of the most curious: See here the first time that detraction shall be mute. There are no more faults to discover, there are scarce any more wishes to be accomplished. Certainly I suspect my eyes, and can hardly believe myself, when I consider the present, and remember what is past. This is not France, lately so torn, so sick, so ruinous; These are no longer French-men, such enemies to their country, so backward in the service of their Prince, so decryde among foreign Nations. Under the same visages I behold other Men, and in the same kingdom another State; The ancient shape remaines, but the inside is renewed. There is a moral revolution, a change of the mind, a sweet and pleasant transition from bad to good.  
The King hath put his Subjects in reputation, hath communicated his strength and vigour to the republic, hath corrected the faults of the passed age, hath banished all softness, and rashness in the administration of affairs. He is the Wise, no less then the Just, and he neither deceives himself nor others; He is not infected with the present corruption, nor, as it were, with no human infirmity. He is able to stay a State from the point of falling; To repair ruins which length of time hath contracted; To re-establish things spoiled: He is able, if we may so say, to make Young the Universe; and if this perfect Government, whereof we have yet seen but the picture, do at last shoot forth and appear to the world it will owe its birth, without doubt, to his incomparable wisdom.   

CHAP. XV.  
THere was a time when we were glad to flatter ourselves, and corrupt the Faith of our history; hitherto we have owed our preservation to any thing, rather then to ourselves; and if since the birth of the State, we except onely the life of two Princes, and some few years of some others; it may be said, that Fortune had the supreme Government amongst us, and that in the conduct of our affairs, she left very little part, either to Sense or Reason. Our lightness, our Inconstancy; our Folly is turned to a Proverb. They say France was a Ship, whose Pilot was the Tempest. Our Fathers managed their Wars without Discipline, their negotiations without secrecy: Their fashion to act, was as much without rule, as if they had had a design to loose in all Treaties; and their valour so hardy, as if they had fought blind-fold. Therefore they bequeathed us that which they had governed ill, and their estate came to us in this confusion and disorder. All maxims, generally received for true, have been found false, in what concerns us: All the signs of a certain death have been in vain, when they have appeared upon us. Al foreign wisdom hath been deceived in the judgement which it made concerning the continuance of our monarchy.  
After the imprisonment of John and Francis, which were to both the fruit of their own imprudence, there were all the appearances in the world, that the kingdom would change its Master, and would be no longer but a Province of our enemies: Yet behold it still under the power of the lawful heir of those brave Prisoners. The Kings of England, who have reigned, and were crwoned at Paris had lately but one ambassador here, and now have none at all. There remaines nothing to them of all the conquests they have made, but a useless name, which we leave to them to adorn their Titles, and to comfort them for their losses. And after so many Battles gained, I know not what made them fly, and chased them out of a country, where they believed themselves at home, and where there were not above three or four Towns that were French.  
spain having had, as it were, the same advantages, sees its self deceived by the same event. We opened them all our Gates, we received their Garrisons into our Cities, their Ministers into our Counsel; The most part of our people, if they had been born at Madrid, or at Toledo, could not have been better Spaniards then they were; and the whole Nation ran in Troops hoodwinked to bondage: yet these dispositions to a change, and these advances of a Victory, were of no use to Philip, nor his Infanta; We have not been able to lose, that which we have given: We could not fall under a foreign power, though ruin were our own design. The chains which we demanded were demanded were denied us, and our country remained to us, after we had delivered it to our enemy.  
In other places, there needs only a Civil war to break a State in pieces, and to abolish monarchy; But what have we seen but Civil wars since the death of Henry the Second? Nay, have they not been so frequent, that for a long time we may count the yeares by the Treaties of Peace which have been made? Our Kings signed the Arrests of their death, or at least of their Deposing, when they signed the League, and when of two Factions, that rent the kingdom, they delivered their Arms and Authority to one, that so they might be unarmed and naked against the enterprises of both: If they had been governed by reason, they had never committed such a fault; And if there had been any Prudence in those times, there had been neither League nor Hugonotes. This last party, which was to be stisted in the cradle, when it was but half formed, and the weakest hands might have spoiled it, increased so by the indulgency of the sovereign, and took its first vigour from the contempt which Men had of its weakness; and at length ascended to so prodigious a greatness, that it hath often balanced the royal Forces, till it fell out, that its ruin was the Master-piece of Lewis the Just.  
But before this Generous Prince was come into the world, to accomplish our safety, and to stop things at the very point where they ought to stand, how many times have these two potent Factions failed of their blow? How little was wanting, but that we had seen a republic of Languedoc? And that it had not been the States of Guyenna? That there had not been made Dukes of Burgundy and Counts of Provence? And who could assure our Fathers, but Rebellion expected to make its last and utmost assaults against him, who was only able to destroy them?  
We have always been the work men and the Engineers of our own misfortune: Our Enemies have built their Bulwarks, and raised their Forts under the shadow of our Peace and Treaties; They have grown great, and maintained themselves under our protection: They have grown warm, and been nourished in our bosom: The weakness and cowardliness of the Masters, hath been the cause of the boldness and undertakings of the Servants. All the State resented the victories and the laziness of the Cabinet; From the contempt which the Prince made of his charge, spring that which others made of his Authority: He had been obeied, if he had known how to rule.  
Amongst us, neither the punishment, nor the reward have scarce ever been known. The Great ones have always freely injured the small: The weak have always been the spoil and prey of the stronger; Men have always trod upon those who have thrown themselves down: Good men have always been despised, because none have taken pains to preserve them, nor had any fear to destroy them.  
Aristophon bragged at Athens, that he had been accused seventy five times, and had so many times corrupted the Judges: Here wicked men have thriven most prosperously: They have not only enjoyed Impunity, They have had rewards bestowed upon them: They have been sought after with great care, and handled with all kind of favour: They have always got by the practise of wickedness, and have profited by their faults; Those that deserved the severest punishment, have had the freest payment; and we have seen an old sinner, who shewed three houses which he had got by the money which the King had given him, for having been in three Conspiracies against his service; so that neither he, nor his companions, had any need to repent of so good a Crime, nor confess Rebellion to be a wicked enterprise, since they got such notable commodities thereby, and it was so liberally rewarded.  
This was not to reign; this was not to overcome; That which was done in those dayes, was not to triumph, it was to live only, and to pass on from one day to another. The state of affairs, was neither war nor Peace, nor a Truce; it was a rest of slumber, which was artificially procured to the people; and the sleep of Criminals and of besieged persons, is not more disturbed, nor more unquiet, then this deceitful tranquilitie. They knew not how to heal, they could only skin over the wound, and set a good face on the matter.  
Those that governed, would make Rebellion familiar in caressing it; they cloyed it with good turns and gratuities, but thereby they made it more potent, and not better; they augmented its strength, and did not diminish its malice; sometimes they deprived it of some men who were to be sold, and of some advantages which it made no use of; and knew not that it was to prune disorder, thus gently to touch its branches and its slips, and not to lay the Axe to its trunk and root.  
All high enterprises made them afraid; all great things appeared to them monstrous; whatever was not easy, they called it impossible. Fear made the objects seem bigger, and multiplying every individual almost to an infinity, when three malcontents retired from Court with their Train, they apprehended an Army of Rebels in the field, which drew the City and the Commonalty after them, without finding any resistance: Whereupon, they put not themselves in a posture to chastise them, but used means to soothe them, and instead of going to visit them with Cannons and Souldiers, they sent them Lawyers with offers and Conditions, and promised them much more then they could hope for from their victory.  
Thus the goodness of the Prince was a certain Income and Revenue to wicked men; He squeezed his own Coffers to give pay to the Armies of his Enemies, and every day paid for something which he never got. At the least rumour he descended from his Throne, to treat with his Subjects; of a sovereign he made himself a private person, and of a Law-Giver, became an Advocate.  
By this breach, the partition, which separated him from the people, was broken down, and the Power changed into an equality: The guilty sate upon the tribunal, and deliberated of their own fact with their Judge: They name the place of Conference, and it was accepted of: They choose to confer with Persons in whom they most confided, and those were given them that they liked best of. There was not a word of Grace or Pardon; Those terms were too rude, and had injured their ears: But the offended Master declared solemnly, that all was done for the good of his Service, and acknowledged himself extremely beholding to his unfaithful servants, for the affronts he had received from them.  
Lastly, the design of the Cabinet being but to separate the Allies, and to turn aside the present storm, they granted them more then they could ask; They were prodigal of the public faith. The Name of King was not at all mentioned to be provided for.  
And thus he found himself the point of two extremes equa● dangerous; for whether he wo● keep his word and ruin his affai● or recover his affairs in violati● his word, he was always reduc● to a deplorable Election, either ● hazard his estate in being faithf● or to be injurious to his honour, remain King.  
These disorders and such like would they not have destroy France? And have not many Stat● been ruined with less then this Therefore it hath given the lie t● all Diviners; It hath confuted al● politicians: It hath put exceptio● to all the general rules; And ● would not be so great a wonder that a Body, whose Temperatu● was ill and the constitution out o● order, was now come to an extrea● old age, by wounds, excess and debaucheries; as to consider 〈◇〉 hundred years, that this State hath continued against all human appearances.  
It is an old deboist Body, that hath done what it could to die, and yet lives in spite of the Physitians. Fortune hath corrected all the defaults of our Government: Chance hath saved; us or to speak of our happiness more Christianly, and to leave the terms of corrupt use, which savour yet of paganism; God hath taken a particular care of desolate forsaken France, and was willing to be her Helper in the Confusion of her affairs.  
His Providence hath always fought against the imprudence of men; Heaven hath wrought as many miracles, as they committed faults: yet we must not love danger, nor persevere in wickedness, in hope of a miraculous succour. We must not say, that God is obliged by oath, to make all our falls prosperous, nor that he will bless all our Follies, nor that he will trouble himself to give good successses to all our evil Counsels. At last, he permits effects to follow their Causes, and that That which hath a long time troubled the order of the world, and violated the universal Law, do enter into its ordinary course, whence it hath proceeded, and obey that common necessity which he hath imposed upon the Actions of his Creatures.  
But in the condition we are now in, the storm will take us in a good hour; we can let pass this extraordinary assistance, which we cannot always promise ourselves: we will no more tempt God by a rash confidence, nor sleep in danger, expecting supports from Heaven; and now, that there is no more atonement for our faults, we have nothing to fear, being assured not to fail any more. Yet it hath not been inconvenient, that things did not arrive all at once to their highest pitch; It was necessary to come by many degrees to Lewis the Just: To this Prince, who possessing reason in a transcendent degree, ought to reign by right of nature, according to the opinion of Aristotle, when he did not reign by Divine Right, according to the Principles of our Faith.  
It was reasonable, we should more then once ask Heaven for so necessary a Reformer; who by a Direction full of force, hath turned the affairs from that evil course they had taken, and conquered that long custom we had of disorder; who hath carried the regal authority as high as it could go, without Tyranny; who hath both punished and rewarded with exquisite choice and discretion, that so he might avoid Cruelty, and not fall into weakness: Who hath brought Discipline to war, and secrecy to counsel: Who hath reduced our faith and reputation to a good savour among other Nations, and hath made those that resisted our Forces, to render themselves to his Sincerity: who hath changed those petty-slights which we made use of to catch the meanest of the Subjects, into his great and courageous maxims, which give Law to King and kingdoms; who lastly( which my particular Interest renders more considerable to me then all the rest) came to finish upon the edge of the Ocean, a work, whose only fashion and attempt made us fear; and knew to take his measures so just, his Time so proper to the design he went about, that sooner or latter, it had not been possible to have brought it to pass.   

CHAP. XVI.  
IN this, the clearness of his understanding hath chiefly appeared: To do extraordinary things, it is not enough to know how to employ opportunities well, but also to know how to choose them. Civill Prudence, as well as Judiciary astrology, is acquainted with good and bad houres, according to which it either rests, or labours. All Actions of men have their seasons; even the most virtuous may be done unseasonably. And forasmuch as that which is but an Accident to natural, is essential to moral things, there needs nothing but a light Circumstance of time, or place, to spoil a business which in itself was most profitable and reasonable. Sometimes to the accomplishing of our design, there needs nothing but that the wickedness of our Enemies be at the full; That the bad influence which bare rule, beginning to be weakened, There is no more resistance in respect of heaven, and that the moment be come in which it pleaseth God to suffer Men to be made. And as Travellers who rise at Moon-light, supposing that it is day, are constrained to lie down again, or venture the danger of missing their way if they go on in their journey: In like manner those that follow the mere light of appearances, and who undertake things out of season, are in danger either to gain nothing, or else to be lost in their Enterprises.  
Now if ever man knew to take the precise point of time, which is as hard to be met with as that just degree of heat which chemists seek for in the operation of their Secret, If every man were able to discern the hour of execution, and to make his Benefit of the Opportunity, it must be confessed it is This Prince of whom I speak.  
as soon as ever this opportunity, which is so necessary in policy, begins to appear, and he perceives that his affairs are ripe, he will not suffer the fruit to be spoiled; He makes the least moments available His Presence gives heat to the business; he animates the workmen by his very look, his voice and encouragements.  
You see with what Courage and magnanimity he performs businesses, with what bravery he bears himself in danger: with what Confidence he considers Death, and prepares himself for all events; with what severity of Countenance he rejects fearful counsels, trembling and distrustful wisdom. It is certain, that in the conduct of affairs, Courage is no less necessary to judgement to put it on, then judgement is necessary to Spirit to hold it in. And as the Mind, all alone, commits many faults, and will unadvisedly remove heaven and earth; so judgement, all alone, is void of Action, and is the most idle and barren part of a man. It hinders him from falling, but it is by counseling him to sit still, and not go at all: It makes a man avoid ill weather, but it is by causing him to keep his chamber: It spends dayes and nights in meditating; and from these reasonings proceed nothing but doubts and suspicions, and a miserable unresolvednesse, which is the Cause that he never undertakes any thing, because he will enter upon nothing that is hazardous. Therfore it is, that Chance meets us every where, and there is no business so certain, over which Fortune hath not some right, and which is not subject at least to an Inconvenience.  
He that always observes the winds and the Clouds shall not sow, nor reap. The idle fellow because he will not go, saith a lion is in the way, and a lioness not far off.  
The King contrarily, when he hath laid his design, troubles his mind no more with an impotunate reasoning, nor enters into considerations which have no end: He leaves off to deliberate, when it is time to be doing; He doth not overthrow his first opinions by seconds, nor those by other new one. He is not troubled to combat himself, when he is to go against his enemy: When he hath undertaken a journey, nothing is got by opposing him. He is as firm in his ordinary resolution, as men are in their ancient Habits: Obstacles which present themselves do not stop him, provided that human force can vanquish them: Even those that come from a higher cause, from absolute necessity, have much ado to give him check; and if he be constrained sometimes to yield to the violence of grief, and that he be acquainted with the infirmity of our condition, herein he is more tormented with his courage, then with his pain. In the extremity of a burning fever, he complains only of the daies and occasions which he loseth; he is troubled at nothing, but the going back of his affairs. He will part with all his good intervals to it, instead of tarrying for the effect of remedies, and the recovery of his health: he employs the stops of his disease to be conveyed to his Army; he leaves himself to be cured in the war; and with a Body, which hath but half its strength, he layeth the foundation of the hardest enterprise of this our Age. Knowing very well, that the same advantages seldom offer themselves twice to the same person; he puts not off affairs till to morrow, nor loses good success by delay: He never says ther's enough for this time, and we shall finish the rest at leisure. This is Gods proceeding, who is thus patient, because he is eternal, and lets wicked men alone sometimes, because he hath another world wherein to punish them. But we must not propose an example to men, which they cannot follow; They do not make occasions, but receive them: They do not command the times; they possess but a small part of them, only the present, which is a point almost imperceptible, opposed to that vast extent of Eternity, which hath no bounds. To arrive at their butt, they must go apase and begin betimes. They must make hast thorough sudden and transitory things.  
And that wise Prince, who besides the knowledge which he might draw from his own experience and reason; was enlightened of God, said, speaking of himself, that he slay the wicked betimes in the morning; because, as I conceive, he was not assured of the after-noon, and knew not if his good fortune would last so long.   

CHAP. XVII.  
THese maxims are necessary in the height of a Tempest, and in the greatest extremities, but they may be made use of when we perceive any sign of change, and the least presage of a storm. Neither doth the King throw himself absolutely upon these kinds of encounters; though during the calm and in a full peace, he have some more mildred and human dispositions. Sometimes he speedily opposeth force against prepared violence, and hath made light skirmishes to avoid greater combats. Perhaps he hath made France less by two or three heads, whereof the public rest had need, for its establishment; and his Clemency hath not always overcome his justice. We remember what past upon the louvre Bridge, at that fatal season, when he had scarce any body for himself, but himself, he was constrained to call home to himself the power to condemn which Princes have committed to others, and to resume that troublesone part of regal authority, which they discharged upon the Parliament. An unfortunate Stranger had so confounded things, and mingled his own Interests with those of the State, that none but the King could separate them, and clear the world of the truth of his service: He resolved therfore to declare himself, and to purge the Court of that shameful dominion which was established upon the ruins of majesty, and which he seemed to approve by his patience. He conceived, that day, the design for the safety of his State, and by the death of two Serpents, made us hope the ruin of that Hydra which we begin to see at his last gasp. If he that was named the mildest and meekest man upon the earth, Divine Moses, being yet a private man, and having then no Authority, but only seeing the affliction of his Brethren, believed he was obliged to succour them, and to begin the deliverance of his people, by the slaughter of an Egyptian, who smote an Israelite: With how much more reason might the King, to whom God hath given the sword, and who only hath right of life and death, make use of that right to punish a Tyrant, who oppressed his true and lawful Subjects; who thirsted after the blood of his Princes; who held his Court in Captivity, and in hope devoured his whole kingdom? Yet Posterity shall see very few of these examples in his Story. He used no supreme Authority, but against those who would usurp; it nor let fall any thunder-bolts, but upon those that would snatch them out of his hands. He hath not consented to the punishment of criminals, but when there was no other way left to put an end to their faults. He kills not, nor takes pleasure to see persons put to death, not even the Common-wealths Enemies; but he tries what he can to make them good Citizens, and good Subjects: At least he provides that wicked men be not dangerous to the public, and without depriving them of life, deprives them of power and venom. His power is now such, that if three Mutinies join together against the State, he hath four means to scatter them; but his prudence is such on the other side, that they seldom come thus far, nor have scarce leisure to become altogether guilty: He surpriseth them between the thought, and the execution of a fault. They believe their contrivance very secret, yet he knows as much of their news, as if he had been president at their Counsel, They deliberate how to cast themselves into danger, and he hath already provided for their safety; They would lift their hand to strike their blow, and they find it seized upon; They imagine presently they shall share the kingdom, and they find themselves fast in a Chamber of the bastille. The King, who hardly proceeds to violent remedies, makes use sometimes of gentle preservatives: He hath found that excellent Temper between punishment and impunity; He hath taken the mean between Rigor and Indulgency; And to say truth, me thinks it is very reasonable to go before certain faults, which cannot be punished after they are committed, and not to tarry to correct a mischief, when the guilty are become Masters of their Judges.  
It is true, that commonly out of a foolish pitty, single men are favoured, who enterprise against their Princes, because, in all causes, the more powerful are accounted the most outrageous; and it is usually presumed, that injury proceeds rather from force, then weakness. People will not believe that men have conspired against Kings, till they see the Conspiracy brought to execution, and the Conspirators dead: Yet I do not counsel them to suffer themselves to be killed, to justify their distrust; nor to fall into snares that are laid for them, to show they do not fear amiss: They may prevent danger, by the death of those they do suspect; it is an excusable severity: But it is a goodness which cannot be sufficiently praised, and which is only proper for the King, to do the same thing, and not to make a person die.  
Upon a bare suspicion, a light surmise, upon a dream which the Prince hath made, why shall it not be permitted him to secure himself of his factious Subjects, and to comfort his mind, in giving them rest for their trouble? Why shall not a faithful servant suffer with joy his detention, who giving place to a thing in contestation, shall make his innocency more clearly appear, and convince the calumny of his Enemies, and pacify the disquiets of his Master?  
It is not much better to hinder Innocents from falling, then to be brought to this sad necessity of condemning the guilty? To do thus, is it not to exercise acts of Mercy? Is it not, for the most part, to preserve those that would destroy themselves? If this easy means had been always used, to divert misfortunes which threaten the State, the liberty of one particular had not oftentimes been the ruin of a whole kingdom; If the Authors of our disorders had been opportunely seized upon, besides that so the first had been saved, they had spared a great number of others lives, and all the blood which hath been  shed during these Civill wars: If the ill-winds had been shut up, the Sea had not raged; If Kings had prudence enough, they would have nothing to do but Justice.  
I speak of that punctual and scrupulous Justice, which will not remedy the Crimes which are ready to be committed, because they are not put into form; which will stay till the Rebels have ruined the State, that so they may proceed against them lawfully; which to observe some terms of a Law, will suffer all Laws to perish: This extreme right, is an extreme injustice, and it would be a sin against reason, not to sin herein against forms: If the virtues did not help one another, they would be imperfect and defective: Prudence must ease Justice in many things, and that this, or that make speed; he that goes too slow will never arrive; she must hinder those mischiefs, whose punishment would be impossible, or dangerous.  
Justice is exercised only upon the Actions of men, but Prudence hath a right over their thoughts, and secretest Intention; she extends her self very far before what is to come; she respects the public Interest; she provides for the good of posterity; and to this end, she is constrained here and there, to make use of means which the Laws have not ordained, but which necessity justifieth, and which would not be good if they were not carried to a good end.  
The public profit is many times raised out of particular mens losses. The North wind purgeth the air, though it throw down trees,& ruin houses. We recover life by abstinence, by grief, by the loss of some one member, which we willingly part with to save the whole.  
Though the King hath preserved the Dignity and reputation of the Crown, in those conjunctures of time, when others would have thought it enough, not to have lost the State, though in the exteamity of evil, he would not, if it had been possible, make use of one Remedy which had been unpleasing; Though, in a word, he be infinitely sensible of the misery and complaints of his people, yet he could not choose but make them grow lean in healing them, nor draw out of his own veins and substance, wherewith to procure their health.  
But short pains are willingly to be endured, when they produce long prosperities: We cannot with honour desire to be discharged of a burden which we bear equally with our Master; and in an occasion where the Prince employs all his own, and spares not his own person; It is very just, that Subjects should do something for their part, and that there should be none lazy or idle in his State, while he takes pains and endangers himself. The roman Ladies once threw all their Jewels into a great pit, which opened itself in the middle of the City, imagining to stop it by that means: and Those of Carthage, in an urgent necessity, cut off their hair, and gave it to the public, to make cords for Engines of war; and if this be so, are not we very delicate to complain, and very unjust to murmur?  
Must the French have more passion for their silver, then the romans and Carthaginians had for their ornaments and beauty? And shall we be afraid to become poor to save our country, when women are content to be unhandsome for this end?  
We have this comfort at least, that it is not the riot of our Prince that spends our sweat and labour, and that the entertainment of his pleasure costs no body any thing. The money which he draws from his kingdom to rig his navy, and to maintain Armies, is not diverted to other uses, nor employed to celebrate Masques and present Comedies.  
He doth not as the Governours of Athens, who according to the Calculation of an ancient Author, spent more to have Medea, Antigone, the Phaenicians, and the bacchants acted, then to make a war against the Persians, and defend the Empire of Greece. For some late years, expenses have indeed been exceeding great, but they have been necessary; The people hath paid much, but it hath been their own ransom, and we cannot buy the liberty of our country at too dear a price, nor the quietness of our Posterity, to whom we bequeath no such sad employment.  
The King hath in a small time levied millions, but also in a small time he hath managed many wars, he hath defeated many parties, he hath taken many Towns, he hath cleansed many Provinces.   

CHAP. XVIII.  
ANd here I find myself, before I am ware, at the same place where I began; I am fallen into my first discourse I know not how. We must not once more admire the diligence of the King, who to the greatness of his Actions, hath added this grace, to do them speedily.  
Herein certainly appears something more then human; He uses the highest and most excellent ways of working; He seems to act in an instant, and that already he retains something of a glorified body, to which agility is no less proper then light: The quickness of his Actions troubles the sight and the imagination of the beholders that consider them: The Issue of one design is the passage to another; The change of labour serves him instead of repose; That which we think should be the end, is but a means to arrive thither.  
Who would not believe, but he would refresh himself after a siege of fifteen moneths, and that his spirit might be satisfied with routing the English Army, and with the taking of Rochel? Had he not wherewith to entertain himself long enough with the Memory of two such famous actions; to be nourished with fruits which were ready to be gathered, and to enjoy, at his ease, the reputation which he had gotten? Yet he had rather use the victory then enjoy it; and deprive himself of the reward for doing well, rather then lose one occasion of persevering.  
Behold him then, who is but half dry of the sweat of war, who is yet covered with the dust of Aunix; who hath not finished his compliments to the Queens: See him, I say, who no sooner return'd from Rochel, but he goes from Paris to put Italy into Liberty: Behold him who presseth Fortune without giving her any rest, who will not suffer his prosperity to languish, but pursues the favours of heaven, and forceth those affairs by his courage, which he had formerly wearied by his patience. Without doubt, good successses do not end with the Action that gives them birth, they continue after they are brought to pass; and leaving in the heart of Princes, a spur to incite them, pusheth them out of their Throne, as soon as they offer to sit down upon it.  
The designs which have succeeded well, beget new thoughts in them to enterprise new things, and gives them the desire of a new reputation, as if the first were already wholly spent; And as the most part of Lovers look not upon their Mistresses when they are become their wives, so they contemn their ancient glory, when it costs them no more pains to gain it.  
This passion in the soul of the King, is nothing else but the Emulation of himself; a jealousy of his own merit; An obstinacy always to conquer himself; the hope of what is to come, continually combating the reputation already passed; and the envy of what he is about to undertake, that which he hath already undertaken.  
He went down from the Alpes in the midst of winter, and by a memorable Battle, whose particulars I reserve for another place, making sure of a passage which they would dispute, and snatching the keys out of the hands of the Porters, he opened the Prisons to a whole captive Nation, and made them that complained of Tyrants, know that their Deliverer was come.  
At the noise of so great a news, the Spaniards withdrew their Troops from Mountferrat, abandoning the labour of many moneths, and losing the glory of that Constancy, which their Flatterers so often oppose to our lightness.  
It is in vain that so many preparatives are made, and that they have traversed so much ground. The expense of a long siege remains useless: They fear more for Milan, then they hope for Cazal; and as there is nothing so contagious, nor which runneth so fast, as fear, the troubled imagination presenting the last evils first, and the extremity of things; They tremble already in the Castles of Naples; and the Garrison of Palermo finds not the narrow Sea large enough, which parteth Scicilie from Italy.  
The King, in the mean time, is content to raise the dejected spirits, and to humble the proud; he will not be happy for himself, having fought only for his friends, nor make any profit from their wars, his Armies being not mercenary. He lets his pretences sleep for a while, and the rights of his Crown, which he will not mingle with their affairs, that the assistance which he gives them, may be of pure gratuity; and that there may seem no nearer, or more particular Interest then that of their safety, nor that he will make use of a less enterprise to spare a greater.  
The Romans did not assist their Allies with the like freedom, nor like him embrace honest things, for the bare respect of honesty: Particular private men were virtuous, but the republic was unjust. The Profit which they contemned at home, was the end and scope of their Consultations in the Senate; and though they gave fair names to their enterprises, and coloured them with a seeming Generosity, yet they were full of Interests, and went, if not altogether strait on, yet some by-way to the advancement of their Empire.  
In the cause of the people who called them, they had always their design apart; Almost all their usurpations began by defending the good of another; and in succouring the weak against the stronger, they gained one part of the land, and conquered the other.  
The King doth not traffic thus with his courtesies and benefits, and his valour is neither covetous nor ambitious; After the service of God, and the general good of christendom, which are his first objects, he only labours for glory and reputation: He seeks for no other recompense for what he doth, but the lustre which redounds from his action, and the good savour it leaves behind; He was not invited to his neighbours, but by the only consideration of their need, and his own honour; nor carried his arms out of his kingdom, but to make them know the difference of Princes, to their benefit; to receive with Authority the complaints of the afflicted; to preserve right to those that have it, and to do Justice to all the world.  
This is certainly to be called a King, and to hold the place of God upon earth; this is to exercise a healthful power to all people, and which suffers with all forms of Government; It is to embrace, with a common protection, that which is far off as well as that which is near; It is to give, with an intent not to take: And just as the Eagle in the Fable, carried ganymed into heaven, without either scratching his skin, or tearing his garments; so he makes strangers perceive the happiness of his Empire, without offending That of their Liberty, nor touching any thing that is dear unto them. The Princes that live thus, are to be esteemed much more then Conquerors, and those that aspire to monarchy.  
The Havens which receive into their bosom, Vessels weather-beaten, and torn with Tempests, are much richer ornaments to their Coasts, and fair pieces of the Universe, then those infamous Rocks, which the Mariners only look upon trembling, and which would want a name did they not cause shipwrecks. There is much more pleasure in looking upon the Sun all crwoned with the glory of his beams, which brings us joy with light; then to behold a Comet with bloody locks, which threatens a thousand mischiefs: And if the other superior Bodies had a will, and acted with reason, it would be certainly, for their favourable Aspects that Men would praise them, and not for their Malignant Influences.  
The glory which is acquired in obliging the public, is the only glory which no man quarrels; because every one partakes of it: and the honor of one Man is the felicity of the whole world. Thus People touched with so lawful a resentment, have heretofore placed their Benefactors in the number of their Gods, and have adored that valour which was profitable to them. Those who had crushed a Serpent of an extraordinary greatness, or slain a boar which made havoc of all about the City, received religious duties of acknowledgement from their Citizens; and to be a Heros, it sufficed to cleanse the country of some Monster. Now I pray you, was there ever a more cruel and more formidable one, then the Tyranny which at this day would swallow up all the Christian republic, and which is not satisfied, for this hundred and fifty years, or there abouts, since she devours States and kingdoms?   

CHAP. XIX.  
WE do not accuse herein the blood of Austria, nor the particular Actions of any of its Princes: They are all extremely well born; They all bring into the world great seeds of virtue, which they husband with as great care, goodness, Courage, wisdom, are the true marks of this Race, and incomparably fairer then the figure of a Sword upon the right arm, or the impression of a Lance upon the Thigh: There never were more royal, or more Noble souls. There cannot be found better, nor sweeter dispositions then theirs: and the Evil which I mean, is of their Fortune, and not of their Person. Besides, that I make profession to reverence in general all higher powers, I know what respect is due to a house whereof the Emperour is but a younger Brother, and spain one branch. I am not ignorant of the Sanctity of our Alliances: I see very well from whence our good queen is descended; But I believe she will not take that ill, which the necessity of my discourse exacts from me, and which I am constrained to speak of; the ambition of a People which now is nothing to her. she hath not so much passion for the kingdom where she was born, as for that where she commands; and if it be true according to the maxims of the Civilians, that wives are the end of the families from whence they come, and the beginning of those whither they enter; The name which that wise and generous princess bears, though most August and Glorious, but yet which cannot pass from her to another, cannot be so dear to her as the hope of that faire posterity which she promiseth to this Crown. The Interests which she hath long since quited, cannot now divide her affections, nor trouble her mind; And that which she hath received from Spain, is not, I assure myself, of such consideration with her, as that which she would give to France. We seriously honor, and with a particular devotion, those persons which belong unto her: They are doubly sacred, both by their Character and by their proximity. But truly the design of the universal monarchy, which was conceived under King Ferdinand, disclosed under the Emperour Charles, and which the Counsel of Spain hath always nourished ever since that time; cannot be considered without horror and indignation, by any man that loves his country.  
I intend only to balm that Counsel, of which they are wont to say, Their Princes are mortal, but their Counsel is eternal: This Counsel which the Kings do find, and not make; which they receive from Fathers to Son, which they dare no more meddle with then the Foundations of their State, and which exerciseth in some sort a sovereignty distinct from theirs; which they suffer out of a mere reverence to custom. I blame therefore this Counsel which follows such dangerous maxims, and not those who have only right intentions. I accuse that Counsel which fights against the good nature of the Prince, which will command its own Master; and this is the Monster whereof I speak.  
See, if you please, with what ardour he throws himself upon the prey; and how he forces himself to tear in pieces the Noblest parts of Europe. italy bleeds in divers places with the scratches which it hath received thence: She is not free from his strokes but in one little corner of firm earth; and all that is sound on that side is so heavy with old age, that it can hardly move to defend the residue of what is left.  
There remaines nothing entire, nor cognoscible in Germany, but the Sea and the Mountaines, because he could not change the face of nature; It is not any more that Province, so free and so powerful as heretofore: He hath made it groan under the irons and burdens wherewith he hath charged it; He hath broken all their privileges; He hath violated all their immunities; He hath oppressed them by mere force; They are not any longer his Members which he torments, they are only his wounds. If he flatter some Common-wealth, among the many which he threateneth, and persecuteth; the good will which he shows them is an adulterate love; He courts it only to enjoy, and makes no offers nor promises, but only to deprive it of its honor, and the power to dispose of itself. His Confederacies are like those of Nahash the Ammonite, who answered the men of Jabesh Gilead, that desired to enter into Alliance with him; Herein will I consent, if I may pluck out your right eyes, and set you as a reproach before all Israel.  
If his Caresses do not always kill, they weaken and corrupt; If he strangle not with embraces, yet he sullies and spoils the body which he toucheth. The parts which he leaves no print on with his bitings, he infects with his breath; and though in appearance he seem to spare Genois, and those of Luca, they cannot say for all this, that he leaves them their Liberty pure and spotless, without any stamp of slavery  
To these he gives; from those he borrows; that both may depend upon him: That Pensioners and Debters may keep a country for him, where he hath no Subjects; that he may reign by Family interests, being not able to do it by Colonies and Garrisons.  
This golden Fleece so much esteemed, is a yoke which he imposeth upon petty Princes, that perceive not that he tames them by honouring them, and that such a society gives them a Master, and not a Companion; He will at last, either destroy all, or possess all; and as well beyond the Alps, as beyond the Rhine, he oppresseth all sovereigns either with his friendship, or his hatred.  
There is nothing to be seen about him, but crushed sceptres, broken Crowns, overturned Tribunals, nothing but the torn Ensigns of Dominion and Jurisdiction, but the heads of dead Kings, and the spoils of those that are yet alive; There is nothing heard about him, but the plaints and groans of the afflicted, but proud and outrageous Commands, but Bravadoes added to Cruelty, reproaches to the miserable, and the voice which echoes on all sides, Woe and despair to the vanquished.   

CHAP. XX.  
THat he may take away from his Tyranny the distasteful name of Novelty, he revives ancient Oracles which he interprets to his own advantage. He allegeth for a right and Title of his ambition, That the Lord of all the world must come out of Spain; That it is more then 1500 years since this promise was made to it; In virtue whereof, he would get credit to it, by Ferdinand Cortez, with Motesume the King of Mexica; That the Emperour was his natural Lord, him whom he ought to expect and acknowledge as sovereign Monarch of the Universe; his first-born and lawful heir of his Predecessors in al the Indies.  
At the persuasion of this Monster, the Emperour himself so wise and virtuous, ordinarily bragged amongst his Familiars, to make the King of France the poorest Gentleman of his kingdom: He embroiled them again the very same day they were made friends. The modestest words that he uttered to Charles at that time, were, There is no other means to put an end to the public calamities, but that Francis, besides what he is, be Emperour and King of Spain in my place, or I, besides what I am, King of France in his room.  
He engraved this proud Inscription upon the Frontis-piece of a Palace, which is to be seen in Lumbardy; To Philip the second, King of Kings, Spanish, African, Indian, belgic, the courteous Master of all Nations, chosen by God to re-unite all the separated Empires. And after this shall we doubt of his Intentions? Methinks we cannot ask a more express and authentic Declaration; we need not put Interrogatories to Spies, nor decipher the letters which should give light to his design, since the stones speak, and it is imprinted in Marble.  
He doth not make war for the honour of victory, or to recover that which is lost; It is only to get unjustly, and for the hope of booty; He ends not there, to give rest to oppressed Provinces; but to disarm his Enemies, and to deceive those whom he could not overcome. And indeed, as soon as he hath withdrawn his forces, and shut up his magazines, he makes use of sleights, and opens shops full of all wicked and cruel inventions, pernicious and bloody arts.  
There within are kept words of a double meaning, captious promises, oaths which they will violate, false pieces, and Treacherous friendships; all the apple of disorder are gathered there; There are craftsmen that labour day and night to lay hooks and snares; There are nets so subtle, that the cunning'st will be caught: From thence proceed those packets and letters which bewitch the people, which weaken courage, and pervert the fidelity of the greatest Captains; From thence have been unsheathed those knives which have committed parricides; the poison which hath been mingled amongst the diseases of the Sons of France; The gold which hath been thrown into our counsel, The nourishment which hath fed the league; the remedy which yet continues some small motion, and heaps together some remainders of life in the languishing and miserable Body of the Hugonote Faction. To hang six thousand men one afternoon against the Law of arms, and to say, it is to chastise five or six seditious persons: To banish one whole people from their native country; To choke another under the earth: To load a ship with chains for the English who should be saved from the sword, if the Armado that partend from lisbon, in the year 1588, had succeeded as they conceived: To undertake to carry away, at a blow, the whole house of England, and to involve in a common ruin catholics and Protestants, is but a part of the Actions and of the Thoughts of this Monster; no more then what he hath done, and what he would have done.  
But think not that he watcheth only for strangers, and that he deals any better with domestics: He is not milder at home then abroad, neither is he sociable to any. Is not the whole blood of Arragon ruined by divers means? Did he not sacrifice an only son to the suspicions and d strust of his Father? Hath he not very well acknowledged the services and fidelity of Alexander Farneza, Duke of Parma? Did he not believe he did recompense him, if he used him a little more favourable then he had done his Grandfather Peter Lewis, who was assassinated at Placentia? Don John of Austria, was he freely virtuous? Was it not a crime to that poor Prince to have done well, and to have been able to do ill? Whereof was he judged guilty, but of his great reputation? Was it not believed he hindered him to grow old, because he feared the progress of so fair a beginning, because he conceives he had qualities too worthy to command, that they should always be employed to obey? He protesteth nevertheless; that he doth nothing but to advance the glory of God, and would have his Cruelties be accounted good, as if he had undertaken them by divine Inspiration, and for the general good of the world.  
To hear him speak, That if he did not keep Religion here below, she would fly away to heaven; That if he did not uphold the Church, it had fallen long before; and that Jesus Christ reigns not, but by the help and assistance he lends him. Yet it is certain, that if Religion were not profitable to him, it would be less then indifferent; and that he is the Persecuter of the Church, when she refuseth to be the Minister of his passions, and that he hath always served Jesus Christ unfaithfully.  
No man can be ignorant of the foul play and Treasons which he hath committed against him, besides the visible acts of hostility which he hath exercised in the seat of his Empire, even in the sanctuary.  
Dare he deny, but he was the Cause of the Revolt of the North, and guilty of Luthers first faults? It was he that encouraged that petty Monk, who never had dared to shoulder the Pope, if he had believed he had kept good correspondence with the Emperour. It was he that received into his arms the growing heresy, and favoure● its beginnings, that so he might divide the spiritual strength of th● Holy Sea from the temporal one of Germany, and after he ha● weakened both, he might have le● trouble to usurp over both. Henr● the eight grew desperate by hi● means, and by the pursuites and Importunities of his Agents.  
To content him, the Rigor o● the Church went as swift as the passion of Spain: He employed the last remedies in the apprehension of a disease, and cut off that which was not yet corrupted: And to pass from thence, the time being changed, and his revenge satisfied, without caring for the Interest of the Church which had espoused his, not of the danger where he left her, and into which he had precipitated her; he made no difficulty to contract a most firm alliance with this King whom he came to render schismatic, and who smoked yet, if we may so say, with the Anathema which was thrown upon him.  
But that which is beyond all belief, and which obligeth me to have compassion of poor men, who dare not believe evil to be evil for fear of passing rash judgement; Is, That at the same time that he ordained processions in Spain for the exaltation of the Holy-Church, He entered Rome with an Army of Lutherans; He took prisoner Pope Clement, and exposed to the avarice and laughter of heretics, the pomp and magnificence of the Spouse of the Son of God, the presents of Kings and Nations, the relics of blessed Martyrs, the Bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul, and generally, all things that we reverence, and towards which the very Divels themselves have in some sort a respect or fear.  
Before the world he covers himself with specious Pretences, and all his garments are powdered with the names of Jesus, and with painted Crosses; but this is only a person which he represents.  
In the Assemblies he sounds high the salvation of souls and the public profit, but in private he mocks at it, and speaks in the ear of his Favourites, that he must reduce all to himself; that to rise, he may walk upon the Body of his own Father; That Truth of itself is not better then falsehood, and that we ought to measure the value of the one and of the other, by the profit which comes from them; that a good Conscience is extremely inconvenient for a man that hath great designs; That the advantages of Religion are for Princes, the scruples and doubts for their Subjects; That virtue may be sometimes dangerous, but its appearance always necessary; That injustice indeed carrieth an odious name, but the unjust find themselves well; that contrarily honesty is content to be praised, and to profit those that have it not, being altogether unprofitable to him that possesseth it.   

CHAP. XXI.  
THese and such like maxims coming out of a mouth so impure, and this prodigy being more ugly and formidable then I can possibly paint it forth; I must needs protest, that christendom is infinitely obliged to the King, for his continual care to protect it from his Ambushes, and to break as many enterprises as he can make to the prejudice of the Common liberty.  
She hath wherewith to comfort her self for the death of the Late King, in the Person of so worthy a successor, and wherewith to forget so many losses in the possession of so great a good; She hath that Prince which she eal'd upon in her grief so many yeares ago, and which she wanted when Navarre was usurped, when Portugal was ravished away, when kingdoms were reduced into Provinces. He hath already wiped off the tears of the disconsolate commonwealth, and healed some of her wounds; but for the little aid which he claims from her self, that small and correspondence with the design which he hath, he will speedily requited all the injuries which she hath received: He hath put her in a condition not to fear: and if she be not wanting to her self, to hope all things.  
It is not his fault that she recovers not her former beauty, having received from him her primitive form; that he distinguisheth not her different parties, whereof will be made a confused and monstrous heap; and that he puts not in their right place the just bounds of his States, which have been removed, during the disorders of France.  
Though the disease be never so violent that assaults her, she shall never want a remedy; In what place soever the Monster appears, she is sure of a Preserver, and whatsoever power threateneth her, she hath another to defend her.  
And for us who have seen so fair a light rise over our head, who have adored it from the first instant of its appearing, and who are neerlier concerned with this brave Prince then Strangers, having the honour to have the same Common country with him: We ought certainly, to account it an exceeding glory, that a Frenchman is this day necessary for all Europe.  
In that he is the desire and expectation of all people; that he makes new Destinies for wretched Innocents; That he undertakes with success good causes abandoned; that he is praised of all that have any need of his word; that he is admired of wise men, as much as other Princes are of the vulgar.  
If, when the Greeks or Romans made havoc of the world, and whole kingdoms bewailed their victories, and were mourning for their Conquests; any one had been found of this humour, who had stopped the impetuousnesse of their Ambition, and had strength and courage enough to revenge the offended Nations, what Sacrifices think you had been offered to him? In what part of the earth had they not erected Altars to him? What place had he not obtained among the demigods of every country? And though our Religion allow not so liberal an acknowledgement; what prayers should we have given him, who should have chased Alexander into his own Macedon, or forced the romans to the brink of their own tiber? When the Goths, the Vandals, the Gepides, the Mains, the Huns, the Quades, the Herules,& those other enemies of Mankind, quitted their miserable habitations, and overran divers Countries of the world, to find more happy dwellings, and a more favourable air, then that of their Birth: When with unusual faces, an inarticulate language, with the skins of Wild-beasts, which covered them even to the eyes; they carried on all sides death and slavery; and there was made almost an universal change of Laws, customs, Government and Language.  
If God had raised up such a Prince as ours; who had been able to stop the course of these people of the North, and denied them entrance into Gaule and italy; who had sent them back to inhabit their wilderness, and to endure the rigours of their eternal winter? If there had been a Lewis the Just, to oppose the Gensericks, and the Maricks; to chastise Attila and Totila, and such Usurpers; whom one cannot name without hurting his mouth, and wounding French ears; the virtue of this generous Defender of liberty, would be at this day adored wherever there were any assembly of men, or any form of Government; There would remain nothing of him which the public Piety had not consecrated, and put in the number of Sainted things: His triumph had lasted yet, and had been continued by the Justice of Posterity, in the succession of all Ages. On the contrary, the hatred which is born to Tyrants never hath an end; having accompanied them all their life, it follows them to their grave, and suffers them not to enjoy in safety that common Asylum of the miserable. Their happiness which was only built upon blood, Deaths and ruins, is a doleful and portentous object to all the generations of men: We wish them ill in the Histories; We are of all the conspiracies which they tell us have been made against their persons; and reading the progress of their good fortune, we make all the hast we can to come to their end, to behold them perish with pleasure: In brief, not any damned are more tormented then they; For the pains which they suffer in another life, are augmented by the curses they receive in this; and as long as their soul burns in the bottomless pit, their very phantasm, which remains here, is not free from punishment; and we exercise our vengeance at least upon their reputation, and their memory.  
Let them accuse Heaven as much as they will, to justify themselves; Let them say, as long as they will, to authorize their power, that it comes from on High; That they are established by the hand of God, and assisted particularly by his grace: God indeed may make use of them, but he loves them not; If he sends them us, it is in his wrath and in the day of his fury: They are the evils wherewith the prophets threaten us; the effects of his offended providence, the executioners of his justice. The sword of the Almighty is in the hands of his enemies, Psal. 16. It was  told of Esau,( which Saint Paul gives us for a sign and example of the Reprobate) that he should live by his sword. Woe upon Ashur, crieth the Lord by Isaiah: He is the rod of my fury; He is my staff my indignation is in his hand. Woe unto those that go down into Egypt for aid; The Egyptian is a man and not God, and their horses are flesh and not spirit. Where we may see by the way, that He not only detests Tyrants, but also the People that are confederate with them, and who adheer unto their Party; He not only condemns violence, but also base cowardliness.  
Anti-Christ, who is called the Man of Sin, and the Son of Perdition, shall be sent after the same manner as these unjust conquerors. He shal slay, usurp, and invade, more then ever they have done. The Conquerors that are spoken of, are but petty thieves and ordinary offenders in respect of him. He must be enriched with the spoil of the Universe, and gather the succession of all ages: If there be any new Mines to be discovered, they are reserved for him. The Ocean shall have no pearls, nor amber but for him; All sovereigns shall be his Subjects, and of all States he shall make but one; It shall be that Beast which Saint John saw ascend out of the sea, who had seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten Diadems, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. The Dragon which drew with his tail the third part of the stars, and cast them down, shall resign his power to him, and constrain all creatures ot fall down before him. To him it shall be given to make war against the Saints, and to overcome them: He shall have power over every Kindred, Language and Nation. But that Ambitious men who renounce all hope of paradise for the smallest Interests, and sell their soul at too cheap a rate, may draw no advantage from this comparison, who will flatter their vanity, and boast of the miseries whereof they are the Cause; They must know, that the filthiest and most imperfect Creatures have heretofore driven people out of their Country, have made desert, Islands extremely fruitful, and that Frogs, Bats and Locusts have been employed; as well as they, to make desolate Empires and to persecute, one while the guilty, another while the innocent. Even dead things, and inanimate, want not strength, when there is no question but to destroy and ruin. Winds, reins, Drouths are more formidable then Spaniards. There needeth but a weeks sickness to make of a great kingdom a great wilderness. One evil Exhalation, which spreads itself from East to West, is able to starve the World by a general barennesse: And yet Spinola with all his skill, and all the forces of his Master, shall have much ado to make a dearth in a besieged place.  
In the year of Grace, 170. a man opening by chance a shrine of gold, which was in the Temple of Apollo in Babylon, there came out such a pestilent breath, that it choked him presently, infected the City and the Province, and over-ran such a vast circuit of the country, that almost half Mankind died thereof, and the fairest portion of the Universe was unpeopled. So that the war of the Marcomans coming in this time, all the Roman Empire was not able to furnish men enough to make up the body of a full Army, and they were fain to list the Slaves and the Gladiators, and other Criminals, for want of lawful Souldiers.  
Under the Reign of the Emperor Tyberius, an Earthquake swallowed up 17 Towns of Asia, in less then 24 houres space, and other accidents have destroyed other famous Cities, which are only now found in Ancient Geographers.  
I have seen the tops of Steeples in the bottom of waters: I have seen Ships sail over the Cities of zealand, and pitied the greatness of human things, at the sight of this sad and miserable spectacle. And indeed, who is so enchanted with the Court, and so amazed with the noise and Tumult which the fortune of Kings maketh: who doth not contemn the weakness of the most mighty, and doth not laugh at the three yeares and a half which were employed to conquer a heap of Sand, and to take the place where Ostend was, if he will but take the pains to consider, that a hole well stopped in a bank, may in one night drowned all the Low-Countreys? To say truth, it is harder to profit then to hurt, to save men then to destroy them: to maintain the solid, the firm temper of bodies subject to perish, and which may come to an end at every moment, then to hasten their destruction for a few houres.  
And if it be true as Divinity teacheth us, that the eternal wisdom in preserving the world continueth in some sort to create; In like manner, the King, who hath resolved to underprop shaken States, to re-invest the lawful Lords, and to maintain the ancient Laws, shall do no less then Law-givers have done, who first assembled wandring men, who drew the model of Communities, and laid the Foundations of policy.   

CHAP. XXII.  
IF he saw nothing beyond this life, and if he had no Judge above, before whom he must one day appear; He might, as well as others, grow great with the miseries of christendom; and with time it would not be impossible for him to come to the monarchy of the world: He might make his best of occasions which smile upon him on which side soever he turns himself; to husband the seeds of Division sprung up among our neighbours, hear people that solicit him, and receive those who would willingly render themselves: Necessary qualities to conquer, and to assure Conquests, are not wanting to him: he is in the strength of a fair and flourishing youth: he hath got an incredible reputation, he hath a boldness astonished at nothing; a patience which performeth all things, a kingdom which can neither be poor, nor unpeopled.  
I have not resolved here to praise France, that rich and pleasant part of the earth, which heaven favours with its sweetest and most amorous aspects, and upon which it sheds the best Influences of the stars: I will say nothing, in particular, of the reputation of the King: It is sufficiently known, by it his kingdom hath no Frontiers; by it, he reigns in the minds of others Subjects; and that the esteem which strangers make of him, is the cause that they neglect their own Princes.  
I will speak no more of his boldness, which hath oftentimes obliged him to assault his Enemies, though they were more in number, and had the advantage of the place to fight in; that hath carried him to begin a great war with his mere Regiment of Guards; which hath made him undertake a business which his Father had only discovered, and where his Predecessors having employed all their might, shew'd nothing but their weakness.  
If in the life of Epiphanius, Bishop of Pavia, written by his Successor, in the same Dignity there be mention made, as it were, of a half miracle, that he durst pass the Alpes in the month of March, to go find at lion, the King of the Bourgonians, in behalf of the King of the Goths: and if the Author call this, to contemn Death, to fight against the violence of the season, and not to fear the injuries of the incensed heaven: What is it that the King goes presently to do with an Army? Hath he not conquered in February in the precipices, and the Ice? Hath he not taken a Town that the winter, the Mountains, and men defended? For the labour which he built in the Sea, and in the midst of the tossed waves, I intend not to touch here.  
The modesty of an Orators style agrees not with an action so strange, so unheard of, so little credible: Poets have only tight to deal on this Subject, it belongs to their artificial language, and as they call it, heroic; it is worthy of their enthusiasm, and of their pompous and figurative descriptions; It would be to enter into their profession, and to pass those bounds which do divide us, but to be willing to relate the Captivity of the Ocean, the restrained power of the waves, the removed place of the Elements, the Empire of winds, and of fortune which hath changed its Master, and no longer acknowledgeth any but Lewis the Just. Never did Truth more resemble a lie then this; and we doubt yet whether it were a dream, or an enchantment, or a story.  
So much there is that we may avow, that the King is bold, even to undertake things without example, which ravish with admiration those that behold them, and appear to others so hard and difficult, that they have much ado not to account them Fabulous; But we must avow by the same means, that his boldness never did any thing without his Patience, and that this which is not contrary to readiness, of which we will presently speak, hath recompensed his pains, crwoned his work, set the affairs in their last perfection, and hath founded an eternal peace upon an entire victory.  
We might have seen else-where great beginnings, formidable preparations, many wars proclaimed, store of Edicts of fire and blood: But these beginnings had been but recalled by other contrary ones, and these warres had been ended by a lost expenses; these Preparations had done no more hurt, then the machiness of a theatre, then the picture of Dragons and Cerberusses, these Edicts had been dishonourable accommodation: The first success that had not answered our wish, had made us curse the whole business; At the least difficulty which had offered itself contrary to our expectation, we had fallen out with Paris, regretted the Court, and the Tuilleries; A good and wholesome counsel had been blamed, not for having been followed with a bad event, but for not having produced an effect soon enough: And if the Victory had not come just at the point that we would have had, we had left our affairs thus far advanced, and grown desperate at a thing half done. Patience then is absolutely necessary to execute high and important enterprises; to go on just right to the mark, without staying on one or other side of the way; to do that which he hath resolved, to make a mock of running reports, to prefer durable glory and solid effects, before a short reputation, and the vanity of appearance; To be moved neither at the murmures of his own, not the bravadoes of his enemy, to come to the end of his obstinate resolution, after he hath spent its strength to overcome. Lastly, that which both will, and and knows how to defend itself. But what need we dissemble? This virtue which the King this day puts in use, is as new to us, as it was unknown to our Fathers; the public voice reproacheth us with the contrary 'vice, and all Antiquity hath blamed us for it: For though sometimes they swore solemnly never to put of their belts till they had won the Capitol, and sometimes promised their God to consecrate to him the arms of the romans, and to present him a Collar of Gold made of their booty; Though yet living under Christian Laws, they obliged themselves to take Cities, and vowed never to put off their clothes, nor to eat nor drink till they had gained them, which they called to swear and vow a Siege, yet most commonly they broken their vow, and violated their oath; and if at any time they gained the places which they besieged, it was rather by rashness then by reason, rather in losing men, then in managing the time; and more for that the Art of Fortification was unknown, then that they knew how to assault them.  
For my own part, I cannot praise this casual and disorderly valour; It is no hard matter to be courageous for a time, but always to be, is hard; and an even temper hath been so much esteemed amongst some Sages, that they have believed, that it was something more excellent to persevere in an evil, then not to be assured in virtue.  
There is a great company of men who would do good actions, if they should endure for but a day; there are few that are able to manage a long design; There are few so eager, whose motion passeth not away, or who have continual furies; There are scarce any but had rather undertake many businesses, and change often, then to fix to one object, and continue in the same labour. The most part of the Northern people do thus, and have only some raptures and sudden motions; They use no discourse, nor make use of reason to a war, but collecting all their vigour together, and casting out all their choler; at first, they make an extreme fierce onset; after which, finding more resistance then they expected, and the property of violence being to endure but a while, if reason and argument be not there to maintain it, as they were more then men at the beginning, so they become less then women in the pursuit of their action and as if they went out of a fitt of a fever, after they have been stirred, they languish in a lethargy; they fly ordinarily, if they put not to flight, and yield themselves, if they do not take: At least they will hazard their fortune and their hopes all at once, and ask a general assault, or one set battle, that they may have nothing to do to morrow: They never dream of overcoming, but of ending the war, and to go out of their present inconveniences even by thier defeat, nay by their death: That brave Gaule knew it very well in the Commentaries of his Enemy, where answering the objections of his Accusers; he protested he would not leave the charge of his Army with any body, for fear lest he, to whom he left it, pressed with the importunity of the multitude, might be constrained to fight; to which he saw all were inclined, for that they had not courage, nor were able to endure the tediousness of a war. And in another passage of the same writings, we may see that it is oftentimes cowardice and not boldness, to remit all to the decision of one Battle; and that more are found who will willingly offer themselves to death, then who will manfully suffer pain.  
The Emperor Otho was conquered, because he had not patience to conquer: He killed himself out of daintiness, and choose rather to perish quickly, then to suffer but a while: without showing any fear, or being put to slight, he was the deserter of his Party, and the fugitive of his own Army: He wanted neither counsel nor strength; he had the fairest Troops, and the most desirous to do well that ever were seen; and yet by reason of one day which was not fortunate to them, he abandoned the victory to an enemy who in all things was inferior to him, and quitted his party because he got not at the first blow. He renounced the Empire, his honour and his life, for not being able to support the doubt and uncertainty of the future; and the care of being still solicitous after his affairs, seemed so troublesone to him, that in some sort to be at leisure, he went out of the world.  
We see by this, that weakness, as well as necessity, carries men to desire extremes, and that not only the valiant and the desperate despise death, but also the nice and discontented.  
The opinion of misery toucheth weak minds more violently then misery itself; they believe they do very much to save themselves from being tossed, to fall down, and prefer an ill condition before an uncertain one: It is impossible for them to let events succeed, and to expect the maturity of things: They would hasten the course of Providence, and advance its effects; they would manage at their pleasure its motions and periods: They would led it, and not follow it, as if it were Their providence, and not Gods.  
Wise men do otherwise, David gives this testimony of himself; That he hath patiently waited for the Lord, who deceived him not: And yet this impatience is so natural to a man, and so hard to be overcome, that he confesseth, that the successses which he hoped for, have oftentimes wearied his hopes; that his spirit was dismayed in the consideration of what was to come, and his faith weakened by the length of time which came not; that many times murmurings slipped from him, even to doubt of his Anointing, and of the word of Samuel, saying, Every man is a liar; to say to God himself: Sleepest thou O Lord? Hast thou forgot thy Promise? Wilt thou falsify thy Oath? Now, since a Prince who was assured of Gods design, by express Revelations, and by an infallible knowledge, seeing that the effects of promises went on more slowly then he desired, was disquieted to hope, and had doubts, and beginnings of impatiency: What praises shall we bestow upon the King? Who not knowing whether his enterprises should be successful or no, but knowing only that they were just: not knowing whether God would reward them in this world, but knowing only that he doth approve them; brings an invincible firmness and perseverance: from which he can be turned neither by the length of time, nor by the greatness of expense, nor by the number of adversaries, who increase; nor by the default of Friends, who fail; nor by the hardness of the matter which he encounters; nor by the repugnancy of the workmen which he employs?   

CHAP. XXIII.  
NOthing is impossible to a Prince which knows how to expect and persevere thus; especially when he is young, and hath not only before him a large time to employ, but can also change his virtue according to the diversity of occasions, and make use of expedition, where patience is not beneficial.  
The Age whereof the King is now, is the age of well-undertaking, and of well-acting, the fullness and perfection of a man, the vigour and solidity of life: Children are not yet come to it, and old men are passed it; one are the Flowers, the other the bark: These know not the things of the world, the others have forgotten them.  
Men grow not old impunely and without some notable diminution of themselves: It costs ordinarily all a mans strength, and a piece of his reason: A man cannot be twice,& we do wrong to call that ripe, which is rotten; and to believe that good counsels can only proceed from the want of natural heat: This would be to give a very dishonourable beginning to Prudence, to make it the daughter of Infirmity: It would be, to be ungrateful to God, to attribute to time and other inferior Causes, the grace which we hold only from him.  
Thus the most ancient and best instructed Philosophers, having propounded it as a general Belief, that good sense is the possession of the Ancient, and that the multitude of years teacheth wisdom: He concludes that he had been of that opinion, but that since he had known, That the Ancient do not always understand judgement, and that old men are not always wise: That it is the Inspiration of the Almighty which giveth understanding, and that the spirit is from man, and not from age.  
And a Rabbin, who is of no small authority among the Jews, expounding that Text of holy Scripture, Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; concludes from these words; That young men are admitted nearer God then old men, and that they have a more particular communication of his secrets; Forasmuch as the knowledge which is drawn from a vision, is clearer and more distinct, then that which proceeds from a dream.  
If we may believe those who have the honour to be near the King, and to consider the most inward course of his life, the source of his actions; he is so happy in what he conceiveth, and judgeth so certainly of uncertain things, that it appears he beholds them not after our manner, and that he is guided by a purer light then that of ordinary reason; The most part of the great resolutions which he hath taken, have been sent him from Heaven; The greatest part of his Counsels come from a superior Prudence, and are rather to be accounted the immediate Inspirations of God, then proposals made by men. He oftentimes finds truth without taking the pains to search for it; and the suddenest motion of his thought, is ordinarily so rational and so concluding, that the following discourse doth only approve that first act, without adding any new thing thereto.  
I know there is a miserable science which men learn by their faults and their misfortunes; and that many become Physitians from the strength and frequency of their diseases. But yet this advantage of long age, which is got only by the loss of the dearest and most precious part of our life, is not wanting to the Kings youth; and fortune hath assembled so many divers events, and hath made him see in a throng such a number of affairs, that you will say, that she had a design to give him an abridged experience, and to teach him in an Epitome; she was never more busy, never more active then under his reign; she hath hide nothing from him of all the strange things she could produce; she hath brought to light even the utmost of her malice: She hath not reserved one blow which she hath not strike: she hath shewed him in less then 19 years the image of many ages.  
There have passed some whole seasons, wherein the world seemed to be a sleep, and that there was, as it were, a general suspension of all the functions of an active life; There is a vacuum, an empty space in the memory of things: Renown gives but a very slender testimony thereof: Books tell us no news; there is not any History of that time, or at most it is only employed in describing the Feasts and Masks at the Carnevall, in representing the order of a Ceremony, and magnificence of a tourney, in relating the arrival of some King to his capital City, or the Solemnities of his Marriage. We are not born in such soft and idle seasons: the Reign of the King is not of this sort. It is remarkable as well by its proper storms, as by the changes and revolutions which have happened in all Europe: There hath been nothing but tumults and hurli-burly, but Civil and domestic divisions, but revolts or intendments to them; They never disarmed for good and all, nor was there any concord or agreement which was not broken the next day: The public good, and the reformation of the State, have almost ruined the public and the State three or four times: majesty hath been assaulted on all sides, and by all kind of engines and plots. He hath been fain to avenge it of the outrages of those that contemned it, to draw it out of their hands that abused it; He hath been compelled to punish his Lovers, and his Enemies, to defend himself from within against evil Counsellors, and from without against Rebels; to purchase the Covetous, to honor the Ambitious, and at last to conquer both the one and the other. The King hath been nourished in this fair calm, he hath grown up amid these oppositions and contradictions.  
This was the pastime of his Infancy, and the recreations he was allowed, after the death of the late King his Father: These are the flowers which he found in the way he made; the shades and resting places which were erected for him in his passage: Yet to say the truth, so harsh and rigid an exercise hath not been unprofitable to him. The tempest hath taught him the art of swimming; Adversity hath red him lessons which he will make use of all his life; He hath not lost his time in so sad a School: Pains afford more instructions then pleasures; It is much better for him that Adversaries have exercised his virtue, then that Flatterers had corrupted it: He hath drawn much more profit from his great variety of misfortunes, then he could have had contentment from so long a peace, whose daies are all alike. At least, in a good hour he hath learned hence to be secret, having had at first to encounter a multitude of Traitors and Spies, and to guard himself from all the cunning of an evil time; He hath acquired the perfection of that quality, which makes man the true possessor of himself, and whereby he is not put in the power of another, by an inconsiderate liberty; that he retains a settled mind in the ambushments and enterprises of wicked men: That he spends by measure and with discretion, and leaves no outward mark of his Intentions to those that should not know them: He hath practised before their season, and in the Innocence of his first years, the other virtues of old age; and at the age where we begin to observe onely good inclinations, we have admired perfect Habits.  
We have seen a wise Child, a judicious Child, a Child equally instructed in the affairs of peace and of war. We have seen a Child jealous of his Authority, a Child the rival and Emulator of the glory of a great King his Father, a Child himself the Father of his country. We have seen Conspiracies extinguished, Tyrants rooted out, Cities forced, Armies broken by a Child. What shall I say more? He hath done very opportunely, all that he ought to do to conquer; and if we change the theatre of his actions, he would have conquered the Provinces which he hath preserved. He hath been victorious in this kingdom, and will be the same elsewhere when it shall please him: He can find nothing difficult, having subjected the French to reason.  
And certainly, when he shall be seen in the head of his Armies, that he ranks his Souldiers himself, that he appoints their Quarter, that he causeth the Carriages to come, that he may see what places are convenient to take, or to be quitted; when it shall be he that gives all the charges, who makes the principal commands, who takes notice of the least functions of every charge, things must needs turn out of their ordinary course, nor go the way they ought, if he thrived no better then the Princes who reigned at their ease in the bosom of a Wife, or of a Mistress, and who beholding their affairs no where, but in the dispatches of their pheasants, expecting ordinarily the success 300 Leagues from the war.   

CHAP. XXIV.  
YEt all this need not cause fear in any one, this throng of virtues will oppress no body; he hath a Conscience so tender, that it can suffer no weight upon it, nor any thing that recedes never so little from perfect equity: It must first be satisfied before he can content his courage, and must first approve the design which he hath, before he form his resolution.  
He says not to the Casuists, find reasons wherefore I may go aside, and persuade me that I am innocent, though I find myself guilty. The rest and quiet of his soul is not established by such easy means, not depends upon the subtlety of a Doctor. He is the Judge of others works, but the Tyrant( if I may so say) of his own, and never does himself that favour, which others may sometimes receive from him.  
In the most advantageous business which can be proposed to him, if he were assured of the prosperity of the success, and were not certain of the goodness of the Cause, he would stop upon this difficulty, and courageously refuse sceptres and Crowns if they were presented to him; I do not say with a mortal sin which he were obliged to commit, but with one doubtful action, and which had need of an exposition, lest he might fail in the undertaking.  
He fears not the oppositions of Princes, the Confederacies of republics, the Forces of many Kings assembled together against the Justice of his arms. He fears not the injuries of the season, the difficulty of the places, a multitude of different dangers which threaten his person at the war; But truly he fears God: And were there as many worlds indeed, as some Phîlosophers have built in their fancy, to have them all, he would not offend him once.  
This Fear hath nothing of Cowardice and softness; It may fall upon the spirit of a man perfectly courageous, it is not contrary to true valour, it is not faintness of heart, but strength of judgement: It is not a passion, but a virtue; of which the Fathers have spoken, when they say, that in the soul of a Christian fear must be the Guardian of Innocence; and the Apostle before them, when he exhorts the Philippians to be careful for their salvation with fear and trembling: With this Fear the Holy patriarches were seized; those hardy and magnanimous men, who wrestled with Angels, who knew that they should be the Ancestors of the Saviour of the World: Who were the friends, the Entertainers, the Familiars of God: And yet the privity which they had with him, took not away their fear, nor this near acquaintance hinder them from being afraid of his supreme Justice.  
I have oftentimes admired in the Books of Moses those strange manner of speeches: The God of Abraham, The God of Isaac, and the fear of Jacob. And Jacob swore by the fear of Isaac his Father, that is to say, by the God of his Father.  
The very place where God appeared to one of them, hath the name fearful, of a truth the Lord is in this place: He was afraid, and cried, this place is fearful; and elsewhere, He that is terrible, who taketh away the heart of Princes, and is fearful to the Kings of the Earth; this in one word is God: And St. Paul saith of Moses, that he was afraid and trembled, so terrible was that which appeared unto him. So that it is spoken of fear almost every where, where it is spoken of Divinity: And these admirable Personages who presented themselves with an assured Confidence to the fury of the incensed people, who braved the anger of Kings, and despised the power of Devils, had so great an apprehension of displeasing God, that God is simply called their fear.  
Thus the King is fearful, he hath the fear of wise and valiant men; he trembleth in the presence of the Lord: His maxims never offend the duties of Charity, his politic Prudence is not contrary to the simplicity of Christians; he hath seated Integrity in the Throne, and remembering that he is the Companion of his Subjects in the service of their great Master; and that the Care of his Salvation is his most important business; he perceives that by right of a Servant the most obliged ought to be the most faithful, and that it would be a miserable advantage for him to be able to sin with Authority; to obey neither laws nor Reason, to make his independence appear, to fill Annals and Histories with his Conquests, and to be blotted out of the Book of Life.   

CHAP. XXV.  
I Cannot conceal in this place my just grief; it is very importunate to cry without ceasing against the Times and the manners: I am troubled to meet in my way, 'vice, the Enemy of that virtue which I seek for, and not to be able to praise the King without blaming others.  
But what way is there to speak of Hercules, if there be no mention of Monsters? To consider a Conqueror without Enemies? To handle the Cure and Reformation of things, without telling what they were, and their diseases, I cannot endure to see, that That honesty which I esteem so much, hath never been sufficiently esteemed; and that bold or witty Injustice, hath always had approbation and partners.  
The republic less corrupted of any in the world, authorised evil, provided it were done with some subtlety: In lacedaemon they did not punish those that stolen, but those that knew not how to do it neatly, and they were condemned for having been idle and lazy, and not for having been unjust. I remember I have seen in a place this pretty, definition of an ambassador; An ambassador is a grave man sent abroad to lie for the Commonwealth. It is commonly maintained, that of an ill Subject may be made a good Prince: And Cicero was offended, as if one had injured his reputation and honor, when Brutus called him an honest man: He complained to Atticus, their common Friend, in a Letter which he wrote him; and tells him he could not digest the harshness of that word, and in his opinion, if Catiline would have praised him, he could ●ot haue done it worse.  
For this once, I will blame a per●on, whom elsewhere I infinitely respect, and who shall be sacred and ●nviolable in every other occasion but this. There is not any praise I ●alue so much, as that which Cicero contemns, and I esteem the good much more then the wise or valiant. Without goodness They are Serpents, and These are Wolves; wisdom is only a subtle poison, and ● piercing consumption; Valour an ●nraged hunger and thirst of human blood. The wise, if they are Subjects, betray their Prince and sell the State; The valiant assault his Person, and put themselves in his place. The one do always suspect him, the other always fear him. If they are Princes, there is no safety in their Court, nor peace in their kingdom. They disquiet their Neighbours, and weary yet more their Subjects. war is neither ended by Treaty nor Victory: They keep their word no longer then they have the first occasion to break it; nor are ever quiet, but when they are not able to stir. Lastly, these rare qualities which the world admires, resemble those glorious lights which sparkle in the air, and  shed forth a pestilence upon the earth. These virtues are evil and dangerous to the Common-wealth, or rather they are not virtues at all: And without doubt we must rest satisfied with that infallible Oracle of Truth: That wisdom entereth not into a malicious soul: And elsewhere it is said, That the Children of this generation are wiser then the Children of light; And we red in the Gospel of St. Luke, that the wicked Steward did many things prudently. nevertheless, seeing it is most certain that human wisdom is foolishness with God, and there is no more Prudence without his fear, then there can be a building without a foundation. We must believe that in these passages our Lord speaks tenderly with his Children, and accommodates himself to vulgar language. For as sometimes we call those white who are pale, and take fullness of body for healthfulnesse; so many times we give certain vices the names of virtues which are near unto them.  
But forasmuch as Empyricks are not received into the body of Physitians, and Philosophers could never endure Sophisters, against whom they are so eager in all their writings; Let us at least be as forward as they, Seeing we are to draw the picture of a Prince who is not of the Race of the Ottomans, but the Grand-child of Saint Lewis; since the King preserves himself pure in the midst of corruption, and that he reigns by Christian maxims; Let us stoutly withstand evil opinions, we are assured He follows them not; Let us stay while to contest with the 'vice of the Court, and those great Nobles, with whom he hath no part. Let us not fear that he is displeased at us, if we reckon not Cheaters amongst men of skill, and if we do not call virtue cunning.  
Admit there be, if you will, an Art of Cozening, a learned and disciplined naughtiness, a system of Rules and Precepts to come to an evil end; let it be wit, knowledge, experience: but let us not do this injury to wisdom, to make her dwell in the midst of vices, neither let us confine it in the Conscience of a wicked man.  
See in what terms she speaks of her self, in the book that bears her name: She that knoweth the time past, and judgeth of that which is to come, who knoweth the subtlety of words, and the solution of Arguments, who seeth signs and wonders before they happen, and the events of times and ages: She is a ray from God, and a pure influence from the brightness of the Almighty; and therefore can have no filth in her; and a little Tower: She is the splendour of the everlasting light, the Image of the goodness of God, the spotless glass of his majesty; and in another place it is said: The fear of the Lord is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding: And again, The Soul of the holy man declareth Truth, and seeth more then seven Watchmen set upon a Mountain.  
The Pagans generally were not of a contrary opinion, though they were not enlightened by faith, and walked only in the night; they have found the truth sometimes by Torch-light. Amongst them, those that had the rightest opinions, and passed the soundest judgement upon things, never divided Prudence from honesty; and though they believed that the extent of reason was more free, and less confined in the politics then in Morality; yet they conceived not, that That space must be infinite, and that whatever is evil and forbidden in Families, is good and lawful in the State; They have said, that the Gods had much more obliged men, in not giving them this Reason, then to have bestowed it upon them to be prejudicial to the world, and to torment themselves: That this beam of Divinity, this quick motion of the thought, this point which pierceth and penetrateth all things, were but a sad present to them, and a pernicious liberality; if they should make use of it only to the damage and loss of another, and if what they have common with the gods, rendered them more savage and more miserable then the beasts. They have believed as well as us, that Loyalty is the foundation of all business and commerce, that by it we hold together one with another; that those that are divided by the distance of place, by the difference of language, by the diversity of Religion, are united by the means of good faith and upright dealing: That a man may deal with dumb men, but not with perfidious; and silence is more sociable then lying: They have held, that a man gained nothing by telling a lie, but not to be believed when he speaks truth, leaving us this consequence; that we must be honest men of necessity and out of Interest, when we cannot be by Inclination nor will; since evil is as unprofitable as dishonest, and the first cheat ordinarily excludes the second; and confidence once lost, it is not possible to hurt or profit any body.  
In the Ancient Fables which were presented, by authority of the Magistrate, for the instruction of the people, and which yet are the true mirrors of human life, we see that the Hero's and Princes protest aloud, that they hate dissembling more then death, and that there is no way whereby they be resolved to deceive, even where Varlets are, and people of no account, who are employed to plot Treasons, and make windings and labyrinths; and though in such like actions there wants wit and subtlety: yet because deceit is a tacite confession of weakness, which doth that in secret, which it dares not do openly; they suppose it was not convenient to attribute it to great courages. So that Titus Livius is sharply reprehended by Seneca, for saying of one of the Troublers of his Age, that he had a spirit no less great then wicked: It being impossible in the judgement of that Philosopher, that these two qualities should subsist in one and the same subject; great and evil seeming as contrary to him, as great and little.  
But this is nothing to what happened to Euripides, for that verse which he made hippolytus speak in one of his Tragedies: I have sworn with my tongue, but not with my mind. For the next day after the Acting, he received a personal inditement, and was prosecuted with all the rigor of Justice, as if he had been willing to corrupt the manners of the Greeks, and teach the people perjury. Not that it was forbidden tragic Poets to make evil maxims proceed from wicked men, when they brought them upon the Stage; but because hippolytus was known for a perfect virtuous man, they thought that Euripides would authorize a lie by the example of so grave a person, and so much esteemed; and to persuade the spectators, in letting this 'vice run among many laudable qualities, that unfaithfulness was not incompatible with wisdom.   

CHAP. XXVI.  
ARistotle makes mention of this criminal Process, and that the Deceivers of our time may know that they do wrong to pretend to Prudence, being unfurnished of other virtues, which are all eminently discovered in the Person of the King.  
It will not be amiss, to show them their condemnation in the writings of this wise governor of Alexander, whose testimony is so much the rather to be received, because he believes only in reason, having no revealed knowledge; and besides lived in a Court extremely corrupted, and under a Prince as crafty at least, and as subtle, as the Duke of Valentinois and King Lewis the XI. could be. Besides that, he distinguisheth between Prudence and subtlety of Spirit. Inasmuch as This bears itself indifferently towards good and evil: Whereas Prudence is constant and unchangeable in the search of good; and that he hath made one express chapter in the 7 Book of his ethics; wherein he proveth, that it is impossible to be Prudent and Incontinent both together. He observeth moreover in another place, that in taking asunder the compound word, whereby the Greeks express Temperance, we shall find the Primitive word to signify the Guardian and Preserver of Prudence: Because Temperance preserveth the soundness of Judgement, and procures it that galliard and lively disposition, by which, without troubling or disquieting itself, it knows what is serviceable and what is hurtful to the sovereign good: Not that Intemperance corrupteth all kind of Judgement; for it is most certain, that it corrupteth not those things which lye in speculation, but only those which have practise for their object. As to be Intemperate, makes not a man unable to judge whether it be true or no, that a Triangle hath three Angls equal to two streight ones, and that two Parallel lines, continued in Infinitum, cannot be joined together; But it makes him unable to judge, whether he ought to revenge an injury, or pardon it, Whether he should keep heal, or restore her to her Husband; because to judge well whether a thing be feasible or no, it is necessary to know the end. Now he that is Intemperate, whose judicative faculty, grief or pleasure hath corrupted, cannot discern that end, amid the continual dazzling which his evil passions cause in him.  
True Prudence then is a habit, which renders the understanding apt know, and practise those things to which serve to make a man happy: Which( as the same Philosopher goes on) that other habit, which we call Art, doth not effect; Because its Function consisteth in working comformably to the Rules and Ordinances of Reason, and in doing things which are Morally good, and contribute to felicity: So that a Man may be a good Artist, and yet not an honest Man; But a Man cannot be a Prudent Man, but withall he must be an honest Man; Because a Man cannot be Prudent unless he practise those things that are Morally good. Moreover it is better to fail voluntarily in an Art, then to fail ignorantly: And contrarily, it is better to fail ignorantly against the Rules of Prudence, then voluntarily; seeing those things are not Morally good, to which Art is fixed, as those are, to which Prudence is; and therefore a Man cannot err willingly against the Rules which it prescribes, but he must commit some vicious action; because the failing lies in this, that he joins himself to those things which are Morally evil.  
These and such like maxims are found in the Books of Philosophers, who have been most frequent in the Court, and have had the nearest access to Great men: The other Families have not held a contrary opinion, nor hath any one of them approved a malicious Prudence: But those latter Platonicks, that are of those Fools who sometimes are in their right wits, and who have some rational intervals, deserve to be heard in this business: And indeed against such a public evil as this, we must arm all sorts Enemies, and oppose against it whatever can fight and combat it.  
Having made something a long digression upon divers sorts of opinions,( which for this once I will esteem an effect of heroical Prudence) at last they propose one which is not to be rejected, and which makes greatly to our present subject. There are, as they reckon, besides Death, five kinds of separations by which the Soul is divided from the Body; and is lifted so far above mortal and perishable; that in this condition she knows not only that which is far off, but also that which never yet happened; It assists not only to the birth and events of things, but to their Projects and Conception. The first of these Separations happens in sleeping, chiefly in sober men, who by an ordinary abstinence do abate those clouds, as it were, which rise from the inferior part, hindering any trouble or contagion to arise to the spirit; and beholding in their Imagination, as in a most transparent glass, the objects which others cannot discover in theirs, which is all sullied and defaced with the vapours and steam of meats. The second, consists in an entire benummednesse of the spirits, and by that failing of the heart and breath, whereby people fall in a swoon: From whence proceeded those ecstasies of Socrates, who remained sometimes from Sun-rising to Sunset, without moving at all; And those of Plato, who using to meditate in this sort, dyed at last in that essay of Death; And those of one Enarchus, who having delivered up the ghost, as was believed, came to himself again, and assured them that he was well, but that Nichandus, the most famous Champion of that time, should certainly die such a day, which came accordingly to pass.  
So pure and subtle a knowledge is formed from the superabundance of the melancholic humour, which is as proper to receive Divine Inspirations, and to be overspread with celestial fire, as dry and thin matters are more combustible then others: But it proceeds most perfectly, say they, from the just proportion of humors, and from that admirable internal harmony, in which the Spirit, like the Magistrate in a well uinted Corporation where all the people are at agreement, finds no obstacle in his offices, and uses without reservation or restriction, the power which he hath received from his sovereign.  
The third Separation, if I mistake not, comes from the repose and peace of solitariness, where the spirit escaped from the Captivity of Cities, and discharged of the weighty and troublesone employments of life, beholds heaven more uncovered, and communicates more familiarly with God.  
They believe that in this peaceable School Zoroaster studied those 20 years in which he appeared not, and learnt the Science of foretelling, which he left in his Books of Divination, which are lost; and thus we are to understand the 10 years that Pythagoras was concealed, and those 50 which Epimenides slept, during which time their soul, having no commerce with their sense, was vacant to a most perfect manner of Philosophying, and already enjoyed the privilege of Immortality, and the liberties of another life.  
The Platonicks do not end their Separations here, but from this they pass to a fourth, which proceedeth from admiration, and a certain religious horror which filleth persons agitated with some Divinity, such as were the women whom they called Pythiae, who drew out the knowledge of future things: For transported as they were with their God coming to enter into their Grot, and thinking with a violent attention upon his presence and his mysteries; they were seized with so great an astonishment, and possessed with so strange a superstition, that presently their soul forsaking their body, and breaking all its chains, was carried to the highest knowledge of simplo Spirits, and acted supernaturally by the strength of that divine fever.  
Here our Platonicks leave off to dream, and their last manner of knowing future things is altogether for us; to wit, an entire victory over evil passions; a perpetual abstinence from forbidden pleasures, an inviolable chastity of Soul and Body, it being very credible, in their opinion; That God, who is purity itself, takes pleasure to make his abode in the heart of the Chast; that he sets up a light there which penetrateth the darkness of future things, and that he hides from them none of his enterprises. To which also the Holy Fathers seem to assent, and particularly St. Jerome, who holds that the Sybils, though otherwise Infidels, and strangers to the people of God, received nevertheless from him the gift of prophesy, in honour of their Virginity, and for a temporal reward of their virtues.  
I will not serve my turn with these opinions which I believe not, nor attribute the Prudence of the King, either to his sobriety, it being most true, that he lives, as it were, only of spirit, and that by the means of Temperance the superior part of his soul enjoys a perpetual serenity; or to his removals from the City, whereof Hunting is commonly the pretence, in which, with a calm sight, and an uninteressed judgement, he considers things in the purity of their being, which we behold but obliquely through our passions which trouble us, and in the infection of the world which altereth them.  
I will no more attribute them to this quality so proper to contemplation, and which fixeth itself inseparably to the objects which it embraceth; to that Temperature so esteemed of by the Philosophers, which communicates nothing of weight, which can incline them towards the earth. For in effect, as there is an earthly melancholy which sends up none but black and thick vapours to the brain, and fills it with nothing but phantasms, which bury the Soul in the matter; which causeth either continual dreams, or often stupidity; so there is a well digested and refined melancholy, which casts forth a fire which neither burns nor smokes; to which may be applied that saying of the Ancient, That dry light is most lively and full of lustre. There is a subtle and ingenuous sadness, which hath been even at Heaven to search for Truth, and at the foundations of the deep: which invented Arts and Sciences, which formed all the Statuas of Phidias, and brought forth all the Books of Aristotle; which carried Caesar to usurp the Liberty of his country, and Brutus to deliver his country from the power of Caesar; which, in a word, is the faire malady of the soul, and the most common temper of Hero's, Saints, and other extraordinary men.  
It is not therefore from thence, that I deduce the prudence of the King; I make it come from a more noble and clearer spring: I believe with the Christian Philosophers, that always God hath had a most special care to enlighten the Chast and virtuous, and that the Spouse is not more pleased among the lilies, then the eternal wisdom, that governs her, is pleased willingly to repose himself upon pure and innocent Souls: All other wisdom which comes elsewhere, is illegitimate and dangerous; all other fires, though never so pure and sparkling, deceive men in enlightening them, and led them into rivers, or into precipices.  
It were almost as good consult the Devils, and inquire after what's to come by magic, as to have prescience without honesty. Is it not to turn medicines into poisons, to use Reason to sin? To what purpose is it to be subtle to invent Heresies which are worse then ignorance? What serves it for to be able to make a hurly burly, if a man must first lose his own rest to disquiet anothers? To what purpose is it to have the cunning of Lodowick Sforza, and to be dextrous to ruin his State, which an ordinary Spirit had been able to preserve by easy and general rules?  
They shall never persuade me, that Quick-silver is better then Gold; nor that a turbulent and affrighted Imagination, can be a surer guide to manage businesses, then a calm and well-resolved judgement; nor that the Prudence of Tyberius was better then that of Lewis the Just: The one was busied in assuring himself of that Old man whom he always feared; It abandoned the care of affairs, and the Government of the Empire, to be at leisure to observe only one man; It ravished Germanicus from the whole earth: It caused a stranger Prince to be put to death, who came to Rome upon the public Faith. The other hath for its object the universal good, and the Common felicity, nor is employed but to maintain the things of the world in a good state, and to make Justice reign; It desires no other advantage from its victories, but what procures reputation abroad, and a good conscience at home.   

CHAP. XXVII.  
VPon this, the feeble lean, and the weary rest themselves: His factious neighbours, who were subject to live in a continual unquietness, confided more in this for their security, then to the number of their Armies which they can bring into the field, and to their Alliances whereby they endeavour to strengthen themselves.  
This admirable virtue which terrifies them at first, serves them for a bulwark against itself: They count it among the advantages which they think they have, and preserve themselves less by their arms, then by the honesty of their Enemy. His Justice hath the direction and guidance of his valour; This might overturn all, if That did not support all: Without this counterpoise no body could be assured of his condition. Christianity, whereof he makes a most serious profession, limits the deportment of his courage, tames in his spirit that fierceness which is born with Hero's, and enthrals, as I may so say, his Ambition and boldness, which, without doubt, would make a wonderful progress if they acted in their full liberty, and with the whole extent of their power. I● toucheth not another mans goods, knowing very well, that God hath taken it into his particular protection, by one of the Commandements of the Decalogue. He ravisheth not, living under Laws which permit not so much as to desire; he takes no care to commit Tyrannicall actions, seeing he believes not lawful to conceive unjust wishes.  
And to speak soberly, it may seem that God hath an intention, that he alone shall have the universal Monarchy, nor that any other hands but his shall bear up that frame which he hath built: He finds it not good, that men should enterprise to change the order which he hath established among them; That the last comers should dispute the places which he hath already bestowed, and trouble the Oeconomi● of the Universe, whereof he is th● Author: violent Dominions please him not; He had rather his shoul● suffer wrong, then do it; and is so far from permitting them to live of the prey, that he counsels them to live of alms; He recommends nothing to us but peace, love, and charity: He sent not the Holy Ghost in form of an Eagle, but of a Dove; and his only son who came to redeem the world, and at once to bury the Synagogue, and to tread under foot all Infidelity, did so much esteem lawful power, that being to call himself a King, and to do strange things; he would be born of the royal Blood, nor did contemn the ordinary ways, that his Empire might not appear an usurpation, and that by human reason he might defend the Title which was given him.  
I wonder not, that the Princes who will not acknowledge the God-head of Christ, do estrange themselves from his example, and are not subject to a Law which they have not received. The Mahometans think they merit when they kill strangers, and their Cruelty is one of the Principles of their Religion: They make no scruple to conquer, because therein they do nothing but what their Prophet exhorted them to; and it is to Persecutors, and not to Martyrs that he promiseth a better life after this.  
This Cheater, who provided for nothing in his Religion but temporal greatness and a present good, and who dreamed rather of marshall Souldiering, then of saving souls, banisheth from his Paradise all peaceable persons, and names those Cowards whom our Lord calls Just. Let no man, saith he, turn his back, unless it be to take advantage, upon pain of incurring divine indignation: For it is requisite that the brave Champions of God and of his Prophet remain firm at the encounter of two Armies, and in so doing they shall obtain a general pardon for all their their faults.  
In another place, he saith, Are you of opinion that the entrance of Heaven shall be open to you, if first you give not good proof that you are Magnaminous and Valiant Warriors? No, my Friends, assure yourselves, God loves none but the Valiant; That he is truly happy who dies in the war; and if you finish your dayes there, your death shall be worthily rewarded; if you shall be willing to live again, that you may once more be slain: And a little before, he Authorizeth his Tyranny by the express command of God, whom he brings in speaking thus: And Thou my Prophet; Go fight, and overcome the Incredulous, Pillage them, Sack them, handle them with rods of Iron, that they may fear; for all is the Prophets, and his faithful Souldiers.  
So that, by this means, imagining the world is their Inheritance, and that the whole possession thereof belongs to them; they believe they never usurp over another, but recover only that which hath been usurped from them; That they do no injury to any body, but cease only to receive one; that it is permitted to them to re-enter upon their goods by those means that seem shortest and most convenient for them; That there is nothing more lawful for them, then what God himself hath adjudged, and that they may use that right which their Law-Giver hath left them over all the kingdoms of the Earth. For it is one of their visions, that as he came out of his Mothers womb, An Angel brought him three keys made of three great Pearls, whereof one was the key of laws, another the key of prophesy, and the third that of Victory; Which he seizing upon, seized also the possession of all these things But to speak truth, the last gave power to the two first, and if he had not overcome, he had neither been believed, nor followed.  
The whole design of his Religion relates to Victories, his Prophecies are only favourable to conquerors; The most part of his Laws are military Ordinances; he acknowledgeth none for his, but the violent and unjust: And that he may drive them more strongly to the desolation of kingdoms, it was not enough for this Impostor to declare unto them, that they might conquer with a safe Conscience; but he brands them with a kind of Infamy, when they content themselves with their own Line in peace: From whence it comes to pass, that it is not permitted to the Ottoman Princes to found an hospital nor to make a Mosque, if first they have not gained a Conquest, to which it is necessary that themselves were present. Whereupon it is that the mufti, and the other inferior Interpreters of their profane Ceremonies, used all their Credit towards the Sultan Acme▪ who never had been at the war to hinder the structure of the Temple which he was building, which therefore was surnamed by the Lawyers, The Incredulous Mosque, because he was so obstinate as to finish it against the authority of their Traditions, and the Remonstrances which they made to him.  
I find it not strange that the Turks do invade the Lands of their Neighbours, upon this false persuasion which they have to do Acts of Piety, and to find themselves obliged according to their Law, as also by the honor of their Conscience: But forasmuch as Jesus Christ hath nothing common with Mahomet, and that the Pope and the mufti hold maxims directly opposite; I cannot comprehend how Christians believing in the Gospel should follow the Alcoran; I cannot so much as guess at the reasons they can have, so cruelly to fall upon the slaughter of the life and liberty of their Brethren; nor do I know in what time, nor by the emission of what Angel they have obtained a dispensation of their first Laws, and a permission to violate Justice. In our Religion, Reason and Equity ought to be the bounds of the wills of Kings, as Rivers and Mountains are of their kingdoms; They should put in the same rank things unjust and impossible: And since it is no imperfection in God, that he cannot sin, so neither should it be in them a defect of power, that they cannot do evil. What appearance is there that small faults should be punished, and great ones honoured: That the Enormousnesse of the Action should be that which authorizeth the Crime, and justifieth the Criminal; and that a poor Fellow who seeks only to get his living upon the Sea with one Bark, should be called a Pirate, and wished ill by every one; and that another who follows the same Trade with a puissant navy should be an Emperor, and praised of all the world.  
Certainly there is no appearance of equity in it; And we ought absolutely to reject the sentence of the tragic Poet so often chanted upon the theatres, and so familiar in the mouth of a Tyrant; That in matter of State, and to command, it is lawful to violate right, but it must be observed in any thing else: Casting my eyes back upon this pretty sentence, and looking something nearer upon it, I find not much sense in it, and yet is it more absurd then dangerous. For if it be true, as they hold in these times, that other wickednesses are comprehended in tyranny, as the lesser numbers in the greater, and that it is the ruin and dissolution of the body politic; How is it possible to preserve one part of Justice, and to destroy the whole? To admit the accomplishment and the last degree of evil, and to exclude thence the Principles and the Elements? To think to retain life at the end of a finger, when the Body is already dead and fallen in pieces? Whoever speaks thus, certainly hath no understanding, nor agrees with himself: He seems to defend something in show, but grants all in effect, and saith, though it be not his intention to say it, that there must special care be had, not to be perjured or sacrilegious, or a Parricide severally, but that a man may be lawfully all three together; and so become Innocent by the excess and number of his faults.   

CHAP. XXVIII.  
THe Ancient Idolaters, who had only some light guesses, and simplo conjectures of true virtue, and who consequently were not tied to so perfect an uprightness as we are, have condemned these Tyrannicall speeches before us. They tried, at least, to ground themselves upon Reason, when they set upon any People, and said not barely that the end of their Conquests was to conquer.  
It was an opinion generally received among the Greeks, that war was permitted against the Barbarians; whereof there were two sorts, and which they ordinarily separated into two Classes: For though their vanity extended this word to all those that spake not their language, nor were governed according to their customs, yet giving it sometimes a more strict and limited signification, and restraining it to fewer persons, they understood by it only the Medes, or the Persians, with whom they always had dealing, or the furthest Nations of the world, who lived without Laws and discipline, in the ignorance and Infirmity of Nature not at all assisted by Education.  
Now it is very true, they had no great reason to love the former, because they were the immortal Enemies of their name and country, which they had invaded many times with fire and sword, of which they had no constant and perpetual design to render themselves Masters, and who desired with all their power, that the King of Persia might be adored by the graecian Priests, and served by the Lacedemonian slaves. Thus so high an Insolence pricked them on very lively, and the hatred they bore them was such, that in all their Assemblies before they deliberated of any thing, they publicly cursed him that should be of opinion they might make friendship or Alliance with them: And in their more solemnu Feasts, the herald had an express charge to declare them excommunicated, no less then homicides and sacrilegious persons, and to forbid all strangers in consideration of them, the use of holy things, and participation of their Mysteries.  
For the other Barbarians of whom I speak, they have so ill an opinion, and esteem them so little, that they will scarce believe them to be Men, or that they have a Soul wholly reasonable; At which I am not much astonished, since in our memory in the Schools of Spain they disputed, if the Indians were of the race of Adam, or were not a middle bastard species between a Man and an Ape. Be it then, that in their opinion they were not creatures like themselves, they conceived they went only to hunt, and gave themselves to an honest exercise when they made war against them; or be it that they were indeed Men, though not very perfect nor complete( besides that, both holy& profane philosophy do both agree, that the wise Man is by nature Master of him that is not,) they imagined, that the right of humanity exacted from them the aids and succours which are due to persons that want them, and that they themselves should be Barbarians, if they had not pitty upon those who truly were so, and took not from them that vicious liberty which entertained them in their brutish dispositions to the dishonour of Common nature. They did believe they used charity towards them to subject them to their Dominion, seeing that by their victory they polished the rudeness of their manners; They taught them virtue which they had no knowledge of, and gave them good Laws in place of their ill customs: Thus to some they brought the Invention of Arts, and shewed them the use of husbandry; others they drew from Caves to place them in Cities. Upon some they imposed Tribute, never more to sacrifice their Children; some they obliged to abstain from human flesh, and to have respect to the bed of their Mothers and Sisters, teaching them in the same time to use innocent meats and lawful pleasures.  
But if this change could not be made by fair means, and if the Tyranny of the habit were such, that they must be constrained to be happy, instead of being miserable: They said that all great Examples have something unjust in them, which are not to be considered in respect of the universal good: Neither can deceit be called evil when it is profitable to him that is deceived, nor violence deserve that name when it turns to the profit and advantage of him who is enforced. And as there are some things that surpass Reason, which are not therefore unreasonable, especially in matters of Religion; So all that is above Justice, is not therefore unjust, especially in acts of State: And to come to the worst, when their enterprise drew after it the greatest part of the vanquished, at least, their Children received the effect of the good intention of their Conquerors, in as much as they should be nourished in the fear of the Gods, and under the reverence of the Laws, and enjoy the fruit which was presented to their Fathers.  
These are somewhat near the reasons upon which the Greeks might rest themselves in their Conquests. For the proceedings of the Romans we have couched them in part already; But though they had all for their end, the greatness of their Empire, yet they were not so blinded with Avarice, nor so wedded to their own Interests, that through the traverses of profit, they did not see the beauty of true Glory; that they were not tempted with that passion which at this day possesseth the King, and that sometimes they did not take up arms for the Liberty of others.  
Can there be imagined a more generous decree, and more necessary to be renewed in this season, then that which was given by the Athenians, at the instance of the Orator Demosthenes? See the substance of it in few words: When King Philip assaulted some places over which he had some right, the people of Athens did not conceive themselves obliged to intervene in that occasion, nor to meddle in a business that did not at all concern them: but now that Greece itself is assaulted, they account it a thing unworthy the glory of their Predecessors, who behold about them graecian Cities which are not free: For this reason the Counsel and the People of Athens have judged it expedient to sacrifice to the Gods, and to the Tutelar Hero's of the Town and country; and animated by the Generosity of their Ancestors, to whom the public Liberty hath always been dearer then the particular good of their country; have ordained that there be set to Sea 200 Vessels, that the admiral shall sail towards the Thermopyles, and the general by Land conduct his cavalry and infantry towards Eleusina: That moreover ambassadors be dispatched towards the other free States of Greece, to fortify them in the design which they ought to have to maintain their Liberty, to exhort them not to be terrified at the Threats of the Enemy, and to assure them that the Athenians are resolved to succour with Men, Money, arms, and Ammunition all those that Philip would oppress.  
After a long revolution of years, another Philip having the same design that the former had( so fatal is this name to the public Liberty) the romans proclaimed war against him, and having overcome him, the Feast of the Istmian Games falling by chance at that time, and being celebrated at Corinth, where there was present a great Concourse of People, they made Proclamation in a full theatre, of this that follows.  
The Senate of Rome, and the general Flaminius, having put the Macedonians and King Philip in their duty, declare; That their Intention is, that all Greece live hereafter according to the Laws, and understand particularly, that the Corinthians, Phocians, Locrians, Those of the iceland of Euboea, the Magnetes, Perrhebes, and the Achaians of Phtia enjoy the same Immunities, Rights and privileges which they enjoyed before Philip had seized upon their Dominion.  
And though some, to obscure the Lustre of this Action, will say, that the Liberty wherewith they presented them, was rather an apparent and counterfeit Liberty, then true and solid; yet always it was much to undertake a war at their own cost, to better their condition who were nothing at all to them: It was extremely to oblige them, to rescue them from slavery, though otherwise they left them in some kind of dependence toward their Protectors; It was not to entreat them ill, to ease them of a load under which they sunk down, to give them a lesser burden.  
The romans therefore took not all for themselves; Their ambition had some Rules and limits; and though their mind and their desires were vast, yet they were not infinite. When Scipio the Censor made the Ceremony of the expired Lustrum, and the Register was going to rehearse the usual Prayer whereby the Gods were entreated to render the fortune of the People of Rome better and more powerful then it was; It is good enough and great enough answered he: I only pray that it would please them to continue it to us; and ordained upon the place, that in the public Acts they should correct the form of the Prayer, which afterwards was no otherwise recited: So that there was a moderation and a stop in the hearts of the most covetous and most ambitious.  
The Greeks and romans bore at least a respect to the Name of virtue; They did not openly make a mock of Right and Equity, and made profession not to take up arms but in these three Cases; either to revenge Injuries received, or to defend themselves from oppression, or to give Laws to them that had none, approving consequently no wars but just, or necessary, or honest.   

CHAP. XXIX.  
GOod God! What resemblance is there with this in the present condition of the affairs of Europe? What is there in the cause of the Conquerors of this Age, that a good Pagan can maintain, or that a good Christian dare excuse?  
I see I must once more impeach Tyranny, and pursue it to its inmost retreats, even into the heart of his Subjects, and see whether the Nation be more Innocent then the Counsel. The Germans, are they the same to the Spaniards, that the Persians were to the Greeks? Have they almost over-run Galice or Arragon? Have they pillaged the Churches of Madrid? Have they demanded Slaves from Castile? Besides, what right have the castilians over Montferrat? Do they take the People that inhabit the River Poe for Savages? Will they Civilize the Jtalians who keep a School of Gentility& Gallantry,& with whom for a long time all novelties are grown old? They cannot make use of these pretences, nor employ the Colours of the Grecians to cover their Ambition, and to paint it with some show of virtue: There is nothing but a desire to become Masters of other mens Habitations, which makes them go out of their own; and this unhappy fancy of a Universal monarchy which is put into their head, which hath made them undertake design upon design, and run after the least noise they perceive. In the midst of peace they have the spirit of war, and a seditious will; and when others think they are at rest, they plot only how they may be more active: The reasons of State Torment them day and night; They are lean and sick only for this: and their perpetual yel●ownesse is an internal sign, and a violent impression of that covetousness to reign, which burns and consumes them within.  
Gonsolva of Corduba, and the Duke of Alva are indeed dead, but their Counsels and their Instructions live still: They yet lay Ambushes to freedom and credulity; They yet oppress Princes, and make war against the liberty of the People. The Children do not degenerate from their Parents; They are as subtle Interpreters of their Treaties; They are as little scrupulous in the observation of the public Faith: They use their Religion after the same manner: They swear as boldly upon the Gospels and the Altars all that they are resolved not to perform.  
For all this we must render an entire Testimony to truth, and do equity even to injustice itself. The Spaniards are a People of no small Reputation; They are to be commended for many good qualities, and their very vices are specious and carry a kind of lustre with them. That idleness which was punished at Athens, is honoured in Spain, which remains desert and barren in many places for want of hands to Till and husband it. Artists in that country are ashamed of their Trade; They exercise it in secret, as a thing forbidden, and appear in public with their swords by their sides: They account themselves all Gentlemen, and they all speak like Courtiers and Counsellors of State; The meanest burgess hath the same thoughts with the Constable of Castile; They never bemoan the misery of their condition, because they believe they have a share in the greatness of their Master: There is no man holds himself poor, when he but thinks of the Mines of India, and who seeks not in the public happiness the content which he cannot find in his own particular fortune. I would to God we were as good French-men, as they are good Spaniards; and that we loved our country with as much passion as they do theirs. Never imagine that they decry the affairs of their Prince as we do, and publish news no way favourable to their party. But contrarily if there happens to ●hem the least good success, they iugment it, they amplify it, and ●ause it to be Printed in all Languages; and if there chance any ill luck ●hey excuse it, diminish and disguise ●t, they cover it with their silence, ●nd hid it under a good face. You see they make triumphs for the ●aking of any paltry Town, and ●ever appear dejected for the loss of their Fleets and Armies. As ●hese know how to give reputation ●o small things, and add value to ●eane prosperities; so these are able ●o witness their in differency in ●heir greatest griefs, and couragi●usly and with disdain endure the ●ruellest outrages of fortune.  
Their Fidelity begins not now to be known, it hath been praised by the Testimony of antiquity, and it is written of them, that Torments have not been able to draw out of their mouths, their Masters, or Friends secrets. That Slave is sufficiently famous, who after he had revenged his Benefactor, began to laugh when they put him to examination; and with calm joy mocked at the Executioners and all their inventions of Cruelty. But what reputation can equal the virtue of Flexio, and what so honourable mention can be made by history which will not come short of his merit! King Sanches, against whom his Brother Alphonso made war, had placed him in Conimbra to defend it. This faithful Servant, after he had been a long time nourished with Leather and Urine, and had constantly endured all the inconveniences of a Siege, would not for all this surrender himself, nor give up the Town to the power of Alphonso, though his Brother Sanches were dead. He would not trust any thing that could be said to him thereof; and continued in this virtuous incredulity, till he was permitted to go to Toledo where his Master was butted; whose tomb being opened to him, he put the keys of the place between his hands.  
For their Abstinence and sobriety, it is almost incredible that is reported of them; every herb serves them for meat, all juice serves them for oil, all liquour is wine; therefore we see not among them fat and corpulent persons.: In one swiss there is enough to make three Spaniards; Their foul swims not in the blood, nor is stisted by the flesh and fatness of their body; they are always content with a very slender nourishment: In the time of Pliny, their choice dishes were Acorns roasted in the embers; Now with a Raddish or bunch of fennel they are twice 24 houres in a faction; They die of hunger, and command over those that make good cheer.  
Behold what is worthily esteemed amongst them: But what means is there to endure their pride which they bring into the world with them? This second original sin, in which they are conceived; This essential property by which they are Spaniards, as by Reason Men; They generally condemn whatsoever is not of their own country, nor can they believe, that out of it there is any thing fair, or valiant, or catholic; They look upon other people with pity, and though Spain be the Mother but of few Children, and that she adopts the Walloons, the germans, and the Italians, with which she fills her Armies, yet they cease not to contemn these Nations by whom they are formidable, and to call them Veillacos, who make them to overcome and bear rule.  
Is it not a pleasure to hear them say sometimes, that their Army consists of 30 thousand Men, and 5000 Souldiers, that is, of 30 thousand Strangers, and 5000 Spaniards? and to see these braggadocioes renew the vanity of the roman Princes, who made a difference between their Confederates and their Souldiers, nor ever communicated this last name to their Auxiliaries which they took to the war with them.  
They are indeed, more truly then the romans, Robbers of all Lands, and pirates of all Seas: Their ambition is not content with the possession of visible things; It searcheth after an unknown worid. It hath penetrated, as it were, to a new nature: And if they were certain that those great spots which appear in the body of the moon, were Provinces and kingdoms; as Galileus would persuade them, they would find out a way to go thither.  
But let us mock at the extravagancy of their designs, when they are indeed extravagant and ridiculous. Let not us ourselves speak of businesses far off, though universal Justice extends itself through all, and binds all men together; Let us leave the Interest of Common humanity to take care of our particular; let us complain of the Evils of Europe, and not busy ourselves to tell the History of the Indians.  
The Kings, it seems, do him wrong to be sovereigns, and Popular States offend him in being Free. As long as he shall have one neighbour, there will never want falling out: Either by good will or by force he will enter upon all the affairs of Princes: When they come as compeers, they carry themselves like Enemies; They change the offices which they promised into evil rights which they allege, and false debts which they demand: And if two Concurrents pretend to one thing, the Temper which they find to content them, is to take it from them: Thus they accommodate differences, and unite Parties, by putting them out of their Interest: They have played such games in Germany, and would continue them in Italy; they have matter ready to fall to work elsewhere; and though their enterprises go sometimes but slowly on, and that the success follow not close upon the resolution, yet we always see in them a strange obstinacy to hope well.  
They are no longer before Cazal, but if I mistake not, they will not stay long before they return thither: They are not repulsed neither by the length nor difficulty of things; That which they cannot do to day, they imagine they shall do to morrow: If they are abused in the terms, they believe to be assured of the Event. Already they deliberate of the order which they will establish in the affairs of peace, after the victory: Already they design Governors for places which they intend to besiege next year, and think so insolently of the future, that there wants but little of beleaguring their Debters upon the taking of Venice: And certainly, if God had not put bars in this kingdom against their violence, and a place of freedom for weakness; If France were not the common country of strangers, and if our Armies were not the defensive Armies of christendom; I doubt not but they would sooner or later finish the Conquests which they have begun, and at last carry away the Crown from Italy, upon which they have fastened so many assaults.   

CHAP. XXX.  
YEt let the Italians rest assured if they are affrighted; let them conceive a firm hope from the day of their safety which is coming on; let them prepare themselves to receive the good fortune which comes to find them: There is yet of their Race who have chastised their Tyrants, who have purged their Provinces from divers plagues that afflicted them; Who have ruined the Empire of the Lombards in Italy, and restored the sovereign High priests to their Seat: The Successor of charlemagne is alive, and asks only their consent to take the yoke from off their neck, who stretcheth forth his hands to the Potentates that are fallen from their Thrones, who finds himself offended wherever they offend Justice, and bears his cares and his thoughts every where, where there are honest men that suffer, or weak men that groan.  
But let them also consider, if they please, that all alone he cannot do all things, and that in vain he hath the power to make war, if they have not the courage to make use of these Remedies, but cherish their disease. God who hath made us without us, will not save us without us; He will have us contribute something on our part to our own preservation, and to be as it were Co-workers together with him; He will have us take pains at his work, and that we be the Instruments of that business whereof he is the undertaker. Upon what therefore dream these Speculatives in the country of Machiavell and Tacitus? What do those Princes and People pretend to become, who will behold us with their arms across? If they perform not what was promised; Do they think to be idle Spectators, and umoveable in an Action, whose success is common to them by an inevitable Consequence? Do they believe this affair is indifferent to them, because the first troubles and the first dangers seem particularly to belong to the monsieur of Mantua? Are they not afraid that the contagion of the evil passeth even to them, and that the ruin of others draws theirs after it? Do they not know that we receive all the blows which are given to our country, and that all her wounds are ours? That they disarm us in spoiling our Allies, and weaken our Towns in taking those of our Neighbours? What fatal and miserable stupidity is this? Have they not eyes to see the Firebrands that are coming to burn Germany? Is not the noise which the fall of the Palatinate hath made, able to waken them? Shall that be said of the Jtalians, which was said of the People of Asia, That for Freemen they were worth nothing, but made Excellent Slaves, and upheld an insupportable Tyranny, for want of knowing how to say No, and not being able steadfastly to pronounce this Syllable.  
Because they are not yet oppressed, and that they are reserved for the last Act of the Tragedy, they believe They are secure; because the poison hath not yet gained their heart, and death doth not yet gripe them, they imagine they are very well: And because the Spaniard is not yet sate down before their Cities with his Troops, they swear he doth not so much as dream of them. And yet if one of their Citizens should provide great store of Stones, very much Wood, Lime and Sand, and such like materials, and at the same time prepare a place in a very faire scate to employ all these things, they would say without doubt that he built and erected a palace, though they saw not the Foundations laid, nor the walls set up: Why therfore will they not say, that the Spaniard, who heaps together his preparations with so long a hand to reach them, I mean his best and dearest Friends, makes war upon them now, though he hath not yet besieged them, nor bid them Battle? Why will they not in a good time, put the State in a posture to defend itself; seeing if they suffer him to manage his work till it be done, it will be no longer in their power to oppose him? Forasmuch as all his peace is deceitful, and disguised; his Friendship proud and violent; Seeing his compliments entreat not, but command and compel, and that it is impossible to live in good correspondence with him, and in Liberty; They must of necessity choose the one of two things, either to be his Subjects, or his Enemies, and see which they love best, Slavery or war.  
Things are not so altered in their country, but Nature hath preserved some remainder of good seed; she can yet raise up Spirits stout and courageous from this ancient principle of Valour, which is not as yet extinguished, and distil some drops of blood purely roman and Jtalian, amid that corrupted mass it labours under.  
It cannot be but sometimes they remember they are the Children of the Lords of the Universe, and that their Fathers have triumphed particularly over Spain. It cannot be but having among them so many Caesars, Pompeyes, Scipios, and Camillusses, they should be ashamed to bear these great Names, and obey in the mean time a Don Ferrand, or a Don Pedro. It is a shane indeed that for all the deliberations at Milan and Naples, they must expect the resolution from Madrid, and that the Jtalians should remain at the lowest ●taire of slavery, where the poor grooms without ever seeing the face of their Master, are obedient to other Servants? It is a great shane that they should employ their Eloquence to flatter Tyrants, which they ought to make use of to excite people to recover their Liberty: It is a shane that they are Active and Valiant only for another, and that their Spirit and their Courage should take pains, only to strengthen a Dominion that oppresseth them.  
If they do good actions in Germany, and in the Low-Countries, if they return from war charged with spoils, and full of reputation, it is the Spaniards glory, and not theirs: by that they do not gain Subjects, but Companions of slavery: They make not the fortune of their own country better, but render the power of a stranger more formidable; Their chains become more glittering and strong, not lighter and more loose.  
I hope they will make some reflection hereupon, and that I shall not lose all that I have said; Perhaps that virtue which is believed dead, is but asleep; perhaps the sick will get up, and the heart return from its swoonings.  
The republic of Venice, without doubt, will cast its eyes upon that Decree of Athens which was not upheld by a King of France, when it proclaimed war against King Philip; She will add sharpness to her prudence, and will arm good Counsels, lest Fury should be more strong then Reason; She will accompany more then ever with Courage and generosity, that excellent wisdom, whereof she reads Lectures to all Europe: She will consider, that having been born and brought up in the arms of Liberty, and calling her self Queen of the Sea, she should very much degenerate; if in her old age she should change her condition, and upon firm Land quit her sceptre and her Diadem. She will consider, that her incomparable situation which seems rather a Miracle, and an example of Divine power, then a work of mens hands: Her sumptuous Arsenal, her proud Haven, and her stately buildings, are not the fruits of the fear and laziness of their Ancestors; but the effects of their labour, their Sweats and their constancy: and all these illustrious marks, cannot be preserved but by those means whereby they were acquired.  
His Holinesse hath a Soul too noble, and too high to do any low thing in this occasion; The perfect knowledge of Divine and human things, which even the Enemies to his Church admire in him; the commerce which he hath with the Ancient Romans, whose writings breath nothing but liberty and love of their country; The abode he made in France, where he had most particular Conference with Henry the Great, and entred long before into his mind and thoughts: Lastly, that aspect worthy of an Empire, which sheweth something more then human; and that countenance which casteth beams of majesty upon all that behold it, signifieth nothing fearful or feeble, and can furnish us with none but good presages and fair hopes. He will take the pains to remember, that his dignity hath been more respected by Attila then by Charles, and that the only presence of lo unarmed, stopped the scourge of God and chased him out of Italy; Whereas this Devout and Religious Prince, after 3 Treaties of Peace wherewith he held Clement the seventh in a sleep, kept him Prisoner contrary to all Divine and human right, and sacked Rome by the hands of the heretics.  
He will see in the history of his Predecessors, that for a less danger then that which threatens him, they have heretofore made a Holy war against Mainfroy, as against the Sultan; and that another time they have sent forth a crusade against those of Cullen, after the same manner as against the Infidels.  
But if he will be a better manager of his Thunders, and make use of his power more moderately; If for some Respects he will not openly embrace the Common cause, nor assist with his arms interested Princes; I assure myself at least, that he will favour them with his Inclination, his vows and wishes; and will bless their affairs secretly.  
And since we have an opinion, that a Friend or Master that sees us play, though he say not a word, nor speak upon the game, leaves not to assist us, and to bring ill luck to our Adversaries: They will grow somewhat bold of the good will of the Pope, though neither published nor declared; and will take courage from the signs he shall make them, if they cannot prevail by his Forces.  
For other inferior Princes, whose repose is not founded upon the holiness of Religion, and like him cannot command the world in a chair; it is necessary that they stir wholly for the recovery or preservation of their Crowns, and that they enter into the design which the King hath to re-establish them if they are deposed, or to maintain them if they are threatened: It is necessary that they cry to them on high, that Liberty is not defended by fear, nor is violence repel'd with softness.  
It is needful, that in this occasion, Italy, Germany, and England, the catholics, the Protestants, and the Arminians, should unite themselves together against the Common enemy; against him who assaults not the heretics out of zeal of Religion, but Interest of State, and who covets not as St. Paul did, the Unbelievers, but those things which are theirs. A stoic and an Epicure, that is to say, two men who make profession of a contrary philosophy; and who were of two dis-agreeing Sects, could agree when there was a question of delivering their country from slavery, and could lay their opinions aside to join their Interests together.  
A man that is in danger to be drowned, catcheth hold indifferently of whatever he meets with, were it a naked sword, or a hot iron. Necessity divides Brothers and unites Strangers; It makes the Christian agree with the Turk against the Christian; It excuseth and justifieth whatever it doth: The Law of God hath not abrogated the law of nature; The preservation of a mans self is the most pressing, if not the most lawful of all Duties. In an extreme danger we look not so near to fair dealing, or what may seem best; neither is to sin, but to defend a mans self with the left hand.   

CHAP. XXXI.  
THe Scruple of Conscience ought not then to be made use of for a Pretence of laziness: Our Princes have a right and Justice remaining; and sufficient Forces provided, they want not courage and resolution.  
The Monster, whose figure we have seen, is indeed cruel and savage, but he is not for all this invincible: He hath a great Body, but this body consists of several pieces, and holds together more by ligaments then nerves: He hath many members; but they are neither well proportioned nor compacted: The arms cannot reach the head, the Breast is naked when the utmost parts are covered, and if he move himself on one side, all the rest sticks fast; So usually, he receives is many blows as he gives, and is as ●amous for his losses as for his victo●ies.  
Behold a handful of People, that brave him and beat him ordina●ily, and whom God hath lifted ●p to humble his pride and Insolen●ie! Behold one little Marsh which ●esists all his Kingdoms and all his forces! Consider a power which ●lwaies sloats, and depends partly upon the winds and Tempest, which ●et holds up against his formidable monarchy.  
These Fishermen which he so much contemned at first, have caught his Towns and Provinces in their nets; have taken from him Fleets and Conquests, and share almost every year with him the Revenue of the Indies; Are they not the weak things of the world, which God hath chosen to confounded the strong? Is it not a small grain of Sand wherewith he bridles in the fury of the Ocean? Do you not remember the little ston which overturned the great Statue? After 40 years of war, the Spaniard is still to begin in that country: All that he hath done is but to spend his Men, and cast his Millions into the Sea, and to be enforced to do nothing.  
Those very advantages he so much brags of, are victories so dearly bought, that he had been ruined, had he gained many such; For his losses they are notable and ordinary, and some of them he will feel yet a long time; At the Hague is to be seen a great Hall all Tapistred with his clothes, In which the States feasted marquis Spinola, when of a Captain general he became an ambassador to demand peace, and the eternal counsel acknowledged its Subjects for sovereigns, and sent to flatter them, after they had unprofitably threatened them. The Prince, who at this day commands their Armies, will be very well able to hang another Hall after the same manner, if he but live,& the war continue: He is not less skilful in his art, then the late Prince Maurice his Brother, he is no less a lover of Liberty, nor no better a friend to our Conquerors; and I think will handle them with no more courtesy nor respect. It is true indeed, that the success of Germany hath heightened their heart, and that their affairs appear there very well settled; but let us not be astonished at this; That which makes the greatest noise, and carries the fairest show, is not always the most certain. There is yet whereby they may be troubled, where they think themselves so secure: And who knows not, if Germany, which they have divided, would re-unite itself, and if the Germans would leave to lend their hands and their blood to their enemy, and serve their country; all the Trophies which he hath erected among them would fall presently in pieces, and a prosperity of 10 years would come to nothing.  
Sometimes the vanquished hath endangered the Victor, and with the broken end of a sword, hath slain him, of whom he begged his life. Formidable beginnings have many times had ridiculous conclusions; and a power destined to conquer kingdoms, hath been broken in pieces by a small portion of earth: oftentimes, those that have given law to others have been the nearest to danger, and the sovereign People of the Universe, in a war where the end was successful, were reduced to such an extremity of ill fortune, that they had no remainder of hope but in the besieged capitol, and in banished Camillus.  
Oppression doth not always spoil free-men of their virtue, it excites only their courage, and sharpens their valour by grief; It ●s a cause sometimes of a greater and more assured liberty, and makes, that after the recovery of lost things, they preserve with obstinacy what was formerly possessed with negligence.  
We must not always be credu●ous at the first joy, nor confided in ●he appearance of businesses; there ●re ill gains and ruinous acquisitions. And as a merchant, who had loaded his Ship with store of wild Beasts, to bring them out of Africa ●nto Europe, should not be assured ●n the midst of his riches, and might and lost upon the Sea, though the winds were favourable; so it seems ●o me, that Princes, after they have gained battles and conquered peoples, ought to be afraid of their own Conquests, and make account that there are not more dangerous enemies, then Subjects that obey by force. The Germans will be free when ever they shall please to break their Fetters: The Division ceasing amongst them, the power of the Spaniard will cease to be in their country, and the first day that they shall agree together, He will be driven out.  
I hear talk moreover of a King of Sweden, which can very well give him his handful, and do exceeding service, if he be advisedly employed. His Courage is not a blind and headlong boldness, nor his Valour a heat of anger: He knows who to make war with knowledge, and leaves scarce any thing to the discretion of Fortune. The motions of his soul are very high, but also they are very regular and just; He hath a great spirit guided by a greater judgement; He hath the possession of necessary virtues, nor doth he want those that are delightful; He would deserve a kingdom nearer the Sun then that of Swedland: And if Pyrrhus, who name the Romans Barbarous, should return again into the world, he would certainly say, that never was Greek more accomplished, nor more rational then this Barbarian.  
The King of England, will not abandon a cause in the which besides the reasons of State which are common to him with us, his Honor and his Conscience will engage him more particularly then any other; He will have pitty of his Sister, of his Brother in Law, and of his nephews, which are sad and deplorable Examples of the instability of the things of the World; and which may be added to the Adrastes, the Polynices, the Hecubas and Antigones upon the theatres. Now that he is rid of that Importunate, who traversed all his good designs, and who played so insolently with his name and power in the pernicious Galentries of his State; being as he is wise and Noble, he will undertake a Resolution worthy his good sense and Courage. He will harken to that faire Queen whom Heaven hath given him, full of spirit and understanding, that in the same person he may find together all content and assistance, and that she that possesseth his love, and who is the delight of his eyes, may participate also in his Counsels, and be the Companion of his cares. He will follow his first Inclinations, and his true Interests, nor will he lightly depart from the ancient Amities of the late King her Father; and remembering the disgusts which were offered him he will join himself with France where he was entreated with all kind of honor and affection. This good cause will be upheld by other means; nor will want followers and partners; besides it is certain that the Body which we are afraid of, hath its wounds and infirmities which trouble it, and which leave not off to be dangerous, though they be covered with some appearance of health; Neither need we doubt that war beginning to seize upon it, and to press him on all sides, he will not presently be sensible of whatever pain or weakness is in his members, and under that bundle and paint of greatness, which cheats the world, there be not found some corrupted parts and incurable ulcers. But let the worst come; when he shall be as sound as he seems great and strange, when he shall have quitted himself of all his losses, who shall be his Surety for the future? If he hath prospered since the death of the late King, 'tis his turn now to be miserable; if he grow secure of the favour of Fortune, he confides in the Caresses of a courtesan: It is not likely that she that makes profession of lightness, should be constant for the love of him; But it is very likely that the groans of Nations, the clamour of Innocents persecuted, the affliction of Mothers and widows left desolate; The Violations, Sacrilegies and other ill consequences, of unjust wars, will mount up to the very Throne of God, and will draw down his vengeance upon him that is the cause of so many mischiefs. There is much more likelihood that the eternal Justice prepares that punishment for him which he deserves, rather then that Fortune, which is but a Infidel, should keep her word with him, If God understand the cry of the young Ravens in their nest, will he not hear his Children who solicit him, and demand a reason of the wrong which is done them? If the voice of the blood of Abel came up to him, shall the blood of a number of Christians be dumb, and fall to the ground without making any noise? Shall their complaints, their imprecations, their last words be lost? Shall they die for Justice, and yet Justice make no enquiry after their death? The avenger of Perjuries and of violated Religion, will he always suffer Religion to be made an instrument for Tyranny, and that that name should be made use of to deceive the world? If he count our hairs, will he have no respect to our sighs? Will he not gather up our Tears? Will he despise our Prayers? No, No, let us assure ourselves that God is for us, and that the miseries of christendom do touch him. We have one mark, concerning the certainty whereof it is not lawful to doubt: If he had not resolved powerfully to succour those that are his, He had not sent the King at this time; If he had not a desire to make them overcome, he had not presented them with so brave a Captain; If he would defer the term of their Liberty, he would have deferred his birth. Certainly he hath caused this excellent Prince to be born for the good of men, and for the happiness of his Age. He hath given him to the Prayers of France, of italy, and of Germany, who have begged him; He could not refuse the necessity of his people that had need of him. The Captain general of a great Confederacie, who should have spent the greatest part of his life, in closerts and Gardens, and who had seen nothing but Masks and Feasts, would be overcome by the first ill news; and the hope of them who should rest themselves upon his capacity, would have a very weak and ruinous Foundation; But this Man is born amid war and Armies: From his Infancy he hath beholded Sieges and Battles; Necessity hath hardened him in good time for virtue, and that which is troublesone to others, is only an Exercise to him: There is nothing so high nor so difficult, but we may expect it from his Valour; He will go beyond our highest hopes. I will say once more; It depends only of himself that he doth not Conquer, and dispute his Empire and Dominion with the most Ambitious: But He will not enrich himself with public losses: Nor will he be guilty of his good Fortune, he desires not a quality which should prove tragical to all Europe. Let no man take any distaste at his designs, nor let his arms be an occasion of jealousy to any one. He hath consecrated his hands to the Lord, and to the Protection of Justice; His arms defend none but good Causes; They bring rest and security to People, and will be in the same condition, as the Targets that fell from Heaven were to the romans that gathered them up. It is not Hanniball that comes down from the Alps with all the cruelties and perfidious dealings of his country, and that, after a solemn Oath to destroy italy. It is Pepin, it is charlemagne, who will once more deliver them; and if in the fatal year that That African began his war, a Child being out of his Mothers belly return'd presently back again, to show that he could not do well in the world in so ill a time; Now that a time quiter contrary to this begins, certainly it will be a pleasure to be born an Inhabitant of the earth; And Mothers ought to be glad of their fruitfulness, because they are sure to bear Children that shall be happier then their Fathers, and who shall live in Liberty by the benefit of Lewis the Just.  
He need not be suspected of the Italians, nor ought Italy to account him for a stranger; He is an Italian by the Mothers side, and consequently interested in the present affairs, not only by honour and consideration of State, but also out of a natural Inclination and Piety; and because they will needs tell us false Oracles, and supposititious Prophecies: Since Pythia is still a liar in favour of Philip, why should not we search out Oracles of our side, and make use of the witness of wise men, who, according to the opinion of Plato, are never without Divine Inspiration?  
Why should not we allege that which was written above a hundred years ago by a great Person, to Laurence de Medicis, Duke of Urbin; that miserable Italy should hope from his house for one that should deliver it. Infallibly the spirit that dictated these words to him, saw afar off the marriage of Henry the Great; he intended to speak of Lewis the Just, and designed the wonders which we have seen, and those which we shall see, if the Italians will not obstinately resist their own good fortune, and prefer not their Onions and their garlic,( I mean some small Interests and beggarly pensions wherewith Spain repaies them) before the Liberty which is offered to them.  
But be it as it will, the King hath a design to do that which the Princes have done, whom History hath made mention of for demigods: He goes in the steps of those magnanimous Kings, the sworn Enemies of wicked men, the Protectors of honest men, the peace-makers of Sea and Land, who seek for no other fruit from their victories but the rest of the world, nor run from one end to another of it, but to procure its deliverance. He knows that he is descended from those that have broken the forces, and extinguished the Tyranny of Luitprand, Astulph and Didier: from those who have restored to the Popes all Flaminia and Emilia, which had been usurped from them: who presented them with the Isle of Corsa, and the duchy of Spoleto and Beneventum; who added to their Dominion, all the country between Parma and Lucqua: He knoweth that he is heir to him, who, by a better Title then that of Constantine's, might be called the Churches Benefactor, and whose name is yet red at Ravenna in a Table of Marble, with this remainder of an Inscription; He was the first that opened the way to the growth and increase of the Church. He believes with Aristotle, that to do well, is no less a mark of Excellency then of goodness; and with St. Paul, that we must do good to all men, but chiefly to those of the household of faith; He believes that a great King ought to carry his cares long before into the future, and far beyond his own kingdom; that all times ought to be in like consideration with him as the present, and all miserable men equally recommended to him as his own Subjects: That Mountferrat and Mantua must be as near to his mind as the Suburbs of Paris, and the back-side of the louvre; and if thirty daies journey from him, a poor afflicted Person invoke his name, and implore his Justice, he presently feels a diminution of his miseries, and a change in his fortune. He finds that it is a much fairer thing to restore Liberty to Common-Wealths, then to give them a good Master; to get passionate servants, rather then ill-affected Subjects; to make himself friends then vassals; to have over all men a superiority of virtue, rather then a sovereignty of power: Lastly, he is not exalted to the highest degree of human things, but that he may be looked upon afar off, and give lustre to the whole kingdom, that he may serve for a rule to other Princes, for a living and animated Law to all the Nations of the Earth.  
In Conscience since People of this sort make way where ever they pass, since their Example is a kind of Command, which the most rebellious cannot disobey, and that the bitterness which is sometimes found in virtue, is sweetened by the fondness of imitating Kings therein; the present Generation must needs become better experienced, and there would be too much hardness in the hearts of men, if presently all christendom do not become virtuous, and if the Holy life of the Kings, without convocating the general States, and Assembly of Nobles, do not produce a voluntary Reformation in this State, and abroad an honest emulation to do as well as us.  
We need not any more seek for the Idea of a Prince in the Institution of Cyrus, nor go any more to Rome to admire the Statuas of Consuls and Emperors, nor to praise the dead to the prejudice of the living. There is not among all that People, any antic piece of ston or brass, which represents a Heros like ours; we possess what our Fathers wished for, nor can we remember any thing which is of so much value, as what we have seen. As for me, whether it is that I am passionate for the glory of my Master, or whether I interess myself in the design which I have undertaken, or that the light of present things dazzleth me, or that the only love of Truth makes me speak; it is certain, that having beholded all the parts of the world, and considered it from the first moment of its birth, I find not any man, over whom the King hath not some advantage, nor any ones life, which take it altogether, is so admirable as his.  
I see great virtues in many places, but I see also great vices which accompany them: Serpents are hide under the Flowers; poisons and perfumes come out of the same bosom of the Earth: whole Nature is a confusion of good and evil; there is not any part but suffers its inconveniences and wants; and those very bodies which it hath brought forth with the greatest care, and which it hath formed of the richest matter, have their Eclipses and their maladies: There is but the Person of the King, where I observe nothing that I would not have to be: I am not here busied, as it were, abo●t the refining of metals, to separate the pure from the impure; I am not troubled to sever virtue from 'vice.  
All there is equally good, all is blameless, and worthy to be esteemed. And if the first rank which he holds now amongst men, were to be disputed among them, I cannot suppose that any one could lawfully contend with him, but would yield to him either in nobleness of blood, or in prosperity of success, or in the carriage of his body, or in strength of wit, or in magnanimity of heart, or in uprightness of conscience.  
Let us conclude then, that he is The Prince by excellency, and beyond all comparison; that his life is the lesson of Masters, and the examples of the perfect, that his praises ought to be the exercises of all wits, and the matter of all discourse.  
Let us not go out of so pleasant a meditation, but to enter into it again; Let us not take breath, but to lift our voices higher; let us not make an end but to begin again; So much holiday is there in all this Province, since the taking of Rochel; and we have leisure which we cannot better employ, then to the honour of him who hath given it us, and who makes us in joy, in rest, our books and our studies. Besides that, when leisure itself failes us; and that businesses and affairs press us on all sides, so noble a digression deserveth to be preferred before businesses and employments.   
FINIS.   

Errata.  
IN the last leaf but one of the first letter, 12. line, red for being, begins. in the second leaf of the 2. Letter, l. 15. r. employ to so. In the Preface, 6. leaf, l. 22. r. Reeds. The Prince, p. 16. l. 13. red will. p. 40. l. 25. r. Loure. p. 47. l. 1. red longing. p. 51. l. 17. r. throug out. p. 55. l. 5. r. Jacobusses. p. 59. l. 17. r. become. p. 73. l. 3. r. fears. p. 89 l. 19. r. painful. l. 21. r. gives. p. 93 l. 11. r. to deserve. p. 95 l. 6 r. busy. p. 111 l. 15 r. instruct. p. 119 l. 13 r. bad. p. 122. l. 7 r. upon. p. 126 l. 5 r. one. p. 152 l. 8 r. Is it. p. 153 l. 21 and 22 r. and this make speed, or that which goes, &c. p. 170 l. 4 r. fairer. p. 174 l. 21 r. blame. p. 181 l. 24 r. discord. p. 192 l the last, r. Alanies. p. 193 l. 25 r. Alevix. p. 198 l. 18 r. Rats. p. 201 l. 3 r. hole not well. p. 217 l. 14 r. of Philosophers. p. 237 l. 7 r. lower. p. 240 l. 6 r. they can be. p. 246 l. 19 r. of Enemies. p. 258 l. 10 red it not lawful, P. 269 l. 9 r. one l. 15. r. this. p. 276 l. 22 r. their p. 287 l. 15 r. truly l. 20 r. world p. 288 l. 24 r. Vmpeeres p. 304 l. 4 r. it.   

Imprimatur,  
Na: Brent. Decemb. 13. 1647.