Then all the counsels are made good or
bad by the events; and it falleth out that the same facts receive
from them the names, now of diligence, now of vanity, now of
majesty, now of fury; where they ought wholly to hang on his mouth,
as he to consist of himself, and not others' counsels.
Princeps.--After God, nothing is to be loved of man like the prince;
he violates Nature that doth it not with his whole heart. For when
he hath put on the care of the public good and common safety, I am a
wretch, and put off man, if I do not reverence and honour him, in
whose charge all things divine and human are placed. Do but ask of
Nature why all living creatures are less delighted with meat and
drink that sustains them than with venery that wastes them? and she
will tell thee, the first respects but a private, the other a common
good, propagation.
De eodem.--Orpheus' Hymn.--He is the arbiter of life and death:
when he finds no other subject for his mercy, he should spare
himself. All his punishments are rather to correct than to destroy.
Why are prayers with Orpheus said to be the daughters of Jupiter,
but that princes are thereby admonished that the petitions of the
wretched ought to have more weight with them than the laws
themselves.
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