Tyranni.—­Sejanus.—­There is nothing with some princes sacred above their majesty, or profane, but what violates their sceptres.  But a prince, with such a council, is like the god Terminus, of stone, his own landmark, or (as it is in the fable) a crowned lion.  It is dangerous offending such a one, who, being angry, knows not how to forgive; that cares not to do anything for maintaining or enlarging of empire; kills not men or subjects, but destroyeth whole countries, armies, mankind, male and female, guilty or not guilty, holy or profane; yea, some that have not seen the light.  All is under the law of their spoil and licence.  But princes that neglect their proper office thus their fortune is oftentimes to draw a Sejanus to be near about them, who at last affect to get above them, and put them in a worthy fear of rooting both them out and their family.  For no men hate an evil prince more than they that helped to make him such.  And none more boastingly weep his ruin than they that procured and practised it.  The same path leads to ruin which did to rule when men profess a licence in government.  A good king is a public servant.

Illiteratus princeps.—­A prince without letters is a pilot without eyes.  All his government is groping.  In sovereignty it is a most happy thing not to be compelled; but so it is the most miserable not to be counselled.  And how can he be counselled that cannot see to read the best counsellors (which are books), for they neither flatter us nor hide from us?  He may hear, you will say; but how shall he always be sure to hear truth, or be counselled the best things, not the sweetest?  They say princes learn no art truly but the art of horsemanship.  The reason is the brave beast is no flatterer.  He will throw a prince as soon as his groom.  Which is an argument that the good counsellors to princes are the best instruments of a good age.  For though the prince himself be of a most prompt inclination to all virtue, yet the best pilots have needs of mariners besides sails, anchor, and other tackle.

Character principis.—­Alexander magnus.—­If men did know what shining fetters, gilded miseries, and painted happiness thrones and sceptres were there would not be so frequent strife about the getting or holding of them; there would be more principalities than princes; for a prince is the pastor of the people.  He ought to shear, not to flay his sheep; to take their fleeces, not their the soul of the commonwealth, and ought to cherish it as his own body.  Alexander the Great was wont to say, “He hated that gardener that plucked his herbs or flowers up by the roots.”  A man may milk a beast till the blood come; churn milk and it yieldeth butter, but wring the nose and the blood followeth.  He is an ill prince that so pulls his subjects’ feathers as he would not have them grow again; that makes his exchequer a receipt for the spoils of those he governs.  No, let him keep his own, not affect his subjects’;