“Quae vobis, quae digna, viri pro laudibus istis
Praemia posse rear solvi? pulcherrima primum
Dii moresque dabunt vestri.”

And so of the contrary.  And secondly they ought to look up to the Eternal Providence and Divine Judgment, which often subverteth the wisdom of evil plots and imaginations, according to that scripture, “He hath conceived mischief, and shall bring forth a vain thing.”  And although men should refrain themselves from injury and evil arts, yet this incessant and Sabbathless pursuit of a man’s fortune leaveth not tribute which we owe to God of our time; who (we see) demandeth a tenth of our substance, and a seventh, which is more strict, of our time:  and it is to small purpose to have an erected face towards heaven, and a perpetual grovelling spirit upon earth, eating dust as doth the serpent, Atque affigit humo divinae particulam aurae.  And if any man flatter himself that he will employ his fortune well, though he should obtain it ill, as was said concerning Augustus Caesar, and after of Septimius Severus, “That either they should never have been born, or else they should never have died,” they did so much mischief in the pursuit and ascent of their greatness, and so much good when they were established; yet these compensations and satisfactions are good to be used, but never good to be purposed.  And lastly, it is not amiss for men, in their race towards their fortune, to cool themselves a little with that conceit which is elegantly expressed by the Emperor Charles V., in his instructions to the king his son, “That fortune hath somewhat of the nature of a woman, that if she he too much wooed she is the farther off.”  But this last is but a remedy for those whose tastes are corrupted:  let men rather build upon that foundation which is as a corner-stone of divinity and philosophy, wherein they join close, namely that same Primum quaerite.  For divinity saith, Primum quaerite regnum Dei, et ista omnia adjicientur vobis:  and philosophy saith, Primum quaerite bona animi; caetera aut aderunt, aut non oberunt.  And although the human foundation hath somewhat of the sands, as we see in M. Brutus, when he broke forth into that speech,

“Te colui (Virtus) ut rem; ast tu nomen inane es;”

yet the divine foundation is upon the rock.  But this may serve for a taste of that knowledge which I noted as deficient.

(47) Concerning government, it is a part of knowledge secret and retired in both these respects in which things are deemed secret; for some things are secret because they are hard to know, and some because they are not fit to utter.  We see all governments are obscure and invisible: 

“Totamque infusa per artus
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet.”