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servants ought to make diligent inquiry. As for triumphs, masques, feasts, weddings, funerals, capital executions, and such shows, men need not to be put in mind of them; yet are they not to be neglected.

If you will have a young man to put his travel 5 into a little room, and in short time to gather much, this you must do: first, as was said, he must have some entrance into the language before he goeth. Then he must have such a servant or tutor as knoweth the country, as was likewise said. Let him carry 10 Chart with him also some card or book describing the country where he travelleth, which will be a good key to his inquiry. Let him keep also a diary. Let him not stay long in one city or town; more or less as the place deserveth, but not long. Nay, when he stayeth 15 in one city or town, let him change his lodging from one end and part of the town to another, which is a great adamant° of acquaintance. Let him sequester

me himself from the company of his countrymen, and Et diet in such places where there is good company 20 of the nation where he travelleth. Let him, upon his removes from one place to another, procure recommendation to some person of quality residing in the place whither he removeth, that he may use his favour in those things he desireth to see or know. 25 Thus he may abridge his travel with much profit.°

As for the acquaintance which is to be sought in travel, that which is most of all profitable is acquaintance with the secretaries and employed men of ambassadors; for so in travelling in one country 3

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he shall suck the experience of many. Let him also see and visit eminent persons in all kinds which are of great name abroad, that he may be able to tell how the life agreeth with the fame. For quarrels, they are with care and discretion to be avoided. They are commonly for mistresses, healths, place, and words. And let a man beware how he keepeth company with choleric and quarrelsome persons, for they will engage him into their own quarrels. When 10 a traveller returneth home, let him not leave the countries where he hath travelled altogether behind him, but maintain a correspondence by letters with those of his acquaintance which are of most worth. And let his travel appear rather in his discourse than 15 in his apparel or gesture; and in his discourse let him be rather advised° in his answers than forwards to tell stories.° And let it appear that he doth not change his country manners for those of foreign

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Klant parts, but only prick in° some flowers of that he hath

20 learned abroad, into the customs of his own country.

XIX. OF EMPIRE

It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire, and many things to fear; and yet that commonly is the case of kings, who, being at the highest, want matter of desire, which makes their 25 minds more languishing; and have many representations of perils and shadows, which makes their

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minds the less clear. And this is one reason also of that effect which the Scripture speaketh of, "that the king's heart is inscrutable." For multitude of jealousies, and lack of some predominant desire that should marshal and put in order all the rest, 5 maketh any man's heart hard to find or sound. Hence it comes, likewise, that princes many times make themselves desires, and set their hearts upon toys: sometimes upon a building, sometimes upon erecting of an order, sometimes upon the advancing 10 of a person, sometimes upon obtaining excellency in some art or feat of the hand, as Nero for playing on the harp, Domitian° for certainty of the hand with. the arrow, Commodus for playing at fence, Caracalla for driving chariots, and the like. This 15 seemeth incredible unto those that know not the principle, that the mind of man is more cheered and refreshed by profiting in small things, than by standing at a stay in great. We see also that kings that have been fortunate conquerors in their first years, 20 it being not possible for them to go forward infinitely, but that they must have some check or arrest in their fortunes, turn in their latter years to be superstitious and melancholy; as did Alexander the Great, Diocletian,° and in our memory Charles V.,° 25 and others; for he that is used to go forward, and findeth a stop, falleth out of his own favour, and is not the thing he was.°

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To speak now of the true temper° of empire, it is a thing rare and hard to keep; for both temper and 30

distemper consist of contraries. But it is one thing to mingle contraries, another to interchange them. The answer of Apollonius to Vespasian is full of excellent instruction. Vespasian asked him, "What 5 was Nero's overthrow?" He answered, "Nero could touch and tune the harp well; but in government sometimes he used to wind the pins too high, sometimes to let them down too low. And certain it is, that nothing destroyeth authority so much as 10 the unequal and untimely interchange of power pressed too far, and relaxed too much.

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This is true, that the wisdom of all these latter times, in princes' affairs, is rather fine deliveries,° and shiftings of dangers and mischiefs when they 15 are near, than solid and grounded courses to keep them aloof. But this is but to try masteries with fortune. And let men beware how they neglect and suffer matter of trouble to be prepared, for no man can forbid the spark, nor tell whence it may The difficulties in princes' business are many and great; but the greatest difficulty is often in their own mind. For it is common with princes, saith Tacitus, to will contradictories. "Sunt plerumque regum voluntates vehementes, et inter se 25 contrariæ." For it is the solecism° of power to think to command the end, and yet not to endure the mean.°

20 come.

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Kings have to deal with their neighbours, their wives, their children, their prelates or clergy, their nobles, their second nobles or gentlemen, their mer30 chants, their commons, and their men of war; and

from all these arise dangers, if care and circumspection be not used.

First for their neighbours, there can no general rule be given (the occasions are so variable), save one, which ever holdeth: which is, that princes do keep 5 due sentinel that none of their neighbours do overgrow so, by increase of territory, by embracing of trade, by approaches,° or the like, as they become more able to annoy them than they were. And this is generally the work of standing councils, to foresee and to 10 hinder it. During that triumvirate of kings, King Henry VIII. of England, Francis I., King of France, and Charles V., Emperor, there was such a watch kept that none of the three could win a palm of ground, but the other two would straightways balance it, 15 either by confederation, or if need were by a war, and would not in any wise take up peace at interest.° And the like was done by that league, which, Guicciardine saith, was the security of Italy, made between Ferdinando, King of Naples, Lorenzius 20 Medices, and Ludovicus Sforza, potentates, the one of Florence, the other of Milan. Neither is the opinion of some of the schoolmen° to be received, that a war cannot justly be made but upon a precedent° injury or provocation: for there is no question but a 25 just fear of an imminent danger, though there be no blow given, is a lawful cause of a war.

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For their wives, there are cruel examples of them. Livia is infamed for the poisoning of her husband; Roxolana, Solyman's wife, ° was the destruction of that 30

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