Newcastle as Governor of Prince Charles 185 



Beware of too much devotion for a King, for one may be a good man, 

 but a bad King ; and how many will history represent to you that in seem- 

 ing to gain the kingdom of heaven have lost their own ; and the old saying 

 is, that short prayers pierce the heaven's gates ; but if you be not religious 

 (and not only seem so, but be so), God will not prosper you ; and if you 

 have no reverence to Him, why should your subjects have any to you. 

 At the best, you are accounted, for your greatest honour. His servant, 

 His deputy, His anointed, and you owe as much reverence and duty to 

 Him as we owe to you ; and why, nay justly, may not He punish you for 

 want of reverence and service to Him, if you fail in it, as well as you to 

 punish us : but this subject I leave to the right reverend Father in God, 

 Lord Bishop of Chichester, your worthy tutor : your tutor, sir, wherein 

 you are most happy, since he hath no pedantry in him ; his learning he 

 makes right use of, neither to trouble himself with it or his friends ; reads 

 men as well as books ; and goes the next way to everything that he should, 

 and that is what he would, for his will is governed by that law : the purity 

 of his wit doth not spoil the serenity of his judgment ; travelled, which 

 you shall perceive by his wisdom and fashion more than by his relations ; 

 and in a word strives as much discreetly to hide the scholar in him, as 

 other men's follies to show it ; and is a right gentleman, such a one as 

 man should be. 



But, sir, to fall back again to your reverence at prayers, so far as con- 

 cerns reason and your advantage is my duty to tell you ; then I say, sir, 

 were there no heaven or hell, you shall see the disadvantage for your 

 government ; if you have no reverence at prayers, what will the people 

 have, think you ? They go according to the example of the Princes ; if 

 they have none, then they have no obedience to God ; there they will 

 easily have none to your Highness ; no obedience, no subjects ; no sub- 

 jects — then your power is off that side, and whether it be in one or more 

 then that's King, and thus they will turn tables with you. Of the other 

 side, if any be Bible mad, over much burned with fiery zeal, they may 

 think it a service to God to destroy you and say the Spirit moved them 

 and bring some example of a king with a hard name in the Old Testament. 

 Thus one way you may have a civil war, the other a private treason ; and 

 he that cares not for his own life is master of another man's. 



For books thus much more : the greatest clerks are not the wisest men ; 

 and the great troublers of the world, the greatest captains, were not the 

 greatest scholars ; neither have I known bookworms great statesmen ; 

 some have heretofore and some are now, but they study men more now 

 than books, or else they would prove but silly statesmen. For a mere 

 scholar, there is nothing so simple for this world. The reason is plain, 

 for divinity teaches what we should be, not what we are ; so doth moral 

 philosophy ; and many philosophical worlds' and Utopia's scholars have 

 made and fancied to themselves such worlds as never was, is, or shall be ; 

 and then I dare say if they govern themselves by those rules what men 

 should be, or not what they are, they will miss the cushion very much. 



But, sir, you are in your own disposition religious and not very apt to 

 your book, so you need no great labour to persuade you from the one, or 

 long discourses to dissuade from the other. 



The things that I have discoursed to you most is to be courteous and 

 civil to everybody ; set to, make difference of cabinges, 1 and, believe it, 



1 So in the MS.— Ellis. 



B B 



