AS ee ee oS pg a ee ne es eee oh GIy, 
1.6] -—-s« THE FIRST BOOK. =i (tst*«G 
countries or masters before their own fortunes or safeties. 
For so saith Demosthenes unto the Athenians; Jf 
please you to note tt, my counsels unto you are not such 
whereby I should grow great amongst you, and you become 
little amongst the Grecians ; but they be of that nature, as 
they are sometimes not good for me to give, but are always 
good for you to follow. And so Seneca, after he had con- 
secrated that Quznguennium Neronis to the eternal glory 
of learned governors, held on his honest and loyal course 
of good and free counsel, after his master grew extremely 
corrupt in his government. Neither can this point other- 
wise be; for learning endueth men’s minds with a true 
sense of the frailty of their persons, the casualty of their 
fortunes, and the dignity of their soul and vocation: so 
that it is impossible for them to esteem that any greatness 
of their own fortune can be a true or worthy end of their 
being and ordainment ; and therefore are desirous to give 
their account to God, and so likewise to their masters 
under God (as kings and the states that they serve) in these 
words; Lece tb lucrefect, and not Ecce mihi lucrefect : 
whereas the corrupter sort of mere politiques, that have 
not their thoughts established by learning inthe love and 
apprehension of duty, nor never look abroad into univers- 
ality, do refer all things to themselves, and thrust them- 
selves into the centre of the world, as if all lines should 
meet in them and their fortunes; never caring in all 
tempests what becomes of the ship of estates, so they . 
may save themselves in the cockboat of their own for- 
tune : whereas men that feel the weight of duty and 
know the limits of self-love, use to make good their 
places and duties, though with peril; and if they stand in 
seditious and violent alterations, it is rather the reverence 
which many times both adverse parts do give to honesty, 
