III. 6.] THE FIRST BOOK. 1$ 



countries or masters before their own fortunes or safeties. 

 For so saith Demosthenes unto the Athenians ; If it 

 please you to note it, 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 Quinquennium 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 thei 

 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 ; Ecce libi lucrefeci, and not Ecce mihi lucrefeci : 

 whereas the corrupter sort of mere politiques^Jlhat have 

 not their thoughts established by learning in the 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, 



