XXI. 7.] THE SECOND BOOK. 199 



learning indeed solid and fruitful) that active men would 

 or could become writers. 



8. In which kind I cannot but mention, honoris causa, 

 your Majesty s excellent book touching the duty of a king: 

 a work richly compounded of divinity, morality, and policy, 

 with great aspersion of all other arts ; and being in mine 

 opinion one of the most sound and healthful writings that 

 I have read; not distempered in the heat of invention, 

 nor in the coldness of negligence ; not sick of dizzi 

 ness, as those are who leese themselves in their order, 

 nor of convulsions, as those which cramp in matters 

 impertinent; not savouring of perfumes and paintings, 

 as those do who seek to please the reader more than 

 nature beareth; and chiefly well disposed in the spirits 

 thereof, being agreeable to truth and apt for action; 

 and far removed from that natural infirmity, whereunto 

 I noted those that write in their own professions to be 

 subject, which is, that they exalt it above measure. For 

 your Majesty hath truly described, not a king of Assyria 

 or Persia in their extern glory, but a Moses or a David, 

 pastors of their people. Neither can I ever leese out 

 of my remembrance what I heard your Majesty in the 

 same sacred spirit of government deliver in a great 

 cause of judicature, which was, That kings ruled by their 

 laws, as God did by the laws of nature ; and ought as 

 rarely to put in use their supreme prerogative, as God doth 

 his power of working miracles. And yet notwithstanding, 

 in your book of a free monarchy, you do well give men 

 to understand, that you know the plenitude of the power 

 and right of a king, as well as the circle of his office and 

 duty. Thus have I presumed to allege this excellent 

 writing of your Majesty, as a prime or eminent example 

 of tractates concerning special and respective duties: 



