40 OF RECEIVING THE KING S MESSAGES. 



tempt with us that are born under an hereditary mo 

 narchy, so as the motions of our estate cannot work 

 in any other frame or engine, it must follow, that we 

 shall be a meteor, or &quot; corpus imperfecte mistum ;&quot; 

 which kind of bodies come speedily to confusion and 

 dissolution. Andhereinitis our happiness, that we may 

 make the same judgment of the king, which Tacitus 

 made of Nerva: &quot; Divus Nerva res olim dissociabiles 

 &quot; miscuit, imperium et libertatem.&quot; Nerva did temper 

 things, that before were thought incompatible, or 

 insociable, sovereignty and liberty. And it is not 

 amiss in a great council and a great cause to put the 

 other part of the difference, which was significantly 

 expressed by the judgment which Apollonius made 

 of Nero ; which was thus : when Vespasian came 

 out of Judaea towards Italy, to receive the empire, 

 as he passed by Alexandria he spake with Apollo 

 nius, a man much admired, and asked him a ques 

 tion of state : &quot; What was the cause of Nero s fall or 

 &quot; overthrow ?&quot; Apollonius answered again, &quot; Nero 

 &quot; could tune the harp well : but in government he 

 &quot; always either wound up the pins too high, and 

 &quot; strained the strings too far ; or let them down 

 &quot; too low, and slackened the strings too much/ 

 Here we see the difference between regular and able 

 princes, and irregular and incapable, Nerva and 

 Nero. The one tempers and mingles the sove 

 reignty with the liberty of the subject wisely ; and 

 the other doth interchange it, and vary it unequally 

 and absurdly. Since therefore we have a prince of 

 so excellent wisdom and moderation, of whose au- 



