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 THE SECOND BOOK 331 



gamester, and there be a proverb more arrogant than 

 sound, ' That the vale best discovereth the hill ' ; yet there 

 is small doubt but that men can write best and most 

 really and materially in their own professions ; and that 

 the writing of speculative men of active matter for the 

 most part doth seem to men of experience, as Phormio's 

 argument of the wars seemed to Hannibal, to be but 

 dreams and dotage. Only there is one vice which accom- 

 panieth them that write in their own professions, that they 

 magnify them in excess. But generally it were to be 

 wished (as that which would make learning indeed solid 

 and fruitful) that active men would or could become ' ''/.'- 

 writers. 



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 dizziness, as 

 those are who leese themselves in their order ; nor of con- 

 vulsions, 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 govern- 

 ment 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 mon- 

 archy, you do well give men to understand, that you 



