ESSAYS CIVIL AND MORAL. 



be there other bands, that tie faster than the band of sovereignty, 

 kings begin to be put almost out of possession. 



Also, when discords and quarrels, and factions are carried openly 

 and audaciously, it is a sign the reverence of government is lost. For 

 the motions of the greatest persons in a government ought to be as the 

 motions of the planets under primum mobile, according to the old 

 opinion ; which is, that every of them is carried swiftly by the highest 

 motion, and softly in their own motion. And therefore when great 

 ones in their own particular motion move violently, and, as Tacitus 

 expresseth it well, &quot; liberius, quam tit imperantium meminissent ; ;; it 

 is a sign the orbs are out of frame. For reverence is that wherewith 

 princes are girt from God, who thrcateneth the dissolving thereof ; 

 &quot; solvam cingula regum.&quot; 



So when any of the four pillars of government are mainly shaken 

 or weakened, which are religion, justice, counsel, and treasure, men 

 had need to pray for fair weather. But let us pass from this part of 

 predictions, concerning which, nevertheless, more light may be taken 

 from that which followeth, and let us speak first of the materials of 

 seditions ; then of the motives of them ; and thirdly, of the remedies. 



Concerning the materials of seditions. It is a thing well to be 

 considered ; for the surest way to prevent seditions, if the times do 

 bear it, is to take away the matter of them. For if there be fuel pre 

 pared, it is hard to tell whence the spark shall come that shall set it 

 on fire. The matter of seditions is of two kinds : much poverty, and 

 much discontentment. It is certain, so many overthrown estates, so 

 many votes for troubles. Lucan noteth well the state of Rome before 

 the civil war : 



Ilinc usura vorax, rapidumque in tern pore fbenus, 

 Hinc concussa fides, et multis utile bellum. 



This same &quot; multis utile bellum &quot; is an assured and infallible sign of 

 a state disposed to seditions and troubles. And if this poverty and 

 broken estate in the better sort be joined with a want and necessity in 

 the mean people, the danger is eminent and great. For the rebellions 

 of the belly are the worst. As for discontentments, they are in the 

 politic body like to humours in the natural, which arc apt to gather a 

 preternatural heat and to inflame. And let no prince measure the 

 danger of them by this ; whether they be just or unjust ; for that were 

 to imagine people to be too reasonable ; who do often spurn at their 

 own good ; nor yet by this : whether the griefs whereupon they rise be in 

 fact great or small. For they arc the most dangerous discontentments, 

 where the fear is greater than the feeling. &quot; Dolcndi modus, timcndi 

 non item.&quot; Besides, in great oppressions, the same things that pro- 

 ic patience, do withal mate the courage ; but in fears it is not 

 so. Neither let any prince or state be secure concerning discontent 

 ments, because they have been often, or have been long, and yet no 

 hath ensued : for as it is true that every vapour, or fume, doth 

 : turn into a storm : so it is nevertheless true, that storms, though 

 they blow over divers times, yet may fall at last ; and as the Spanish 

 proverb noteth well, the cord brcaketh at the last by the weakest pull 



