32 ESSAYS CIVIL AND MORAL. 



&quot; Memento quod cs homo ; &quot; and &quot; Memento quod es Dctis,&quot; or &quot; vice 

 Dei : &quot; the one bridlcth their power, and the other their will. 



XX. OF COUNSE-L. 



The greatest trust between man and man is the trust of giving 

 counsel. For in other confidences, men commit the parts of life; 

 their lands, their goods, their children, their credit, some particular 

 affair ; but to such as they make their counsellors, they commit the 

 whole : by how much the more they are obliged to all faith and in 

 tegrity. The wisest princes need not think it any diminution to their 

 greatness, or derogation to their sufficiency, to rely upon counsel. 

 God himself is not without : but hath made it one of the great names 

 of his blessed Son, &quot;the Counsellor.&quot; Solomon hath pronounced, that 

 &quot;in counsel is stability.&quot; Things will have their first or second agita 

 tion; if they be not tossed upon the arguments of counsel, they will be 

 tossed upon the waves of fortune; and be full of inconstancy, doing 

 and undoing, like the reeling of a drunken man. Solomon s son found 

 the force of counsel, as his father saw the necessity of it. For the 

 beloved kingdom of God was first rent and broken by ill counsel ; 

 upon which counsel there are set, for our instruction, the two marks 

 whereby bad counsel is for ever best discerned : that it was young 

 counsel, for the persons; and violent counsel, for the matter. 



The ancient times do set forth in figure both the incorporation and 

 inseparable conjunction of counsel with kings, and the wise and politic 

 use of counsel by kings : the one, in that they say Jupiter did marry Metis, 

 which signified! counsel ; whereby they intend, that sovereignty is 

 married to counsel : the other in that which followeth, which was thus : 

 they say, after Jupiter was married to Metis, she conceived by him 

 and was with child, but Jupiter suffered her not to stay till she brought 

 forth, but cat her up : whereby he became himself with child, and was 

 delivered of Pallas armed out of his head. Which monstrous fable 

 containeth a secret of empire ; how kings are to make use of their 

 council of state : that, first, they ought to refer matters unto them, 

 which is the first begetting or impregnation ; but when they are elabor 

 ate, moulded and shaped in the womb of their council, and grow ripe 

 and ready to be brought forth, that then they suffer not their council 

 to go through with the resolution and direction, as if it depended on 

 them ; but take the matter back into their own hands, and make it 

 appear to the world, that the degrees and final directions, which, be 

 cause they come forth with prudence and power, are resembled to 

 I allas armed, proceeded from themselves, and not only from their 

 authority, but, the more to add reputation to themselves, from their 

 head and device. 



Let us now speak of the inconveniences of counsel, and of the reme 

 dies. The inconveniences that have been noted in calling and using 

 counsel are three. First, the revealing of affairs, whereby they become 

 less secret. Secondly, the weakening of the authority of princes, as 

 if they were less of themselves. Thirdly, the danger of being unfaith- 



