THE KING'S MIRROR 197 



living, and has even less of his insight and knowledge 

 of manners, being a mere child. Greater still will the 

 change be if he leaves no son at his decease but as many 

 daughters as I have now counted sons; but the very x 

 greatest change will come if neither sons nor daughters 

 survive him; for then it is likely that his possessions will 

 be split up among distant relatives, unless a near kins- 

 man be found. 



Now if many such events should occur at one time / 



in a kingdom/ vigor, would disappear from the king's 7 - 

 council,, though he himself be very capable.! And if itj 

 should happen (for there are cases of such events as 

 well as of the others) that a king depart this life and 

 leave a young son who succeeds to the paternal king- 

 dom, though a mere child, and young counsellors come 

 into the places of the old and wise advisers who were 

 before, if all these things that we have now recounted 

 should happen at one time, then it is highly probable 

 that all the government of the realm would be stricken 

 with dearth, and that, when the government goes to 

 ruin, the morals of the nation would also fail to some 

 extent. 



There still remains the one contingency which is most 

 likely to bring on such years of dearth as produce the 

 greatest evils; and unfortunately there are no fewer 

 instances of such issues than of those that we have 

 just mentioned. If a king who has governed a kingdom 

 should happen to die, and leave behind three or four 

 sons, and the men who are likely to be made counsellors 

 be all young and full of temerity, though wealthy and 

 of good ancestry, since they have sprung from families 



