198 



THE KING'S MIRROR 



that formerly conducted the government with the king, 

 now if a kingdom should come into such unfortunate 

 circumstances as have been described, with several heirs 

 at the same time, and the evil counsel is furthermore 

 taken to give them all the royal title and dignity, then 

 that realm must be called a rudderless ship or a decayed 

 estate; it may be regarded almost as a ruined kingdom, 

 for it is sown with the worst seeds of famine and the 

 grains of unpeacefFor the petty kings, having rent the 

 realm asunder, will quickly divide the loyalty of the 

 people who inhabit the land, both of the rich and of the 

 poor; and each of these lords will then try to draw friends 

 about him, as many as he can.lThereupon each will be- 

 gin to survey his realm as to population and wealth; 

 and when he recalls what his predecessor possessed, each 

 will feel that he has too little. Then the friends, too, of 

 each one will remind him of and tell about how much 

 the king who ruled before him possessed in wealth and 

 numbers and what great undertakings he set out upon; 

 and it seems as if in every suggestion each one tries to 

 urge his lord to seize upon more than he already has. 

 After that these lords begin to treasure those riches that 

 are of the least profit to the kingdom, namely(Sovy~T) 

 trivial matters are carefully garnered and great wrath 

 is blown out of them. Soon the love of kinship begins to 

 -decay; he who was earlier called friend and relative is 

 now looked upon as an evil-doer, for soon each one be- 

 gins to be suspicious of the others. But when suspicion 

 and evil rumors begin to appear, wicked men think that 

 good times are at hand, and they all bring out their 

 plows. Before long the seeds of hostility begin to sprout, 



