cyment them together, and make them con-center in the main proposition. … In the Examples I have bound my selfe to the truth of the history, but used my liberty for the phrase and manner of relation.'[1]
Aphorisme XVI. of Lib. 3: 'He that weareth his heart in his fore-head, and is of an ouvert and transparent nature, through whose words, as through cristall ye may see into every corner of his thoughts: That man is fitter for a table of good fellowship, then a Councell table: For upon the Theater of publicke imployment either in peace or war, the actors must of necessity weare vizards, and change them in every Scene. Because, the generall good and safety of a State, is the Center in which all their actions and counsatles, must meet: To which men cannot alwates arrive by plaine pathes and beaten waies. Wherefore a Prince may pretend a desire of friendship with the weaker, when hee meanes, and must, contract it with the stronger. Hee may sometimes leave the common highway, and take downe an un used by path in the lesser of dangers, so hee be sure to recompence it in the greater of safetie.'[2]
Aphorisme XXII. of Lib. 5: 'As in things we have, so in those we doe, each hath his proper tryall, to prove the excellencie thereof in his kinde: Gold by the test, the Diamant by his hardnesse, Pearle by his water: So, the best discouverers of mens minds are their actions: the best directer of actions is counsaile: and the best triall of counsailes, is Experience.'[3]
A reading of Thucydides and of Tacitus may be substituted for Machiavelli and Guicciardini. For an understanding of policy, of democracy (howsoever defined) and of empire, the pages of Thucydides are still unsurpassed.[4]
- ↑ 'To the Reader.'
- ↑ p. 176 of 2nd ed. Quotations from Tacitus, Cicero, and others follow; and thereafter an example from History.
- ↑ p. 318.
- ↑ See, for example, i. 33, 40, 41 (the expedient and the just), 70 (contrast of the Athenian and the Spartan character), 75 (Athenian envoys at
writer on Politics, author of Political Monitions and Models concerning the Virtues and Vices of Princes. The father of Grotius studied under Lipsius, who called him his 'intimate friend and pupil'. Lipsius was also one of the admirers of the early genius of Hugo Grotius.
