Selected quad for the lemma: opinion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
opinion_n	according_a	king_n	law_n	1,073	5	4.8834	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36945	Arcana aulica, or, Walsingham's manual of prudential maxims for the states-man and the courtier; Traicté de la cour. Part 2. English	Refuge, Eustache de, d. 1617.; Walsingham, Francis, Sir, 1530?-1590.; Walsingham, Edward, d. 1663.	1652 (1652)	Wing D2683; ESTC R15739	68,004	176

easily know where to finde one whom he may either prefer or oppose unto the introducer of these Moreover these grosser souls as often as he hath need of them to whom they do now their present and may ow their juture advancement are easie and obnoxious to be debau●hed by him and ready for corruption which he cannot easily expect from one that is his equal in condition or in parts and who stands upon his own legs These are the several kindes of humane inclinations whereunto Princes are no less subject then other men inclining now to this and then to that side according to the prevalence of this or that temperature in them CHAP. 11. That Age Business Custom and Sickness alter the temper of the Bodies and Constitution of the Mindes of Princes NOtwithstanding that for the most part hings are thus yet these rules are not infallible and without exception for Age Custom and Business alters the temper of the Bodies yea and the Inclinations and Actions of Princes In the time of war the Prince cherishes Military men but peace being returned into his Kingdom the Authority and Interest of these men doth soon wax old and then if the Prince inclines to pleasure or any other affection he will be apt to save those that can serve or further him in it See what Tacitus writes of Tiberius Annal. 6. He changed his maners strangely with the times whilest he was a private man and under Augustus his Government both his life and maners were of good repute as long as Germanicus and Drusus lived he was close and crafty in counterfeiting vertue as long as his Mother was alive he kept a mean betwixt Vertue and Vice For cruelty he was infamous but for his Lusts as long as he either loved or feared Sejanus secret But in the end he burst out into all wickedne●s and dishonesty and casting away both fear and shame he suffered himself to be carried wholly by his vicious Inclinations Of Caligula this judgement of Passienus is very notable There was never a better Servant nor a worse Master It is almost incredible what variety of dispositions were found in Marius and Sylla so that Plutarch doubts whether Fortune wrought this change in their Natures or onely brought to light what before of wickedness lay concealed in them In which case if I should speak my opinion I would declare I thought they did not change their Natures but onely pull of those Masks that fear and a narrow Fortune had muffled them withal Just as Leontius said of Zeno That a Serpent frozen with cold hurts not but warm'd by the fire thrusts forth his sting Tryphon as Josephus witnesses whilest he led a private life to win upon the people did personate a good man but being made a King he threw of his disguises and quickly let them see that all that vertue which appeared in him was forced and counterfeit And that of Agamemnon is not much unlike if what Euripedes writes of him be true he was modest affable and easie of access before he was chosen Generalissimo of the Greeks But after that election he became an enemy to his friends and inaccessible to all in keeping himself shut up whereby he became so distastful that the Precept the Poet gives upon this occasion is worth recording These men are wise that great advancement gain And still their ancient modesty retain An excellent sentence but observed by few Pollio truly seemed to follow it if we may believe Seneca Afterwards saith he being promoted to the highest degrees of honor he never corrupted by any occasion deviated a whit from his former modesty temperance and civility He was never pufft up with prosperity nor with the variety of business was he so disordered as that any one could surprize him in a humor derogating from the reputation he had gained before For truly the defects and blemishes of Princes and Courtiers proceed for the most part out of Pride the inseparable handmaid of greatness This is that makes them despise other mens counsels being vainly perswaded that they do excel other men as much in Prudence as they do in Power And some are so carried away with this stream that they think it below them to keep within the limits of Law or Reason believing they cannot be Princes to whom all things are not lawful they have a minde unto according to that of the Poet Vertue Truth Faith such private things as these Are not for Kings they must do what they please But if these kinde of opinions did onely corrupt the weakest and worst of Princes I should wonder the less but I see the mindes of the best men to be blinded also with the witchcraft of Power and Rule No man ever yet exceeded the Seven Sages of Greece in giving Precepts of modesty nor ever were there worse Tyrants then such of them as came to Government Appianus being to speak of Aristo reckoned up not a few that bore the name of Philosophers that had plaid the Tyrants at Athens naming also some of the very Pythagoreans who being called to Government in Italy did exceedingly abuse their power which makes me doubt much whether most of those Philosophers who so proudly contemn honors and dignity do it in good earnest or not rather for a cloak and cover to their small deserts their poverty and idleness Surely if we will believe Aristophanes they did not live so frugally and neerly so much out of vertue as necessity and would not refuse to feast plentifully when ever they were invited CHAP. 12. How much Impostors are able to do by flattering Princes and how a Prince is to beware of them THere are oftentimes Impostors who with flatteries and hidden sly suggestions creep into the Princes bosom and corrupt their nature To these kinde of men doth Tacitus impute the pride and cruelty of Vitellius Vespasian who was of a gentle nature learnt from these people to oppress his subjects with heavy Tributes as the same Tacitus affirms In short it is certain that many who have used the service of these kinde of men have sadly degenerated These Impostors seek favor unto themselves by showing the Prince ways to Greatness Power and Profit who by so much the more willingly doth hearken to them by how much the less he understands himself He poor man not reflecting nor observing that these men praise and sooth him to the end they may at last betray him to contempt and expose him to the hatred of his people And truly to humor and comply with the Cruelty Covetousness and Lust of a Prince is of all others the securest way to betray him for he cannot condemn the Traytor without discovering his own guilt and vices The Franconians by the help of Aegidius at that time governing in Gaul for the Romans had expelled Clodius Comatus out of his Kingdom whom one of his friends desiring to see restored goes over to Aegidius and fostered upon all occasions as much as in him