to them as Nature they would have left nothing for their Successours to do now but might have made themselves Masters of the Universe The Misfortunes of King John obliged Charles his Son not to hazard a second Disgrace but that Prince who in this then shewed his Prudence had before given Proof of his Courage Lewis the Eleventh who towards the Latter End of his Days had abandoned his Soul to the melancholy Terrours and Apprehensions of Death never gave Testimony of such terrifying Fears in all his Wars And one might have seen him give Personal Proofs of his Valour at the Battle of Montlheri Henry the Third had won three Victories before he was King which gives us to observe that it was his Slothfulness and not his Cowardice which was the Cause of his unhappy Reign He feared not the Danger of War but he dreaded the Labour of it He had been well satisfied to have fought every Year a Battle provided that after the Fight was over he might have been permitted to spend the rest of the Year in Idleness These are they whom Calumny may take occasion to asperse and yet they are free from this Fault of Cowardice The rest claim our Elogies rather than need our Apologies Prosperity sometimes failed them in the Event and Prudence was sometimes wanting in the Enterprize but their Courage never failed neither in the Enterprize nor in the Event There were no Adventures happened to them wherein their Valour was not shewed forth Kings are not made Prisoners of War so long as they remain in their Palaces But if any of them in commanding their Armies do fall into the Hands of their Enemies who manage the War by their Lieutenants it is plain that at the same Time they are vanquished they have appeared more courageous than their Conquerours Such have been the Princes from whom some are descended who have no reason to blush for their Ancestors nor themselves in Reading their History They are found in their proper Place when seated on their Throne And that they were altogether worthy of proceeding their Successours who have since had better Fortune Whose Destinies may raise in us a Compassion for them but will never cause us to be ashamed of them CHAP. XIX The Empire of the Ancient Persians was soon expired as also that of the Graecians And the Reasons thereof AND as some Kings have been always Valiant so have their Subjects never basely degenerated from the Principle of Courage So that we need not wonder that Monarchy hath preserved it self during the Course of so many Ages and that she promiseth her self a Duration equal to that of the Universe On the contrary the Empire of the Ancient Persians did not long subsist because Cyrus had those for his Successors which were not worthy of him They had more of Vanity than Valour They moved indeed with innumerable Armies they poured forth Soldiers by the Millions and with a ridiculous Arrogance vaunted that they would shovel Mountains into the Sea and lay Fetters upon the Ocean and yet after all these dreadful Cracks they were beaten sunk and chased by the little Republicks of Greece However we may say that Darius in whom this Empire expired was not defective in Courage but he had not so much as his Enemy seeing that though he was far stronger than he yet nevertheless he was surmounted by him When his famous Conqueror was dead without Children the Principal of his Captains became Kings One had Macedonia for his Part another Syria a Third Egypt But all these blazing Sovereignties not falling into Hands strong enough to sustain them were soon extinguished Perseus the last King of the Macedonians was but the Seventh in Succession from Antigonus The Seleucides which had Syria continued no long Time And the Ptolemey's whose Kingdom was the last which was reduced to a Province held not Egypt above two Ages Their Misfortunes came from a Defect of Valour Perseus of whom we have been speaking instead of shewing the Courage of a King after his Defeat carried himself with so much Baseness that the General of the Roman Army was ashamed of him when he came from the Battel apprehending that it would not be any Glory for him to conquer such a Man And when he saw him prostrate himself unworthily at his Feet Ah! saith he Do not dishonour my Victory And yet this Carriage was less to be blamed if possible than that of Antiochus of the Race of the Seleucides to whom the Romans sent Popilius to command him to depart out of a Country whereinto he had entred with his main Army So soon as he saw the Ambassador a-far off going over his Camp he humbly salutes him The Ambassador with a Fierceness not to be endured comes up to him without returning him any Salute and delivers him a Letter from the Senate Antiochus after he had read it told him He would deliberate upon whas was to be done Popilius presently making a Circle about this Prince with a Wand that he then had in his Hand said to him Deliberate if you will but before you go out of this Circle I expect your Answer Here You may behold a perfect Coward A King who in the midst of his Army had received such unworthy Carriage from an Envoy instead of being inspired with a just Indignation consulted only his own Fears and answered He would do what the Romans should desire of him As for Ptolemy can any one be guilty of a more sordid and treacherous Action than his when he sacrificed the greatest Infortunate to his infamous Politicks And the better to make his Court to Caesar makes him a Present of the Head of Pompey All these Princes so little worthy of their Sovereignty did but possess part of the Conquests of Alexander What became of Persia after the Death of this great Monarch There were but two Divisions made of those great Conquests one by Perdiccas and the other by Antipater It was in the second Division that Babylon fell to Seleucus He afterwards gained the Army of Nicanor Governor of Media and being also assured of Persia it was the best Division seeing that his Empire extended it self from the Egean Sea even to the Indies But at last all these Successors of Alexander and their Descendants not knowing how to agree amongst themselves nor how to conquer one another it happened that during their Dissensions a valiant Parthian named Arsaces mounts the Throne and became the Founder of one of the most puissant and illustrious Families that History presents to our Remembrance This Noble Family was not eclipsed as others were with the Rays of the Roman Splendor She gave Kings to the Eastern Nations and investing her self during so many Ages with Sovereign Power was never the Subject but always the Rival of that ambitious Republick These were the Princes called the Arsacides from the Name of their illustrious Founder who created so much Trouble to the Romans and abated their Pride by the
make Harangues and tell them that they have a Leader who fears no Dangers and puts them in mind of other Occasions wherein he hath signalized his Courage they do not consider this sort of Discourse as savouring of Pride but as generous A certain Prince at Sea finding himself within Sight of the Enemy's Fleet which was ready to attack him heard one of the Soldiers say The Enemy's Ships are much more in Number than ours he turns himself suddenly to the Soldier and asked him For how many dost thou count me This was not Arrogance it was a becoming Confidence And although by these Words the Prince comprehended his own Praises yet the Expression was not less fine than that which is related of Pelopidas He leads his Troops through a Place where he did not believe he should be forced to an Engagement In the mean time he perceived the Enemies on a sudden and that he could not avoid fighting Saith one of his Officers to him We are fallen into the Hands of our Enemies No saith he the Enemies are fallen into ours CHAP. XIX The Valour of a Prince ought to be accompanied with the Love of Learning BEfore I come to observe another Qualification which is advantageous when accompanied with Valour I believe I am obliged to tell You that it is not so essential nor so important as those two of which I have been discoursing Generosity and Justice We cannot treat Morality with too much Freedom and Sincerity Vertue surmounts all other Things in such a manner that when a vertuous Man is possessed of them his Merit flows principally from that which is vertuous in him and when he is vertuous though he be not possessed of them yet we must needs always observe in him a good Foundation for true Glory We commonly fansie Old Rome to be the Seat of the Sciences and as a Polite Commonwealth we cannot form this Notion of her in her Infancy for during more than Four Hundred Years this People remained in a profound Ignorance and an extream Aversion for Learning Those Men though they were rough and unpolished yet they were brave And as one hath said of them They knew not how to do any Thing but to till the Ground and kill their Enemies However we admire the Heroes she produced in those first Ages and we have Reason to admire them We shall not find a less Interval of Time between the Foundation of Athens and the Honour she had to be the Mother of the Arts. Since she became so famous for Eloquence she produced a great Captain who though he had not an ordinary Politeness for an Athenian yet he gained Battels at Land and Sea for them And of whom one said Cimon was as valiant as Miltiades as prudent as Themistocles and more just than either Themistocles or Miltiades Although he had not so much Agreeableness of Spirit as he had Grandeur of Soul yet he acquired immortal Renown They placed him in the Rank of the Illustrious and have wrote his Life And if we may observe therein some little Defect yet a slight Indecency is not capable to sully the Glory of his Reputation On the other side Though Princes are endued with Politeness yet if those other more solid Qualities which we have touched upon in this Discourse are not conspicuous in them we must ingenuously confess the Truth they cannot acquire a true Esteem in the World And if they desire to be numbred amongst the Heroes of it their Ambition meets with so many Obstacles that it is impossible to surmount them But behold the Judgment one ought to make upon the Sciences that so we may not ascribe too much to them nor derogate too much from them They are to be esteemed for Three Things First They are able to inspire vertuous Notions Besides When they accompany Vertue they appear more refined and are rendred more amiable And Lastly They are useful to preserve the Memoirs of Grand Atchievments whether it be by the Pen of him that performed them or by that of other learned Men who dedicate their nocturnal Studies and Labours to his Honour CHAP. XX. Without the Assistance of Learning a Prince knows not how to immortalize his Actions IT would be difficult to find Princes who after having formed a Design of distinguishing themselves from the rest of Mankind by their Valour have not at the same Time apprehended that they stand in need of the Assistance of the Learned to eternize the Memory of their Exploits One Day Alexander finding himself oppressed under the Weights and Fatigues of War cried out If you did but know O Athenians what I suffer to merit your Praises Amongst the Treasures of the Spoils of Darius they found a Cabinet of inestimable Value And at an Entertainment in the Presence of Alexander his Courtiers asking what it was he would put into so precious a Cabinet I designed saith he to put Homer ' s Works into it And he used it actually for that purpose Amongst those they call the Twelve Caesars the greatest in Esteem are the Two first We may add to them Vespasiam I shall say nothing upon the Two first for them we should speak but too much But Vespasian had no less a Love for the Arts than either of them It was he whose Protection and Encouragement brought forth a Swarm of fine Wits which without doubt must give place to those who were in the Time of Augustus and yet nevertheless they merit very great Esteem Pompey lowred the Consulary Fasces before Possidonius his House when he went to give him a Visit Trajan made Dion Chrysostom sit on one Side of him in his Chair of Triumph Scipio ordained that the Status of Ennius should be placed upon his Monument And another was erected in the publick Place to the Honour of Claudian by the Order of Arcadius and Honorius Charlemaign and Francis the First were in their Times the Fathers of Learning Philip Augustus was also found of it There is at this Day extant a kind of History in Verse called the Philippeids He honoured the Author with his Royal Favours and though it was not worthy so great a Prince that was his Misfortune and not his Crime Charles the Fifth followed these excellent Examples He esteemed the Learned and the Sciences And if he did not make therein so great a Progress as was expected under the Conduct of that sage Governor whom Lewis the Twelfth had provided for him and improved not so much as was hoped he would have done under the Care and Pains of a Tutor who afterwards arrived to the Supream Pontificate yet he signified his Sorrow for it History observes that an Harangue in Latin having been made before him at the City of Genoua when he understood not the meaning of it It happens now saith he what I have long Time fore-told that I should repent one Day that I had not applied my self to Study Nay even Hannibal himself had a particular Affection for
Mark Anthony at the Beginning of the Wars was more beloved by the Soldiers than any General of his Time Of which he had good Experience After he had lost a Battel which forced him to quit Italy he re-established his Fortune amongst the Gauls and by his Presence drew over to him the Roman Legions who instead of fighting him as they had Orders submitted themselves to his Conduct This very General saw all these Troops desert him and go over to Augustus after he had made a shameful and effeminate Retreat from the Battel of Actium We will relate one Thing which though it seems not very important as being but the Action of a private Person yet it serves to confirm the Truth of this Notion that I am upon Augustus for the accomplishing of what he had begun quits Rome a Year after this fatal Battel and being gone into Egypt he besiegeth the Enemy in Alexandria a Roman Soldier under Anthony so highly signalized himself in a Sally that Mark Anthony caused him to sup with him at his own Table and Cleopatra presented him with an Head-piece and Breast-plate of Gold Yet notwithstanding though this Soldier was so magnificently recompenced the Night following he deserts Anthony and goes over to Augustus's Camp I alledge not this Example in any wise to excuse such base Ingratitude but to let you see the Danger a Man exposeth himself to of being abandoned when he hath given Cause but to question his Want of Resolution But if Valour be necessary to a Prince to keep what he hath gotten it is yet much more necessary to put him in possession of what belongs to him He must not think or expect in an ordinary Way that the State will render up their Forts at least unless they are forced to it or are in fear of being so they will not part with them as long as they have a Prospect of Power to keep them It is to no purpose to send Ambassadors to alledge Reasons they will counter-plead them with Reasons or contrary Pretences And when the Demand he makes is very pressing he will at last receive an Answer like to that of the Lacedaemonian Captain the King of Persia wrote to him Send me your Arms He returns him this blunt Answer viz. Come and fetch them CHAP. XVI The same Reflections pursued IF it be a Truth to say generally speaking that Things are preserved by the same Means by which they have been acquired we cannot doubt then but that Courage is highly instrumental for the Preserving seeing it is necessary to the Raising it self and that the greatest Fortunes in all Ages have been wrought out by Valour Amongst the Roman Emperors some from the lowest Rank have arrived to the Purple Many others were private Men before they were Princes The Empire was a long time exposed either as the Reward of Courage or as a Prey to Ambition which without Courage is altogether vain and impotent In Truth the first Six Caesars succeeded each other by the Rights of Blood or Adoption Vespasian and some others had their Children for their Successors But how came Vespasian himself to the Throne How came Galba Trajan and Severus to the Sovereignty Severus above all others is the greatest Instance of the Effects which are produced by Courage He had to contest with puissant Rivals and of the Four Pretenders to the Empire he was looked upon to be the weakest yet by his Valour he surmounted his Competitors he flew to and fro from one End of the Empire to another with an Impetuosity always victorious Whether he were in the Eastern Parts or in our Countries Westward he atchieved such great Things that it was the Opinion of a judicious Historian that his Actions were not inferiour to those of Caesar But to come nearer to our own Times Have we not seen an obscure Person a Man sprung from nothing or as we sometimes phrase it a Son of the Earth who routed the Turks and brought away their Sultan Prisoner He rendred himself Master of all Persia and of all the Indies and so far advanced his Victories that some pretend Tamerlain no less a Conqueror than Alexander On the one side if he did not possess himself of Greece and the Provinces bordering the Hellespont yet on the other side he passed the River Ganges and extends his Conquest as far as the Sun-rising His Memory is at this Day had in great Veneration amongst the Nations which he subdued and notwithstanding the Meanness of his Birth many of the Asiatick Princes count it an Honour to be descended from him CHAP. XVII The Commonwealth of the Lacedaemonians maintained it self a long Time by the Laws of Lycurgus which chiefly related to War THE Lacedaemonian Commonwealth subsisted a long Time that is to say more than Five Hundred Years in great Splendour She became more formidable than either Athens or Thebes and was considered as the Terrour or Support of Greece according as her Neighbours were her Enemies or Allies During so long a Time she never wanted Enemies in Greece or Asia and the Wars she sustained were extreamly dangerous Besides she had but a small Extent of Ground and her Capital City was without Walls but she maintained her self by her Valour The Laws of Lycurgus which chiefly related to the Affairs of War had render'd her invincible so that she was never observed to fall from this her Puissance till Riches which were the Spoils of their Conquests corrupted them through Avarice and softned them through Pleasures the Republick of Carthage ended sooner than that of Rome for it was destroyed by it but then she began to be a Commonwealth sooner so that her Continuance was no less And in her we shall find an Example like to that we have been relating The Laws indeed of the Carthaginians were near a-kin to those of the Lacedaemonians And there were three Sorts of People as Aristotle remarks in his Politicks that were guided almost by the same Form of Government the Carthaginians the Lacedaemonians and the Candiots These last were also very valiant and by that Means they long flourished CHAP. XVIII The long Duration of Monarchy comes from Valour BUT the Duration of these States comes not near Monarchy Next to the Succours of Divine Providence which is the principal cause of its Conservation we may not referr it to Humane Prudence since it must be granted that this Vertue is not always found in any one particular Nation It must be attributed to Valour Perhaps in the longest Succession of Kings there is but few of them that History reproacheth for Want of Courage and yet the Historians profess an Impartiality both to the Good and Bad. If we trace the Lines of remotest Monarchies as far as we do ours or those most near we shall not find one Kingdom where Courage hath been wanting And though some Kings have not been always Victorious but they have been always Valiant and if Fortune had been but as constant