that Ray is not known for his which strikes not in a strait line but reflects The Earle being entred into the service of the Prince did find himself among a world of contraries that did stirre up his Lord against him The life of man is a warfare so that hee which fights not or stands not ready to fight either lives not or lives ill Contraries that surround us if they be not stifled they encrease and they are not stifled if they be not met with in the cradle The heat that is little to maintain it self stands in need of the like to maintaine it but great heate doth increase most when the contrary doth most struggle with it That power of Antiperistasis which is granted to the Elements is not to be denied to men Amongst other disgraces the Prince did one day tell the Earle that he was reputed a greevance and he did humbly beseech him that when he could destroy him he would not doe it in the presence of his enemies Agesilaus being taken by an Embassadour riding upon a stick in the midst of his boyes intreated him not to tell it to any that had no Children left of a tender he should be reputed a weake Father The Earle is mortified by the Prince and intreats him not to tell it to any he doth not love for they would have believed that affectionate patience stupid and that loving soule servile He doth noc labour to know the occasion nor doth he perswade his Master with reason because it is not the braine that loves but the heart his Arguments are affection his affection love nor is the disgust likewise of not being belov'd without the thirst of the lovers If we take pleasure to be beloved when we are most beloved wee take most pleasure nay when we are hated if we love we love most It may be too that the present is not beloved or that at the least there is hope in the future And that not being beloved which makes him hope makes him likewise merit He that loves hath the gaine of love for his end and love for his meanes so that he then that hath loved most deserves most to be beloved When I speake of love I speake of a vertuous not a venereall love But yet to speak truth they are but a little unlike for both of them have their radication in the soule If the lascivious be transmitted into the body it is by accident and like the Sunne which defuseth its light where his Globe is not otherwise violences would pacifie lovers The Earle did know that the words of the Prince were dictated not said and that howso're the voice did fell him the eye did raise him so that hee did not remaine without consolation nor did the Prince leave him without love The Favourites of that time were then aware they had erred they did seek to amend their amisse by endeavouring to bring in the Earle into the service of the King but he would not leave the rising Sunne for the setting It is a great good fortune to find a Prince disingaged to take away a place from one that hath used it with vertue is hard with wisedome is blame worthy and is generally reputed malicious but he that comes into a vacancie doth easily get in No machination could batâ—â— downe this wall they make the Prince try his patience and he by suffering augments his merits They tempt him with honours and he by refusing justifies his affection Finally when they perceive that they are not able to trample upon the ruines of this great man they endeavour to surmount his heights and to top them they lay hold upon the ladder of his affection but all in vaine for that wall was built too high to serve for a Basis The Earle did remaine in this instability untill there fell a division amongst the Favourites of those times There is a Politician that affirmes that power and concord can hardly be found in the same place and he saies it in a time when he pretends to have found it He did not observe peradventure that such as did appear most powerfull were not so except it were they that were nearest allied and the nearest of bloud of the veines not of the Arteries The self same Author did likewise another time in the processe of his writings light upon two that were equally powerfull and concordant and this did not proceed from the morality of that one because he that could not moderate the base affections of riches it is not to be believed that he could temper the urgent provocations of domination and it was lesse occasioned by the diversity of their professions the one being wholly intent to policy and the other to warre If a Favourite will not exercise Warre in his owne person he may make it be exercised and hath roome enough to divide charges without dividing his owne Favour I beare within reason the being Favourites of a Tyrant for when peradventure he did not love them he did reverence them there can be no discourse that can set downe a secure manner of carrying ones self with such men who although they have doe not use it but to become worse then other men These did feare falling now one and now another trembled that he that stood fast upheld his staggering companion and hardly did the one fall that he drew not the other to the precipice A spotlesse Favourite admits of no companion but he makes him his enemy he that desires one seemes to desire aid against he barbarousnesse of the Prince and seemes to accuse him for a Tyrant It is true that the inability of a man in the mannaging of great undertakings would require company but ambition will not brookâ— it he hath recourse to the dependenciesâ— Feare indeed admits it because he hath not the grace of the Prince may be releeved in the burdens but not in the dangers Phillip the third went into Portugall and the Prince with him the Earle took this occasion to attend the affaires of his owne family but long he stayed not for he necessarily was to returne to the Court Tyberius did judge it so dangerous an hazard to be farre away from the Prince that hee conceiv'd it well done when hee could not waite upon the body to waite upon the carcasse he would have them bee neer then likewise when the Prince was not But the Earle fear'd no distance of place The love that the Prince bare him was become nature They that say habit is like nature are deceive'd it is not a Coppy it is an Originall it is called another nature not because it is not nature but because it was not it is borne with us if not with us in us The Art that is believ'd to imitate nature doth imitate it and after likewise doth often times produce it and often times surpasse it That love which is in Habits receives no Detriment by a little distance but it rather excites it to operation because that
deriv'd from the vertue of magnanimity will not be pai'd with the viciousnesse of flattery I should not much lament to incurre that blemish from such as are his Emulours so I might be quit from it in his conceit For I hold it farre more facile to make the Duke blush then to make them look pale in the relating of his great Acts I will expect more liberty from envie then from modestie because there is more vertue in him then there is defect in others Your Majestie then is humbly intreated to beare with the weaknesse of my writings too unequall for successes I grant it to bee more easie to speake then to doe when that which is spoken is to bee done but it is peradventure easier to doe then to speak when a man is to tell what hath been done The Drammaticke that is represented in Sceanes is more forcible then the Epick that is read in Papers yet is that personated part much inferiour in spirit to that which is seen for if it have a soule yet it hath not that soule Let that comendation neverthelesse bee granted to these writtings which is customarily given by him that loves to the face that is pictured For if penns be not inferiour to pencills and words to collours it will be acceptable to your Majestie to behold expos'd to veiw those Actions drawne howsoever not to the life which your Majestie hath thought worthy of your generous affections I know right well that this Pourtrait should not have been adventured upon but by an Appelles and by an Appelles who drawing from all the favourites of all Kings and great Princes all the beauties that did adorne them being in him united he should present him to the sight of Your Majestie The Lord Iasper Guzman third Earle of Olivarez was the sonne of Henry Guzman who was the Embassadour for his sacred Majestie in Rome and of the Lady Mary Pimentelli a Lady of most worthy vallue If the Imaginative faculty be of force to imprint an impression in tender and plaine conceits and that it hath any part in the representing of shapes to the Formative power what conceit may wee presume it to forme or what shape to represent in that Imagination which approved of no other discourse then of that of the King nor conceited the forming of other conceits then of his service I doe not exclude the service of God because that holy Kings intent unto Gods honour cannot be well serv'd if God be not first serv'd If men would seek when they doe seek for wives to joyne themselves to worth as well as wealth their rich estates would oftentimes be more hereditary as being more secure from mens treachery and lesse submitted to the insultings of fortune which although it sometimes doth hinder the working it takes not from them the being He was not borne in Rome and for twelve yeares space went up and downe with his Father who was surrounded with troublesome negotiations sometimes in Sicely sometimes in Naples in both which Provinces he sate in the throne of Vice-Roy That is not a mans Country where he was borne but that under which hee was borne Man was esteemed by men of old a Tree reversed because as the Country of a Tree is the soyle wherein its roots are placed so the Country of a man is that Heaven to which he is exposed To stay in ones native Country to vindicate himself amongst his owne is to become a true Tree and a reversed man such as these are for the most part are like to those plants which being planted in the fatnesse of a fertile soyle doe grow bulky oftentimes but unfruitfull The Oaks that are set and grow on the barren mountaines brought up among stormes winds tempests they feare not the impetuous furies of the blustering Northerne gusts but if they grow fat in the calmenesse of delightfull plaines and luxuriantly increase they are but feeble and endure no stronger gales then warme refreshing breaths of Zephyrus or else they are made leaflesse or blowne downe He being return'd into Spaine and having journied far in vertues disposed himself to the study of the Lawes not to defend causes by cases of Titus and Sempronius but oâ— defend States with the prudence of the Lawes Expoundors The Law is a Book of Politicks yet few Lawyers now are Politicians They were that made it but they are not that learne it because they only learne that which is done and not to what end it hath been done Very few of those that know the Lawes understand them Hee that seeks Authority without Reason is reasonlesse To deprive the Law of reason is to take the soule from men and from themselves this comes thus to passe because that which is Politicall is in many become Mechanicall And whereas Law was at first the legitimate Daughter of Judgement it is now made the adopted Daughter of Memory and Legists of Rationalls are become Empericks This man was created Rectour of the Vniversity of Salamanca Hee that could have Lyncaeus his eyes would sometime know with little children in the cradle that the Starrs doe prattle and shew themselves by the matter with the souls if not hindred by it for surely they are not helped then are the nfluences more secure though then they be more impotent and it may be that God would that they have lesse force in that age that is to predominate over their power The influences of the starres are alwaies the same but they seem not so because the men that receive them are not alwaies the same the Actions of the Active search for a good disposition of the patient that their issue may be prosperous That starre which would make Cyrus great because it found him among Children made him King of Children And certainly it was the selfe same starre which afterwards finding him amidst the Armies made him the King of the Persians That Aspect which made the Earle in Salamanca the first Rector of the Vniversity is the selfe same Constellation that finding him in the Court of the greatest Monarch did make him one of the Princes of the Vniverse In this time died the Lord Ierosme his elder Brother so that he who was the second birth was now become the first The first borne because it is given by fortune to be the first The guifts of fortune are oftentimes likewise given them by men This custome peradventure is not in use to reward them but to succour them they that are begotten last doe sometimes become the valiantest the seeing them to be borne more unfortunate is an argument to us of their valour Who knowes whether men either by a motive of the soule or by some other instigation have not known this truth and have repaired thither with presents of gold where the reparations of vertue were wanting It is a greater good fortune to live a while a second and then become a first then to be borne first When riches precede vertue they oftentimes hinder it and when
enrich but few but they empty the store that must be restored by the impoverishnesse of all The most Christian King of France had besieged Rochell and suspecting that it would have been relieved by the King of England he did by the means of the Marquesse Ramboulle his Ambassadour Extraordinary demand a Navy from Phillip the fourth whereto the Councell of the Duke advising it was consented him and was an Act of great honour by delivering France from so long an oppression with so much commodity to the Catholike Faith It was thought that the Duke erred in reason of state in preferring the service of God to that of the King but he cannot erre in the service of the Catholike King that erres not in the service of God if any impious man hath in his Instructions seperated the reason of State from that of God yet are they so conjoyn'd in the concernings of this King that no distinction of any understanding can disjoyn them God who hath manifested unto us his Election of this Family for the defence of his Religion hath not left a place that it may be taken away by the quicknesse of spirit so that if some Officer of small or no Religion should by chance spring up he could do no hurt but to himself with his wicked intention finding himselfe thrust on by a nimblenesse of spirit to those actions which cloathed with the zeale of God would be laudable parts of prudence but in the examination of reason of State I conclude it to be necessarily that of the Devill when it is seperated from that of the Lord I believe that Lucifer had no intention to raise himself to such a height as to be above God for then he would not have had an intention to dissolve the Vnity but to betterit which he by the naturall gift only of science did know to be impossible He then had a thought to exalt himself by withdrawing himself aside and so going from one to make the number of two upon which afterward as upon a Center he did designe his Circumference diverse from that of God nor could he go from the one but that he must be bad because all that is good is One God drawing a line from his Circumference did to make the number of three create man the Devill likewise thrust out a line from his circumference to make the number of foure and did seduce him God who would not leave man in the hands of the Devill came to redeem him and made the number of five and although he did not take away from him the excitement that seduceth him towards the number of two yet he gave him the grace that reduced him towards the One whereupon man remained free not being able to designe a Circumference upon himselfe because there is no other Circumference to be given then of the One and of the Two nothing els being found but good or evil to determine it Operating well upon the Centre of the one and operating ill upon the Centre of the Two As there are two Circumferences so are there two reasons of State the one of God the other of the Devill that of God is to come neare to God to be great that of the Devill is to go far from God to make himselfe great what discourse then of a religious understanding shall ever deterre us from the spoiling the nest of the Heretiques if we be able to do it He that can do it and doth it not doth sin and doth inlarge as much as in him lies the Circumference of the Devill He that can do it and doth it doth enlarge by what is in his power the circumference of God Have sins power to defend States and merrits power to destroy them Oh King oh Grandee oh Catholique what thing think you can defend your Kingdomes not your treasures not the Armies it is God defends them because you have defended him because you do defend him and that you may defend him Don Emanuell of Merveses Generall of the Fleet of Lisbone wanting sufficient means to maintain him at Court to defend him from some oppositions advertis'd about the discharge of his trust was resolv'd to be gone leave a Deputy which the Duke perceiving by him when he went to get leave of him did not consent that he should depart with dammage to his reputation and yet being unwilling to hinder the course of justice did offer himselfe to his assistance as he did in effect to his purse so did this magnanimous Fauourite reserve the rewards that were bestowed upon him to helpe deserving men upon their occasions It is a more blessed thing to give then to receive and peradventure the reason is because he that hath the commodity of giving is more happy then he that hath the necessity of receiving most happy then is he that gives and not receives He that receives and gives is not the man that gives but he that gave it him such as are inflexible in receiving are so likewise in giving the selfe-same severity that they use against themselves makes them little charitable towards others the Lord Duke was able to have relieved an Officer of so great merit with that which was his of whom he had well deserved but he desired to do it with his own because he was a well deserver of the King A Favourite is to esteem the service done to his Prince as done to him and to repute himselfe obliged to whom the King is if he gives to him that hath served well he merits for those works that he hath not done but rewarded he should prize his goods more then his life more then his understanding more then himselfe that would wast himselfe and not his Estate in the Kings service the part of giving is as hard as part of receiving he that receives every thing is too covetous he that takes nothing is too severe he that gives alwaies is too prodigall and he that never gives is too miserable The Rhetorician that thought it a difficult thing to perswade a Judge to give what was his own and to be no hard matter to winne him to give what was another mans would have been upon a false ground with the Duke Oh the gallant and true magnanimity of a Favourite who helpes by liberality where he cannot by justice and will rather be a looser himselfe that he may winne who is to loose then that justice should lose who is alwaies to overcome the Subjects that have worth in them may contend with certainty of reward when they serve a Monarch whose Favourite is such an one that if he do not intercede to the King for them he gives like a King to them who will believe that a man will not be liberall of another mans purse when he is franke of his own when he is to be so I was about to say when he needs not be so I will say when he cannot be Never was there a Favourite so courteous in Audiences so
in the change of the Temperature which being changed hath in part changed the manners I do not say that the heavens are not the same and that their motions are varied The motions are not the givers of influence but the Stars nor the Stars neither without an Aspect The selfe-same Heavens then the self same Stars the self-same motions do still remain but not the self-same Aspects nor never shall and then if the self-same Aspects shall never be no more in as much as belongs to them shall the same effects be Inferiour things hath a connexion with the superiour He that would consider that there is not one Constellation like another in the Heavens would not mervaile that there is not one man like another on the Earth and that one action is not like another but as in Astrologie that observation that is nearest is least false so in policy is that example that is most moderne If Physitians goe not from the reasons of the Antients yet doe they in a great part goe from their Medicines The thin and spare dyets that are appointed and taught by Hippocrates which are to give nothing except the disease be resolved on when the judgment is made on the fourth day if all those times they helpe all other times they hurt some barly corns weight that did serve them of old for a competent food would sterve us now The Hellebores which then did worke a purging Medicines would now extinguish Patients new diseases are now sprung up new Medicines are now invented and the old corrected and changed The Lawes of times past do serve these times but they are such as judge between Titus and Sempronius but not those that have respect to the countenance of States Nay rather a great part belonging to manners are changed Our Religion hath established a Canonicall Law diverse from the Civill Law Lawes of marriage are varied those of divorce are taken away nor is there any thing now spoken of bond or free-man The Agrarian and the Iulian Law besides a multitude of others are muffled up in oblivion nor there is the least City that is built that hath not built peculiar Statutes In Sculpture we imitate the Ancients to make a man which is alwaies the same but not to make this man which is alwaies divers and as the Sculpture should be ridiculous that being desirous to make a strong man should shape him out by the Statue of Alexander so likewise that polititian should be foolish that would endeavour to teach the maintenance of our moderne Common-wealths with the rules and manners of the Romanes He that believes that after he hath read a laudable example of our Predecessours that he is able by and by to put it in practice is deceived he should have need first to change all the world The world consists of order and harmony and it is an Instrument of many strings alter any one of them never so little and all are a great deale out of tune Machiavell was likewise deceived in believing that the helpe of history did consist in the making use of example and from this errour as from the Root come all his failings in policy As Empericks are to be condemn'd in Physick so are Exemplaries to be abandoned in policy We ought not not only not to make use of the Examples of the Antients but likewise not of the modern for they require too great circumstances to come to be themselves and will aske a great many to make a rule Many of them are very dangerous in as much as they are not alwaies the sonnes of prudence but many times of fortune and fortune is not to be presupposed in businesse but to be desired I blame not by this the reading of history for I commend it and resemble it to meats because as meates except they do more then stay in the stomacke onely they doe not nourish the body ' so if history stay onely in the memory it doth not forme the judgement they are changed digested and animated If all men had eminency of understanding they would have no need to read histories to become Phisitians or trouble themselves to study Statues I now insist against Machiavels argument to be Sculptoures but because in few and a few times this eminency is to be found Polititians dispose themselves to read Histories and Sculptours to imitate statues and as Statues are of no use to Sculptours but for good delineation it being no commendation to copy the very same but to make some varied with the manner deduced from them So Histories are little helpfull to Polititians but only for the setling of a good judgement For they are not to operate according to the examples but according to the judgement that they have raised upon the reading of the examples Machiavell is to be borne withall if he be an Emprick in policy because he is likewise an Emperick in physick whilst he doth say that it is an experience made by the Ancients whereupon the Phisitians of now a dayes doe ground their judgements whereas he should have said that it is a Science of wholsomenesse unwholsomensse and Neuters I fall to my Centre and commend the Duke that commended the reading of Histories to the King on purpose that from them he might frame his judgement and that he should consider those of his fore-Fathers that he might serve his turne with example and with lesse danger If Libells and Satyrs be only against him he never punisheth because he despiseth them but if they be against the King or any other Officer he makes the Delinquent smart for it A man that was a great Artist said that a subject ought not to satyrize against one that commands but is to praise him that is past to follow him that is present and is to desire good Princes but to reverence them whatsoever they are Tyberius began the law of high treason for his beginnings were very good he did not follow it because they became bad It was not Art it was Nature and rigour was not encreased in that till goodnesse was diminished in him himself he altred and it he altered and because he ingraved it in the tree of malice as that encreased it encreased They that punish Satyrs approve of them if they be false they move to laughter if they be true they excite to choller To be blamed with a lye doth comfort for it intimates a not being able to be blam'd with a truth That which is is not neglected to be said when that which is not is said but those Princes that find themselves galled by truth fall into fury because they perceive that known which they did not believe to be known and it may be they did not know it themselves being flattered by others sometimes likewise flatterers of themselves and since that they cannot hinder understanding but that they understand them they will restraine pens that they may not write tongues that they may not speak that if it be not lost
an enemy that toucheth a mans reputation and iâ—rites him to infamy this is not a conceit but a truth that I write and yet are men oftentimes deceived with it running to what is false under the appearance of what is good Tyrants have been the occasion of that great errour who by means of their wickednesse have made the revealing of conspiracies an infamy the plotting of them a glory It may too that Princes have co-operated in the work by suffering them to come abroad imbroydered with Encomions therein publishing that Conspiracies are good if Princes be bad how much better had it been to have made it utterly detestable then to leave it in the breast of the passions of men to judge first of the Prince and then of the conspiracies our religion hath in part provided for it such as have impugned the Authority of the Pope being unwilling to have it in his hands to declare who are friends either have a desire to be or would have a power to be or else are already Tyrants they know not certainly what the reason of State is which though Religion move them not that ought to move them should not only have a power to make them believe this infallible truth but that they should likewise makeit be believed by the Subjects to the end that whereas there are now so many Tribunals of Subjects that judge of the Prince and so answerable to that judgment legitimate or illegitimate conspiracy it might be brought to one only just Tribunall which is the Tribunall of the Vicar of God The King examined the Duke of Ascot twice more rather like a Brother then a Soveraigne and he still holding himselfe to his first tale the Lord Duke was desirous to talk with him himselfe once again in the presence of the Duke of Atra and the President of Castile to whom the Duke of Ascot answering that he had told what he knew and what the Infanta would have testified for a truth had she beene now alive the Duke that he might convince him shew'd him the letter of the Infanta at which he was astonished not being able to recover himselfe the King hereupon was inforced to commit him into hold with all the commodities that were possible when the Duke of Ascot reflecting upon the Letter of the Infanta and knowing the bounds of necessity writ a letter to the Duke as to the man whom he had alwaies known well affected towards him wherein he did unfold as much as was desired to be known the Duke carried it to the King without opening it and then upon his knees did humbly beseech him to excuse the error of the Duke of Ascot as a thing that proceeded from a false opinion not from any ill will and in the mean time he took the leave to make his sword be restored him that it might appeare he was not restrain'd for his own fault and he gave order that there should be an Edict of pardon published in Flanders for all such as had not made themselves guilty by discovering themselves The Scruples of honour whereby Subjects doe sometimes distast Princes are rather worthy of compassion then chastisement what ill will be feared from an honourable man the subject can do no harme to his Prince if he be not infamous then ought the Prince as a Physitian to use the sick party roughly not to kill him but to heale him when a man doth any thing for the honour of zeale only he works not by his own will lesse against his will but out of his will for that that perswades him is not in him but without him To set upon which necessity is not to do violence but to remove it Honour should be one of the most substantiall foundations that should uphold nature if it were as well regulated by good Lawes as it is worm-eaten with wicked opinions but it cannot be ordered by good Lawes if the opinion of swaggering be not first taken away and this cannot be abolished because it is a too necessary quality in Subjects if Princes will either defend or inlarge their territories the advantages that men get by stoutnesse and the disadvantages that they receive by cowardlinesse makes this be dispised and that applauded so that many have valued swaggerers for men of greatest spirits as if they had greater soules The Lord Duke was likewise to be praised for the happy progresse in Germany He was the man that counselled the King to send and did make the provision that the Cardinall Infanta might go thither a Prince of great Spirit and magnanimous of a generous mind undaunted heart whose beams were scarcely discover'd Orientall but that they consumed the vapours disperst the clouds and cleared the skye It is questionlesse a great matter but now adayes not new nay rather most usuall that three Princes and they young ones as the King of Hungaria the Cardinall Infanta and Duke Charles of Lorraine have terrified and supprest the wisedome experience and fortune of Captains of great reputation bred up in the waies and knowledge of warres All that are and have been in the world have ordinarily periods which are the Beginnings Encrease Stay Declination and End He that painted Fortune upon a wheel if that wheel were not Heaven if that Fortune were not the Starrs he was in an horrible errour to picture only one thing in this world upon a wheel where every thing hath its severall wheel It is true that Fortune oftentimes growes grey-headed with a man but that which did at one time raise him is not that which dejected him because it may turne One hath a fortune doth encrease another that throwes down and declines I never wonder that foraigne Princes to move Cities under Dominion to rebellion but I am amaz'd to think that Cities will be moved to it for if they overcome they cannot do it but they must first behold their Countries destroied their countrymen spoiled and their Exchequours consumed so that when they have wone they have lost they do not take away Authority they do but change it and the very same hatred they had towards their old Governours they will place upon the new It is not against the man it is against Dominion which never dyes for the Princes be mortall Principalities are immortall They too much flatter themselves with hopes of melioration in mutation if they trust in friendship they are vaine The love of interest which is a Giant doth easily overcome all other loves which are but Children It may be peradventure believed that there will be lesse desire of dominion in a new Lord who is not a new Lord but by too much covetous desire of rule nay rather it is to be feared as most undoubted that he will stop up the way by which he entred in himself that other may not be brought by it I will not particularize the mischiefs that their losses would bring forth they see them that produce them yet produce they not so
THE POURTRACT OF THE POLITICKE Christian-Favourite Originally drawn from some of the actions of the Lord DUKE of St. LUCAR Written to the Catholick Majesty of PHILIP the Great and the Fourth of that name A Piece worthy to be read by all Gentlemen who desire to know the secrets of State and mysteries of Government By Marquesse Virgilio Malvezzi To this Translation is annexed the chiefe State Maxims Political and Historical observations in a brief and sententious way upon the same story of Count Olivares Duke of St. Lucar LONDON Printed for M. Meighen and G. Bedell and are to be sold at their shop at the Middle-Temple gate 1647. To the Reader Good Reader A Little Gold is of more value then much Lead and there is more excellency in a small Diamond then in the greatest rocks or quarries of free-stone there is a quantity of vertue as well as of bignesse and it is the quality not the quantity that for the most part sets price and esteeme upon things This booke though small in bulke yet is great in worth and containes more wealth in a little roome then thou shalt find in more capacious buildings I am confident had Alexander lighted upon this piece hee would have given it entertainment witâ—Homers Iliads in Darius hiâ—â— rich Cabinet here are briefly anâ— sententiously set downe many excellent and rare State Maximeâ— and Politicall observations upon some prime actions of the greatesâ—Favourite to the greatest Princâ— of Christendome the Author 〈◊〉 the Marquesse Virgilio Malvez Zi a man so noble and eminent 〈◊〉 very way that hee needs not my pennicell to delineat him I recommend this piece to thee as 〈◊〉 jem of great value and desirâ— thee to drink it downe with no lessâ— cheerefulnesse and delight therâ—Cleopatra did her rich jewell when she entertained Mark Antonie and so I bid thee heartily farewell An Introduction to the Reader I Never Reader writ a book with greater hast nor with greater danger for the Enemies of that subject whereof I write will call me enemy the Corrivals flatterer the friends weake and he perhaps himselfe will deeme me rash one will believe I have said more then is said another will undertake to know I have said lesse some will make me say that which I would not say and to conclude it will be much lamented that I have taken such a freedome and liberty of speech I doe humbly intreat the Lord Duke to excuse me his friends to beare with me his competitours to know that I write not in flattery and his enemies to believe that I write not in hatred I confesse it an undertaking of no great discretion to write the actioÌ„s of any man without knowing whether he will repute it a hate or a kindnesse and I shall peradventure be discredited with thee my reader incredulous that I can set down rules of policy and cannot put them in practice for that I could say the Byt-maker cannot byt a horse but I meane not to make that servile which is Architectonicall nor write my selfe a master wherein I am but a Scholler I could say that if a little house and a great City be not the same that then likewise the policies of Princes will not be the same with that of particulars but there I expect no glory I seeke for no excuse all my actions are without policies for I my selfe am without interests professing my selfe onely to be most affectionate to my friends most devoted to my Lords and this is a known truth to such as know me Nothing did more suspend my pen from writing this booke nor more retard my provocations to print it then the being most assured the perversenesse of the times make mee speake it that the world which is full of interests and flattery will judge mee too to be full of interests and flattery but now I returne to your excellency great Favourite and here doe publiquely protest that I have writ for truths sake first of all for so nay more then so do your great actions merit then after that ingratitude for so much and much more I am indebted to the noble offers which so exceeding lovingly you did make bee made mee in times that were to me calamitous And if I have not lighted upon any thing that suites with your liking I doe humbly again intreat you to excuse mee but if you doe happily value my will to merit a reward any reward whatsoever that is not either your favour or your praise should by mee be reputed for an insufferable injury and I should be compel'd by necessity to call your Excellency by the name of ingratefull My family hath never knowne how to deserve rewards in Spaine with any other pen then with the Sword nor with any other ink then with blood and I am still likewise ready both with the one and the other if not to deserve yet at least to serve I am not of so poor a condition as that I am forced to write for a reward nor am I of so arrogant a disposition as that I write to give instructions but I am least of all so far from vain as not to write for praise which peradventure is my due if not because I merit it yet in regard I seeke it for though this affecting of praise be not to be commended yet is it out of question to be tolerated because it is borne with us because it seldome times dies before us and it many times makes us live longer then we doe live I intreat thee Reader and I humblie intreat thee that if ever my writings have beene of any merit with thee either by unloading thee of idlenesse or by withholding thee from drowsinesse to be willing to favour me with a beliefe that in all my past present books I never have meant nor doe ever meane to blame any living man either particular Favourite or private the heartie devotion which I bear my Lords nor the tender affection which I beare to my friends never as yet hath nor never shall have power to make me forget that reverence wherewith I am obliged unto Princes or that respect whereof I am a debtor to all men As for my writings they are not figurativelie but literally to be interpreted nor have they anie breath but what they breath I write not after the Aegyptian manner nor have I said but what I say And since I am not willing to say that which I have not said be pleased not to make mee say what I say not I seriouslie protest that if anie for what cause soever be moved to write against mee my purpose is to afford him no answer for if he write against what I have faid either that I have said will defend it selfe or else it will not merit a defence and then if he write against what I have not said it nothing belong unto me to defend it For a Conclusion be advertised Reader that the book is not yet finished nor indeed can I desire to
finish it if I doe not desire to out-live him who is worthie to outlive time and to hold out with all eternitie the All that I write is not the All that the Duke hath done nor all that hee will doe but it is onelie a little that I came to heare of of the infinite of that which hee hath performed it shall be sufficient for mee that if my hand may not have a quil of Mercuries vving that so I might flie this loftie pitch that it may have but one of his fingers to point out all the way and who can tell whether this my booke but onelie vvith the lifting up of the hand may not beat time to a consort of sweet singing Swans vvhich flie in a more noble aire amidst his fortunate Skie but let the heavens forbid it should beat time unto the harsh and importunate discords of such vvho baselie trouble the Christall streames of Wisedome and veritie State Maximes and Politicall ohservations on the actions of Count Olivares ANgels are the figures of God Favourites are the figures of Angels The glory of things past is like the King of Bees without a sting and the vanity thereof The relation of things past is like the painting of a picture and some oddes there is in relating things past and present Historians subject to divers censures What is represented to the eye is more forcible then what is read in papers In marriages worth is to be as well regarded as wealth A mans Country is not where but under which he is borne Man is a tree inversed whose hold is in Heaven not in the ground Trees bred on stormie hills prove stronger then those which are planted in fruitfull warme vallies The Law-givers were Polititians the Law politicall but now professors of the Law are become Empericks and the Law it selfe made mechanicall The Stars have alwaies the same influence but they seeme not still to be the same Cyrus was first a King of boyes then of men Why the first borne have the greatest fortunes and the younger the greatest vertues Riches preceding vertue hinder it but if they follow they helpe it To be alwaies amongst bookes is to die amongst the living and live amongst the dead Nothing of old honourable but valour Glory consists both in knowing and in doing When study is not delightsome it is a passion not a labour They that will serve Princes must spend their youth first in their studies before they become Courtiers Man a moveable world when hee goeth not forward he returnes back and can no more stand still then running water which if stopped will rather ascend against its nature then stand still The aspects of the firmament are not without some opposition nor the greatest fortunes without some molestation To be made governours of remote places is an honourable and ordinary exile of unfortunate worthy men Distance thawes the actions of remote governours that they seldome arrive to the Princes eares except by the Favourites meanes The Suns splendor is so great that the thickest Clouds cannot totally intercept it such are the beames of worth which cannot be hid A little heat is soone extinguished by cold but a great heat increaseth by antiperistasis or opposition so it is with eminent worth Agesilaus would not have his riding upon a stick amongst his boyes be told to them who were not parents least they should thinke him too fonde a father neither will Favourites have their love to the Prince known to their enemies for feare of misconstruction Lovers doe not onely love when they are beloveed but also when they are hated which love is in the heart not in the head Love is radicated in the soule but diffused into the body as the Sunnes light is extended where his Globe is not He that cannot moderate the base affections of riches cannot temper the urgent provocation of domination A spotlesse Favourite admits of no companion but he makes him his enemy for though in ability in managing great affaires require it yet ambition will not brooke it A Favourite that desires a companion seemes to accuse the Prince of tyranny as requiring helpe against his barbarousnesse If Tiberius cannot wait upon the Princes body hee will wait upon his carcasse Habit is not like nature but is another nature not a copie but the originall The habit which is necessarily produced by actions doth not necessarily produce actions Love which is in habit by a little disturbance receives no detriment A rest in Musick if short its delightfull if long it dislikes so long expectation wearies the desire and weakens love The long absence of a Favourite from his Prince may retaine the reputation of profitable but looseth the opinion of necessary He that would have it believed that nothing can be done without him must not give time that it may bee done It is wisedome sometimes to make shew of refusing the favour presented Discourse requires setled spirits but love unsettles and troubles them Agrippinaâ— wise act in calling home Seneca from exile It s ill when for the mans sake vertues are banished but worse when for his vertues sake the man is exiled The people punish worth when they feare it a popular Government then feares but a tyrannicall hates it and an Aristocracie both envies hates and feares it Favourites cannot be tyrants over others if they be not first so over their Princes The differences that are betweene a great Counseller and a great Favourite The favour of Princes comes partly â—y destinie of our birth partly by our â—wne prudence When a Favourite doth every thing â—nd nothing done without him hatred â—s begot When the inferiour heavens do not move with the first mover they move by it The primum mobile may cause contrary motions in the inferiour orbes as well as the soules of man and of other creatures in their bodies A true Favourite in the interest of the King and in right of justice knowes no friends and hath no parents The Prince like the Sun is the equivocall and universall father of his subjects A man hath blood for the foundation of his paternity a Prince hath love He that loves not the Prince more then others makes himselfe no sonne but a servant and the Prince no father but a Lord In correcting of errours many times errours are committed either because they are believed as necessary or because profitable When Princes suffer men of worth to live retiredly it s a signe that either they know not or else hate their worth He that will not serve his Prince and yet knowes how to serve is more faulty then he that serves him ill not knowing how to serve Retiring is the reward of such as have wrought he that retires and hath done nothing will have his reward before his merit Retiring is a recompence to them that have done enough but a punishment to the idle A man may rest and yet not be at quiet yet for the most part he is most unquiet
when he is most at rest He that sells justice sells his Prince Gold blunts the edge of the sword and weighs downe the ballance of justice The hunger of Gold is not naturall but sicklie therefore is never satisfied Example is more powerfull then the Law because the law workes by violence example by love that produceth feare this affection He that loves another better then his Prince makes that man a Prince if not of others yet of himselfe The Favourite that would reforme the Kings Pallace must first reforme his owne house The Favourite that raiseth his own family makes this the center and the Kings house the circumference which ought to be contrary A wall that hath a good foundation needs no buttrasse nor hath a Favourite who is founded on worth need of his kindred to support him The Favourites of a Favourite serve him as little for a support as the tree doth the Elephant against which he leanes The end of tyrannicall Lawes is to ensnare punish and impoverish Princes honour those rich men most that have most the people them only that imploy most for they extoll bounty and magnificence because of the benefit they have by it A Tyrant hath more reason to feare the money that is spent then that which is hoarded Favourites ought not to estrange Princes from all manner of businesse Riches are not the pay of worth but the wages of labour honour is the reward of worth If honours or titles grow common they have no rewards of worth nor are they when they are sold Needy Princes give more honour to the wealthy then the worthy States encrease sometimes with money but never without valour When a league thrives its broken by jealousie when it thrives not by fear Many Arts and Sciences have the same objects but the same manner of considering them Leagues are not alwaies hurtfull and fearefull but alwaies envied and hated To despise riches is a great vertue but to distribute them is a greater for morall vertue consisteth not in being poore but in making ones selfe poor He that will not be rich is unprofitable he that flings it away is vain but he that spends it commendably is liberall and magnanimous He that cancels wealth out of a wise mans heart cancels liberality one of the morall vertues and to flye the meanes that make vertue is to flie vertue The spirits flie to the heart in feare to the face in shame Time lost in prosecuting of businesse is more precious then the money that is consumed in feasting apparrell and sumptuousnesse The life of a good man is long because it is a journey from earth to heaven but of a wicked man short because he missing this way goeth quickly to hell No time should abridge the reward of him that served for love because though he cease to serve he ceaseth not to love Astrologie false in all parts but chiefly in marriages which are made not according to inclinations but for some ends hence are the change of tempers in Families Men are eternized partly by generation of children partly by the soule It is the quality not the quantity of subjects that make Common wealths great He that intends the greatnesse of his Family is one that loves his own respects and satisfieth not the obligation of a perfect Favourite A Monarchy is but a Chaos albeit there be many operative Officers in 〈◊〉 till there come one onely architect by whose direction it is ordered and disposed As unity is the life of man so it is of bodies politick The scarsity of gold is the cause of its esteeme and it is scarse because it is not produced without a great victory nor obtained without great resistance Quiet Favourites are the birth of the favourable beames of Iupiter and Venus but those who delight in wars as Crowes flocking to dead bodies are begot of Mars and Saturne Warlike and troublesome Favourites increase the water but diminish the channell because they increase the mud but such Phaetons are oftentimes thunder struck There is a true prudence that hath a reall good for its end there is an other which seeme The braines of a witty man are like the waving Sea still unquiet A prudent man falls not from favour if the Prince fall not into tyrannie and he doth not tumble but go down Witty men flie up suddenly like balls of earth then fall downe and breake Souldiers are not enriched by their pay but by their plunderings inrodes and victories A Favourite that increaseth the Princes means increaseth also the estates of the people for a rich Prince is not taking but giving therefore a holding Prince is more desiderable then a bountifull The reason of State and Religion are so conjoyned in Christian Kings that they are not to be disjoyned Lucifers intention was not to exalt himselfe above God but to withdraw his subjection from that so of one he might make two Gods There are two reasons of State one of God the other of the Devill that is to come neare to God and to become great this is to goe from God and to make himselfe great Such as are inflexible in receiving are so in giving the same severity that they use against themselves makes them uncharitable towards others A Favourite is to esteeme the service done to his Prince as done to himselfe He that receives every thing is too covetous he that takes nothing is too severe he that gives alwaies is too prodigall and he that never gives is too miserable A magnanimous Favourite will helpe by liberality when he cannot by justice and if he cannot intercede to the King for them he will give like a King to them Man is a reasonable creature but when he layes aside his justice he deprives himselfe of reason Justice hath a Sword in one hand to punish and a ballance in the other hand to weigh mens merits To pardon such whose natures are enemies to nature may be magnanimity but not to punish them is injustice The man offended may pardon the offence but the Judge must punish the offender who is therefore called God because he doth not punish as man but as God The Judge in punishing the malefactour doth not render evill for evill but good for evill and justice for unjustice Not plants but beasts are savage because of their sense but man is most savage when his reason is ill directed by the sense All States yea Tyrannies are governed by an Aristocracie to wit by Magistrates or Officers If a Favourite doth nothing he becomes nothing if he do every thing he savours of a Tyrant Every science to be well learned and every office to be well discharged requires a particular quality of the braine He that is employed in businesse of State ought not to be superiour to it for so he will despise it nor inferiour for so he will come short of it but there must be a sutable equality of the affaires they are employed in to their capacities He that is
more afraid to sinne in the presence of the Prince then of God he doth as it were doubt of that which is certain and is as it were certain of that which he doubts All our errours proceed from our ignorance of God for though we know that he is yet we know not what he is because we see him not as he is Princes can have no better masters and instructors then the lives and actions of their progenitors in whose stories they should bee well versed If men are desirous to know the learning of the Ancients they should likewise desire to imitate their actions Though men be not changed in their Species yet they are changed in their actions which follow the Individualls and the change of diet hath altered the temperature and this in part changed the manners The Heavens and Starres are not changed in their substance and motions but in their aspects which is the cause of the diversity of sublunary effects It s no wonder that there is not one man like another upon earth seeing there is not one constellation like another in heaven As in Astrologie the observation that is nearest is least false so in policy is that example which is most moderne All ancient Medicines and precepts for diet are not now to be used nor are all ancient Lawes now convenient As in Sculpture men are not now shaped with the same habits they wore of old so moderne States are not now to be ruled after the manner of the old Romanes The World is like an Instrument of many strings alter one and all are out of tune As Empericks are to be condemned in Physick so are Exemplaries to be abandoned in policy for we are not to make use either of ancient or moderne examples Many examples are required to make a rule many of them are dangerous as being not from prudence but from fortune which is not to be presupposed in businesse but to bee desired Meates which stay only in the stomack do not nourish the body so history which remain only in the memory doth not informe the judgement Polititians are not to operate according to the judgement that they have raised upon the reading of these examples Princes are not by subjects to be satyrized against but to be praised if past followed if present and to be wished for if future If Satyrs be false they move laughter if true they excite choller they then that punish them approve of them To be blamed with a lye comforts for it intimates a not being able to be blamed with a truth Princes that find themselves galled with truth fall into fury because they perceive that known which they did not believe to be known Liberty of speech and writing against a Prince causeth him to loose his respect which once lost produceth rebellion It is better timorously to avoid dangers then confidently to encounter them If beauty moves to love it incites to compassion which is formed either from the quality of the person or of the businesse this is produced from feare that from love Feare is of things future love of things present therefore though feare be more active yet the person present moves more compassion for that which is hath much more vigour then that that may be Woman was made not against the intention of nature but for generation from the assaults of whose beauty we are better preserved by distance then by resistance To blame competitors is either a signe of great good or of weakenesse and when it proceeds not from zeale it proceeds from envie Though an Artist at first make some excellent Artificer his object yet afterward he reflects more upon the greatnesse of the art then of the Artist To stand firme in a good opinion is constancy in a bad is obstinacie He that is chiefe of the counsellers is not alwaies found to be chiefe in counsells The object of the understanding is truth if it be quieted with that which may be and may not be it is deceived Monarchies are supported by two base Pillars that is by Executioners and Sergeants as the sweetest gardens are by the basest excrements of beasts The office of executioner which was performed by Samuel and Eliah is now for want of zeale to Gods glory left to the meanest people as also that Princes might not seeme terrible to the people and so be more feared then loved The most capitall offence in conspiracy is to conceale the conspirators for he that knowes a rebellion and holds his peace shewes more feare then love Tyrants by their wickednesse have made the revealing of conspiracies an infamy and the plotting of them a glorie The Prince as a Physitian ought to use his subjects that are sick of infamy roughly not to kill but to cure them Not only ought fortune to be pictured on a wheele but also every thing else in this world Cities that rebell against their Princes though they overcome yet fall into many inconveniencies as the overthrow of their Countrie the destruction of the people the consumption of their Exchequers c. The love of interest which is a Clyant doth easilie overcome all other loves which are but children The space of an hundred yeares is the bredth of the channell of the river of forgetfulnesse Rebellions are unfruitfull vain not without great danger and extreame great losse The Romanes dealth courteously with the Graecians in beating down the walls of their Cities for so they made them the more vertuous and lesse rash Mens good complexion is oftentimes their death because being confident of it they fall into disorders that kill them Wars sprout out again when Conquerours know not how or will not know or are not able to make an end of their victories Warres many times would not be if the greatnesse amongst equals did not bring forth envie and if there were not jealousies amongst inferiours The covetuosnesse of Princes to get large Dominions is grounded upon the desire they have to keepe what they have got Augustus by not dilating but bounding the Confines of his Empire both fortified the same tooke away envie and feare and made it known that his desire of domination was not infinite Breach of Faith hath caused jealousie and jealousie envie Historicall observations The Lord Iasper Guzmans pedegree COunt Olivares was borne iâ—Rome and for twelve years went up and downe with his Father Having entred into Spain hee disposed himselfe to the study of the Lawes Made Rector of the Vniversity of Salamanca His elder Brother died His Father also died about the same time He went to the Court after he had got learning He refused to goe leige Embassadour to Rome He was twice like to be murthered Hee was nominated for a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Philip the fourth In the entry of the Kings service he found many difficulties He was accused by the King The King tries his patience He left the Court a while when Philip the third with the Prince went to Portugall His Speech
to the Prince when the King was like to die The first Counsell bee gave the King was to call home from exile many worthy men He bestowed upon his Vncle the charge of State businesse reserving to himselfe the care of the Kings person and charge of his house He left the Duke of Ossuna his kinsman in the hands of justice and Don Roderigo He placed none of his kindred in the Kings service but such as were worthy Hee bestowed the Lievetenantship of Castile upon an excellent man He put away his servant for recommending a businesse to one of his Officers He quickned the Law against Riots in Spaine He procured the King to joyne three men of excellent abilities with him as assistants Hee perswaded the King to forbeare taxing the people and to remember well deserving men with offices honours and titles His advise to the King when the Prince of Wales went into Spaine Pope Urbans Letter to Count Olivares The Prince of Wales returne to England discontented and the effects thereof By Guzmans care the Spaniards had good successe in Brasil and else where He refuseth the Kings donative and to transport a ship with merchandise to China He accepts of the stipends belonging to his Offices He provides a remedy against the delay in the promotions of Counsells He intercedes to the King for old officers to be dismissed and rewarded He had but one onely Daughter The Kings answer to him about the marriage of his Daughter He marries his Daughter to the Marquesse of Torall she was brought to bed of a dead child and dyed her selfe His care of the King in his sicknesse He spent 16. houres every day in the Kings service reserving onely eight for himselfe He advanceth the Cardinall of Tresco to be President of Castile against the opinion of his friends He counsels the King to cry downe the brasse-money of Spain to halfe the worth He prudently manages the businesse of the Kings Revenues He caused some rivers to be made navigable and some veines of gold to be found in Spaine Hee counselled the King to assist the French with a Fleet against Rochell He reserved the rewards of warre bestowed upon him to helpe deserving men in their necessities He was very easie to pardon injuries against himselfe as he shewed in pardoning the man that would have pistolled him When offices and dignities were to be distributed he came seldome to the counsell He caused a little window to be made in all places of Counsells to make Counsellours the more wary He intreated the King to read the stories of his predecessours and told him that one of them did ill in depending too much upon his Favourite He punished Libellers and Satyrists against the King but not against himselfe He gave no audience to women and assures maids and widdowes that few lines under their hand should prevaile more with him then the sight of their persons He was no obstinate maintainer of his â—wne opinions His Speech to Don Francisco of Conâ—reras His carriage towards the Duke of Ascot who was sent by the Infanta in the â—roubles of Flanders into Spaine He convinced the Duke of Ascot by shewing him the Infanta's Letter He humbly desires the King to excuse the errour of the Duke of Ascot THE POVRTRAIT OF THE Politick Christian Favourite Originally Drawn from some of the actions of the Lord Duke of St. Lucar Written to the Catholick Majestie of PHILIP the Great and the 4th of that name I Write unto your Majesty rather of your Majesty I write of your Favourite it is said that Moses spake with God in the Mount and yet there are that believe that he spake with an Angel sometimes Angels are the figures of God with us Favourites the figures of Angels with Princes Princes of God with men that magnanimous Heroe whose stupendious victories did not violently take away did give when he saw the prostrate prisoner Queen at the foot of his chariot did value himself able to make Alexanders an errour in it self glorious which his greatnesse mounted already to so sublime a degree did manifest If amongst Authors of an admired Classis there hath been any one found that reputed a Prince praise-worthy because he had a minister worthy of praise how much more is your Majesties due who hath a servant of great condition one that you have elected and made What glorious action shall I recount wherein thy great Favourite may not acknowledge you the actour either because you have concurred with your assistance or because you have given an influence with your grace or have dictated nay animated it by your wisedome and greatnesse In this subject great Potentate I will figure out your image not the true one but the likest God did not disdain to see himself shaped under the semblance of a man and worshipped not because man can be his Image but because he made him after his Image Laborious it is but it is profitable to Register the egregious performances of men in being They wound and they heale and where they heale they also wound Their resounding doth awaken reprove stirre up and leaves no place for sloathfulnesse to passe the time idly away in the laments of the time If one man of vallue be borne the fame of that one produceth a thousand for if she being fruitfull should not bring forth the world would be now one only mans because he being sterill would not have produced so much as one The glory of those that are past like the King of Bees hath Majestie and greatnesse but hath no sting It wounds not it inanimats not disanimats if it be examined because it hath no soule it makes humane condition lamentable that glory dispicable which being neither enjoyed by the soule nor perceived by the carcase doth first remaine vaine with the body and then without it vainest of all It is an accident will accost a substance and where the substance dies if it be it works not The Actions of Predecessours that they may be praised require no more then to bee flourishingly related it is with them as with pictures for it is sufficient if they be but master-like painted no consideration is had whether the Actions be true or the Pictures bee like in as much as the Acts of the Ancients are not knowne nor the Originalls of the draughts are not seen but he that writes the deeds or drawes the picture of one that is alive let him look for censure and that from the weakest since papers have no soules and cloathes no tongues Men are sometimes without eyes nay though they have them they see not colour because they have them not without colour Every one judgeth of every one that writes according to his owne affection one shewes himself a flatterer and another malicious I doe professe it is true to be infinitely oblig'd to this exalted Heroe but it shall never be discovered that I rather sordidly defile then faithfully satisfie that obligation which as it is
they follow it they helpe it he that is borne first believes he hath roome to preserve the splendor of his Progenitours with the splendor of his gold as if riches were the leaven of ignorance whence it is that those goods which in times past were the rewards of industrie are oftentimes now become the servants of sluggishnesse But such as are borne in the second place to quit themselves of the outrages of fortune cast themselves into the Armes of toyle so that where they cannot equall in wealth they exceed in vertue and make it evident that it is a fortune to many to be borne unfortunate At this time likewise his Father died whereupon hee was compelled to make a journey from Contemplation to Action Study is an idlenesse and if it be a businesse it is a businesse of idlenesse it would be an unlawfull appetite if it were not an act of the understanding it weakens minds and wearies bodies but it is a sweet kind of losse because it is insensible to be alwaies among Books is a dying amongst the living and a living among the dead or indeed it is rather a dying to all and peradventure not a living to ones self The Common-wealths of old time did repute it most pernicious to pâ—ace a reputation upon any other indeavours then upon imployments of vallour for they did know that to withdraw the understanding from the effeminatenesse of Sciences it was most necessary that as they were without fruit so to make them without glory All worldly men aspire unto glory if they be not foolish and now that glory consists as well in knowing as in doing and all men are â—apter to contemplation then to action most â—men runne that course to which they are most inclinable and it may be all men would runne it if nature which hath made youth unable for operation did not mak it likewise discrepant from study He that to avoid the title of stupid entitles it laborious either I deceive my self on he deceives himself or else he will deceive Study is a delight and when it is not a delight it is no labour but is a passion that doth trouble but not molest because it is but little in the matter and doth not dissolve the continuation Hee went to the Court and thither went he Learned he went not thither ignorant The Court is not a Grammer Schoole it gives not the first Aliments nor doth it teach the first Elements the food of it is not milke it seldome produceth it refines to study and to serve well are incompatible but yet to serve well it is necessary to have studied Princes are oftentimes in a great dearth of wise men because they make them not and many would make themselves so if study would render them as meritorious as service but in regard that as soone as they begin to serve they merit and not as soone as they begin to study Men for the most part dedicate that youth to the Prince which they should have disposed to Learnings whereupon it comes to passe that their merrit is at the last numbred by yeares and not weighed by actions and they are sometimes in the number of yeares out-vied by some piece of Arras that was there before them There was offered him an Embassage to Rome with an assurance that he should afterward obtaine the honour of Grandee a title merited by his Father but denyed him by death but the Earle knowing that to bee a Leiger Embassadour was but an inclosure would not accept of it not being able to obtaine that greatnesse that should have advanced him It is not the property of man to stand still he is under a world he is alwaies moveable and he himself is a moveable world when he goeth not forward be returnes backward if not to where he was yet to where his desire was He is a traveller and journies on to felicity he seekes it and finds it not nor can he be quiet till he hath found it nor can hee find it till he be dead motion is so naturall to man that if he cannot advance because he cannot stand still he returnes not that felicities are tedioas to him but because he hath not found them and being unable to proceed in their search he feares he hath out-gone them The waters which naturally descends if it meet with a resistance because it cannot stay ascends and hopes that motion will convey it to its end for rather then to imbrace a stilnesse that is out of its nature it moves against its nature Although the Earle gave not an occasion of offence to any he ranne notwithstanding the danger of death one time by foure Murtherers that waited way-led him at the going into his house another time by three of the same disposition that did follow his Coach when he was in it all alone yet was he alwaies fortunately delivered he not being aware of the perill Those men are thinly served that enjoy an immaculate fortune because those Starrs are very rare that have an unmix't Ray The greatest and most benigne Aspects of the Firmament are not without their petty violence whereupon it falls out that such as are most fortunate have not an unperplexed felicity Fortune cannot be sincere in a world that hath not an Element which is pure nor a thing that is not mixt Though I know not what of molestation which is never wanting to the greatest fortunes is borne of I know not what of Malignity that is alwaies found in the greatest Starrs Occasion was offered to settle a Court for Phillip the fourth the great in regard of a marriage with France and then was the Earle nominated for a Gentleman of his Chamber He that in those times had the mannageing of the Monarchy with all respect be it spoken either did not care to eternize the favour he had or did not know the vallue of the Earle in closing of him to the Prince to surround him with contraries was idle the worth that is accompanied with Prudence can by no contrary be extinguished but by death It would have been better to have sent him farre off from the Court placing him in some Government which is an honourable and ordinary exile of unfortunate worthy men no inkling of their Actions although very great doth ever come to the Prince for distance thawes them and if they doe arrive to his eare they are brought by the Favourites meanes and so doe seem rather his that brought them then his that performed them Worth is a Ray that cannot be hid if it be not extinguished nay rather it is a Sunne which alwaies shines where it is Though some black cloudes oppose it it gives light for such oppositions have not so much obscurity as that hath splendor either the breath of the Prince doth disperse them or his Ray consumes them that it may clearely appeare but when the Sunne is farre off when it is out of our Hemisphere it shines not or if it shine a little
habit which is necessarily produced by actions doth not necessarily produce actions The subject whose abilities are of great importance to his Prince cannot be absent for a small time but it redounds to his great profit A rest that is interposed in the composition of Musick if it be alone doth increase the delight but if it hath company destroyes it the eare is in expectation of the following harmony and when it comes quickly embraceth it but if it stay long it dislikes it the expectation that is short inflames the desire and desire love but that which is long doth weary the desire and makes love be laid downe and he that once laies downe his love takes it not up againe love is a kind of slavery that is sweet when it is not knowne and it is not knowne when it is not free It is good to make the losse of a presence to appeare but it is not good to be so long absent as that it be provided for For in such a case though a man may retaine the reputation of profitable yet may he loose the opinion of necessary He that would have it believed that nothing can be done without him must not give time that it may be done Phillip the third being sick to death the precedent day to the day of his death the Earle in this sort spake to the Prince With bended knee I beg of Your Highnesse to grant me the liberty to goe to Sivill and for so much time at the least to leave the Court untill Your Highnesse enter into possession both of Your Kingdome and Officers which at this time governe To whom the Prince answered My Fathers sicknesse is at height enough and if it please God to punish me with his death I cannot trust any more then you in the new and troublesome Government because I am confident of your affection and abilities The King dyed the Prince succeeded in the Kingdome and the Earle held the possession of his favour There was a Prince and peradventure the wisest of any who comming to the succession of the Empire made a shew of not desiring it and the Earle who without peradventure is the wisest of Favourites that ever was borne doth make a shew to refuse the favour that was presented him the one had a purpose to sift the mind of the Senate the other to find out the heart of his King This was the greatest testimony of temper and moderation that it was possible for the Earle to manifest not in that he had the heart to refuse a Kingly favour but because he had the braine to discourse it How is it possible that any man that is not this man seeing himself arrived to one of the greatest fortunes of the world could be able to struggle himself out of the hands of joy to cast himself into the pawes of discourse Discourse requires quiet order'd and restreined spirits whereas joy like the wind breaths in the center of a man and sends forth spirits to the circumference dilating troubling and confounding them The first of the counsells that the Earlâ— gave his Majestie was to call out of Exile many of his subjects of approved worth of which was Doctor Pietro of Toledo Marquesse of Villa-Franca and one of the Councell of State To repeale from banishment such as are men of worth is an act of so worthy fame that Agrippina the wise being scarce entred into the power of ruling did think shee did abolish a multitude of faults by her calling home Seneca out of banishment If worthy men demerit the qualities merit It is ill when for the mans sake vertues are banished but it is worse when for his vertues sake the man is exil'd In punishing there is something of pardoning to be considered for worth for justice should be injustice should her ballances equal a pound of gold to a pound of durt for having equall weight The people have worth in great esteem and it is true too that they have punish'd it but it was only when they fear'd it In Monarchy where they doe not feare it they applaud it and when they see a man of worth is punished they grieve as if his worth and not his errors suffer'd In jealous Common-wealths and unsecured Principalities he deserves great punishment when he doth ill who did deserve a great reward when he did well because they cannot run a greater hazard then when the best becomes worst A Tyrannous government hates and fears worthy men A popular arrives not to so much corruption as to hate them it only feares them but neither the one nor the other doth enjoy them in as much as envy neither ascends nor descends It is only an Aristocracy that envies feares and hates them And sometimes when they doe not feare them they make as if they did It would defend it self with the â—â—ckler of weaknesse from the blemish of â—â—alice Worth is in the most happie Estate under firme and confirm'd Principalities If where the Princes are not Tyrants there should not oftentimes be Favourites they doe not feare the losse of their governments but Favourites feare the losse of their favour They cannot be Tyrants over others if they be not first so over their Princes Whereupon it comes to passe that Princes oftentimes of an upright intention have without tyranizing tyranized because they were tyranized upon He devided the Kingdome in two parts bestowing upon Don Baltazar of Zuniga his Vncle the charge of the Consultations and businesse of State and reserved to himself the charge of the house and the care of the Kings person The He that is greatest in Councell is not therfore the greatest in favour Favour is not the Daughter of the Interest of State but of the affection of the mind the one makes a man respected the other makes him beloved To arrive to the one instructions may be laid downe but none can come to the other that is not borne to it this confused distinction Tacitus did see but he did not understand it or I understand not him He makes a question whether the favour of a Prince come by destiny of birth or indeed by the Counsells of our Prudence I say it comes from both The one hath all the part in that favour which makes us be loved the other hath a great part in that which makes us deare When a Favourite doth every thing it brings forth hatred when nothing is done without him it brings forth the same effect Though that hatred be removed the one is impossible the other is necessary The first mover moves only it self and all the other Heavens doe follow it when they doe not follow it nor move with it they move by it I undoubtedly hold that therei 's not any motion in Heaven howsoever contrary to the primum mobile that doth not depend upon that first motion and that if that should stand still all the rest would be at a stay nor let any man tell me that the â—rimum mobile cannot
occasion a contrary motion in as much as we see that man with all other creatures by that power which they have from the first mover doe oftentimes move against the first mover Who hath beâ—eved that the motion from the West to the East is the proper motion of the Sunne â—nd that therefore Ioshuah spake not proâ—enly if I understand but hath spoken imâ—operly Where the interest of his King is in debate and the right of justice he hath no parents nor he knowes no friends because the King is his cheifest Parent and his greatest friend and therefore although he were able by that way of his power to have succoured Don Pietro of Giron Duke of Ossuna his Kinsman yet did he leave him in the hands of justice where he died in prison And although he could have set at liberty Don Roderigo of Calderon yet he did it not but did only manifest his friendship to his posterity The Prince like the Sunne is the Father of all his subjects if not univocall equivocall if not as a particular man as an universall but he cannot be a Father if his subjects be not sonnes and love him not more then a Father The paternity of a man hath bloud for the foundation the paternity of a Prince love this is to be greatest when it is most necessary and it is most necessary where it constitutes where it followes and doth not alwaies follow Hee that loves not the Prince more then he loves others because he renounceth his sonship he desires that paternity be denyed unto him and that the King of a Father doe become a Lord that he of 〈◊〉 sonne may become a servant He that could constitute a Principality like this wherein the subjects should be more zealous for their Princes good then their owne it would bee needlesse for him to prohibit a proprium Mine and thine which forme the particular destroy the publike if the particular be not turn'd into the publike A wise man knew that necessaty well and therefore in his Common-wealth he took away all kindred of bloud and knowledge of goods hee did not then offend in knowing the errour but in the correcting it he took all the occasions of vertue away putting man into the hands of necessity and whereas he ought to have had recourse for a remedy to establish the civill Lawes he hasted to destroy the naturall and would rather desire a not desiderable then seek for that which he thought impossible In the correcting of great errours there are alwaies as it were great ones committed yea and sometimes greater but they doe not oftentimes seem so because they are believed necessary and sometimes they are not because they are profitable extreame mischeifes call for extreame remedies yet extreames are never good but in comparison of worse He did not place his kindred but such as were worthy in the service of the King nay rather he took away the Lievtenancy of Castile from a good subject who for the names sake of his mariage would have been to him most faithfull and gave it to an excellent man that had no kind of relation to him and one who did undergoe a kinde of reluctation to accept it being unwilling to relinquish that sweetnesse of repose to which he had retired himself It is a thing blame worthy in Princes to suffer worth to be retired for it is a signe that either they doe not know it or that they hate it If they send them not into exile yet there they leave them and to leave them there and to send them thither is all one When cattle come home to their hovells before night it is a signe of a tempest Men doe it not that they may doe ill for vertue is a beame of divinity that doth no ill but because they are deprived of that good that hinders the doing of ill It is not only to be blamed in Princes that they suffer worthy men to bee retired but it is likewise a fault in the men that they are willing to be so Hee that serves not his Prince and knowes how to serve him is worthy of a severer punishment then he that serves him ill not knowing how to serve A negative occasion concurres as well to losse as a positive when it is oblig'd to hinder it nay the obligation hath a power to make the negative become positive Retiring is only granted as a reward to such as have wrought He that retires himself and hath done nothing will have his reward before his merit but he is mightily deceiv'd in as much as this which is reputed a plentifull recompence to men that have done enough is certainly an excessive punishment to such as have been idle The quiet which followes motion is the Rest of the moveable that which preceeds motion is the wearinesse of the mover He that is alwaies in motion is without a body he that is never in motion is without a soule There is a strife in man between the soule and the body the body is of its owne nature immoveable and would not stirre the soule which is the beginning of motion would move the body that it might perswade it to motion it doth promise it felicity it is sometimes perswaded and consents but after that the soule with the body is conducted to whither it is able to be conducted without lighting upon felicity hopelesse now to find it in motion is likewise peradventure perswaded by the body to find it in rest and so deceived suffers it self to bee brought to rest whether it voluntary goes either desperate or undeceived It is a great deceit to believe to be able to be quiet and live it is not true that rest is a reward but it is alwaies a most insupportable paine to him that hath laboured most the world affords not quiet he makes a journey to folly that goes about to seek it and he is come to his journeyes end that believes hee hath found it A man may indeed rest and yet not be at quiet nay for the most part he is most unquiet when he is most at rest The Lord Duke found the service of the King puddled by his servants and not being able to resist what was past he made good orders to provide for what was to come among the which the example of his owne cleare proceeding was not the least which was confest and admir'd by all yea by such as could not abide him Gold doth blunt the edge of the sword and weighs downe the ballance of justice He that sells justice sells his Prince when he can find a Chapman The gold that holds not out at the test was false and did deceive the man that holds not out against gold doth cozen Some Princes have given money enough to their seruants that they should not sell themselves nor sell them but that hunger which is not naturall but sickly admits not of satiety That hunger is not in the man it is in the gold so that who so
increaseth that body increaseth its hunger there is no cure for it but to make them loose the love of it and that cannot be made to be lost if the Favourite be not the first that looseth it The power of example is greater then that of the Law because it hath no power the Law works with violence example operates with love the one raiseth desire and produceth affection the other without raising the desire produceth feare if the Favourite be not to be sold then is he above all price but the most part of them that bagg up money heap it up to buy the Favourite The Lord Duke hath not a Favourite nor knowes he what friendship is or Parentage when the businesse of the King is in agitation His servants have no power with him they intrude not into businesse they falter not There may be a Symon like him that Lucian speaks of that may have served a long time as a helper to Audiences but did never advance so farre as that Symon did to raise a family of the Symoniades but rather when he came to know that one of his servants had recommended a businesse to one of his Officers he put away the recommender and took away the love recommended from him that had it That Prince which loves his subject gives him Principality that subject that returnes love to his Lord gives it him againe but the subject that loves another takes it from him is rebellious making him whom hee loves Prince if not of others yet of himself and is ungratefull though profitable though faithfull though he love him These are the obligations of a subject but it is the obligation of a Favourite that is more beloved then others to be carefull that he love more then others and more then he loves any other It would be an easie matter for Favourites to reforme the Pallace of a King if it were not a hard thing to order his owne house for the first is not reformed if this be not first put in order All the lines of a Favourite yea those that reach from his owne house are to have but one only centre and that is the Pallace of the Prince He that raiseth to greatnesse to Offices to Honours his servants kindred or friends doth make his owne house the Centre and the Kings house the Circumference It is a rule among Favourites to advance seruants kindred and friends that they may have many supports to uphold them but it may be that that is no good rule and without all question it is no good signe that favour hath no good foundation that is not fixt upon its owne worth a wall that hath a firme bottome hath no need of a Buttresse if ruine doe not threat it and then assistants of that necessity doe rather thrust downe then uphold favour in as much as they never leane to it but they crow'd it The Hunter should vainely toyle himself to overthrow the Elephant if hee would not leane against something but hee doth leane to uphold himself and often falls because he leaned Even so the Favourites of a Favourite serve him as little for a support but indeed it is he that is of use to them for an upholder and they doe sometime beare so much upon him that they lay him along The Favourite is vigilant not to offend the Prince because he hath none neare to defend him but his Favourites are bold feareles of loosing the favour they have not and hope to be protected by the favour they have whereupon it comes to passe that the Prince oftentimes molested is compel'd to punish them and then finding his Favourite in the crow'd in the overthrow of them he is destroyed The Lord Duke having made a discovery that Riot was the ruine of Spaine hee gave life to the Law by practise but he most of all quickned it by the example of the King and of the Court a course in admirable reputation in the times of Vespasian and so celebrated by Authors of venerable Authority The practicall law was shewen to Tyberius but he would none of it wherein if he did not dissemble hee shew'd great weaknesse to conceale great wisdome he made it believ'd that hee conceiv'd it odious and it was in a Prince peradventure that was reputed a Tyrant who knowes whether indeed he did not think it hurtfull and that he did serve his turne with the defects of impossible to hide those of his will The lawes of Tyrants are suspected snares to punish not advertisements for correction The ends of Tyrants are to impoverish and they are accustomed to propound occasions for consuming of Patrimonies then to give instructions for the procuring of wealth It may be Tacitus rellished not my reason because he thought it not a good one and to speak truth it is not a good one Store of money can procure particular friends by the mediation of guifts The purses of Favourites cannot raise Armies but that which is spent can purchase a generall applause The common people love to â—ee magnificence for they know by nature that the vertue of magnanimity consists in glorious actions though they winke they are not blind though they see not the Sunne as it is yet they see where it is Princes doe more often deceive themselves in applauding riches then the people doe For Princes doe sometimes honour them most that have most the people them only that employ most they hate covetousnesse and extoll bounty because they hope to have some benefit by that which is spent but dreame not of getting that which is hoarded The people that are the dreggs of the Commons are not so ignorant as many would make them they alwaies have an eye upon vertue and though they be not so foreseeing as Princes and lesse understanding then the Nobility yet have they lesse feares of the one and lesse envy of the other they draw not their swords upon vertue nor doe they pollute it with malice alwaies when it is great they know it and alwaies when they know it they extoll it and reverence it And therefore a Tyrant hath more reason to feare money that is spent then many baggs that are lockt up because it is an easier possibillity for Citizens to depose a Prince by applause then by Armies Don Baltazar of Zuniga died and because the Lord Duke would not take upon him the whole weight of businesse he procured the King to appoint as assistance three men of excellent abilities who were Don Agostina Missia the Marquesse of Monticlare and Don Ferdinando of Giron who were to propound all businesses to the end that his Majestie might bee able to elect what he pleased when he heard them nominated and so proceed to practise to which he did perswade him with a disinteressed ingenuity that which became his afforded favour full of Learning eloquence and love representing to his Majestie the duty of the best of Kings This and many such like discourses which for their exquisite politenesse would
enable my Relation and make the infinite worth of the Duke more famous are not by me recounted in this present worke because that I having written it I call God to witnesse without his consent I reputed it not convenient to publish them to view without authority from him that performed them but it doth me good neverthelesse to believe that he will one day be pleased that some more eminent pen then mine shall divulge them to the world not to defraud him of the glory of being the first to informe Favourites how to serve their Prince and Princes how to governe their people He that shall write as the Duke did will discover a knowledge of the great good inclination in his Master and declare himself to be a faithfull Favourite To with hold Princes from businesse may be a laudable effect but alwaies of a blame-worthy occasion if prudence produce it it is an ill signe for the Prince if sagaeity it it is worse for the Favourite because it alwaies intimates the one wicked the other unable There have been some that have deem'd it an irrevocable maxime for Favourites to estrange Princes from all manner of businesse but it may be that they peradventure have thought it ought to be so because they have found it done so they would have one draught serve to one species in a world wherein nature hath not made any thing originall that is not different to give excellent precepts to one that never was excellent and hath too too much strayed from the right is a sure destroying of him Hee is not at the first capable of more then of an indifferent good he must be first healed and then perfected there is no doubt but that a Favourite who feares not his Prince as he ought doth utterly ruine himself if he suffer his manner of proceeding to be corrected or if he let his Prince come into action The good old man of Chio said that when a Physitian met with a contagious distemper he was not on the sudden to reduce it to what it should be but to what it was at the first because to that then it ought to come Nature which does help to expell a worse distemper then its owne doth resist to bring in a better It might peradventure be credible that that Master would have inferred this who did desire a Tyrant indifferently good not that he should stay there but because he imagined that he could not at the first be reduced to a superlative without his ruine The examples of this most wise Favourite would bee of no use to the vigilant Sound mens food is most dangerous for the sicke Necessity of state importuning Taxes and the Duke knowing how much it grieved the people to see their contributions given away he writ a Discourse to his Majestie wherein he discovered the great errour that Princes ran into that proceeding and that there was not wanting to his Majestie Habits Orders Honours Offices Degrees and Greatnesse to satisfie the merits of the Worthy without either distasting the subject or impoverishing the Exchequer This counsell was the occasion that the King began ro remunerate his deserving subjects or the deservings of his subjects with honours and dignities Riches are not the pay of worth they are the wages of labour he that buyes it vilifies himself he that sells it is vile already The operation of worth produceth its reward for it produceth honours and he that hath it can pretend nothing more then some markes that he hath it Of this condition are Greatnesse Titles Orders Habits and of this nature were the City Crownes the Collars and the Triumphs of the Ancients Such rewards if they grow common give no honours nay rather they loose that they have when they are bestowed on such as have it not There was a time when rewarding did not emptie the Kings Coffers and it was a time fertile in worthy men they were most rewarded who were least rewarded Honour was then a very great price and the price of vertue only But when that which was a price began to be at a price it lost value and made men loose their courages so that honour and worth became both mercenary and men lusted rather after the wealths that bought them then after the qualities that got them The originall of so much errour and confusion was derived from such Princes that were needy and poore and thereupon gave more honour to the wealthy then the worthy but these would not have had need of riches if they had not made them necessary with taking away the reputatiouâ— of worth The Spartans were a while without gold and the first Romanes if they had it did not adore it States have many times encreased with money but never without valour It may be it did not concerne Kings to keep it in credit such are not the most valarous but the richest they have given reputation to what they alwaies have to assure them of that which sometimes they have not The Prince of Wales went into Spaine to get the Infanta Maria to wife and for some other respects of the Palatine his Brother in law When the Lord Duke stood firme upon this resolution that when the King of England should in his Kingdome grant all that in favour of the Catholike Religion without which there was no probability of a match that then the Catholike Nation should accord to all that that the conveniency of State required nor would he â—ver depart from this Catholike vow although he well enough understood that if the King of England would not consent to this proposition as he did manifestly declare he would not the issue that he insisted upon with a potent King to the enemies of the house of Austria and that he did foresee Warrs which would more load the Favourite then any man else because they take from him the commodity of enjoying the degree that he doth possesse and oppresse him with turmoyles cares and necessities that attend them This Counsell was the counsell of the Duke and the counsell and the Duke are worthy of the highest praise hath no need of my pen I doe here lye downe with all reverence and humility at the feet of Pope Vrban our Lord and as I have been confident to be able securely to goe on in the way of commendations of the Duke enlightned by his great splendour which in many things cannot erre and in those he can he will not So likewise have I been willing to participate the Ray of it to others to strengthen their sight that see and to illuminate them that see not and confound them that will not see Then did his holinesse write a Letter to the Lord Duke the contents whereof translated into Italian sounds as you here may heare To the beloved Sonne and Noble Lord the Earle of OLIVAREZ Vrban the Pope 8. NOBLE Lord and beloved Sonne health and Apostolicall benediction The Common report of the Monarchie of Spaine drives such an applause
and spends it commendably is a rich magnanimous and a wise liberall man I confesse that the despising of riches is a great vertue but it is a greater in him who having them distributes them then in him who having them throwes them away or not having them avoides them These men doe not despise them but they either feare them or envy them in the one appears the greatnesse of a gallant mind in the other basenesse and vanity Hee that cancells riches out of a wise mans heart doth cancell out of the Catalogue of vertues part of magnanimity and all liberallity to flie the meanes that make vertue is to fly vertue That morall Philosopher that did so much blame riches had so much as made him blame-worthy and whereas at other times he was wont to contradict his sayings with his sayings in this particular he did it with his doings and gave us to understand that he did despise them because he had them not and that then they are only to be despis'd when they may be fear'd The Lord Duke perceiving a delay in the promotions of Counsells in the Tribunalls for a long time occasioned about disputes of precedency hee did cull one out of every bench forming thereby a Councell by whom there might be a provision made against all the difficulties that did arise which proceeding of his brought an incredible commodity to the affaires of the King The Generalls did take out some one souldier out of every Company in the Armies to make a squadron calling it by the name of the squadron volant as active upon and in all occasions Nature if I be not deceived hath given spirits to all the parts of man that they may worke but then taking out some one from every one makes a Globe which must speedily relieve in businesse and interpose themselves likewise in the offices of the other parts These are the spirits that runne to the heart in feare that flie into the face in shame that helpe the vitall and succour the animall spirits and that they are taken out from the severall parts will clearly appear when we shall observe that in the vehement operations of the spirits in one place the other spirits doe remaine feeble and weakned He that is dexterous in businesse merits great praise and he lengthens our life that shortens it Man finds a kind of lust in it the luxury of it are the ceremonies the strifes of precedencies and many other like accidents which to his discommodity surround it It would be more needsull to make a law against the dispatch of businesse then against sumptuousnesse feasting and apparrell For the time that is lost is more precious then the money that is consum'd It grieves a man that his life is short and yet he doth his businesse as if it were of many ages He complaines of idlenesse and makes his businesse so Life is consum'd in idlensse and it is over-plus of life they call it short and it is long for that which advanceth is more then that which operates Man hath a rule to mourne by nature so soon as he is borne he should give thanks and as soon as hee is borne he mournes being arrived to the use of reason he bewailes his life as calamitous come to years forgetting that he cal'd it miserable he is sorrie it is so short It is indeed too long for it is a way that reacheth from the Earth to Heaven he that desir'd to be dissolved and to be with Christ desired it should be shorter They are to suppose it short that by missing their way goe the right way to hell He is a great intercessour to the King for good Officers if any of them come to old age and so cannot serve he procures them rewards as if they did serve as he did to Don Francisco of Contreras President of Castile and many others Such servants as serve for respects deserve to be rewarded with their respects and that their reward may end when that service is ended because the profit of the one doth terminate with the work of the other But no time should abridge the reward of a servant that serves for love for though to serve he ceaseth not to love There is no remuneration more fertile nor of lesse bulk then that which is bestowed upon the decrepidnesse of a servant It fills the Court with servants and empties no Exchequers few arrive to it few hold out to it and all aspire to it because as feare makes us doubt that all that may come to passe which is not impossible so desire makes us hope The Lord Duke had one only Daughter and because he had no more he conceived it necessary to marry her into his stock and or this purpose he propounded to the King foure Subjects that his Majestie might make choice of one of them the prudent answer of the King worthy of the eminences of his understanding was whatsoever shall be convenient for you shall be acceptable to me Be it your care to chuse and it shall be mine to enrich him as your Sonne in Law Astrology is in all parts fals but false est of all in matters of marriages because men are not married nor doe they marrie according to their inclinations but for some ends and that is the cause of the change of tempers in families because some by-respect hath its share in marriages It is true they are voluntary otherwise they were of no value but that will was not that which was made with us but that which we did make Inclinations that belong unto manners are not alwaies to be followed for the temper is surely exquisite and if it be not good they are not good but inclinations to generation may be prosecuted with more security because the constitution ordinarily desires either the like that conserves it or the contrary that corrects it The Lord Duke would not have restrained his Election nay certainly he ought not to have done it to his own Family if he had not found such a man in it as he could not peradventure have found the like in the whole Kingdome and it was the Marquesse of Torall If it were lawfull for me to Print some few leaves concerning the precepts which the Duke gave to the Marquesse his sonne in Law when he did elect him I am confident and it is a truth that the great subjects of Princes would learne more by those advertisements how to regulate and governe themselves then by all the Books that I have written His Daughter was married to this Marquesse with a generall joy of all but that cheerfulnesse was soon turn'd into sadnesse for when she had brought forth a dead daughter she was a dead Mother Philosophers do make a generation a naturall instinct for say they in regard that man cannot eternize himself in the individuall he seeks to eternize himself in the species by children but they are deceived for that is not perpetuated is so perpetuated but it may be
man doth rather desire them for his consolation and love Nature to eternall us hath not been willing that wee should seek for childeen from anywhere else then from the soule that she hath made eternall or if they be desired to be loved then are they not desiderable by the Duke who hath so great a King to love and so eminent an understanding to eternize him The Duke remained hopelesse of succession in his bloud being without sonnes The desire of generation which for the benefit of the world is to be only of the good if it were not likewise among the bad Cities would not be so great and perdaventure would be better I could be amaz'd that the Heathen Law-makers who had no regard to Relgion would be carelesse in this point if there were not an impossibillity of resisting such an inconvenience without running into greater It is a weaknesse to believe that they forbeare it for the increase of the number of Cities Since it is the quality and not the quantity of subjects that makes Common-wealths to be great The condition of the world is lamentable for nature as if shee were covetous or envious makes those plants most fruitfull which are most unprofitable and is rather a Mother in law then a Mother to such as are necessary we should have reason to complaine us of her had not she had it first to complaine her of us For sinne that did infest the generation of man did likewise infest the generation of the Earth The death of his Daughter made the Duke abandon all intention of advancing his Family if he ever had had such a purpose and wholy betook himself to the service of God and the King The Lord Duke with pardon let me speake it did not arrive to the true Idea of a Favourite when his Daughter died He that hath Children loves them thinks how to make them great and he that intends the greatnesse of his Family is one that love his owne respects and doth not satisfie the obligation of a perfect Favourite The love that is the due of a Prince consists altogether of good affections it is alone splendor and infinite lights do forme it to it hath recourse the affections of tendernesse which is toward children and the reverence due to a Father the cordiallnesse wherewith we love a friend the naturallnesse wherewith we love our selves and he that hath another Friend another Sonne another Father and who indeed is not himself transform'd into his Lord is not worthy to have his heart That the Duke was such an one was well discover'd in the sicknesse that the King had upon the first of August in the year 1627. for he did all that was possible for a servant to do that his Lord might live and so farre as was permitted to a Christian to dye if he dyed And when he was advised by his friends at that time to have some regard to the maintenance of his own health he thrust them from him with a furious choller If the King dye not his privacy cannot dye and indeed he cannot desire it life if he live not if he could have been deprived of that affection wherewith he was bound to his Prince whom he lov'd so much and lov'd him so much either he was not a true Private or would not have been For a Favourite is call'd a Private because he is to be Private to his will to all his affections to all his passions and transformed only into the service of God and of his Lord They that sitt musing upon what may happen love not their Prince but themselves either they have not the service of their Lord for their end or they thinke of beyond the end when they thinke of something after the end I do believe that if the King had dyed the Duke had dyed with him and if not dyed in the world yet to the world The Duke perceiving that God would forme in him a servant without affection onely destinated to the service of his King did embrace it with all his soule and all his body digesting in his brain the Chaos of the whole Monarchy wherein he spent sixteen houres of the day reserving to himselfe but only eight for his sleep his nourishment and his own businesse The body of man consists of many parts the body of a Monarchy of many affaires both which are divers I was about to say contrary but in the whole man and the whole monarchy there is one and the same consent conspiracy A thousand Artificers concurre to the building of an house A house as I may say doth consist of Wood of Iron of thornes of lyme of Sand but it is not enough that all the materials be together that build it to make it a house nay that every piece by it selfe were in its due order yet would this gathering together be nothing more then a confusion but here is required an Architect who uniting them in his understanding doth concoct and regenerate them who raising the forme from the parts may produce that from the mixture that it may not be stone alone nor lyme alone or onely Wood or onely Iron nor all these things together but an house which doth consist in a certaine harmony that is the soule of these things that have no soule even so as I take it is the Chaos of a Monarchy in the forming and upholding whereof there is a concurrence of infinite Officers and howsoever each of them might operate well enough in his peculiar office yet would it for all that be but a confusion if there were not one onely Architect by whose direction should be ordered and disposed All the particulars which otherwise would loose the proper forme and onely have part of the All Man consists of soule and body but the soule and the body do not make a man but it is necessary that there be an Vnion which though it seeme nothing is a reall Entitye It seems as it were a prejudice to a Monarchy which intimates one that the first influences of it are received in more as it that it did produce that more before the one whereas it should produce first the One because from that One and from him which are more the more is produced Who so will know the sincerity and goodnesse of the Duke let him consider how he did advance the Cardinall of Tresco to be President of Castile although his friends perswaded the contrary conceiving that he would run into some danger by the Election the Cardinall being the Creature of the Duke of Lerma and of the Marquesse of the Seven Churches the one being falne from being a Favourite the other put to death in the time of the Duke his well-willers did insist upon it that there being no want of persons for so principall a place it was lawfull for him to have respect to his own fafety when he might do it without dammage to the Kings service The grosse matter that makes the bow of
Sanctuary of the unjustly persecuâ—ted Tutor of of the Common-wealths and Princes the alwaies magnanimous and eveâ— glorious Oppressour of Hereticks How much treasure hath he spent how many Arâ—mies consum'd in the service of God and oâ— men How many Forts hath hee takeâ— and most liberally restored them all again from whom they were most unlawfullâ— compell'd or from whom he himself haâ— justly taken them What warre hath he enâ—terpriz'd that hath not been either to defend Religion from such as wounded it oâ— to relieve justice when it was opprest or tâ— maintain his credit against such as despiseâ— him But that which is lost in Flanders is not lost by the Kings fault or the Favourites iâ— as much as ther wanted no provision of men or money But it was lost by other sufficiently known accidents And in this is the Government of the most glorious Phillip the fourth more worthy of praise then that of his Grand-Father whereas the one has made Warr in other Provinces without calling his Armies out of Flanders and the other could not succour the Catholike Faith â—n France without abandoning Flanders As little likewise is the Duke to be blamed for the Warrs that have in these times â—eld the Austrian Monarchy in a tottering coâ—dition but rather such as having been seâ—itious have moued them It is not very â—ikely that a Favourite of a quiet braine the â—irth of the favourable beames of Iupiter â—nd Venus doth meditate the topsy-turvy â—urning of the world If he be as wise as a â—ove he brings an olive branch and not a deâ—â—ance of Warr For he cannot order it withâ—ut leaving his privacy and he can hardly â—ake that be ordered without loosing it Victories make a too much rumour to be conâ—ealed they are in the view of all the world â—o hinder them is â—ith the danger of the Prince to let them runne on is peradventure with the danger of the Favourite he is an â—ble man who in the time of Warr looseth not is privacy or makes not the Kingdome be â—â—st I say not but that Favourites may be found desirous of Warrs who like Crowes â—re alwaies flocking to dead bodies but those â—re ordinarily the troublesome parts of the Rayes of Mars and Saturne they wriggle â—hemselves into favour by pernicious but specious Counsells whence it is that they afterwards send forth those sooty humors thaâ— they have within them and they do puddlâ— the waters that they may not be a prey tâ— such as fish for the truth Woe to the worlâ— when such a Favourite is borne and let uâ— thank God that we are none of them in ouâ— times for he confounds it layes it along overturnes it ruines it and is ruin'd troublesome Whithersoeuer they goe it seems thaâ— they encrease the waters but diminish the Channell because they encrease the mud noâ— goe they much thither for they goe not thither These Phaetons when they come to touch that fire of Heaven are for the most part thunder strook by Jove It is very considerable that howsoever Prudence be that which is necessary to the maintenance of privacy yet is not alwaies the true practised but for the most part the false There is a Prudence that hath reall good for its end another that which seems so the one is pure the other puddle both cry men up and both greatly exult the one with the greater security because it is much more benigne the other with much more mirrour because it hath more eagernesse The braines of a witty man is as a waving sea alwaies unquiet it neither hath rest nor gives rest it destroies or will build or will maintain The foundations of its height are the ruines of others it procures a feare in the Prince to make it self necessary it will make him a Tyrant and sometimes makes it self so it is an Art which imitates Prudence like the Artist that imitates Nature it takes no pleasure if it doe not deceive and is most pleased when it deceives most leaving to be when it leaves to cozen it stands upon the very brink of a precipice and because it cannot alwaies deceive there is one time when it headlong falls The braine of the Prudent man is placide and and loving breathing nothing but sweetnesse nothing but quiet it builds up what others ruine and if it sometimes doth destroy it destroyes not to raise its owne house but to uphold it It makes the King good by shewing him what is profitable it makes him love to make him be beloved A prudent man falls not from favour if the Prince falls not into tyranny and if some casuall accident doth thrust him from the Mountain of Grace hee goes but downe hee tumbles not Greatnesse of the Prudent are influences from benevolent Starrs and because they are encreased by little and little like high Towers they are continued high upon their owne foundations Witty men goe high but they grow not high they are like balls of earth which violently compel'd by some compulsion doe swiftly passe through all buildings and when they are at the highest heights they fall and fall not but they break If Tacitus had ascribed the fall from privacy as well to sagacity as he did to satiety I would have borne with his other part of speech where he shewes it rarely sempiternall because it is rare for men to have prudence and such men are most rare which placed on high maintain it and he that did attribute so much to the power of domination and inchantment of obsequiousnesse might well think all constancy fraile all prudence fleeting He hath made some Rivers in Spaine to be made Navigable he made some veines of gold to be found not for covetousnesse of gaine but to be able to diminish the griveances of the subject without being wanting to the businesse of the Monarchy Gold is profitable to conserve and necessary to encrease States Some Politicians have made it inferiour to reputation when indeed reputation hath no other price but the reward which gold gives it they are deceiv'd in this because they sometimes see men forsake a rich Prince to goe serve a Prince of reputation this experience hath been true but it came not so to passe because reputation enticeth more then gold but because the worth of one in reputation gives more hope of gold then the Exchequer of a rich man gives gold those Souldiers are ill apaid that are alwaies paid and they are well pleas'd that are ill paid the ordinary price of their lives hardly keepes them alive Sackings Inroades Rapines Victories are the advantages that enrich the Souldiers and they expect them most frequent from such as they know most reputed The Favourite that encreaseth the Revenues of his master doth likewise encrease the Estates of the people one of whose great felicities is to have the Prince rich for when he takes not away he gives and when he gives he takes away a holding Prince is more desiderable then a bountifull Donatives
to maintain it All opinions that seem best are not so because a man doth not alwaies negotiate with the best irresolution is reputed weaknesse and perhaps it is the noblenesse of the understanding the object of it is that which cannot be false if it be quieted with that which may be and may not be it is deceived the man that is the chiefe of the Counsellours is not for all that found to be chiefest in Counsels he that hath got a strong Fort is not to adventure it upon the uncertainty of one issve for the danger and the gain are not equall in him he ought alwaies to propound businesse by way of doubt without hearing a case beyond distinction or knot to be untied or evasion to be propounded to that end that an opinion may not be held that may not be framed by Arguments and defended by the solutions which he hath propounded in his understanding and in this case if they fall out well he shall have the honour of it because they were taken for the reasons that he had adopted if they prove ill he shall not be ashamed for he shall meet with those difficulties which he foresaw and if by chance he hath ometimes a desire to apply them more to one resolution then to another he must provide to make some confident of his the president of the businesse True it is that a subject of great worth that is not known and moves not in a large Spheere after having exquisitely pondered the reasons may for once be the leader of an opinion because it is doubtfull whether the losse or the gain may be greater to him It is necessary for a man to make himselfe famous in the opinion of him to whom he should appear so and to adventure himselfe to him that will make him famous The first day that Doâ— Francisco of Contreras entred into his office the Duke spake to him after this manner Many are the years that I have lived in Court and in those years I have seen many Lords and Knights consume their Estates been sent to prison and be banished for having had brawles with representers of justice as Notaries Provost Marshals Sergeants and such like and yet I never saw any of those hang'd though it be impossible that such kind of people which are of inferiour condition should alwaies have reason for what they do and therefore it is to be believed that these being such as hale men to prison and such as forme processes do find meanes to unburthen themselves to burthen others Your Excellency then shall do a great service to his Majestie and a great good to the Common-wealth if you will ridd the Court of this abuse yet doe I not meane that offendours of any condition should escape unpunished for that would diminish the respect that is due to justice but that you should cause such Officers that abuse their Authority to be hang'd This advertisement that manifested the upright intention of the Duke did likewise notably comfort all the Nobility Monarchies which are the great Colosses of the world are kept up by two of the basest pillars that can be that is by Executioners and Serjeants but what of that Hath not likewise every garden that is full of sweetest hearbs rich in choicest flowers fruitfull in every plant the basest excrements of bruite beasts for its foundation If Monarchies were not degenerated into Tyrannies if zeale for God would alwaies administer justice then would there be Samuels found that would put Agags to death Eliahs that would rip up the bellies of the false Prophets But that zeale is lost and insteed of it we find that subjects of great bloud are ashamed to be Officers for such imployments So that it was necessary to have recourse to the vilest of the vile people and because the base fellowes which undertake that charge if they find it not vile do make it so Princes were as it were compel'd yea the very wisest of them to defend and uphold such kind of instruments For should they likewise have had them in a base esteem that weaknesse of the foundation would have drawn with it the ruine of Dominion into consequence but it may be too that it is a cunning in Princes to put these charges into the hands of people of a vile condition for such offices have in them something of terrible so that if they should have joyn'd reputation to such terriblenesse I am not certain whether instead of making the subjects only stand in feare they would not likewise have terrified Princes whereas now they cannot offend with that reputation which the Prince giveth them because he defends them they thinke it an errour to punish them by whom they punish they believe that the Domination which relieth upon them in generall relyeth upon every Individuall as if that the neck of a rascall were the neck of the Monarchie but it is a too too ordinary a course to make justice become impudent that they may keep their government untouch't The Duke of Ascot of Flanders went into Spaine sent thither by the she that is beyond all praise the Infanta Elizabeth who as she did assure the Catholique King of the integrity of that Duke in the insurrection propounded by Count Henry and some other Rebels so likewise she writ to him that by him he might be able to discover all the persons of the Confederacy and all the designes that they had Now in regard that the effects of it were begun to be felt in Flanders the King question'd the Duke of Asâ—ot about it whose answer was that he knew no more of any thing then what he had revealed to the most renowned Infanta such a Negation in so dangerous a businesse looked as if it deserved an imprisonment but the Lord Duke who knew that it did not proceed from any ill mind in the Duke of Ascot but from a certaiâ— nicenesse of laying them open which had trusted him taking upon himselfe the assurance of his not flying away did intreat his Majestie to question him once again Many there are that believe that they are not bound to discover what they know so that they do not what they ought not but they do that they should not when they tell not that they know It is the most capitall offence in conspiracy to conceale the conspiracy for if they be knowne they are hindred he that doth not run himselfe into a rebellion yet knowes of it and holds his peace shewes more feare then love I confidently believe that the character of nobility of mind in the Duke of Ascot which made him loyall to his Prince was the very same thing that made him faithfull to his friends but what faith is to be observ'd with such an one as keeps not his faith with one that would make him unfaithfull I was about to say that had made him when he tempted him what kind of friend call you him that perswades his friend unto treason he is doubtlesse
many as their victories would they are too too quickly falne under the gentlenesse of so courteous Princes If our Lord God would have been pleased to shew in a glasse to the Princes and Cities that have moved commotions in Germany upon future condition that which such an Insurrection would have brought forth this so horrible a Tragedy had not now been to be seen but he forbeare not doubtlesse to present it to such eyes as were willing to see it What understanding could be so blockish as not to know it did it but discourse it What memory so slippery that could not as it were lively represent the future successe which it had observed in the forepassed Warrs that which hath been is that which shall be particularly when that which was is that which is The space of an hundred years is the breadth of the Channell that the River of forgetfulnesse hath those men are now dead who did know Rebellions to be unfruitfull vaine not without great danger and extreame great losâ—e there is now no Reliques to be disovered of burnt downe Townes Trees burnt to ashes Lands become barren Cities laid defart destroyed and demollished the losse is not believed or if it be not valued because it is knowne reparable and is seen to be repairâ—â— How ought it to be desiderable by many to have no walls about their Cities The Romanes certainly were not more courteous to the Grecians in any one thing then in beating downe their walls and that Law-maker that would not have the Citizens repaire them had not only an opinion peradventure to make them more Vertuous but had a conceit likewise to make them lesse rash The good complexion of men is oftentimes their death because they being confident of it fall into disorders that kill them Power that is great in name and not great in Authority or at the least greater in forces should not adventure without security to be beaten down by them whose losses it may increase because sometimes Princes are not moved to great purchases either because they think them not necessary to be gotten and so content themselves or because they feare to loose and so endanger not themselves but if by chance some violence spurre them on to take Arms they begin to believe that for to maintain theirâ—reputation of not being afraid it is necessary to take them up and then they lay them not down till they have inlarged their Dominions or increased their Authority but it is very true that wars come again to sprout out because Conquerours either know not how or will not know or indeed are not able to make an end of their victories sometimes being full of glory they are Satiate sometimes afflicted by the charges affrighted by the many slaughters and desirous of quiet they enjoy the present recommending the future into the hands of Time and Fortune and the valour of their successours he deserves sufficiently in this world that can put danger a great way from him because great ones may be defer'd but not taken away so many wars would not doubtlesse be if a meanes could be found that greatnesse amongst equalls should not bring forth Envy and that they could take away jealousie from Inferiours I certainly hold that Princes I speak of such as are past after that they were come the Monarchs had a regard only to the preservation of their states and I believe likewise that they were oftentimes informed they could not be able to keep them without the taking in of some places that might threaten a disturbance and then assoon as that was gain'd they would begin to find out another that might be prejudiciall to the last that was got and so indeed go infinitely on from whence peradventure it comes that by this insensible deceit they have made it be believed that the desire to keep what they have hath beene a covetuousnesse to get large Dominions That Emperour alwaies Augustus that in his time saw the world in a calme to keep it in that tranquility which might have been disturbed by envy and feare more then by any other thing whatsoever had a purpose not to dilate but to restrain and likewise peradventure to fortify the Confines of the Empire thereby to be able the better to keep and more quietly to enjoy it by his making it knowne that the desire of domination was not infinite being terminated in a Prince that had bounded the Imperiall Confines He that was the first that made faith violable was the He that did ruine the world for had not men been deceived by breach of faith there would never have been jealousie and without jealousie envy would have been of small account because it would have beene alone FINIS