so base-minded," said he, "but that they would willingly do it; many of
them have already done it by their books, if those that are in power
would but hearken to their good advice. But Plato judged right, that
except kings themselves became philosophers, they who from their
childhood are corrupted with false notions, would never fall in entirely
with the councils of philosophers, and this he himself found to be true
in the person of Dionysius.

"Do not you think, that if I were about any king, proposing good laws to
him, and endeavouring to root out all the cursed seeds of evil that I
found in him, I should either be turned out of his Court, or at least be
laughed at for my pains? For instance, what could it signify if I were
about the King of France, and were called into his cabinet-council,
where several wise men, in his hearing, were proposing many expedients;
as by what arts and practices Milan may be kept; and Naples, that had so
oft slipped out of their hands, recovered; how the Venetians, and after
them the rest of Italy, may be subdued; and then how Flanders, Brabant,
and all Burgundy, and some other kingdoms which he has swallowed already
in his designs, may be added to his empire. One proposes a league with
the Venetians, to be kept as long as he finds his account in it, and
that he ought to communicate councils with them, and give them some
share of the spoil, till his success makes him need or fear them less,
and then it will be easily taken out of their hands. Another proposes
the hiring the Germans, and the securing the Switzers by pensions.
Another proposes the gaining the Emperor by money, which is omnipotent
with him. Another proposes a peace with the King of Arragon, and in
order to cement it, the yielding up the King of Navarre's pretensions.
Another thinks the Prince of Castile is to be wrought on, by the hope of
an alliance; and that some of his courtiers are to be gained to the
French faction by pensions. The hardest point of all is what to do with