第 2 节
作者:
着凉 更新:2021-02-27 01:59 字数:9322
gods; and also drawn by tigers; taking upon him the person of the god
Bacchus; he also sometimes harnessed two stags to his coach; another time
four dogs; and another four naked wenches; causing himself to be drawn by
them in pomp; stark naked too。 The Emperor Firmus caused his chariot to
be drawn by ostriches of a prodigious size; so that it seemed rather to
fly than roll。
The strangeness of these inventions puts this other fancy in my head:
that it is a kind of pusillanimity in monarchs; and a testimony that they
do not sufficiently understand themselves what they are; when they study
to make themselves honoured and to appear great by excessive expense: it
were indeed excusable in a foreign country; but amongst their own
subjects; where they are in sovereign command; and may do what they
please; it derogates from their dignity the most supreme degree of honour
to which they can arrive: just as; methinks; it is superfluous in a
private gentleman to go finely dressed at home; his house; his
attendants; and his kitchen sufficiently answer for him。 The advice that
Isocrates gives his king seems to be grounded upon reason: that he should
be splendid in plate and furniture; forasmuch as it is an expense of
duration that devolves on his successors; and that he should avoid all
magnificences that will in a short time be forgotten。 I loved to go fine
when I was a younger brother; for want of other ornament; and it became
me well: there are some upon whom their rich clothes weep: We have
strange stories of the frugality of our kings about their own persons and
in their gifts: kings who were great in reputation; valour; and fortune。
Demosthenes vehemently opposes the law of his city that assigned the
public money for the pomp of their public plays and festivals: he would
that their greatness should be seen in numbers of ships well equipped;
and good armies well provided for; and there is good reason to condemn
Theophrastus; who; in his Book on Riches; establishes a contrary opinion;
and maintains that sort of expense to be the true fruit of abundance。
They are delights; says Aristotle; that a only please the baser sort of
the people; and that vanish from the memory as soon as the people are
sated with them; and for which no serious and judicious man can have any
esteem。 This money would; in my opinion; be much more royally; as more
profitably; justly; and durably; laid out in ports; havens; walls; and
fortifications; in sumptuous buildings; churches; hospitals; colleges;
the reforming of streets and highways: wherein Pope Gregory XIII。 will
leave a laudable memory to future times: and wherein our Queen Catherine
would to long posterity manifest her natural liberality and munificence;
did her means supply her affection。 Fortune has done me a great despite
in interrupting the noble structure of the Pont…Neuf of our great city;
and depriving me of the hope of seeing it finished before I die。
Moreover; it seems to subjects; who are spectators of these triumphs;
that their own riches are exposed before them; and that they are
entertained at their own expense: for the people are apt to presume of
kings; as we do of our servants; that they are to take care to provide us
all things necessary in abundance; but not touch it themselves; and
therefore the Emperor Galba; being pleased with a musician who played to
him at supper; called for his money…box; and gave him a handful of crowns
that he took out of it; with these words: 〃This is not the public money;
but my own。〃 Yet it so falls out that the people; for the most part;
have reason on their side; and that the princes feed their eyes with what
they have need of to fill their bellies。
Liberality itself is not in its true lustre in a sovereign hand: private
men have therein the most right; for; to take it exactly; a king has
nothing properly his own; he owes himself to others: authority is not
given in favour of the magistrate; but of the people; a superior is never
made so for his own profit; but for the profit of the inferior; and a
physician for the sick person; and not for himself: all magistracy; as
well as all art; has its end out of itself wherefore the tutors of young
princes; who make it their business to imprint in them this virtue of
liberality; and preach to them to deny nothing and to think nothing so
well spent as what they give (a doctrine that I have known in great
credit in my time); either have more particular regard to their own
profit than to that of their master; or ill understand to whom they
speak。 It is too easy a thing to inculcate liberality on him who has as
much as he will to practise it with at the expense of others; and; the
estimate not being proportioned to the measure of the gift but to the
measure of the means of him who gives it; it comes to nothing in so
mighty hands; they find themselves prodigal before they can be reputed
liberal。 And it is but a little recommendation; in comparison with other
royal virtues: and the only one; as the tyrant Dionysius said; that suits
well with tyranny itself。 I should rather teach him this verse of the
ancient labourer:
'〃That whoever will have a good crop must sow with his hand; and not
pour out of the sack。〃Plutarch; Apothegms; Whether the Ancients
were more excellent in Arms than in Learning。'
he must scatter it abroad; and not lay it on a heap in one place: and
that; seeing he is to give; or; to say better; to pay and restore to so
many people according as they have deserved; he ought to be a loyal and
discreet disposer。 If the liberality of a prince be without measure or
discretion; I had rather he were covetous。
Royal virtue seems most to consist in justice; and of all the parts of
justice that best denotes a king which accompanies liberality; for this
they have particularly reserved to be performed by themselves; whereas
all other sorts of justice they remit to the administration of others。
An immoderate bounty is a very weak means to acquire for them good will;
it checks more people than it allures:
〃Quo in plures usus sis; minus in multos uti possis。。。。
Quid autem est stultius; quam; quod libenter facias;
curare ut id diutius facere non possis;〃
'〃By how much more you use it to many; by so much less will you be
in a capacity to use it to many more。 And what greater folly can
there be than to order it so that what you would willingly do; you
cannot do longer。〃Cicero; De Offic。; ii。 15。'
and if it be conferred without due respect of merit; it puts him out of
countenance who receives it; and is received ungraciously。 Tyrants have
been sacrificed to the hatred of the people by the hands of those very
men they have unjustly advanced; such kind of men as buffoons; panders;
fiddlers; and such ragamuffins; thinking to assure to themselves the
possession of benefits unduly received; if they manifest to have him in
hatred and disdain of whom they hold them; and in this associate
themselves to the common judgment and opinion。
The subjects of a prince excessive in gifts grow excessive in asking;
and regulate their demands; not by reason; but by example。 We have;
seriously; very often reason to blush at our own impudence: we are over…
paid; according to justice; when the recompense equals our service; for
do we owe nothing of natural obligation to our princes? If he bear our
charges; he does too much; 'tis enough that he contribute to them: the
overplus is called benefit; which cannot be exacted: for the very name
Liberality sounds of Liberty。
In our fashion it is never done; we never reckon what we have received;
we are only for the future liberality; wherefore; the more a prince
exhausts himself in giving; the poorer he grows in friends。 How should
he satisfy immoderate desires; that still increase as they are fulfilled?
He who has his thoughts upon taking; never thinks of what he has taken;
covetousness has nothing so properly and so much its own as ingratitude。
The example of Cyrus will not do amiss in this place; to serve the kings
of these times for a touchstone to know whether their gifts are well or
ill bestowed; and to see how much better that emperor conferred them than
they do; by which means they are reduced to borrow of unknown subjects;
and rather of them whom they have wronged than of them on whom they have
conferred their benefits; and so receive aids wherein there is nothing of
gratuitous but the name。 Croesus reproached him with his bounty; and
cast up to how much his treasure would amount if he had been a little
closer…handed。 He had a mind to justify his liberality; and therefore
sent despatches into all parts to the grandees of his dominions whom he
had particularly advanced; entreating every one of them to supply him
with as much money as they could; for a pressing occasion; and to send
him particulars of what each could advance。 When all these answers were
brought to him; every one of his friends; not thinking it enough barely
to offer him so much as he had received from his bounty; and adding to it
a great deal of his own; it appeared that the sum amounted to a great
deal more tha