The wise
Lycurgus
gave no law but what himself kept.
Ben Jonson - Discoveries Made Upon Men, and Some Poems
--He is the arbiter of life and death: when he
finds no other subject for his mercy, he should spare himself. All his
punishments are rather to correct than to destroy. Why are prayers with
Orpheus said to be the daughters of Jupiter, but that princes are thereby
admonished that the petitions of the wretched ought to have more weight
with them than the laws themselves.
_De opt. Rege Jacobo_. --It was a great accumulation to His Majesty's
deserved praise that men might openly visit and pity those whom his
greatest prisons had at any time received or his laws condemned.
_De Princ. adjunctis_. --_Sed vere prudens haud concipi possit Princeps_,
_nisi simul et bonus_. --_Lycurgus_. --_Sylla_. --_Lysander_. --_Cyrus_. --Wise is
rather the attribute of a prince than learned or good. The learned man
profits others rather than himself; the good man rather himself than
others; but the prince commands others, and doth himself.
The wise Lycurgus gave no law but what himself kept. Sylla and Lysander
did not so; the one living extremely dissolute himself, enforced
frugality by the laws; the other permitted those licenses to others which
himself abstained from. But the prince's prudence is his chief art and
safety. In his counsels and deliberations he foresees the future times:
in the equity of his judgment he hath remembrance of the past, and
knowledge of what is to be done or avoided for the present. Hence the
Persians gave out their Cyrus to have been nursed by a bitch, a creature
to encounter it, as of sagacity to seek out good; showing that wisdom may
accompany fortitude, or it leaves to be, and puts on the name of
rashness.
_De malign. studentium_. --There be some men are born only to suck out the
poison of books: _Habent venenum pro victu_; _imo_, _pro deliciis_. {66a}
And such are they that only relish the obscene and foul things in poets,
which makes the profession taxed. But by whom? Men that watch for it;
and, had they not had this hint, are so unjust valuers of letters as they
think no learning good but what brings in gain. It shows they themselves
would never have been of the professions they are but for the profits and
fees. But if another learning, well used, can instruct to good life,
inform manners, no less persuade and lead men than they threaten and
compel, and have no reward, is it therefore the worst study? I could
never think the study of wisdom confined only to the philosopher, or of
piety to the divine, or of state to the politic; but that he which can
feign a commonwealth (which is the poet) can govern it with counsels,
strengthen it with laws, correct it with judgments, inform it with
religion and morals, is all these. We do not require in him mere
elocution, or an excellent faculty in verse, but the exact knowledge of
all virtues and their contraries, with ability to render the one loved,
the other hated, by his proper embattling them. The philosophers did
insolently, to challenge only to themselves that which the greatest
generals and gravest counsellors never durst.
finds no other subject for his mercy, he should spare himself. All his
punishments are rather to correct than to destroy. Why are prayers with
Orpheus said to be the daughters of Jupiter, but that princes are thereby
admonished that the petitions of the wretched ought to have more weight
with them than the laws themselves.
_De opt. Rege Jacobo_. --It was a great accumulation to His Majesty's
deserved praise that men might openly visit and pity those whom his
greatest prisons had at any time received or his laws condemned.
_De Princ. adjunctis_. --_Sed vere prudens haud concipi possit Princeps_,
_nisi simul et bonus_. --_Lycurgus_. --_Sylla_. --_Lysander_. --_Cyrus_. --Wise is
rather the attribute of a prince than learned or good. The learned man
profits others rather than himself; the good man rather himself than
others; but the prince commands others, and doth himself.
The wise Lycurgus gave no law but what himself kept. Sylla and Lysander
did not so; the one living extremely dissolute himself, enforced
frugality by the laws; the other permitted those licenses to others which
himself abstained from. But the prince's prudence is his chief art and
safety. In his counsels and deliberations he foresees the future times:
in the equity of his judgment he hath remembrance of the past, and
knowledge of what is to be done or avoided for the present. Hence the
Persians gave out their Cyrus to have been nursed by a bitch, a creature
to encounter it, as of sagacity to seek out good; showing that wisdom may
accompany fortitude, or it leaves to be, and puts on the name of
rashness.
_De malign. studentium_. --There be some men are born only to suck out the
poison of books: _Habent venenum pro victu_; _imo_, _pro deliciis_. {66a}
And such are they that only relish the obscene and foul things in poets,
which makes the profession taxed. But by whom? Men that watch for it;
and, had they not had this hint, are so unjust valuers of letters as they
think no learning good but what brings in gain. It shows they themselves
would never have been of the professions they are but for the profits and
fees. But if another learning, well used, can instruct to good life,
inform manners, no less persuade and lead men than they threaten and
compel, and have no reward, is it therefore the worst study? I could
never think the study of wisdom confined only to the philosopher, or of
piety to the divine, or of state to the politic; but that he which can
feign a commonwealth (which is the poet) can govern it with counsels,
strengthen it with laws, correct it with judgments, inform it with
religion and morals, is all these. We do not require in him mere
elocution, or an excellent faculty in verse, but the exact knowledge of
all virtues and their contraries, with ability to render the one loved,
the other hated, by his proper embattling them. The philosophers did
insolently, to challenge only to themselves that which the greatest
generals and gravest counsellors never durst.
