when they then unwillingly give that which they can enjoy no
longer themselves.  I think my friends ought to rest contented
with this, and not to expect that for their sake I should enslave
myself to any king whatsoever."

   "Soft and fair," said Peter, "I do not mean that you should
be a slave to any king, but only that you should assist them,
and be useful to them."

   "The change of the word," said he, "does not alter the
matter."

   "But term it as you will," replied Peter, "I do not see any
other way in which you can be so useful, both in private to
your friends, and to the public, and by which you can make
your own condition happier."

   "Happier!" answered Raphael; "is that to be compassed
in a way so abhorrent to my genius?  Now I live as I will, to
which I believe few courtiers can pretend.  And there are so
many that court the favor of great men, that there will be no
great loss if they are not troubled either with me or with
others of my temper."

   Upon this, said I: "I perceive, Raphael, that you neither
desire wealth nor greatness; and indeed I value and admire
such a man much more than I do any of the great men in the
world.  Yet I think you would do what would well become so
generous and philosophical a soul as yours is, if you would
apply your time and thoughts to public affairs, even though
you may happen to find it a little uneasy to yourself: and this
you can never do with so much advantage, as by being taken
into the counsel of some great prince, and putting him on noble
and worthy actions, which I know you would do if you were
in such a post; for the springs both of good and evil flow from
the prince, over a whole nation, as from a lasting fountain.  So
much learning as you have, even without practice in affairs, or
so great a practice as you have had, without any other learn-
ing, would render you a very fit counsellor to any king whatso-
ever."

   "You are doubly mistaken," said he, "Mr. More, both in
your opinion of me, and in the judgment you make of things:
for as I have not that capacity that you fancy I have, so, if I
had it, the public would not be one jot the better, when I had
sacrificed my quiet to it.  For most princes apply themselves
more to affairs of war than to the useful arts of peace; and in
these I neither have any knowledge, nor do I much desire it:
they are generally more set on acquiring new kingdoms, right
or wrong, than on governing well those they possess.  And
among the ministers of princes, there are none that are not so
wise as to need no assistance, or at least that do not think
themselves so wise that they imagine they need none; and if
they court any, it is only those for whom the prince has much
personal favor, whom by their fawnings and flatteries they en-
deavor to fix to their own interests: and indeed Nature has so
made us that we all love to be flattered, and to please ourselves
with our own notions.  The old crow loves his young, and the
ape her cubs.  Now if in such a court, made up of persons who
envy all others, and only admire themselves, a person should
but propose anything that he had either read in history or
observed in his travels, the rest would think that the reputation
of their wisdom would sink, and that their interest would be
much depressed, if they could not run it down: and if all other
things failed, then they would fly to this, that such or such
things pleased our ancestors, and it were well for us if we could
but match them.  They would set up their rest on such an
answer, as a sufficient confutation of all that could be said, as
if it were a great misfortune, that any should be found wiser
than his ancestors; but though they willingly let go all the
good things that were among those of former ages, yet if
better things are proposed they cover themselves obstinately
with this excuse of reverence to past times.  I have met with
these proud, morose, and absurd judgments of things in many
places, particularly once in England."

   "Were you ever there?" said I.

   "Yes, I was," answered he, "and stayed some months there
not long after the rebellion in the west was suppressed with a
great slaughter of the poor people that were engaged in it.  I
was then much obliged to that reverend prelate, John Morton,
Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal, and Chancellor of Eng-
land: a man," said he, "Peter (for Mr. More knows well what
he was), that was not less venerable for his wisdom and virtues
than for the high character he bore.  He was of a middle
stature, not broken with age; his looks begot reverence rather
than fear; his conversation was easy, but serious and grave-
he sometimes took pleasure to try the force of those that came
as suitors to him upon business, by speaking sharply though
decently to them, and by that he discovered their spirit and
presence of mind, with which he was much delighted, when it
did not grow up to impudence, as bearing a great resemblance
to his own temper; and he looked on such persons as the fittest
men for affairs.  He spoke both gracefully and weightily; he
was eminently skilled in the law, had a vast understanding and
a prodigious memory; and those excellent talents with which
nature had furnished him were improved by study and experi-
ence.  When I was in England the King depended much on
his counsels, and the government seemed to be chiefly sup-