might observe how those that despised what I had proposed, no
sooner perceived that the cardinal did not dislike it, but pres-
ently approved of it, fawned so on him, and flattered him to
such a degree, that they in good earnest applauded those things
that he only liked in jest.  And from hence you may gather,
how little courtiers would value either me or my counsels."

   To this I answered: "You have done me a great kindness
in this relation; for as everything has been related by you, both
wisely and pleasantly, so you have made me imagine that I was
in my own country, and grown young again, by recalling that
good cardinal to my thoughts, in whose family I was bred from
my childhood: and though you are upon other accounts very
dear to me, yet you are the dearer, because you honor his mem-
ory so much; but after all this I cannot change my opinion, for
I still think that if you could overcome that aversion which you
have to the courts of princes, you might, by the advice which it
is in your power to give, do a great deal of good to mankind;
and this is the chief design that every good man ought to pro-
pose to himself in living; for your friend Plato thinks that
nations will be happy, when either philosophers become kings
or kings become philosophers, it is no wonder if we are so far
from that happiness, while philosophers will not think it their
duty to assist kings with their councils.

   "'They are not 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 child-
hood are corrupted with false notions would never fall in en-
tirely 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 endeavoring 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 in-
stance, 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 Vene-
tians, 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 Vene-
tians, 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 Em-
peror by money, which is omnipotent with him.  Another pro-
poses 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 England: a treaty of peace is to be set on foot,
and if their alliance is not to be depended on, yet it is to be
made as firm as possible; and they are to be called friends, but
suspected as enemies: therefore the Scots are to be kept in read-
iness, to be let loose upon England on every occasion: and some
banished nobleman is to be supported underhand (for by the
league it cannot be done avowedly) who has a pretension to the
crown, by which means that suspected prince may be kept in
awe.

   "Now when things are in so great a fermentation, and so
many gallant men are joining councils, how to carry on the
war, if so mean a man as I should stand up, and wish them to
change all their councils, to let Italy alone, and stay at home,
since the Kingdom of France was indeed greater than could
be well governed by one man; that therefore he ought not to
think of adding others to it: and if after this, I should propose
to them the resolutions of the Achorians, a people that lie on the
southeast of Utopia, who long ago engaged in war, in order
to add to the dominions of their prince another kingdom, to
which he had some pretensions by an ancient alliance.  This
they conquered, but found that the trouble of keeping it was
equal to that by which it was gained; that the conquered people
were always either in rebellion or exposed to foreign invasions,
while they were obliged to be incessantly at war, either for or
against them, and consequently could never disband their army;
that in the meantime they were oppressed with taxes, their
money went out of the kingdom, their blood was spilt for the
glory of their King, without procuring the least advantage to
the people, who received not the smallest benefit from it even
in time of peace; and that their manners being corrupted by a
long war, robbery and murders everywhere abounded, and their
laws fell into contempt; while their King, distracted with the
care of two kingdoms, was the less able to apply his mind to the
interests of either.

   "When they saw this, and that there would be no end to
these evils, they by joint councils made an humble address to
their King, desiring him to choose which of the two kingdoms
he had the greatest mind to keep, since he could not hold both;
for they were too great a people to be governed by a divided