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
council 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
learning, would render you a very fit counsellor to any king whatsoever."
"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 favour, whom by their fawning and flatteries they endeavour
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 interests 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