the
Gods will be fauorable vnto me, and Fortune no ennimie at all:
assuring you, that like ioy whych you do saye you had by
teachyng me, and seing me now to be Emperour, the lyke I haue to
thynke that I was your Scholler: and sith that you wyll not call
mee from henceforth any other but Soueraygne Lord, I wyll terme
you by none other name, than Louyng father. And albeit that I
haue ben visited and counselled by many men since my commyng to
the Empyre, and by thee aboue the rest, whom before all other I
wyll beleue, consideryng that the intent of those which counsell
me, is to draw my mynd to theyrs, your letters purportyng
nothyng else but mine aduauntage. I doe remember amongs other
woordes, which once you spake to Maxentius the Secretary of
Domitian, this saying: that they which doe presume to gyue
counsell vnto Prynces, oughte to bee free from all passions and
affections: for in counsell, where the wyll is moste enclined,
the mynde is more prompte and ready: that a Prince in all thyngs
doe his wyll I prayse not: that he take aduise and counsell of
euery man I lesse allowe. That which he ought to doe (as me
thinke) is to doe by counsel, forseeing for al that to what
counsel he applieth his mynd: for counsel ought not to be taken
of hym whom I doe well loue, but of hym of whom I am well
beloued. All this I have wrytten (my mayster Plutarch) to
aduertise you that from henceforthe I desire nothyng else at
your handes, but to be holpen wyth your aduise in myne affayres,
and that you tell me of my committed faults: for if Rome do
thinke me to be a defender of their common wealth I make
accompte of you to bee an ouerseer of my life: and therefore if
you thinke that I am not thankfull ynough for the good aduyse,
and holsom warenings that you gyue me: I am to intreate you
(myne owne good mayster) not to take it in ill part, for in such
cases, the griefe that I conceiue, is not for the good lessons
you gyue me, but for the shame that I fayle in followyng them.
The bryngyng of me vp in thy house, the hearyng of thy lectures,
the folowyng of thy doctryne, and liuing vnder thy disciplyne,
haue ben truly the pryncipal causes that I am commen to this
Empyre. This mutch I say (mayster) for that it were an vnnatural
parte in thee not to assist me to beare that thing, which thou
haste holpen me to gayne and winne: and although that Vespasian
was of nature a very good man, yet his greatest profite
redounded to him by entertayning o