s of state. I
have taken care that the kingdom shall be properly divided. The laws are
good, and have proved themselves so; hold fast by these laws, and trust
no one who sets himself above them; for law is invariably wiser than the
individual man, and its transgressor deserves his punishment. The people
understand this well, and are ready to sacrifice themselves for us, when
they see that we are ready to give up our own will to the law. You do
not care for the people. I know their voice is often rude and rough, but
it utters wholesome truths, and no one needs to hear truth more than a
king. The Pharaoh who chooses priests and courtiers for his advisers,
will hear plenty of flattering words, while he who tries to fulfil the
wishes of the nation will have much to suffer from those around him; but
the latter will feel peace in his own heart, and be praised in the ages
to come. I have often erred, yet the Egyptians will weep for me, as one
who knew their needs and considered their welfare like a father. A king
who really knows his duties, finds it an easy and beautiful task to win
the love of the people--an unthankful one to gain the applause of the
great--almost an impossibility to content both.

"Do not forget,--I say it again,--that kings and priests exist for the
people, and not the people for their kings and priests. Honor religion
for its own sake and as the most important means of securing the
obedience of the governed to their governors; but at the same time
show its promulgators that you look on them, not as receptacles, but as
servants, of the Deity. Hold fast, as the law commands, by what is old;
but never shut the gates of your kingdom against what is new, if better.
Bad men break at once with the old traditions; fools only care for what
is new and fresh; the narrowminded and the selfish privileged class
cling indiscriminately to all that is old, and pronounce progress to be
a sin; but the wise endeavor to retain all that has approved itself in
the past, to remove all that has become defective, and to adopt whatever
is good, from whatever source it may have sprung. Act thus, my son.
The priests will try to keep you back--the Greeks to urge you forward.
Choose one party or the other, but beware of indecision--of yielding to
the one to-day, to the other to-morrow. Between two stools a man
falls to the ground. Let the one party be your friends, the other your
enemies; by trying to please both, you will have both opp