is most suited for
rule. Certain men are proposed by the magistrates in council, they
themselves not seeking to become candidates, and he opposes who knows
anything against those brought forward for election, or if not, speaks
in favour of them. But no one attains to the dignity of Hoh except him
who knows the histories of the nations, and their customs and sacrifices
and laws, and their form of government, whether a republic or a
monarchy. He must also know the names of the lawgivers and the inventors
in science, and the laws and the history of the earth and the heavenly
bodies. They think it also necessary that he should understand all the
mechanical arts, the physical sciences, astrology and mathematics.
(Nearly every two days they teach our mechanical art. They are not
allowed to overwork themselves, but frequent practice and the paintings
render learning easy to them. Not too much care is given to the
cultivation of languages, as they have a goodly number of interpreters
who are grammarians in the state.) But beyond everything else it is
necessary that Hoh should understand metaphysics and theology; that he
should know thoroughly the derivations, foundations and demonstrations
of all the arts and sciences; the likeness and difference of things;
necessity, fate, and the harmonies of the universe; power, wisdom, and
the love of things and of God; the stages of life and its symbols;
everything relating to the heavens, the earth and the sea; and the ideas
of God, as much as mortal man can know of Him. He must also be well read
in the Prophets and in astrology. And thus they know long beforehand who
will be Hoh. He is not chosen to so great a dignity unless he has
attained his thirty-fifth year. And this office is perpetual, because it
is not known who may be too wise for it or who too skilled in ruling.

_G.M._ Who indeed can be so wise? If even any one has a knowledge of the
sciences it seems that he must be unskilled in ruling.

_Capt._ This very question I asked them and they replied thus: "We,
indeed, are more certain that such a very learned man has the knowledge
of governing, than you who place ignorant persons in authority, and
consider them suitable merely because they have sprung from rulers or
have been chosen by a powerful faction. But our Hoh, a man really the
most capable to rule, is for all that never cruel nor wicked, nor a
tyrant, inasmuch as he possesses so much wisdom. This, moreover, is not
unknown