But, some wondering whether
it were possible for a man to be grieved at the good fortune of his
friend, he justified the truth of what he had advanced, by telling them
plainly that there are some men so variously affected towards their
friends, that, while they are in calamity and distress, they will
compassionate and succour them, but when they are well and in prosperity
will fret at and envy them. "But this," he said, "is a fault from which
wise and good men are free, and never to be found but in weak and wicked
minds."

As to idleness, he said that he had observed that most men were always in
action, for they who play at dice, or who serve to make others laugh, are
doing something, but in effect they are idle, because they might employ
themselves more usefully. To which he added, that no man finds leisure
to quit a good employment for an ill one, and that if he did he would
deserve the greater blame, in that he wanted not something to do before.

He said likewise that the sceptre makes not the king, and that princes
and governors are not they whom chance or the choice of the people has
raised to those dignities, nor those who have established themselves in
them by fraud or force, but they who know how to command; for if it were
allowed that it is the duty of a prince to command, as it is the duty of
a subject to obey, he showed in consequence of it that in a ship, where
there are several persons, the honour of commanding it is given to him
who is most capable of it, and that all obey him, without excepting even
the owner of the vessel; that likewise in husbandry, he to whom the land
belongs obeys his own servants, if they understand agriculture better
than himself; that thus the sick obey the physicians, and they who learn
exercises, their masters; nay, that even women are masters of the men in
working with the needle, because they understand it better than they; in
short, that in all things which require care and industry men govern
themselves when they think they are capable of doing so; otherwise, they
leave themselves to the conduct of such as they judge to have more
capacity, and take care to have them near at hand for that purpose. And
if any man made him this objection, that a tyrant is at liberty not to
believe the best advices, he answered, "Why do you say he is at liberty
not to do so, seeing he will bear the smart of it? for every man who
shuts his ears to good counsel commits a fault, and this fault i