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Not to mention, Cornelius Pulcher, your gentle as
well as skilful administration of public affairs, for which
goodness and humanity you have gotten an interest in mankind, we clearly perceive that in your private conversation
you have made a quiet and peaceable way of living your
choice and continual practice. By this means you are
justly esteemed a useful member of the commonwealth in
general, and also a friendly affable companion to those who
familiarly converse with you, as being a person free from
all sour, rough, and peevish humors. For, as it is said of
Crete, we may by great chance discover one single region
of the world that never afforded any dens or coverts for
wild beasts. But through the long succession of ages,
even to this time, there scarce ever was a state or kingdom that hath not suffered under envy, hatred, emulation,
the love of strife, fierce and unruly passions, of all others
the most productive of enmity and ill-will among men.
Nay, if nothing else will bring it to pass, familiarity will
at last breed contempt, and the very friendship of men
doth frequently draw them into quarrels, that prove sharp
and sometimes implacable. Which that wise man Chilo
did well understand, who, when he heard another assert
that he had no enemy, asked him very pertinently whether
he had no friend. In my judgment therefore it is absolutely necessary that a man, especially if he sit at the
[p. 281]
helm and be engaged to steer the government, should
watchfully observe every posture and motion of his enemy,
and subscribe to Xenophon's opinion in this case; who
hath set it down as a maxim of the greatest wisdom, that
a man should make the best advantage he can of him
that is his adversary.
Wherefore, having lately determined to write somewhat
on this argument, I have now gathered together all my
scattered thoughts and meditations upon it, which I have
sent to you, digested into as plain a method as I could;
forbearing all along to mention those observations I have
heretofore made and written in my Political Precepts,
because I know you have that treatise at your hand, and
often under your eye.
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