Nothing in fact more alarmed
David, than that his own counsellor Ahitophel sided with Absalom. [6]
Still more is this the case, if the whole authority has been transferred
absolutely to one man, because it can then be more easily transferred
from one to another. For two private soldiers once took in hand to
transfer the Roman empire, and did transfer it. [7] I omit the arts and
cunning wiles, whereby counsellors have to assure themselves against
falling victims to their unpopularity; for they are but too well known,
and no one, who has read history, can be ignorant, that the good faith
of counsellors has generally turned to their ruin. And so, for their own
safety, it behoves them to be cunning, not faithful. But if the
counsellors are too numerous to unite in the same crime, and are all
equal, and do not hold their office beyond a period of four years, they
cannot be at all objects of fear to the king, except he attempt to take
away their liberty, wherein he will offend all the citizens equally.
For, as Antonio Perez [8] excellently observes, an absolute dominion is
to the prince very dangerous, to the subjects very hateful, and to the
institutes of God and man alike opposed, as innumerable instances show.
15. Besides these we have, in the last chapter, laid other foundations,
by which the king is greatly secured in his dominion, and the citizens
in their hold of peace and liberty, which foundations we will reason out
in their proper places.
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