The Epistle Dedicatory.
farther help or counsel was remaining to you, but what was founded on your Self; and that indeed was your Security: For your Diligence, your Constancy, and your Prudence, wrought more surely within, when they were not disturb'd by any outward Motion. The highest Virtue is best to be trusted with its Self, for Assistance only can be given by a Genius Superiour to that which it assists. And 'tis the Noblest kind of Debt, when we are only oblig'd to God and Nature. This then, My Lord, is your just Commendation, That you have wrought out your Self a way to Glory, by those very Means that were design'd for your Destruction: You have not only restor'd, but advanc'd the Revenues of your Master without Grievance to the Subject: and as if that were little yet, the Debts of the Exchequer, which lay heaviest both on the Crown, and on Private Persons, have by your Conduct been establish'd in a certainty of satisfaction. An Action so much the more Great and Honourable, because the case was without the ordinary relief of Laws; above the Hopes of the Afflicted, and beyond the Narrowness of the Treasury to redress, had it been manag'd by a less able Hand. 'Tis certainly the happiest, and most unenvy'd part of all your Fortune, to do good to many, while you do injury to none: to receive at once the Prayers of the Subject, and the Praises of the Prince: and by the care of your Conduct; to give Him Means of exerting the chiefest, (if any be the chiefest) of His Royal Virtues. His Distributive Justice to the Deserving, and his Bounty and Compassion to the Wanting. The Disposition of Princes towards their People, cannot better be discover'd than in the choice of their Ministers: who, like the Animal Spirits betwixt the Soul and Body, participate somewhat of both Natures, and make the Communication which is betwixt them. A King,
