THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE COURTIER things human is perhaps the greatest and rarest — that is, the manner andjnode^of juiling, aadjreigning rightly: which would ofltselTaTone suffice to make men happy and to bring back once more to earth that age of gold which is said to have been when Saturn reigned." 19.— My lord Ottaviano having here made a little pause as if to rest, my lord Caspar said : " Which do you think, my lord Ottaviano, the happier rule, and the more able to bring back to earth that age of gold which you have mentioned, — the rule of so good a prince, or the gov- ernment of a good republic?" My lord Ottaviano replied: "I should always prefer the rule of a good prince, because such dominion is more accordant with nature, and (if it is allowed to compare small things with infinitely great) more like that of God, who governs the universe singly and alone. " But leaving this aside, you see that in those things that are wrought by human skill, — such as armies, great fleets, buildings and the like, — the whole is referred to one man who governs to his liking. So too in our body all the members labour and are employed at the command of the heart. Moreover it seems fit- ting that the people should be rtiled by one prince, as is the case , also with many animals, to whom nature teaches this obedience as a very salutary thing. You know that stags, cranes and many other birds, when on their flight, always set up a leader, whom they follow and obey; and the bees obey their king as it were by process of reason, and with as much reverence as the most obedient people on earth; and hence all this is very strong proof that the dominion of princes is more accordant with nature than that of republics." O 20.— Then messer Pietro Bembo said: ^^ " Yet it seems to me that since liberty has been given us by God as a supreme gift, it is not reasonable that we should be de- j prived of it, nor that one man should have a larger share of it than another: which happens under the dominion of princes, who for the most part hold their subjects in closest bondage! But in rightly ordered republics this liberty is fully preserved: besides which, both in judgments and in councils, it more often 259
