XXVIII. The same Alexander, being requested by his friend Perilus to furnish him with a sum of money to portion out his daughters, ordered fifty talents to be delivered to him. To which Perilus modestly replied, that ten would be sufficient; to this Alexander answered, _that is not a matter for my consideration, for although ten talents would be as much as would answer your purpose, it would not be a present suitable to my grandeur_. I find this celebrated by many writers, as a noble and magnanimous act, and Alexander’s saying upon doing it, as a commendable and a well-pointed one; but in my opinion, the act was an act of madness, and that his saying upon doing it, was a very weak and trifling one. Does the grandeur of a prince consist in extravagances and profusions? Does it display grandeur, to take from many what is absolutely needful for them, to furnish a few others with superfluities? It does not, but rather favours of injustice, baseness, and tyranny; and they only can call such behaviour magnanimous, who have lost the use of their understanding. XXIX. A thousand crowns in specie, were one day presented to Don Alfonso, the fifth king of Arragon of that name, and the first of Naples. A person who was standing by at the time, said, _How happy it would make me, if all that money was mine!_ To which the king answered, _Take it then, for I am desirous of making you happy._ Was this magnanimity? I know that it has been cried up as such; but I say, it rather shewed weakness of mind, and a want of proper resolution, to resist an absurd impulse of vain-glory. I suppose also, that it was from the want of thinking or reflexion, that the king was guilty of that profusion, and that he was hurried into it by his vanity, which suggested to him, that making the man a present of the money would blazon his fame, and manifest to the world, that he had both the disposition and the power to make a man happy. But I would ask him (and this is a question that might be put to all the princes in the world) whether, if it is an act of greatness to make one man happy, it is not a much superior one to make a great many so? If it is glorious in a sovereign to make an individual happy, is it not beyond comparison more glorious, to make a whole nation so? And there is no doubt but this might be done, if a prince would avoid all profusion, and regulate his conduct by a discreet œconomy; if he would curtail all superfluous expences, be a check upon the avarice of his ministers, or else deliver the administration of his affairs into the hands of none but men of integrity, who are capable of proportioning the contributions to be paid by his subjects to their abilities, and who should be careful, not to over-burthen the husbandmen and manufacturers; for these are the people, who by their labours, are the principal instruments of enriching a state, and whenever they find the weight of the taxes, squeeze out of them the greatest part of their earnings,