* Flattery is a fine picklock of tender ears; especially of those whom fortune hath borne high upon their wings, that submit their dignity and authority to it, by a soothing of themselves. For, indeed, men could never he taken in that abundance with the springes of others' flattery, if they began not there; if they did but remember how much more profitable the bitterness of truth were than all the honey distilling from a whorish voice, which is not praise but poison. But now it is come to that extreme of folly, or rather madness, with some, that he that flatters them mo- destly, or sparingly, is thought to malign them. Ben Jonson. The ears of kings are so tiugled with a continual uniform ap-probation, that they have scarce any knowledge of true praise. Have they to do with the greatest fool of all their subjects--they have no way to take advantage of him: by the flatterer saying, "It is because he is my king," he thinks he has said enough to imply that he therefore suffered himself to be over-come. This quality stifles and confuses the other true and es-sential qualities which are sunk deep in the kingship. Montaigne. {172} Art may by mighty dams keep out the tide, Check the strong current, and its streams divide; Pen up the rising waters, and deny The easy waves to glide in silence by: But if the river is restrain'd too long, It swells in silence to resent the wrong; With fearful force breaks opposition down, And claims its native freedom for its own. So Tyranny may govern for a time, Till Nature drowns the tyrants with their crime! End of Book II. {173} THE RIGHT DIVINE OF KINGS TO GOVERN WRONG. BOOK III. ----Nations would do well T' extort their truncheons from the puny hands Of Heroes, whose infirm and baby minds Are gratified with mischief; and who spoil, Because men suffer it, their Toy--The World. _Tyrants deposed to preserve the Throne--In Europe--In England before the Conquest--By each other since.--No right line any where--Difference between Tyrants and Kings--Government instituted by the People for their oivn good--Tyrants treat men as cattle to be slaughtered--God decrees their fall--Ordains Revolutions by the People._ Search we the long records of ages past, Look back as far as antient rolls will last; Beyond what oldest history relates, While kings had people, people magistrates; Nations, e'er since there has been king or crown, Have pull'd down tyrants to preserve the throne.