The King's Mirror (Speculum regale-Konungs skuggsjá)
Philosophy
The King's Mirror (Speculum regale-Konungs skuggsjá)
Education of princes; Encyclopedias and dictionaries -- Early works to 1600; Scandinavia -- Civilization
Now if it happens that one of these princes should wish to punish the
aforesaid vices in his kingdom, the wicked take refuge in the service of
some other master; and, though they have been driven from home because
of their misdeeds, they pretend to have come in innocence to escape the
cruel wrath of their lord. The one to whom they have fled gives
protection in temerity rather than in mercy; for he wishes to acquire
friends in the other’s realm, who may prove useful to himself and
hostile to the other in case they should come to disagreement. But those
who had to flee because of their evil conduct and law-breaking soon
begin to show hostility toward the lord whose subjects they formerly
were and to rouse as much enmity as they can between him and the one to
whom they have come. They take revenge for their exile by carrying
murder, rapine, and plundering into the kingdom, as if they were
guiltless and all the blame lay with the lord. Soon immorality begins to
multiply, for God shows His wrath in this way, that where the four
boundaries of the territories of these chiefs touch, he places a moving
wheel which turns on a restless axle. After that each one forgets all
brotherly love, and kinship is wrecked. Nothing is now spared, for
whenever the people are divided into many factions through loyalty to
different chiefs, and these fall out, the masses will rashly pursue
their desires, and the morals of the nation go to ruin. For then
everyone makes his own moral code according to his own way of thinking;
and no one fears punishment any longer when the rulers fall out and are
weakened thereby.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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