all your countrymen we hear it admitted that they
are now happy, and moreover, that nothing can be added to the
blessings that they enjoy, except that they should be eternal. Many
circumstances force this admission from them, altho it is the one
which men are least willing to make: we enjoy a profound and
prosperous peace, the power of the law has been openly asserted in the
sight of all men, and raised beyond the reach of any violent
interference: the form of our government is so happy, as to contain
all the essentials of liberty except the power of destroying itself.
It is nevertheless your clemency which is most especially admired by
the high and low alike: every man enjoys or hopes to enjoy the other
blessings of your rule according to the measure of his own personal
good fortune, whereas from your clemency all hope alike: no one has so
much confidence in his innocence, as not to feel glad that in your
presence stands a clemency which is ready to make allowance for human
errors....

Since I have made mention of the gods, I shall state the best model
on which a prince may mold his life to be, that he deal with his
countrymen as he would that the gods may deal with himself. Is it then
desirable that the gods should show no mercy upon sins and mistakes,
and that they should harshly pursue us to our ruin? In that case what
king will be safe? Whose limbs will not be torn asunder and collected
by the sooth-sayers If, on the other hand, the gods are placable and
kind, and do not at once avenge the crimes of the powerful with
thunderbolts, is it not far more just that a man set in authority over
other men should exercise his power in a spirit of clemency and should
consider whether the conditions of the world is more beauteous and
pleasant to the eyes on a fine calm day, or when everything is shaken
with frequent thunder-claps and when lightning flashes on all sides!
Yet the appearance of a peaceful and constitutional reign is the same
as that of the calm and brilliant sky. A cruel reign is disordered and
hidden in darkness, and while all shake with terror at the sudden
explosions, not even he who caused all this disturbance escapes
unharmed. It is easier to find excuses for private men who obstinately
claim their rights; possibly they may have been injured and their rage
may spring from their wrongs; besides this, they fear to be despised,
and not to return the injuries which they have received looks like
weakness rather