ABSTRACT
Some years ago, when our country’s affairs were in a very unsettled state, I wrote a dialogue concerning the right of the kings of Scots in which I tried to explain from their very cradle (if I may put it that way) the mutual rights or powers of kings and their subjects. At the time the book seemed to have been of some use in silencing certain people who railed against the existing situation with unseemly cries rather than weighing what was right in the scale of reason. But as our affairs became a little more tranquil, I too put aside my arms and willingly laid them upon the altar of public concord. Recently, however, I happened to find that discussion among my papers, and seeming to find in it many things which were necessary to someone of your age (and especially to someone with your role in public life), I decided to publish it both to witness to my zeal for you and to advise you of your duty towards your subjects. Many things make me confident that this effort of mine will not be wasted. Your age in particular, not yet corrupted by vicious opinion; a character far above your years, eager of its own accord to strive for distinction of every kind; a willingness to submit not only to your teachers but to all those who give you good advice; and such judgement and skill in assessing matters that no man’s authority carries much weight with you in anything unless {A2v} it is supported by sound reasoning. I also see that by a certain natural instinct you so abhor flattery, the nurse of tyranny and the most grievous plague of lawful kingship, that you despise the solecisms and barbarisms of courtiers no less than they are relished and affected by those who, seeing themselves as arbiters of all good taste, randomly sprinkle their conversation, as if it were seasoning, with ‘majesties’, ‘lordships’, ‘excellencies’, and other terms which are even more repugnant. Although your natural goodness and the teaching of your instructors protect you for the present from this error, nevertheless I am bound to be somewhat anxious lest evil company, the fawning foster-mother of the vices, should twist your still tender mind in the worse direction, especially since I know how readily our other senses yield to temptation. I have sent you this book, then, not only as a guide, but also as a harsh and sometimes insolent critic, to steer you, at this formative time in your life, through the reefs of flattery. It may not only admonish you, but also keep you to the path which you have once embarked upon, and if you should stray from it, rebuke you and drag you back again. If you obey it, you will gain for yourself and your people tranquillity in the present and, in the future, everlasting glory.
