ABSTRACT
Who can there be ryche, where he that is richest, is in moste daunger of povertie? No, no, take welth by the hande, and say farewell welthe, where luste is lyked, and lawe refused, where up is sette downe, and downe sette uppe: An order, an order muste be hadde, and a waye founde, that they rule that beste can, they be ruled, that mooste it becommeth so to be. This agreement is not onely expedient, but also most necessary in a common welthe, those that are of the worser sort, to be content, that the wyser reule and governe theym, those that nature hath endewed with synguler vertues, and fortune without breache of lawe, set in hyghe dignitie, to suppose this done by the great provydence of god, as a meane to engender love and amitie, betwene the highe and the lowe, the small and the great, the one beynge so necessary for thothers safegarde welthe and quietnes. For as there must be some men of polycie and prudence, to discerne what is metest to be done in the goverment of states even so there muste be other of strength and redynes, to do that the wyser shall thinke expedient, bothe for the mayntenance of them that governe, and for theschewyng of the infinite joperdies, that a multitude not governid fallith into: These must not go, arme in arme, but the one before, the other behynde. . . .
