The Secret of Secrets and Other Philosophical Treatises

...and provokes their minds to joy, or into contempt and detestation of your majesty and dignity. If it is the first way, let him be mildly corrected; if it is the second way, let him be heavily punished. O Alexander, the obedience of a ruler is observed in four ways: namely in religiosity, love, authority original: "auaritate." While this literally means greed, in the context of the Secretum Secretorum, it is almost certainly a scribal error for austeritate (severity) or auctoritate (authority), signifying the ruler’s discipline., and reverence. O Alexander, turn yourself toward the souls of your subjects; take away injuries and injustices from them. Do not give them material for speaking against you, for when the common people original: "vulgus." A term referring to the general populace or the masses. are able to speak, they can easily act. Moreover, know that the discretion of maturity and the glory of majesty and dignity is the reverence for the lord, and it is the exaltation of the kingdom. Indeed, it is the highest prudence that reverence for you dwells in the hearts of your subjects more than love.

On the likeness of the king.

xiv. It is also read that the king is in his kingdom like the rain is on the earth. This is the grace of God, the blessing of heaven, the life of the earth, and the help of the living. For through rain, the way is prepared for merchants and assistance for builders. Nevertheless, in the rain there are also thunders, lightning bolts fall, torrents flood, the seas roar, and many evils happen, through which many living things perish. Yet these bad accidents do not prevent men from praising the glorious Lord in His majesty, considering the signs of His grace and the gifts of His mercy; because through rain, growing things are given life,

plants sprout, and a blessing is infused into all living things. And therefore, they offer praise to God and forget the past evils that happened to them. And the example of the king matches the example of the winds original: "ventoz" (ventorum). The author uses natural metaphors—rain and wind—to explain how a ruler's actions can have both beneficial and destructive effects, yet are necessary for the greater order., which God most high sends out and extends from the treasury of His mercy. Through them, the clouds are guided, the crops grow, the fruits of the trees are ripened, and they regain their strength; evaporated water is received, the way is opened for those sailing, and many other good things are born from the winds. Nonetheless, they bring impediments and various dangers both on sea and on land; they bring inward pains to the depths of the heart, and they scatter and disperse the riches of men in storms. Through them, corruptions of the air are generated, deadly poisons are nurtured, and many other inconveniences follow. And yet, lower creatures implore the mercy of the Creator to take away these evils from them; nevertheless, He Himself sustains the winds to bring His help and to maintain the order He established for them. For in His wisdom, He has dispensed all things with equal weight and a certain order, and He established them so they might serve His servants; and this came from His immense and ineffable goodness. This indeed is balanced original: "catēparuula," likely a scribal error for "contemperantia." in summer and in winter, whose cold and heat the highest providence has ineffably, inevitably, and immutably established...