Nine Books on the Dignity and Advancement of Learning

admired: seeing that it makes mention of the Art of understanding affairs well, in which you oblige all of France; and in that it speaks of the Science of State, in which you are so excellently learned, that you cannot learn anything therein, but rather add to it the secret of the Finances; of which there is no mention: even though they are the only things that give movement and vigor to a Kingdom. I declare, MY LORD, that you are the only one capable of saying marvels of it. For who has ever, by his pure labor, brought back to the Treasury Espargne the royal treasury/savings hundreds of millions; with which our Monarch has rendered himself the absolute master of his peoples; has made himself feared by all his neighbors; and has made himself honored by all foreigners? The intelligence that you have in this has made you take heed of the little care that those who handled them had to verify their states financial reports/statements at the Council. And to remedy this disorder, as soon as his Majesty had honored you with this important charge of Superintendent, you had twenty-five accounts of the Treasury stopped, one hundred of the Casual Parties miscellaneous royal revenues, as much of the ordinary of their charges as of the extraordinary means that were in their hands and in those of the Financiers; without counting those of the extraordinary of Wars and of the Light Cavalry. Or to say it in one word, there will be found more than five hundred Statements seen, annotated, and verified by your hand, which have all brought money into the King's coffers. After that, what is there to say, except that you are the only one who can make these useful researches and see them through to the end. Also, it is true that not an hour of the day passes that you do not work on them: without even sparing, for your health, the time that one steals from business when one travels. Your carriage serves as your cabinet, in which you have