The Secret of Secrets of Aristotle

you ask to be taught; for the desire of fervent pleasure will open to you the way to obtaining your purpose, and will lead you to the wished-for end, God granting it. Indeed, this is the reason why I reveal your secret to you figuratively, speaking with you in examples, enigmas, and signs, because I fear too much that this book might fall into the hands of infidels and into the power of the arrogant, and thus this divine good secret might reach those whom the most high God has judged unworthy and undeserving. I would truly be a transgressor of divine grace and a breaker of the celestial secret and hidden revelation, for which reason I uncover this sacrament to you under the attestation of divine judgment in the way in which it was revealed to me. Know, therefore, that many misfortunes will soon follow him who uncovers hidden things and reveals secrets; hence, he cannot be secure from accidents and future evils. May the Lord therefore guard you and me from a similar fate and from every dishonest time. After all these things, I bring back to your memory that health-bringing document which I have always been accustomed to expound to you and to inform your most noble soul, and this will be your solace and saving mirror.

It is necessary, therefore, for any king of necessity to have two aids supporting his kingdom. One of them is the fortitude of men, in which his rule is protected and strengthened, and he will not have this unless the ruler is just and dominates his subjects, and the subjects obediently obey the ruler. Just as the power of the ruler and governor is weakened and subjected through the disobedience of subjects, the subjects themselves are dominated. And I will give you the cause for which subjects are induced to obey the ruler. The cause is indeed twofold: one external and the other internal. I recently declared the external one to you: that he should dispense his riches to them wisely and exercise generosity toward them by rewarding the merits of each. With all this, kings must have another caution, of which I will make mention to you in what follows, namely in the chapter on riches and aids. The second is to induce minds to operations, and this precedes and is in the first rank. But that second one has two causes: namely, internal and external. The external cause is that the king should exercise justice regarding...