pany affairs of this nature; and interest will make the rest afraid of hazarding their quiet and their fortunes. The most part of those that are not influenced by these considerations are persons of so mean a birth, and so little power, that nothing for your advantage is to be hoped for from them. So that Doria's too great power, and the bad state of the times, which give you these thoughts of rebellion, ought to inspire you with patience, since they have so depressed the minds of the Genoese, that they now make a glory of submitting out of gratitude to the authority of Andrew Doria, that liberty which he has restored to them, and which he snatched out of the hands of foreigners, for no other end but to usurp the dominion over them. Do you not perceive that this commonwealth has for a long time had only the image of a free government, and that it can no longer subsist without a master? Do you not see that the greatest part of the nobility are attached to the interest of the House of Doria, by the employments at sea which that House bestows on them; and that this family, under the protection of the Empire and of Spain, holds all else in fear? Do you not perceive, I say, that all the Genoese are buried in a kind of lethargy, and that the bravest do not think it dishonourable to yield to that mighty power, provided they do not adore it? I do not here pretend to justify the imprudence of the commonwealth, who have suffered the elevation of that house, which they can no longer bear without reproach, nor pull down without danger; but I dare maintain, that a private man cannot reasonably think of removing by his own power a dis

tress which has taken so deep a root, and that all which a generous man can do on this occasion is to imitate those wise mariners who, instead of obstinately contending against the wind to make to a harbour, steer out again to sea, and leave them. selves to the mercy of the waves and winds. Yield, therefore, to the times, since fortune will have it so, and seek not for remedies where none are to be found but those which are worse than the disease; expect them from Providence, which disposes at its pleasure of the changes of states, and which will never be wanting to this commonwealth. Enjoy peaceably that ease and those advantages to which your birth entitles you, or accept of lawful employments to exercise your valour, which the foreign wars will furnish you with sufficient opportunities of doing. Do not expose the great fortune which you possess, and which would satisfy any one's ambition but yours, to the consequences of a criminal revolt; and imagine, that if Giannetino Doria has conceived any hatred or envy at your merit, you cannot oblige him more than by pursuing your present thoughts; since you will give him an opportunity of concealing his private resentment, under the pretence of the general good, and of ruining you with the authority of the commonwealth, and, in short, that you yourself are working to raise upon your own ruin trophies to his glory and grandeur. The greatest fortunes raised without exertion most commonly fall of themselves; because it seldom happens that those who, with ambition, have the other qualities necessary to raise themselves to eminent stations, are at the same time possessed of qualities necessary for maintaining themselves in them; and when any

one of those whom fortune has thus precipitately raised, reaches the top without stumbling, he must, in the beginning, have met with many difficulties, which have by little and little accustomed him to stand firm in so slippery a place. Cæsar had, in the highest degree, all qualities necessary to a great prince, and yet it is certain, that neither his courtesy, his prudence, his courage, his eloquence, nor his liberality, had ever raised him to the empire of the world, had he not found great difficulties to overcome in the commonwealth of Rome. The pretence which the persecution of Pompey furnished him with, the reputation which their contests gave him room to acquire,—the advantage he made by the divisions of his fellow-citizens, were the true causes of his power; and, notwithstanding this, you seem desirous of adding to the establishment of the family of Doria the only advantage which was wanting to it; and because their happiness has hitherto cost them too little to be well assured, you seem desirous of settling it on a firm foundation, by endeavours which, being too weak to destroy it, will only serve to justify their undertakings, and establish their authority. But for once I will give into your way of thinking,

and suppose that you have happily executed your designs-imagine, then, the family of the Dorias massacred, all the nobility who follow their interest in fetters; imagine all your enemies overthrown, Spain and the Empire in a condition not to hurt you; flatter yourself already with your triumph in this general calamity: If you can fancy to yourself any comfort in these fatal images of the ruin of the commonwealth, what will you do in the midst of a desolate city, which will look on you

rather as a new tyrant, than as a deliverer? What solid foundations will you find on which to build your new greatness? Can you put any trust in the humour of the people, who, the very moment that they have placed the crown on your head, if you have any such thought, will perhaps conceive the greatest horror against you, and will think of nothing but the means of taking it off again? For, as I have already told you, they can neither enjoy their liberty, nor bear long with the same master. Or, if you put Genoa once again into the possession of foreigners, if by your means the city opens its gates to them, the first time they are ill used by them, you will be considered as the destroyer of your country, and the parricide of the people. Are you not afraid that those who now are the keenest to serve you, may be the first to work your ruin, by their envy at being subjected to you? And even supposing that that consideration should not induce them to it, you cannot be ignorant that those who serve a rebel, imagine they so strongly oblige him, that no reward being sufficient to satisfy them, they most commonly become his enemies. As those who roll down a mountain are dashed to pieces against those very points of rocks which they made use of to get up to the top; so those that fall from an exalted fortune, are almost always ruined by the means which they had employed for their elevation. I am sensible that ambition continually tickles persons of your rank, age, and merit, and that it represents nothing to your eyes but pompous and splendid images of glory and grandeur. But whilst your imagination is presenting you with all the objects of that passion which makes men illustrious, your judgment

ought to make you behold it as the passion which generally makes them unhappy, and obliges them to quit the most certain advantages for the most uncertain hopes. Consider, that if its just use is the occasion of the greatest virtues, its abuse occasions the greatest crimes. Imagine that it is that passion which of old mingled so many poisons, and sharpened so many poniards against usurpers and tyrants, and that it is that same passion that now urges you on to be the Catiline of Genoa. Flatter not yourself that the design you seem to have to preserve the liberty of the commonwealth, can be otherwise received in the world than as the common pretence of all factious people. And supposing that, in reality, no other motive but your zeal for the public good should induce you to this attempt, you must not hope that any one will do you the justice to believe it; since, in all actions which may indifferently be attributed to virtue or vice, when nothing but the intention of the doer can justify them, men, who can judge only from appearances, seldom make a favourable construction of the most innocent ones. But, in the present enterprise, which way soever you turn your eyes, it is impossible to behold any thing but massacres, plunder, and such dismal objects as the best intentions in the world cannot justify. Learn, therefore, to regulate your ambition; and remember, that the only instance wherein that passion can be justified, is, where you set aside your own interest, and follow only the rules of your duty. There have been many conquerors, who have ra vaged states and overthrown kingdoms, who have not possessed that greatness of soul which enables us to look with an indifferent eye on the