Page:The Book of the Courtier.djvu/453

 THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE COURTIER and sometimes impossible for him to reach it, and that even when he does reach it, he ought not to be called a Courtier." " I do not understand," said my lady Emilia, " how it should be so difficult or impossible for the Courtier to reach this goal of his, nor yet how my lord Ottaviano has set him above the prince.""^ " Do not grant him these things," replied my lord Ottaviano, " for I have not set the Courtier above the prince, nor do I think I have fallen into any errour touching the aim of Courtiership." Then the Magnifico Giuliano replied: " You cannot say, my lord Ottaviano, that the cause which gives a certain quality to a result, does not always have more of that quality than its result has. Thus the Courtier, through whose instruction the prince is to become so excellent, must needs be more excellent than his prince; and in this way he will also be of greater dignity than the prince himself, which is most unseemly. " Then, as for the aim of Courtiership, what you said may be true when the prince's age is little different from the Courtier's, but still not without difficulty, for where there is small difference in age, it is natural that there should be small difference in know- ledge also; while if the prince is old and the Courtier young, it is fitting that the old prince should know more than the young Courtier; and if this does not always happen, it happens some- times, and then the goal which you set the Courtier is impossible. Again, if the prince is young and the Courtier old, the Courtier can hardly win the prince's naind by means of those accomplish- ments that you have ascribed to him. For to say the truth, jousting and other exercises of the person belong to young men and do not befit old men, and music and dancing and festivals and games and love-making are ridiculous in old age; and me- thinks they would be very ill-befitting a director of the prince's life and behaviour, who ought to be a very sober person of authority, mature in years and experience, and (if possible) a good philosopher, a good commander, and ought to know almost everything. " Therefore I think that whoever instructs the prince ought not to be called a Courtier, but deserves a far higher and more honoured name. So pardon me, my lord Ottaviano, if I have ex- 281