Page:Works of Edmund Spenser - 1857.djvu/513

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—But if that country of Ireland, whence pou lately came, be of so goodly and commodious a soil, as you report, I wonder that no course is taken for the turning thereof to good uses, and reducing that nation to better government and civility.

—Marry, so there have been divers good plots devised, and wise counsels cast already about reformation of that realm ; but they say, it is the fatal destiny of that land, that no purposes whatsoever which are meant for her good, will prosper or take good effect: which, whether it proceed from the very genius of the soil or influence of the stars, or that Almighty God hath not yet appointed the time of her reformation, or that he reserveth her in this unquiet state still, for some secret scourge, which shall by her come unto England, it is hard to be known, but yet much to be feared.

—Surely I suppose this but a vain conceit of simple men, which judge things by their effects, and not by their causes; for I would rather think the cause of this evil which hangeth upon that country, to proceed rather of the unsoundness of the counsels, and plots which you say have been oftentimes laid for the reformation, or of faintness in following and effecting the same, than of any such fatal course appointed of God as you misdeem: out it is the manner of men, that when they are fallen into any absurdity, or their actions succeed not as they would, they are always ready to impute the blame thereof unto the heavens, so to excuse their own follies and imperfections. So have I heard it often wished also (even of some whose great wisdoms in opinion should seem to judge more soundly of so weighty a consideration) that all that land were a sea-pool: which kind of speech, is the manner rather of desperate men far driven, to wish the utter ruin of that which they cannot redress, than of grave counsellors, which ought to think nothing so hard, but that through wisdom it may be mastered and subdued; since the poet saith, that "the wise man shall rule even over the stars," much more over the earth: for were it not the part of a desperate physician, to wish his diseased patient dead, rather than to apply the best endeavour of his skill for his recovery? but since we are so far entered, let us, I pray you, a little devise of those evils, by which that country is held in this wretched case, that it cannot (as you say) be recured. And if it be not painful to you, tell us what things during your late continuance there, you observed to be most offensive, and greatest impeachment to the good rule and government thereof.

—Surely, Eudoxus, the evils which you desire to be recounted are very many, and almost countable with those which were hidden in the basket of Pandora. But since you please, I will out of that infinite number, reckon but some that are most capital, and commonly occurrent both in the life and conditions of private men; as also in the managing of public affairs and policy, the which you shall understand to be of divers natures, as I observed them: For some of them are of very great antiquity and continuance; others more late and of less indurance; others daily growing and increasing continually by their evil occasions, which are every day offered.

—Tell me, then, I pray you, in the same order that you have now rehearsed them; for there can be no better method than this which the very matter itself offereth. And when you have reckoned all the evils, let us hear your opinion for the redressing of them: after which, there will perhaps of itself appear some reasonable way to settle a sound and perfect rule of government, by shunning the former evils, and following the offered good. The which method we may learn of the wise physicians, which first require that the malady be known thoroughly and discovered ; afterwards to teach how to cure and redress it; and, lastly, do prescribe a diet, with straight rule and orders to be daily observed, for fear of relapse into the former disease, or falling into some other more dangerous than it.

—I will then, according to your advisement, begin to declare the evils which seem to me most hurtful to the commonweal of that land; and, first, those (I say) which were most ancient and long