Aphorismes ciuill and militarie amplified with authorities, and exemplified with historie, out of the first quarterne of Fr. Guicciardine.

APHORISME XXXV.

WHere Reason sits as soueraigne, and gouernes all o∣ther passions and perturbations of the minde, that mans actions are reigled by the squire of vertue, and confined within the limits of mediocritie. Now, because in a multitude, these motions and affections, like so many mutinous souldiers, haue no such cap∣taine as Reason, to repaire vnto for direction: they are whirled with a voluble and violent variation from one extreme to another: and neither in obedience nor disloyaltie, loue or disdaine, keepe any setled stay. * 1.1

The citizens of Naples had disloyally reuolted from their na∣turall Liege Lord and Soueraigne, yong Ferdinand, (a Prince that had neuer wronged them) to Charles the 8. a stranger, and one they had neuer seene. They had forced him to flee out of Naples; and before he could shift himselfe out of the towne, they had rifled his goods, and forcibly taken all his horses out of the stables, with many other outrages, full of all insolencie and vil∣lanie. Charles the 8. had vsed them much better then they of the

house of Arragon; he had eased them of diuers grieuances and impositions yet is he no sooner out of the towne, but they shut the gates vpon him, and take in againe yong Ferdinand: and him whom they so shamefully vsed before, they now receiue with ge∣nerall shouts and acclamations of great ioy. The women from the windowes, couer him with flowers as he passeth by, raine showers of sweet waters vpon his head, and runne to meete him in the streets, offering to kisse his feet, and wipe the sweate from his face. So hard it is for the popular sort to keepe any meane.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Mutabile subitis vulgus, tam pronum in misericordiam, quàm immodicum saeuitiâ fuerat.

  Multitudo praeceps fertur, non quâ eundum est, sed quâ itur.

  Nec quicquam facilius, quàm in quemlibet affectum mutare populum.

  Populus, effigies Agrippinae & Neronis gerens, circumsistit Curiam: Il quale con tutte queste dimostrazioni, non impedi, che iui à non lungo tempo, l' vno, & l' altera non capitassero male.

  Quegli che non sanno, & alcreder sono più pronti, & pià d'altri ancora mal contenti, & vaghi di cose nuoue.

  I fauori del popolo sono cosa leggiera, & da non farui fondamento.

  Il popolo non ha ne' suoi consegli alcuna fermezza: ma come ama hor' vno cosi amarebbe ancora doppo poco vn' altro, se la fortuna si cambiasse.

  Bellua multorum capitum.

  Populus, nouarum rerum cupiens, pauidus{que}.

  Haec est natura multitudinis, aut seruit humiliter, aut super bè dominatur: Li∣bertatem, quae media est, nec spernere modicè, nec habere sciuit.

  Vulgus—eosdem colit atque odit.
• * 1.2

  Tacit. an. 17.
• * 1.3

  Seneca. Quintil. Am. in Tac. l. 5.
• * 1.4

  Am. in Tacit. l. 1. Am. in Tac. l. 5. Id. Ibid.
• * 1.5

  Horat. Tac. an. l. 16. Liui. l. 23.
• * 1.6

  Sen. Her. fur.