.MzY.NDky

14. that His Pupil should imitate; Yet let not even this Man deceive Himself, the conversation and the examples of the young people who surround the Prince may have without such an incessant care as is here recommended very bad effects. He ought to draw the best of them nearest and to keep the worst at a distance. A few bad connexions may otherwise defeat His best designs and insensibly promote a Character very different from that which He is about to form.

It is of great consequence to a Prince when he enters into publick life, that He have learned to join affability and dignity. In order to this, the natural turn of his temper must be watched: if it incline Him too strongly one way, He may be seduced onto a low familiarity always ridiculous and often dangerous: if it incline Him too strongly the other His dignity may become Pride, though no two things can be more different than these are. Dignity consists in that behaviour which His rank requires, & which is necessary to keep up a sense of subordination in others; He can assume as much or as little of it, as Characters deserve or Occasions require; But He cannot be thus the Master of His Pride. Pride is a Vice of the mind, which grows up by habit from being barely an affection, to be a real Passion, and when it is once such it is sure to prevail on every occasion.

That which nourishes this Pride among many other ill effects, is the Flattery to which Princes are exposed. They should be encouraged in proportion as they advance in Virtue and Knowledge; but this Encouragement should be given without any exaggeration of their merit, and They should receive commendations in a manner that may excite them to deserve greater. They must be reproved too which Reproof is proper, but They must be reproved