1You ask me to consider what you, as consul designate, should propose in honour of the prince. 1Finding something is easy, choosing is not; 1for his virtues furnish ample material. 1Still, I shall write, or — which I prefer — tell you face to face, once I have first shown you my hesitation. 2I doubt whether I ought to advise you the same as I advised myself. 2When I was consul designate I refrained from all this, if not flattery, then at least the appearance of flattery, not as being independent and resolute, but as understanding our prince, whose particular praise, I saw, was this, that I should propose nothing as if from compulsion.
3I remembered too that very many honours had been heaped on all the worst princes, from whom this best of princes could be distinguished in no way more than by a different kind of proposal; 3and this very thing I did not pass over with concealment and silence, lest it should perhaps seem not my judgement but forgetfulness. 4That is what I did then; 4but the same things do not please everyone, nor are they even suitable for everyone. 4Besides, the reason for doing or not doing something changes with the circumstances, not only of the men themselves, but also of affairs and of the times. 5For the recent achievements of a very great prince give scope for proposals that are new, great and true.
5For these reasons, as I wrote above, I doubt whether I should advise you now the same as I advised myself then. 5This I do not doubt, that I ought to put before you, as part of my counsel, what I had done myself. 5Farewell.