1A calm and peaceful king has loyal guards, since he uses them for the common safety, and the soldier, proud (for he sees that he is giving his service to the public security), gladly endures every toil as the guardian of a father; 1but the harsh and bloodthirsty king must be resented by his own bodyguards. 2No one can have servants of good and loyal will whom he uses in tortures, like the rack and the instruments made ready for death, and to whom he throws men as if to beasts, more wretched and anxious than all the accused, since he fears men and gods as witnesses and avengers of his crimes, brought to the point where he is not free to change his ways.
2For among its other evils, cruelty has this as perhaps the worst: one must persevere, and no path back to better things lies open; 2for crimes must be protected by crimes. 2But what is more unhappy than the man for whom it is now necessary to be wicked? 3O pitiable man, to himself at least! 3For let it be a sin for others to pity him, who has wielded his power in slaughter and plunder, who has made everything suspect to himself, both foreign and domestic, who, while he fears arms, takes refuge in arms, trusting neither the loyalty of friends nor the devotion of his children; 3who, when he has looked around at what he has done and what he is about to do, and laid bare his conscience full of crimes and torments, often fears death, more often wishes for it, more hateful to himself than to those who serve him.
4On the other hand, he who cares for the whole, who protects some parts more and others less, but nurtures every part of the commonwealth as part of himself, inclined to the milder course even when it is useful to punish, showing how unwillingly he puts his hand to a harsh remedy, in whose mind there is nothing hostile, nothing savage, who exercises his power calmly and beneficially, eager to win his citizens' approval for his commands, thinking himself abundantly happy if he has shared his fortune with the public, affable in speech, easy of approach and access, lovable in that countenance which most wins the hearts of peoples, well disposed to fair requests and not harsh even to unfair ones: he is loved, defended and revered by the whole state.
6Men say the same things about him in private as in public. 6They long to raise children, and the barrenness imposed by public calamities is ended; 6each man has no doubt that he will deserve well of his children by having shown them such an age. 6This prince, safe through his own kindness, needs no guards; he keeps arms for ornament.