6 KING ALFRED'S
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avorites, can make any man wealthy or powerful? Thenanswered I, and said: Why cannot they? What in this pres-ent life is pleasanter and better than the king's service andhis presence, and moreover wealth and power? Then an-swered Wisdom, and said : Tell me, now, whether thou hastever heard, that it always remained to any one who was be-fore us? or thinkest thou that any one who now has it, canalways have it? Dost thou not know that all books are fullof examples of the men who were before us, and every oneknows concerning those who are now living, that from manya king power and wealth go away, until he afterward be-comes poor? Alas! is that, then, very excellent wealth,which can preserve neither itself nor its lord, so that hemay not have need of more help, lest they should both belost? But is not this your highest felicity — ^the power ofkings? And yet if to the king there be a want of anythingdesired, then that lessens his power, and augments his mis-ery. Therefore these your felicities are always in some re-spects infelicities! Moreover kings, though they governmany nations, yet they do not govern all those which theywould govern ; but are very wretched in their mind, becausethey have not some of those things which they would have :for I know that the king who is rapacious has more wretch-edness than power. Therefore a certain king, who unjustlycame to empire, formerly said : O, how happy is the man towhom a naked sword hangs not always over the head by asmall thread, as to me it ever yet has done ! How does itnow appear to thee? How do wealth and power please thee,when they are never without fear, and difficulties, and anx-ieties? Thou knowest that every king would be withoutthese, and yet have power if he might. But I know that hecannot: therefore I wonder why they glory in such power. Does it seem to thee that the man has power, and istruly happy, who always desires that which he cannot ob-tain? Or thinkest thou that he is really happy who alwaysgoes with a great company? Or again, he who dreads bothhim that is in dread of him, and him that is not in dread ofhim? Does it seem to thee that the man has great powerwho seemed to himself to have none, even as to many a manit seems that he has none, unless he have many a man to
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