Prologus
The Burden of Discernment
The author reflects on the difficulty of maintaining inner peace while being sensitive to the inevitable sufferings and passions of human life.
I make enemies of many when I pick apart the nonsense of fools. For this reason, I’d decided to stay quiet and keep to myself, but the chaos of business keeps pulling me out, and the stirrings of my own heart keep interrupting me. Anyone under authority, if he has any sense, obeys the command of his superior. Whoever is stung by the impulses of his own feelings cannot help but be moved toward the form of that passion. So, the person soothed by a breeze of joy exults; hope brings cheerfulness; fear makes one tremble; and the heart of the sufferer is confused by sorrow. These things alternate in each person, whether they are the face of good or... ...of evil. But the sense of evil is deeper and strikes everyone more often; for who is there who isn't burned more often by the harshness of evil than he is soothed by the comfort of good things?
The Bond of Human Charity
True virtue requires us to care for the troubles of others, as the Master commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves.
It's rare to find someone who can completely shield himself from the full force of fortune. A person is tested by his own strength, or by the body or circumstances of a friend or someone close to him. While someone who isn't shaken by the loss of strangers might seem less than human, someone who isn't moved by the troubles of others isn't fully human at all. But wiser people have already wondered whether anything that concerns a human being can rightly be considered foreign to another. The progress of virtue resolves this knot of ambiguity, since the comic poet considers nothing human to be foreign to himself, and the heavenly Master has taught that one person should love another as himself.✦ It's clear that a disciple is unworthy of such a Master if he doesn't rejoice in the truth and burn with indignation against the enemies of the public good. This little work aims to address these people, striking down their nonsense with whatever weapons it can and is accustomed to use.
Read the original Latin
HosTis multorum fio dum ineptias nugatorum excutio. Qua de causa otiari decreveram et silere, sed alterum mihi negotiorum tumultus excutit, alterum motus animi interrumpit. Qui enim sub potestate constitutus est, si sapit obtemperat imperio praesidentis. Quem stimuli affectuum pungunt, dissimulare non potest quin moueatur ad formam passionis. Exultat ergo quem gaudii aura demulcet, spes inducit hilaritatem, metus trepidat, dolentis animus merore confunditur. Haec apud singulos altemat facies boni aut. mali. Verum sensus malorum altior est et saepius in omnes incurrit; quis est enim qui malorum asperitate saepius non uratur quam dernulceatur fomento bonorum?
Rarus est qui totius fortunae impetum a se toto possit arcere. Qui suis uiribus praeualet aut in amici aut familiaris corpore uel sorte temptatur. Licet parum humanus sit quem extraneorum iactura non concutit, non satis homo est quem aliena non mouent. Sed sapientioribus iam uenit in dubium, an quicquam hominis recte sit homini alienum. Virtutis uero processus ambiguitatis huius nodum soluit, cum et comicus nichil humani alienum a se reputet et Magister celestis hominem homini diligendum docuerit ut se ipsum. Vnde patet indignum esse tanto magistro discipulum qui ueritati non congaudet et '5 aduersus publicae salutis hostes non excandescit. Eos uero pro parte praesentis opusculi aliquatenus tangit intentio et nugas eorum quo potest et consueuit telo decutiet.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.22.39 — And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Policraticus companion
Study the argument weekly; pray the tradition daily
Pair the outline with the Chosen Portion app, which serves short daily portions from the same royal devotional tradition — free on iOS.
John of Salisbury argued that rulers must keep the law of God before their eyes daily; Chosen Portion gives modern readers that same daily discipline in five minutes a morning.
- 8 weeks, one book per week, with the 3-4 key chapters flagged in each
- Discussion questions usable for a reading group from week one
- A daily 5-minute companion portion in the app alongside your weekly study