It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire, and many things to fear; and yet that commonly is the case of kings; who, being at the highest, want* matter of desire, which makes their minds more languishing;* and have many representations of perils and shadows, which makes their minds the less clear. And this is one reason also of that effect* which the Scripture speaketh of, that ‘the king's heart is inscrutable’. For multitude of jealousies,* and lack of some predominant desire that should marshal and put in order all the rest, maketh any man's heart hard to find or sound.* Hence it comes likewise, that princes many times make themselves desires, and set their hearts upon toys;* sometimes upon a building; sometimes upon erecting of an order; sometimes upon the advancing* of a person; sometimes upon obtaining excellency in some art or feat of the hand; as Nero for playing on the harp, Domitian for certainty of the hand with the arrow, Commodus for playing at fence, Caracalla for driving chariots, and the like. This seemeth incredible unto those that know not the principle that ‘the mind of man is more cheered and refreshed by profiting in small things, than by standing at a stay in great’.