Note 21 — CABINET OF BIOGRAPHY. (continued 2)
Reading edition
The penetration with which Mendoza saw through the lofty pretensions of diplomacy, and the keenness of his observation, which stripped this science of all its finery, is forcibly expressed in one of his epistles, He exclaims—
"O embaxadores, puros majaderos, que si los reges quieren engañar, comiençan por nosotros los primeros. Nuestro major negocio es, no dañar, y jamas hacer cosa, ni dezilla, que no corramos riesgo de enseñar."
O ye ambassadors! ye simpletons! When kings wish to deceive they begin first with us.—Our chief business is to do no harm, and never to do or say anything, that we may not run the risk of making others as wise as ourselves.