Remonstrantie 12.2.4

12.2.4

It is the practice of the King, or rather of his wife, to give rapid advancement and promotion to any soldier, however low his rank, who has carried out orders with credit, or has displayed courage in the field. On the other hand, a very small fault, or a trifling mistake, may bring a man to the depths of misery or to the scaffold, and consequently everything in the kingdom is uncertain. Wealth, position, love, friendship, confidence, everything hangs by a thread. Nothing is permanent, yea, even the noble buildings — gardens, tombs, or palaces, — which, in and near every city, one cannot contemplate without pity or distress because of their ruined state. For in this they are to be despised above all the laziest nations of the world, because they build them with so many hundreds of thousands, and yet keep them in repair only so long as the owners live and have the means. Once the builder is dead, no one will care for the buildings; the son will neglect his father's work, the mother her son's, brothers and friends will take no care for each other's buildings; everyone tries, as far as possible, to erect a new building of his own, and establish his own reputation alongside that of his ancestors. Consequently, it may be said that if all these buildings and erections were attended to and repaired for a century, the lands of every city, and even village, would be adorned with monuments; but as a matter of fact the roads leading to the cities are strewn with fallen columns of stone.