but are sought of her for such is the lust of Fortunes benefits as whilest the body feeleth her selfe able to purchase her desires and to gorge her senses she abandons herselfe to all sensualities and reioyceth in her owne fulnesse to you then vpon whom none but fayre winds haue euer blowne in this careire of your supposed happinesse can you see for all your high and ouertopping places your end and resting place Or are you not rather the arrowes of the Omnipotent arme that are yet flying not at yours but at his marke and are no more owners of your owne purposed ends then you were guilty of your owne beginnings In the meane time effeminated with your prosperity and as it were still sucking vpon the brest of Fortune if she turnes her backe and retires how miserable doth shee leaue you Still bleating after the teat and like those nice creatures that become tame with taking their bread from others hands vnable to administer to your selues the least helpe or comfort Wee doe see that Nature and all her productions support them and her selfe by incessant changes and reuolutions generation and corruption being to the earth like riuers to the sea in a restlesse current and perpetuall progresse doe wee see the flourishing and falling not only of Kings and Princes but of Kingdomes and Commonwealths Citties Trophies and whatsoeuer the vaine imagination of man hath contriued for the ouercomming of time and can we vpon some small remnant of Fortunes bounty thinke to establish a perpetuity of mirth and pleasure No no he that takes not this time to prouide for a world and in the midst of his pleasures doth not thinke how fraile and transitory they are will pay dearely for his iollity when surprised by death or some disaster they leaue him in an instant so much more miserable then others as he hath depended vpon such vncertainties without which his life is most lothsome vnto him and with which death most fearefull and abhorred But to what end is all this tendred to the adorers and louers of mirth Their heads and hearts are all ready filled with their own delights which must be consumed by affliction before the precious balm of Sadnesse can either enter or worke Fabius said he feared more Minutius victories thē ouerthrows which may be rightly applied to the generall disposition of man his successes infecting him with an ignorant confidence intoxicating his reason with presumption and ostentation which are such dayly effects of worldly prosperities as they that thinke themselues Lords are often the vnworthiest sort of slaues and their opinionatiue happinesse the most wretched misery not vnlike the madde Athenian that imagined himself possessed of al whē indeed he was true honor but of his own distemper lunacy To young men there belongs more pitty aswell because nature hath her hand in this their thirst of pleasure they beeing yet by the heate of bloud and the quicknesse of their spirits and the strength of their senses iolly and gamesome as also that it must be time and the wounds and skars gotten by their wretched carelesnesse that must make them capable of aduice since as Plutarch sayth their heady passions and pleasures set ouer them more cruell and tyrannous Gouernours then those that had the charge of their minorities now who is it that leadeth this distracted dance of youth but mirth for whose sake and pleasures they are inseparable companions what is irregular indiscreet vnlawfull dishonest nay what lawes either of mans natures or Gods are in these apprehensions strong enough to containe them within their bounds Galba in his adoption of Piso amongst his other prayses sayth you whose youth hath needed no excuse a commendation so rare and glorious as there needed no more to illustrate his name and fame to all posterity for who els vnlesse fettered and chained with nature or fortune but in their first wearing the fresh garment of youth haue not soyled and spotted it as their whole life after though painefully and industriously directed hath not bin able to wipe out their faults and refresh the glose of their reputation hence it is that Delicta inuentutis meae ignorantias meas ne memineris Domine is taught by all and vsed by all so ineuitable a disease is youth of which we need no witnesse since euery mans conscience doth iustifie it the generality and antiquity hauing made it veniall and by consent we bind none from these slips and stumbles but old men and and women the rest passe the musters so farre from checking as they produce many of their follies as the markes of spirit and generosity and by their will would make of an old vice a young vertue who can hope now to deliuer this flourishing season of youth from these Caterpillers since mirth and pleasure allures opinion animates and community hides them from the sight of themselues and actions this it is that makes nothing more currannt then to pay one another with our faults and no man trusts so much to his owne vertue as to his neighbours or Companions vices wee repose our selues in the defect of others and no man striues further then to be comparatiuely good we aduance our selues vpon ruins and thinke our selues well because another is worse O lame shift O drunken remedie I will then say but this to those young men that will heare me Since you know not the way to true happinesse and contentment ask not of them that are yet in the race but of them that haue passed it propose vnto your selues some patterne to imitate nisi ad regulam prauam non corrigas and to strengthen your iudgements behold those that haue already acted their parts take one of these admirers of mirth and pleasure and an other that hath euer made his reason the taster of all his actions and compare these together and then chuse which of them you would be there cannot thus farre off bee so corrupted a iudgement as not to know the best the difference is then a little time hoc quod senectus vocatur pauci sunt circuitus amorū Behold then the match for a few yeeres to boote this vicious hatefull person is taken that deuoured his owne honour and reputation and with his pleasure swallowed euen his very soule and that liues now but in his infamy rather then that well ordered spirit that hath left a true and perfect circle of a discreet gouern'd life and death and left the world heire of many rich and worthy examples who in this consideration but must crie out with the Psalmist O what is man that thou art so mindfull of him c or why hauing taken our iudgements thus halting should wee reply vpon it carrying vs through the world that in our entrance hath thus stumbled and fallen he hath then the first signe of recouerie that in this his beginning mistrusts his owne wayes and dares offer his wounds to the Surgeon it is an incurable ignorance that dares not
put it selfe to mending Plato would haue offenders repaire to the Iudge and Magistrate as to the Physicions of the soule and submit themselues to punishment as to the medicine of recouery but this was too high an imagination for practise yet thus farre we may goe and vpon the ground and not in the ayre hauing vpon a due examination found it fit to mistrust our selues it followes euen in common reason not to throw our selues rashly into any action but to assist our weaknesse with gaining consideration time this disarms our passions of their violence for their motion being out of heat and neuer going but running being once stayed and ouertaken by reason they after willingly submit themselues vnto her and are easily managed It is an axiome in Philosophy that our first motions are not in our owne power which is true no longer then we list for he that will not imbarke himselfe without a pause and deliberation dissolues the Acrimony of his affections and makes them of the cruellest Tyrants the most profitable seruants It is true our ignorance and sloth make euery thing terrible vnto vs and we wil not because we dare not and dare not because we will not this makes vs submit our selues to any thing that doth either flatter or threaten vs and like some sottish weaklings that giue the reines of their gouernment into the hands of their wiues or seruants thinking then they buy their peace when they sell it thus do they grow vpon vs and by composition not force become masters of the place being iust so strong as we are weake The scouts of Antigonus relating vnto him the multitude of his enemies and aduising by way of information the danger of a conflict that should be vndertaken with so great an vnequality he replied And at how many do you valew me In this ciuill wars of our selues the first disorder and consequently our ouerthrow proceeds frō a false valuation of our owne strength we are content to imbrace our owne true naturall worth so wee may haue leaue to yeeld our selues to some furious passion or soothing affection but would we now take a true knowledge of our owne valew we might easily redeeme our selues God and nature haue not dealt so tyrannically with man as to giue him charge of that he cannot hold if we lose the game it must be by play wherefore since we are likely to bee besieged by the world and her allurements lest famine or treason surprise let vs turne out of the walls all vnprofitable pleasures and knowe betimes that mirth becommeth neither the fortune nor condition of man so is hee enuironed with dangers and so subiect to intrappings omnis vita supplicium est there is no day houre or moment that brings a certaine cessation of armes but to the contrary our life is a continuall war-fare representing vnto vs incessant dangers and perils wherefore wee must alwayes stand vpon our guard and keep a straight watch vpon our selues not only examining the humors that goe in and out their arrants and pretences but euen euery motion and thought for of so many different pieces is the little world of man compounded so stirring so infatigable so full of changes and counter-changes so sodainely eleuated as soone deiected and in a word such a composition of contrarieties as he that doth not continually obserue himselfe and steddily fixe his eyes vpon all his actions shall sodainely grow a stranger to himselfe and be vtterly ignorant of his owne proceedings if this then be a time for mirth we may easily imagine who doth not alone call all the parts and faculties of man from their duties and charge to feast and glut themselues with sensualities but returneth them so corrupt and debaunched as like Hannibals army after their wintering in Campania they cannot bee knowne for the same men so haue they melted their courages with delicacie and with ryot made themselues impatient and almost incapable of discipline To conclude such is the weaknesse of man and so strong are his bodily inclinations as if he doth not diuert or breake the force of his affections reason alone is not able to resist them wherefore as Plato allowed old men mirth and wine to reuiue nature almost tyred in her long iourney and to refresh their spirits benummed with the coldnesse of their dwelling by the same reason it is forbidden youth whose bloud being now at the hottest by the least addition or increase falls into the diseases of excesse the most violent and vnresistable extremes wee see then it is prescribed but for a medicine and by the difference of the constitutions of young men and old it can bee no more wholsome for the one then dangerous for the other howsoeuer since it is prescribed medicinably the too frequent vse must either destroy the operation or leaue onely the malignant quality aliue and vncorrected vnto those whom the out-side of Fortune dazels and allures there is nothing to be sayd by way of aduice being such as neither nature nor education hath fauoured but are left to act the base and illiberal parts vpon this stage of the world this is the multitude the vulgar the people that are bought and sold and reckoned by the hundred and the thousand and beare no price single and alone a madnesse it were then to thinke to moue and conuert them together when our Sauiour that fedde 5000. of them and as many heard him could neither with the admirablenesse of his miracles nor the excellency of his doctrine preuaile with them all and returne them all beleeuers this were sufficient to deterre mee euen from but touching vpon this quick-sand were they not the harbour of opinion where shee is still rescued from the louers of truth neither is it impossible that some yet of her and their party vpon a truer information may forsake and bee ashamed of their station or to be a piece of the body of this great Beast There is nothing can enter into consideration more strange and improbable then to see euen the most actiue and vnderstanding spirits to refer themselues and their proceedings to the multitude to esteeme themselues at their price exceeds their memories and powers of satisfaction The young man that thought to escape the being seene in a Tauerne with retiring further into it was iustly reprehended for going further in but such is the nature of vice it hath an alluring looke and a detayning tayle our desires first allure vs to things vnlawfull and when we are there our feare bars vs in but if euery man knew how much more right he might haue from his owne tribunall if he will freely and sincerely giue his reason her owne power and how iustly an vnabused conscience will proceed and how sweetly and securely he sleeps that hath receiued from them his quietus est he would for euer disclaime the censure of opinion and with Phocion mistrust himselfe because the people praysed him erubuit quasi peccasset quod placuerit and
people the sight of sword-plaiers or som such things Here is the Prohibition Edixit Caesar ne quis Magistratus aut Procurator qui Prouinciam obtinert spectaculum gladietorum aut ferarum aut quod aliud ludicrum aederet this is the medicine the disease followeth Nam ante non minus tali largitione quam corripiendis pecunijs subiectos affligebant dum quae libidine deliquerant ambitu propugnant It is a circumspection most behouefull for the Magistrate to take away the meanes of getting these keyes to open the peoples heart with which is to be certainliest performed with stopping all springs that would feed them but the fountaine of chiefe authority for otherwise they will like tame birds readily come to the call of him that giues them meate The other was The second disease how apt the celebrations were to nourish a lasciuious Prince shewing directing the way to softnesse excesse which is well approued by this Empire of liberty and festiualls and the ancient Laconian strictnesse where there was neuer riotous Prince in the other euery second or third Emperour a Monster Power in a wanton hand ruinates his charge there is not a more dangerous thing then power in a wantō hand which euery way ruinates his charge for if it liue to growe olde it becomes tyranny in the meane time corrupts himself and Common-wealth the naturall man louing bodily pleasures when cherished by the life of a lasciuious Prince the nature of it is doubled Est vulgus cupiens voluptatum si eo Princeps trahat laetum They are well contented with such a Gouernour alas their countenances are vnfit guides for a States-man me thinks they are like the sence of tast that neuer considereth the operation but taste faire otherwise was this Prince which he layes to his education though I think Nature had made him of too rough a mould to bee carried with such lightnesse yet might it be his familiarity with letters which carrieth the mind so high as most other things appeare base and contemptible this speech is the childe of such a minde turpe esse sapienti cum habeat animam captare laudes ex corpore it is a speech worthie of the worthiest mouth and proclaimes to the ambitious where to buy the best glory and commendations It resteth to tell what were the waights that made his vices His vices heauiest the lightnesse of his nature or inconstancy his pursuite of vnlawfull knowledges and lastly his ambition and cueoting dominion I doe not cry fie of inconstancy First his inconstancy c. or curse it for by the leaue of ages settlednesse there is neuer a Pesant in the world traines vp youth better I abhorre it in age and stop my nose at it but youths best lectures are read by inconstancy Prayse of inconstancy in youth neuer stampe mistris experience at my opinion for were it not lawfull for age to forget I should call you ingratefull for Inconstancy was your nurse and all the strange experiments you haue passed she carried you through But when age begins to decline a body it is time to leaue it hee hath spent his time ill that knowes not then what to trust to which knowne must be held to the death yea and in death Martyrdome one of the best deaths Martyrdome is one of the best fashioned cuts that Dame Atropos hath me thinks at that time Death playeth a gallant conductor and leads vs to an assault that passed deserues tryumph his ill directed knowledges deserue the greatest blame for all knowledges whatsoeuer that haue poysoned man His ill deriued knowledge with the perswasion of standing onely vpon his own strength are both feeble and impious they are like legges that haue onely strength to carry the body where it may destroy it selfe amongst these Magick and Astrologie Magicke and Astrologie the studies of vaine melancholicke natures Diuell-binders but especially the diuel-binders are the most sottish people in the world for what can bee more ridiculous then to thinke hearbs spels and circles can enforce infernall spirits to be ruled by mortall men or that God will giue a power to his Name abused But Astrologie is not so ill The other Magicke is the game that the diuell playes at fast and loose with man but the abuse of knowledge the disease of the finest metals deserues more pitty of all the great troupes that goe this way I find few arriued at an indifferent commendation I cannot tel they are cut off either by pride vanity or contempt this is the cousenage of partiality doe you thinke there is such an excellency in hauing slubbered an Aristotle Fie no. If you vnderstood Aristotle you might be bettered there is not such a vertue in genus and species as you haue set it downe in your Inuentory they are but names and Art it selfe but the stilts of a cripple for if we could go without them what should we do with them Vanity prides minority belongeth to this crue such are those that hauing taken a dosse of Cicero presently learne their tongues to dance a Cinque-pace these vtter Orations so like Ciceroes as they seeme the same so well can they enforce a circumstance and neatly slide from one limme of Rethoricke to another away with this whorish eloquence with this breath-marchandise it becomes not the grauity of a professed scholler no more then it doth a Generall reckoned to be skilfull at his needle The last is Pride in graine His contempt of others contempt an humor sodden in selfe opinion a disease killing the loue of his countrey countrymen the perswasion to make him to apply the riches of his mind to the benefit of others but this is taken away for contempt and loue were neuer friends and then he is no other then a buried Treasure To know what contempt is This disease is to bee knowne by separating his customes from the world by an eye ful of disdain by a countenance borrowed from the picture of some old Philosopher for no people am I more sorry then for these which abuse the picture of our first and most blessed state they that desire cure let them goe to Seneca Frons nostra populo conueniat and after more thorowly Id agamus vt meliorem vitam sequamur quam vulgus non vt contrariam I am glad yet that Seneca's time was troubled with these inke-horne Bragards as well as wee His ambition But this Emperours coueting dominion of which I shall speake like one in a dreame for I cannot think like a Prince and I am glad of it for they are thoughts too bigge for me but as I ghesse Ambition is more naturall and profitable in a Prince then priuate men for the definition of vtile honestum with them and vs is not all one our states and our professions differ and all one instrument will not serue vs. IVLIANS Dialogue of the Caesars His Dialogue of
the Caesars I Desire to haue the picture of famous men by mine eare not mine eye I preferre the Historian before the Painter I get nothing by the fashion of his face but by the knowledge of his life the pen is the best pensell which drawes the mind the other that tells you the stature and proportion of the body may delight not profit giue me therfore their works if writers if not their liues written by others thus thinke I of bookes the issue of our minds all which are not without some profit for there is no soule altogether barren but especially those that are able and doe write in earnest those binde the whole world to them for they dissolue their spirits to make theirs more precious and by the helpe of time haue made that excellent cordiall that the soule disgesting may recouer and bee preserued against our naturall disease ignorance I sucked not long enough of my Schoole-master to proue a Commentor The Authors digression of himselfe I cannot fetch words from their swadling bands nor make them interpret the quality of the things knowne by them I tract them not nor set a brand of them when I meete them nor compare the words of one Author with another if I can make ioyning worke of the matter I goe contented for I worke not for words and thus nature hath framed me I will not goe to surgery for an alteration for me thinkes it becomes a gentle spirit well to leaue the drosse and fly to the matter he writes not vnder the hard restraint of feare or gaine but gallantly giues the World the trauels of his minde and it is gallantly for a Mercinary liberallist is in little better state then a Renegado let him then that courts his censurers with sweet titles for feare of bitternesse or him that sends his booke of a voyage in hope of gaine tend this cutting vp words and such stuffe but he that writes so purely as to want these let him run into things of worth and fetch secrets out of the entrals of actions I haue read History but they seldome doe any more then make the times confesse some vpon History most simple some better others dangerous but this Dialogue hath of the vertue of both and little of their idlenes full of excellent obseruation and withal quick so wel did the stomak of mine vnderstanding like it that she boyled longer then ordinary here is the digestion It is not my maner to be busie about the maner of the feast the place nor other circumstances let it suffice the Author makes Romulus inuite his successours to a feast at whose entrance Sylenus Iupiters buffone hits them where they were left vnarmed by Vertue I promise neither method nor antiquitie but after my fashion thus Iulius Caesars entrance First Iulius Caesar enters of whom Sylenus bids Iupiter beware lest he plots his deposing for hee is sayth hee great and fayre thus dangerous is the neighbour-hood of Ambition Caesars ambition for all other affections that are wont to maintaine amity are not here for Ambition loues nothing but it selfe nor pitties nor regards so both commending his reason and passion to bee slaues to this humour is good onely for that to all other dangerous Besides the humour he had two instruments belonging to it he was great and faire alas what account should we make of our reason since she suffereth the vainest occasions to beget the seriousest purposes Is it not pitifull that Valour should be beholding to the Drumme and Trumpet and flying of the colours and the glittering of Armour Yet is it and I thinke few spirits but amongst the rest haue found these the inflamer of courage no lesse absurd is the election of a Magistrate by his beautie Not good to elect a Magistrate for his beauty yet is it common for that Whorish affection to preuaile the which rank'd with this greatnesse ouercomming sufficiency when men whose euidence lyeth in their titles shall possesse places where wisedome is behoueful patrias laudes sentiat esse suas Of al which there is to be noted the basenesse of our choyce the sluggishnesse of our reason for not forbidding the banes And lastly how they throw themselues into the hands of Fortune with managing these high things so basely In the description of Octauius entrance Octauius entrance I note Poetries power he makes him appeare in diuers colours which me thinks His Poetry and Policie doth here more handsomely then the plaine truth for it had not bin so fit to haue sayd Policy sutes his forme like the occasion and alters as it alters of him Sylenus Papae quam varium hoc animal such must be policy for his trade is with the diuers dispositions of man and according to them must be diuers Then Tiberius with a graue cruel countenance Tiberius entrance who he after paints full of scarres and scabbes as testimonies of his tyranny and intemperance to whom Sylenus Longe alius mihi nunc quam ante videres His tyranny and intemperance But me thinkes his Verse is not rightly applyed for Tyrants are euer deformed mary feare in their liues makes it inward after their deaths apparant thus pretily doth time mock mortality first tying one partie and suffering the other to beate them then the losed tyed and the tyed losed thus tyranny and subiection tyranny as long as it lasts buffets his vnderlings but death at last giues the loser a time of reuenge when he woundeth their memories without feare or danger After Silenus assaults his abominable life in the Iland Caprea in no life doe the blemishes of life appeare so visibly as in Princes whose height and power as it may do much so is it most obserued I wonder hee lets him scape for Seianus his doting vpon whom was much more impardonable then the simple Claudius because the former professed craft the other alwaies gouerned by smocks and slaues At Claudius entrance Claudius entrance he repeats a Comedy and after complaines of Romulus for suffering him to come without Nacissus His committing his affaires to others Palantus and his wife Messalina thus it happens with them that beare the names of great places and lay their execution vpon others thus with them that are so tender hearted as to bee led by others thus haue I often obserued seruile conditions to vndermine their masters there being great losse in granting to the will of intercessors for the gift is theirs the thanks anothers wherefore it is the duty of discretiō to reserue to themselues the occasion of importance and he that giueth to be vnknown himselfe to him that he giues Now comes Nero and his harpe Neroes entrance delighting with playing on the harpe nothing is so fast tyed to vs as our faults we are neuer mentioned without them they hackney our names to death and neuer leaue spurring them till they haue killed them This man saith Silenus imitates Apollo
vnderstand that his youth deserued not contempt and brought them to be assistants in the wars against Persia Caesar lower but no lesse politikely he tooke the occasion of his daughters death and in an office of affection presented the people with pleasures and nouelties munus populo aepulumque pronuntiauit in filiae memoriam quod ante eum nemo fecit this was a taste of their likings a loue letter of an Amorist which if taken more wil be taken Caesar seems in the difficulty of their conquests the worthier no nation of Alexanders being comparable either to the Gaules or Heluetians but in the vpshot alike both the Persian Pompey being greater in reputation then truth they did well as long as they went with the tyde it was the generation long before spent that made the Persian diademe shine with Imperiall title the vigor of necessity that is wont to moue magnanimity was taken away and now left an ouerflowing of fortune which makes men degenerate and become slothfull Pompey became great by the trauels of Lucullus and others neither his managing the ciuil wars was as it should be nor his aduersity rightly managed so that me thinks beholding him I behold nothing but a bubble of fortunes for their particular valours they were both valiant in their military discipline they differed which might be by the difference of their aduersaries nature and country in the speciall point of Armes they agreed to encounter the hearts of men as well as bodies Therfore did Alexander deny Parmenio the inuading his enemies by night answering the conquests of their hearts generally not of a particular army was the way the Empire of Persia being aboundant in men could neuer haue bin ouercome if their discourse could haue laid the Macedonian cōquests vpon any accident but then vanquished when feare should make them superstitiously adde to the valour of their enemies and think basely of their owne strengths not thus but to the same purpose Caesar neuer misliked the multitude of his enemies difficulty being euer a spurre to his actions That humor that Caesar possest his Souldiers with at the scorning life at the hands of Caesars enemies I find not in Alexanders yet had he one of the chiefe instigators the being stil a Conqueror for had Caesar sometimes lost they would haue growne weary This branch came first from the root of successe seconded by some gallant spirits of Caesars side emulated by their followers rewarded by Caesar both held the hearts of the souldiers by liberality the onely meanes to make them apt for great matters and his meanes that attempts great matters that which wee call the common good this is a chiefe limbe of the ingrossing which alienates the harts of subiects more then any thing and with those natures that must feele the effects of vertue with their hand no doubt liberality makes them daring the contrary Cowards Alexander maintained this honestest thankes to his Patrimony for a spirit that aimes at so great matters cannot determine those things dishonest that are any thing auaileable Suetonius sayth of Caesar Vrbes diruit saepius ob praedam quam delictum an impardonable fault for though fury smart or rapine may carry the common Souldier past the bounds of reason yet should the Generals minde be still one and behold nothing with so much loue as iustice but this was the violence of Ambition who dares displease right then her assistants Caesar after his victories vsed to giue his souldiers an accustomed liberty a president for all the successe dangerous for of all rewards and incouragements libertie is the most dangerous to the giuer Contrariwise Alexander then curbed his Souldiers doubting insolency the destinate disease of successe which he did by giuing education to the Persian youth and after imploying them a designe full of wisedome for his conquests hauing layd all things at her feete they had no need of his direction but hee of their loyalties which had they found and found before his possession of other strengths doubtlesse they would haue made him their slaue that counted himselfe Monarch of the World but this I find it discōmodious to rely vpon one assistant for two are not so likely to fayle as one and to say truth both will be the more true because they are two Equally did they subiect their bodies to rayse their reputations they knew the force of example and restrayned appetite for honours sake Alexander would not adde to the thirst of his companions with the quenching of his owne Caesar in a straight lodging gaue his friends the house and lay himself in the ayre I cannot say in the cold for he that is wrapt in the fiery thoughts of ambition cannot feele heate nor cold nor any of these distemperatures it is idlenesse that betraies vs to the opinion of aches and infirmities for he that imploies his minde carrieth his body about without feeling the burthen the vse of these is an excellent remedy against enuy meane fortunes thinking greatnesse loues greatnesse to nourish delicacy but this is disproued by partaking with their extremities Both intertained a sweetnesse of nature in bewayling the misery or death of their enemies which whether it came from the grounds of clemency or otherwise to wrap some other purpose in is hardly to be discerned for there is no such counterfaiter to the life as an aspiring disposition Thus Caesar sate vp the statues of Silla and Pompey thus Alexander kindly and honestly entertained the wife and mother of Darius Caesar took to mercy the relikes of Pompeys ouerthrowne Army Alexander suffered the mother of Darius to solemnize the burials of his slaine enemies which compassion is the onely balme to heale vp the wound of reuenge Lastly Caesar wept at the sight of Pompeys head and Alexander sharply executed the murtherer of Darius In the first I see how pretily dissimulation can apply her selfe sometimes for surely Caesar felt no remorse in the hardnesse of his labours such thoughts attend decay'd estates not the summer of fortune In the other one death serues two turnes for death rewarded him and death mitigated the rancor likely to spring out of the ashes of Darius About conspiracies Alexander spake as Caesar thought Satius est alieno me mori scelere quam metu meo they might haue liued longer if they had been of another minde yet I thinke they chose well for they chose the easiest for feare runnes diuision vpon death euery thought being an instrument of torment at the end they meete in the last course of greatnesse Alexander was a King and would needs be a god Caesar because not a King a King thus doe the baits of fortune coozen vs and stuffe vs with monstrous and vnnatural thoughts they dyed both violent deaths the end of violent ambition for who mislikes not that one should possesse so much of honour fame and dominion as would serue many Octauius comes againe whose beginning to speake resembles his life busie in the separating enuy and