audience, If he could do them any service, and one of them furlily answering, The beft thou canft do us is, to hang thyself; he was nothing difturbed, though his court murmured; but calmly faid to the ambassador, Those who suffer injuries, are better people than those that do them. To conclude with him, being one day fallen along the ground, and seeing himself in that posture, he cried out, What a small spot of earth do we take up! and yet the whole world cannot con

tent us.

§. V. ALEXANDER was very temperate and virtuous in his youth: a certain governor having written to him, that a merchant of the place had feveral fine boys to fell, he returned him this answer with great indignation, What haft thou feen in any act of my life, that should put thee upon fuch a meffage as this? and avoided the woman his courtiers flung in his way to debauch him. Nay, he would not fee the wife of Darius, famed for the most beautiful princefs of the age, which, with his other virtues, made Darius (the last Persian king) to fay, If God has determined to take my empire from me, I wish it into the hands of Alexander, my virtuous enemy. He hated covetoufnefs; for though he left great conquefts, he left no riches; which made him thus to anfwer one that afked him dying, Where he had hid his treasures; Among my friends, fays he. He was wont to fay, He owed more to his mafter for his education, than to his father for his birth; by how much it was lefs to live, than to live well.

§. VI. PTOLEMY, fon of Lagus, being reproached for his mean original, and his friends angry that he did not refent it; We ought, fays he, to bear reproaches patiently.

§. VII. XENOPHANES being jeered for refufing to play at a forbidden game, answered, I do not fear my money, but my reputation: they that make laws, muft keep them. A com ndable faying. s being taken fick, he faid, It was uct him of his mortality.

§. VIII. A warning fro

A poet

A poet flattering him with the title of the Son of God; he answered, My fervant knows the contrary. Another fycophant telling him, that the will of kings is the rule of juftice: No, faith he, rather juftice is the rule of the will of kings. And being preffed by his minions to put a garrison into Athens, to hold the Greeks in fubjection, he anfwered, He had not a stronger garrifon than the affections of his people.

§. IX. THEMISTOCLES, after all the honour of his life, fits down with this conclufion, That the way to the grave is more defirable than the way to worldly honours. His daughter being courted by one of little wit and great wealth, and another of little wealth and great goodness; he chofe the poor man for his fon-in-law; For, faith he, I will rather have a man without money, than money without a man; reckoning, that not money, but worth, makes the man. Being told by Symmachus, that he would teach him the art of memory; he gravely anfwered, He had rather learn the art of forgetfulness; adding, He could remember enough, but many things he could not forget, which were neceffary to be forgotten; as the honours, glories, pleasures and conquests he had spent his days in, too apt to transport to vain glory.

§. X. ARISTIDES, a wife and juft Greek, of greatest honour and truft with the Athenians; he was a great enemy to cabals in government: the reafon he renders is, Because, faith he, I would not be obliged to authorize injuftice. He fo much hated covetousness, though he was thrice chofen treasurer of Athens, that he lived and died poor, and that of choice: for being therefore reproached by a rich ufurer, he answered, Thy riches hurt thee, more than my poverty hurts me. Being once banished by a contrary faction in the state, he prayed to God, That the affairs of his country might go fo well, as never to need his return; which however caufed him presently to be recalled. Whereupon he told them, That he was not troubled for his exile with respect to himself, but the honour of his country. Themistocles, their general, had a project to propofe

to

to render Athens miftrefs of Greece, but it required fecrefy the people obliged him to communicate it to Ariftides, whofe judgment they would follow. Ariftides having privately heard it from Themiftocles, publickly anfwered to the people, True, there was nothing more advantageous, nor nothing more unjuft: which quafhed the project.

§. XI. PERICLES, as he mounted the tribunal, prayed to God, That not a word might fall from him that might fcandalize the people, wrong the public affairs, or hurt his own. One of his friends praying him to speak falfly in his favour, We are friends, faith he, but not beyond the altar; meaning not again't religion and truth. Sophocles, being his companion, upon fight of a beautiful woman, faid to Pericles, Ah, what a lovely creature is that! to whom Pericles replied, It becometh a magiftrate not only to have his hands clean, but his tongue and eyes alfo.

§. XII. PHOCION, a famous Athenian, was honest and poor, yea, he contemned riches: for a certain governor making rich prefents, he returned them; faying, I refused Alexander's. And when feveral perfuaded him to accept of fuch bounty, or else his children would want, he anfwered, If my fon be virtuous, I fhall leave him enough; and if he be vicious, more would be too little. He rebuked the excefs of the Athenians, and that openly, faying, He that eateth more than he ought, maketh more diseases than he can cure. To condemn or flatter him, was to him alike. Demofthenes telling him, Whenever the people were enraged, they would kill him; he answered, And thee alfo, when they are come to their wits. He faid, An orator was like a cypress tree, fair and great, but fruitless. Antipater, preffing him to fubmit to his fenfe, he answered, Thou canft not have me for a friend and flatterer too. Seeing a man in office to fpeak much, and do little, he asked, How can that man do business, that is already drunk with talking? After all the great fervices of his life, he was unjustly condemned to die; and going to the place of execution, lamented of the people, one of

P 2

his

his enemies fpit in his face; he took it without any diforder of mind, only saying, Take him away. Before execution, his friends afked him, Whether he had nothing to fay to his fon? Yes, faid he, let him not hate my enemies, nor revenge my death: I fee it is better to fleep upon the earth with peace, than with trouble upon the fofteft bed: that he ought to do that which is his duty, and what is more is vanity: that he must not carry two faces: that he promise little, but keep his promises: the world does the contrary.

§. XIII. CLITOMACHUS had fo great a love to virtue, and practised it with fuch exactness, that if at any time in company he heard wanton or obfcene difcourfe, he was wont to quit the place.

§. XIV. EPAMINONDAS being invited to a facrificial feaft, fo foon as he had entered he withdrew, because of the sumptuous furniture and attire of the place and people; faying, I was called at Leuctra to a facrifice, but I find it is a debauch. The day after the great battle which he obtained upon his enemies he seemed fad and folitary, which was not his ordinary temper; and being asked why? anfwered, I would moderate the joy of yesterday's triumphs. A Theffalian general, and his colleague in a certain enterprize, knowing his poverty, fent him two thousand crowns to defray his part of the charges; but he feemed angry, and anfwered, This looks like corrupting me; contenting himself with less than five pounds, which he borrowed of one of his friends for that fervice. The fame moderation made him refuse the presents of the Perfian emperor, faying, They were needlefs, if he only defired of him what was juft; if more, he was not rich enough to corrupt him. Seeing a rich man refufe to lend one of his friends money that was in affliction; he said, Art not thou afhamed to refuse to help a good man in neceffity? After he had freed Greece from trouble, and made the Thebans his countrymen triumph over the Lacedæmonians, (till then invincible) that ungrateful people arraigned him and his friends, under pretence of acting fomething without authority; he, as general,

took

took the blame upon himself, juftified the action both from neceffity and fuccefs, arraigning his judges for ingratitude, whilft himself was at the bar; which caufed them to withdraw with fallen countenances, and hearts fmitten with guilt and fear. To conclude, he was a man of great truth and patience, as well as wifdom and courage; for he was never obferved to lie, in earneft or in jeft. And notwithstanding the ill and crofs humours of the Thebans, aggravated by his incomparable hazards and fervices for their freedom and renown, it is reported of him, that he ever bore them patiently; often faying, That he ought no more to be revenged of his country, than of his father. And being wounded to death in the battle of Mantinea, he advised his countrymen to make peace, none being fit to command: which proved true. He would not fuffer them to pull the fword out of his body, till he knew he had gained the victory; and then he ended his days, with this expreffion in his mouth, I die contentedly, for it is in defence of my country; and I am fure I fhall live in the eternal memory of good men. This, for a Gentile and a general, hath matter of praise and example in it.

§. XV. DEMOSTHENES, the great orator of Athens, had these fentences: That wife men fpeak little; and that therefore nature hath given men two ears and one tongue, to hear more than they speak. To one that fpoke much he faid, How cometh it, that he who taught thee to speak, did not teach thee to hold thy tongue? He faid of a covetous man, That he knew not how to live all his life-time, and that he left it for another to live after he was dead. That it was an easy thing to deceive one's felf, because it was easy to perfuade one's felf to what one defired. He faid, That calumnies were eafily received, but time would always discover them. That there was nothing more uneasy to good men, than not to have the liberty of speaking freely: and that if one knew what one had to suffer from the people, one would never meddle to govern them. In fine, That man's happiness was to be like

P 3

God;