Advancement of Learning 5 1 



For matter of policy, weigh that significant distinction, 

 so much in all ages embraced, that he made between his 

 two friends, Hephaestion and Craterus, when he said, That 

 the one loved Alexander, and the other loved the king : describ 

 ing the principal difference of princes best servants, that 

 some in affection love their person, and others in duty love 

 their crown. 



Weigh also that excellent taxation of an error, ordinary 

 with counsellors of princes, that they counsel their masters 

 according to the model of their own mind and fortune, and 

 not of their masters ; when, upon Darius great offers, 

 Parmenio had said, Surely I would accept these offers, were 

 I as Alexander ; saith Alexander, So would I, were I as 

 Parmenio. 



Lastly, weigh that quick and acute reply, which he made 

 when he gave so large gifts to his friends and servants, and 

 was asked what he did reserve for himself, and he answered, 

 Hope : weigh, I say, whether he had not cast up his account 

 right, because hope must be the portion of all that resolve 

 upon great enterprises. For this was Caesar s portion when 

 he went first into Gaul, his estate being then utterly over 

 thrown with largesses. And this was likewise the portion 

 of that noble prince, howsoever transported with ambition, 

 Henry Duke of Guise, of whom it was usually said, that he 

 was the greatest usurer in France, because he had turned 

 all his estate into obligations. 



To conclude, therefore : as certain critics are used to say 

 hyperbolically, That if all sciences were lost they might be 

 found in Virgil ! so certainly this may be said truly, there 

 are the prints and footsteps of learning in those few speeches 

 which are reported of this prince : the admiration of whom, 

 when I consider him not as Alexander the Great, but as 

 Aristotle s scholar, hath carried me too far. 



As for Julius Caesar, the excellency of his learning needeth 

 not to be argued from his education, or his company, or his 

 speeches; but in a further degree doth declare itself in his 

 writings and works; whereof some are extant and perma 

 nent, and some unfortunately perished. For, first, we see 

 there is left unto us that excellent history of his own wars, 

 which he entitled only a Commentary, wherein all succeed 

 ing times have admired the solid weight of matter, and the 

 real passages and lively images of actions and persons, 



