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‘XXII 11.] THE SECOND BOOK. | 227 
his government, and giving an account thereof to the 
people as the manner was, did conclude every particu- 
lar with this clause, And im this fortune had no part. 
And it came so to pass, that he never prospered in any 
thing he took in hand afterward. For this is too high and 
too arrogant, savouring of that which Ezekiel saith of 
Pharaoh, Dicz's, Fluvius est meus et ego fect memet tpsum : 
or of that which another prophet speaketh, that men offer 
sacrifices to their nets and snares; and that which the 
poet expresseth, : 
Dextra mihi Deus, et telum quod missile libro, 
Nunc adsint! 
For these confidences were ever unhallowed, and un- 
blessed: and therefore those that were great politiques 
indeed ever ascribed their successes to their felicity, and 
not to their skill or virtue. For so Sylla surnamed him- 
self Felix, not Magnus. So Cesar said to the master of 
the ship, Cesarem portas et fortunam ejus. 
12. But yet nevertheless these positions, aber quis- 
que fortune sue: Sapiens dominabitur astris: Invia virtuti 
nulla est via, and the like, being taken and used as spurs 
to industry, and not as stirrups to insolency, rather for 
resolution than for the presumption or outward de- 
claration, have been ever thought sound and good; and 
are no question imprinted in the greatest minds, who 
are so sensible of this opinion, as they can scarce con- 
tain it within. As we see in Augustus Czesar (who was 
rather diverse from his uncle than inferior-in virtue), how 
when he died he desired his friends about him to give 
him a plaudite, as if he were conscient to himself that he 
had played his part well upon the stage. This part of 
knowledge we do report also as deficient: not but that it 
is practised too much, but it hath not been reduced to 
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