84 tTbe (Barren 



But Epicurus has found so great advocates of 

 his virtue, as well as learning and inventions, 

 that there need no more ; and the testimonies of 

 Diogenes Laertius alone seem too sincere and 

 impartial to be disputed, or to want the assist- 

 ance of modern authors ; if all failed, he would 

 be but too well defended by the excellence of so 

 many of his sect in all ages, and especially of 

 those who lived in the compass of one, but the 

 greatest in story, both as to persons and events : 

 I need name no more than Caesar, Atticus, 

 Maecenas, I/ucretius, Virgil, Horace ; all admira- 

 ble in their several kinds, and perhaps unpar- 

 alleled in story. 



Caesar, if considered in all lights, may justly 

 challenge the first place in the registers we 

 have of mankind, equal only to himself, and 

 surpassing all others of his nation and his age, 

 in the virtues and excellences of a statesman, 

 a captain, an orator, an historian ; besides all 

 these, a poet, a philosopher, when his leisure 

 allowed him ; the greatest man of counsel and 

 of action, of design and execution ; the greatest 

 nobleness of birth, of person, and of counte- 

 nance ; the greatest humanity and clemency of 

 nature, in the midst of the greatest provoca- 

 tions, occasions, and examples of cruelty and 

 revenge : it is true, he overturned the laws and 

 constitutions of his country, yet it was after so 



