XXIII. ii.] 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 in 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, Dia s, Fluvius est metis el ego fed memet ipsum : 

 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 Caesar said to the master of 

 the ship, Casarem portas etfortunam ejus. 



12. But yet nevertheless these positions, Faber quis- 

 que for tuna SUCK: Sapiens dominabitur astris : Invia virtuli 

 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 Caesar (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 

 Q 2 



