168 A DISCOURSE IN PRAISE 



withstanding done -such great things, and reigned 

 in felicity. 



To speak of her fortune, that which I did reserve 

 for a garland of her honour ; and that is, that she 

 liveth a virgin, and hath no children : so it is that 

 which maketh all her other virtues and acts more 

 sacred, more august, more divine. Let them leave 

 children that leave no other memory in their times : 

 &quot; Brutorum aeternitas, soboles.&quot; Revolve in histo 

 ries the memories of happy men, and you shall not 

 find any of rare felicity but either he died childless, 

 or his line spent soon after his death ; or else was 

 unfortunate in his children. Should a man have 

 them to be slain by his vassals, as the &quot; posthumus&quot; 

 of Alexander the Great was ? or to call them his im- 

 posthumes, as Augustus Caesar called his ? Peruse 

 the catalogue : Cornelius Sylla, Julius Caesar, Fla- 

 vius Vespasianus, Severus, Constantinus the Great, 

 and many more. &quot; Generare et liberi, humana : 

 creare et operari, divina.&quot; And therefore, this ob 

 jection removed, let us proceed to take a view of her 

 felicity. 



A mate of fortune she never took : only some 

 adversity she passed at the first, to give her a 

 quicker sense of the prosperity that should follow, 

 and to make her more reposed in the divine provi 

 dence. Well, she cometh to the crown : it was no 

 small fortune to find at her entrance some such ser 

 vants and counsellors as she then found. The French 

 king, who at this time, by reason of the peace con 

 cluded with Spain, and of the interest he had in 



