ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 77 



cerns policy, weigh that grave and wise distinction, which 

 all ages have accepted, which he made between his two 

 chief friends, Hephaestion and Craterus, saying, &quot;That the 

 one loved Alexander, and the other the king.&quot; Also ob 

 serve how he rebuked the error ordinary with counsellors 

 of princes, which leads them to give advice according to 

 the necessity of their own interest and fortune, and not of 

 their master s. When Darius had made certain proposals 

 to Alexander, Parmenio said, &quot;I would accept these con 

 ditions if I were Alexander.&quot; Alexander replied, &quot;So 

 surely would 1 were 1 Parmenio.&quot; Lastly, consider his 

 reply to his friends, who asked him what he would re 

 serve for himself, since he lavished so many valuable gifts 

 upon others. &quot;Hope,&quot; said Alexander, who well knew 

 that, all accounts being cleared &quot;hope is the true inher 

 itance of all that resolve upon great enterprises.&quot; This 

 was Julius Caesar s portion when he went into Gaul, all 

 his estate being exhausted by profuse largess. And it was 

 also the portion of that noble prince, howsoever transported 

 with ambition, Henry, Duke of Guise; for he was pronounced 

 the greatest usurer in all France, because all his wealth was 

 in names, and he had turned his whole estate into obliga 

 tions. But perhaps the admiration of this prince in the 

 light, not of a great king, but as Aristotle s scholar, has 

 carried me too far. 



As regards Julius Caesar, his learning is not only evinced 

 in his education, company, and speeches, but in a greater 

 degree shines forth in such of his works as have descended 

 to us. In the Commentary, that excellent history which he 

 has left us, of his own wars, succeeding ages have admired 

 the solidity of the matter, the vivid passages and the lively 

 images of actions and persons, expressed in the greatest 

 propriety of diction and perspicuity of narration. That 

 this excellence of style was not the effect of undisciplined 

 talent, but also of learning and precept, is evident from that 

 work of his, entitled &quot;De Analog! a,&quot; Joe in which he pro- 



106 Vid. Cic. Brutus, 72. 



