ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 75 



great monarch set upon learning appears in the envy he 

 expressed of Achilles great fortune in having so good a 

 trumpet of his actions and prowess as Homer s verses; in 

 the judgment he gave concerning what object was most 

 worthy to be inclosed in the cabinet of Darius found 

 among his spoils, which decided the question in favor of 

 Homer s works; in his reprehensory letter to Aristotle, 

 when chiding his master for laying bare the mysteries of 

 philosophy, he gave him to understand that himself es 

 teemed it more glorious to excel others in learning and 

 knowledge than in power and empire. As to his own 

 erudition, evidences of its perfection shine forth in all 

 his speeches and writing, of which, though only small 

 fragments have come down to us, yet even these are 

 richly impressed with the footsteps of the moral sciences. 

 For example, take his words to Diogenes, and judge if 

 they do not inclose the very kernel of one of the greatest 

 questions in moral philosophy, viz., whether the enjoy 

 ment or the contempt of earthly things leads to the great 

 est happiness; for upon seeing Diogenes contented with so 

 little, he turned round to his courtiers, who were deriding 

 the cynic s condition, and said, &quot;If I were not Alexander, 

 I would be Diogenes. 1 (But Seneca, in his comparison, 

 gives the preference to Diogenes, saying that Diogenes had 

 more things to refuse than it was in the disposition of Alex 

 ander to confer.) 102 For his skill in natural science, observe 

 his customary saying, that he felt his mortality chiefly in 

 two things sleep and lust. 103 This expression, pointing as 

 it does to the indigence and redundance of nature manifested 

 by these two harbingers of death, savors more of an Aris 

 totle and a Democritus than of an Alexander. In poesy, 

 regard him rallying in his wounds one of his flatterers, who 

 was wont to ascribe unto him Divine honor. &quot;Look,&quot; 

 said he, &quot;this is the blood of a man not such liquor as 

 Homer speaks of, which ran from Venus s hand when it 



102 Seneca de Belief, v. 5. 103 Vid. Seneca, Ep. Mor. vi. 7. 



