THE FIRST BOOK. 57 



with counsellors of princes, that they counsel their masters 

 according to the model of their own mind and fortune, and 

 not of their masters' ; when, upon Darius's great offers, 

 Parmenio had said, Surely I would accept these offers, were I as 

 Alexander; saith Alexander, So would /, were I as Parmenio. 



Lastly, weigh that quick and acute reply, which he made 

 when he gave so large gifts to his friends and servants, 

 and was asked what he did reserve for himself, and he 

 answered, Hope: weigh, I say, whether he had not cast 

 up his account aright, because hope must be the portion of all 10 

 that resolve upon great enterprises. For this was Caesar's 

 portion when he went first into Gaul, his estate being then 

 utterly overthrown with largesses. And this was likewise 

 the portion of that noble prince, howsoever transported with 

 ambition, Henry Duke of Guise, of whom it was usually said, 

 that he was the greatest usurer in France, because he had 

 turned all his estate into obligations. 



To conclude, therefore : as certain critics are used to 

 say hyperbolically, That if all sciences were lost they might be 

 found in Virgil ! so certainly this may be said truly, there 20 

 are the prints and footsteps of learning in those few speeches 

 which are reported of this prince : the admiration of whom, 

 when I consider him not as Alexander the Great, but as 

 Aristotle's scholar r hath carried me too far. 



As for Julius Caesar, the excellency of his .learning 

 needeth not to be argued from his education, or his company, 

 or his speeches ; but in a further degree doth declare itself in 

 his writings and works ; whereof some are extant and per 

 manent, and some unfortunately perished. For, first, we 

 see, there is left unto us that excellent history of his own 30 

 wars, which he intitled only a Commentary, wherein all 

 succeeding times have admired the solid weight of matter, 

 and the real passages and lively images of actions and 

 persons, expressed in the greatest propriety of words and 

 perspicuity of narration that ever was ; which that it was 

 not the effect of a natural gift, but of learning and precept, 



