ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 31 



sleep and lust* This expression, pointing as it does to the 

 indigence and redundance of nature manifested by these two 

 harbingers of death, savors more of an Aristotle and a Democri- 

 tus 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. " Look," said he, " this is the blood of a man 

 not such liquor as Homer speaks of, which ran from Venus's 

 hand when it was pierced by Diomedes."' In logic, observe, 

 in addition to his power of detecting fallacies and confuting or 

 retorting arguments, his rebuke to Cassander, who ventured to 

 confute the arraigners of Antipater, his father, Alexander hav- 

 ing incidentally asked : " Do you think these men would come 

 so far to complain, except they had just cause? " Cassander 

 replied : " That was the very thing which had given them cour- 

 age, since they hoped that the length of the journey would 

 entirely clear them of calumnious motives." " See," said Alex- 

 ander, " the subtilty of Aristotle, taking the matter pro and 

 con." Nevertheless, he did not shrink to turn the same art 

 to his own advantage which he reprehended in others ; for, bear- 

 ing a secret grudge to Calisthenes, upon that rhetorician having 

 drawn down great applause by delivering, as was usual at ban- 

 quets, a spontaneous discourse in praise of the Macedonian 

 nation, Alexander remarked, that it was easy to be eloquent 

 upon a good topic, and requested him to change his note, and 

 let the company hear what he could say against them. Calis- 

 thenes obeyed the request with such sharpness and vivacity, that 

 Alexander interrupted him, saying : " That a perverted mind, 

 as well as a choice topic, would breed eloquence." As regards 

 rhetoric, consider his rebuke of Antipater, an imperious and 

 tyrannous governor, when one of Antipater's friends ventured 

 to extol his moderation to Alexander, saying that he had not 

 fallen into the Persian pride of wearing the purple, but still 

 retained the Macedonian habit. " But Antipater," replied 

 Alexander, " is all purple within."* Consider also that other 

 excellent metaphor which he used to Parmenio, when that gen- 

 eral showed him, from the plains of Arbela, the innumerable 

 multitude of his enemies, which, viewed as they lay encamped 

 in the night, represented a host of stars ; and thereupon advised 

 Alexander to assail them at once. The hero rejected the 

 proposition, saying : " I will not steal a victory." As concerns 

 policy, weigh that grave and wise distinction, which all ages 



