34 BACON 



not desist, to lay him dead on the spot. But presently check- 

 ing himself, added: " Adolescens, durius est mihi hoc dicere 

 quam facere ; " Young man, it is harder for me to say this than 

 to do it.& A sentence compounded of the greatest terror and 

 clemency that could proceed out of the mouth of man. But to 

 conclude with Caesar. It is evident he was quite aware of his 

 proficiency in this respect, from his scoffing at the idea of the 

 strange resolution of Sylla, which some one expressed about his 

 resignation of the dictatorship : " Sylla," said Caesar, " was 

 unlettered, and therefore knew not how to dictate."* 



And here we should cease descanting on the concurrence of 

 military virtue with learning, as no example could come with 

 any grace after Alexander and Caesar, were it not for an ex- 

 traordinary case touching Xenophon, which raised that philos- 

 opher from the depths of scorn to the highest pinnacle of 

 admiration. In his youth, without either command or experi- 

 ence, that philosopher followed the expedition of Cyrus the 

 younger against Artaxerxes, as a volunteer, to enjoy the love 

 and conversation of his friend Proxenus.d Cyrus being slain 

 on the field, Falinus came to the remnant of his army with a 

 message from the king, who, presuming on the fewness of their 

 number, and the perilous nature of their position in the midst of 

 foreign enemies, cut off from their country by many navigable 

 rivers, and many hundred miles, had dared to command them 

 to surrender their army, and submit entirely to his mercy. Be- 

 fore an answer was returned, the heads of the army conferred 

 familiarly with Falinus, and among the rest Xenophon hap- 

 pened to say : " Why, Falinus, we have only these two things 

 left, our arms and our virtue, and if we yield up our arms, how 

 can we make use of our virtue ? " Falinus, with an ironical 

 smile, replied : " If I be not deceived, young man, you are an 

 Athenian ; and I believe you study philosophy, as you talk ad- 

 mirably well. But you grossly deceive yourself if you think 

 your courage can withstand the king's power."* Here was the 

 scorn, but the wonder followed. This young philosopher, just 

 emerged from the school of Socrates, after all the chieftains of 

 the army had been murdered by treason, conducted those ten 

 thousand foot through the heart of the king's territories, from 

 Babylon to Grseci, untouched by any of the king's forces. The 

 world, at this act of the young scholar, was stricken with aston- 

 jshrnent, and the Greeks encouraged in succeeding ages to 



