214 History of Nature. [BOOK VII. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



Of Ingenuities, or the Commendations of some Men for their 

 Ingenuity. 



WHO is able to make a muster of them that have been 

 excellent in Ingenuity through so many kinds of Sciences, 

 and such a variety of Works and Things? Unless perhaps 

 we agree that Homer, the Greek Prophet, excelled all others, 

 considering either the subject matter or the happy fortune 

 of his Work. And therefore Alexander the Great (for in so 

 proud a decision I shall cite the Judgment of the highest, 

 and of those that are beyond Envy), having found among 

 the Spoils of Darius, king of the Persians, his Casket of 

 sweet Ointments, which was richly embellished with Gold, 

 Pearls, and precious Stones ; when his friends shewed him 

 many uses to which the Cabinet might be put, considering 

 that Alexander, as a Soldier engaged in War, and soiled with 

 its service, was disgusted with those Unguents : By Hercules, 

 he said, let it be devoted to the care of Homer's Books, that 

 the most precious Work of the Human Mind should be pre- 

 served in the richest of all Caskets. The same Prince, when 

 he took Thebes, commanded that the Dwelling-house and 

 Family of the Poet Pindar* should be spared. He refounded 

 the native place (Patria) of Aristotle the Philosopher ; and 

 so mingled a kind Testimony for one who threw light on 

 all things in the World. Apollo, at Delphi, revealed the 

 murderers of Archilochus the Poet. When Sophocles, the 

 Prince of the Tragic Buskin, was dead, and the Walls of 

 the City were besieged by the Lacedaemonians, Liber Pater 

 commanded that he should be buried ; and he admonished 

 Lysander their King several times as he slept, to suffer his 

 delight to be interred. The King made diligent inquiry who 



1 " The Macedonian conqueror bade spare 



The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower 

 Went to the ground." MILTON. 



