66 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



so good a subject ' : but saith he, ' Turn your style, 

 and let us hear what you can say against us ' : which 

 Callisthenes presently undertook, and did with that 

 sting and hfe, that Alexander interrupted him and said, 

 ' The goodness of the cause made him eloquent before, 

 and despite made him eloquent then again.' 



17. Consider further, for tropes of rhetoric, that 

 excellent use of a metaphor or translation, wherewith 

 he taxed Antipater, who was an imperious and tyran- 

 nous governor : for when one of Antipater's friends 

 commended him to Alexander for his moderation, that 

 he did not degenerate, as his other lieutenants did, 

 into the Persian pride, in use of purple, but kept the 

 ancient habit of Macedon, of black ; ' True (saith 

 Alexander), but Antipater is all purple within.' Or 

 that other, when Parmenio came to him in the plain of 

 Arbela, and showed him the innumerable multitude of 

 his enemies, specially as they appeared by the infinite 

 number of lights, as it had been a new firmament of 

 stars, and thereupon advised him to assail them by 

 night : whereupon he answered, ' That he would not 

 steal the victory.' 



18. For matter of poKcy, weigh that significant dis- 

 tinction, so much in all ages embraced, that he made 

 between his two friends Hephaestion and Craterus, 

 when he said, ' That the one loved Alexander, and the 

 other loved the king ' : describing the principal 

 difference of princes' best servants, that some in 

 affection love their person, and other in duty love 

 their crown. 



19. Weigh also that excellent taxation of an error, 

 ordinary 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' great offers Parmenio had said, ' Surely I would 

 accept these offers, were I as Alexander ' ; saith 

 Alexander, ' So would I were I as Parmenio.' 



20. Lastly, weigh that quick and acute reply, which 

 he made when he gave so large gifts to his friends 

 and servants, ani was asked what he did reserve for 



