Epistle Dedicatory 7 



thought quite differently. For Mithridates, king of 

 Pontus and Bithynia, understanding that he was the 

 head of his domains, and that his native tongue alone 

 was by no means sufficient for the numerous bodies, over 

 which he reigned, learned so perfectly and understood 

 so thoroughly the twenty-two tongues 1 of the nations, 

 which he had under his sway, that he gave immediate 

 answers to twenty men of those nations without an 

 interpreter, and spoke to each in his own tongue just as 

 if it had been native to him. He also so thoroughly 

 traced out the hidden natures of things, and occupied 

 himself to such good purpose in the science of medi- 

 cine, that he discovered by his own exertions an 

 antidote to deadly poisons, which even to-day is called 

 Mithridatium, a name derived from him. The great 

 Alexander, king of the Macedonians, rightly renowned 

 as much for the gifts of nature as for those of fortune, 

 burned with so great a zeal for the noble arts, and 

 philosophy in particular, that he even descended to 

 a sort of literary jealousy. For though he was 

 holding almost all Asia by force of arms and his 

 troops, when first he heard that Aristotle had made 

 public his books ' De Auscultatione Physica,' in the 

 midst of such great concerns he expostulated with 

 Aristotle in the following words, a letter having been 

 at once sent off concerning the publication of the 

 books: "In that you have published your teachings 

 called aKpoa^ariKol you have not done rightly ; for 

 in what other thing shall I be able to excel the rest, 

 if those things, which I have heard from you, become 

 henceforth the common property of all ? For I should 

 prefer to stand first in learning rather than in re- 

 sources and wealth." Thus said Alexander. 



The great king David, approved by the voice of 



1 'Duas' is perhaps a misprint for 'duarum.' 



