2i6 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



And herein again it may seem a thing scholastical, and 

 somewhat idle, to recite things that every man knoweth ; 

 but yet since the argument I handle leadeth me thereunto, 

 I am glad that men shall perceive I am as willing to flatter 

 (if they will so call it) an Alexander or a Caesar or an 

 Antoninus, that are dead many hundred years since, as any 

 that now liveth : for it is the displaying of the glory of 

 learning in sovereignty that I propound to myself, and not 

 an humour of declaiming in any man's praises. Observe 

 then the speech he used of Diogenes, and see if it tend not 

 to the true state of one of the greatest questions of moral 

 philosophy; whether the enjoying of outward things or the 

 contemning of them be the greatest happiness; for when 

 he saw Diogenes so perfectly contented with so little, he 

 said to those that mocked at his condition, ' Were I not 

 Alexander, I would wish to be Diogenes.' But Seneca 

 inverteth it, and saith, Plus erat quod hie nollet accipere, 

 quam quod ilk posset dare. There were more things which 

 Diogenes would have refused, than those were which 

 Alexander could have given or enjoyed. 



Observe again that speech which was usual with him, 

 1 That he felt his mortality chiefly in two things, sleep and 

 lust ' ; and see if it were not a speech extracted out of the 

 depth of natural philosophy, and liker to have come out 

 of the mouth of Aristotle or Democritus than from 

 Alexander. 



See again that speech of humanity and poesy ; when 

 upon the bleeding of his wounds, he called unto him one 

 of his flatterers that was wont to ascribe to him divine 

 honour, and said, ' Look, this is very blood ; this is not 

 such a liquor as Homer speaketh of, which ran from 

 Venus' hand when it was pierced by Diomedes.' 



See likewise his readiness in reprehension of logic, in 

 the speech he used to Cassander upon a complaint that was 

 made against his father Antipater : for when Alexander 

 happed to say, ' Do you think these men would have 

 come from so far to complain, except they had just cause 

 of grief ? ' and Cassander answered, c Yea, that was the 

 matter, because they thought they should not be dis- 



