I.] ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 133 



stars, and thereupon advised him to assail them by night : whereupon 

 he .answered that he would not steal the victory.&quot; 



For matter of policy, weigh that significant distinction, so much in 

 all ages embraced, that he made between his two friends, Hephacstion 

 and Craterus, when he said, &quot; That the one loved Alexander, and the 

 other loved the king :&quot; describing the principal difference of princes 

 best servants, that some in affection love their person, and others in 

 dr.ty love their crown. 



Weigh also that excellent taxation of an error ordinary with coun 

 sellors and princes, that they counsel their masters according to the 

 model of their own mind and fortune, and not of their masters ; when, 

 upon Darius s great offers, Parmenio had said, &quot; Surely I would accept 

 these offers, were I as Alexander ; &quot; saith Alexander, &quot; So would I, were 

 1 as I armcnio.&quot; 



Lastly, weigh that quick and acute reply, which he made when he 

 gave so large gifts to his friends and servants, and was asked what he 

 did reserve for himself, and he answered, &quot; Hope : &quot; weigh, I say, 

 whether he had not cast up his account right, because hope must be 

 the portion of all that resolve upon great enterprises. For this was 

 Caesar s portion when he went first into Gaul, his estate beingthcn utterly 

 overthrown with largesses. And this was likewise the portion of that noble 

 prince, howsoever transported with ambition, Henry duke of Guise, of 

 whom it was usually said, that he was the greatest usurer in France, 

 because he had turned all his estate into obligations. 



To conclude therefore : as certain critics arc used to say hypcrboli- 

 cally, &quot;That if all sciences were lost, they might be found in Virgil ; 

 so certainly this may be said truly, there are the prints and footsteps 

 of all learning in those few speeches which are reported of this prince : 

 the admiration of whom, when I consider him not as Alexander the 

 great, but as Aristotle s scholar, hath carried me too far. 



As for Julius Caesar, the excellency of his learning needeth not to 

 be argued from his education, or his company, or his speeches ; but in 

 a farther degree doth declare itself in his writings and works ; whereof 

 some are extant and permanent, and some unfortunately perished. 

 For, first we sec, there is left unto us that excellent history of his own 

 wars, which he intitled only a commentary, wherein all succeeding 

 times have admired the solid weight of matter, and the real passages, 

 and lively images of actions and persons, expressed in the greatest 

 propriety of words and perspicuity of narration that ever was ; which 

 that it was not the effect of a natural gift, but of learning and precept, 

 is well witnessed by that work of his, intitled &quot; DC Analogia,&quot; being a 

 grammatical philosophy, wherein he did labour to make this same 

 vox ad placitum to become -vox ad licitum, and to reduce custom 

 of speech to congruity of speech ; and took, as it were, the picture of 

 words from the life of reason. 



So we receive from him, as a monument both of his power and 

 learning, the then reformed computation of the year ; well expressing 

 that he took it to be as great a glory to himself to observe and kno^v 

 the law of the heavens, as to give law to men upon the earth. 



