that excellent ufe of a metaphor or translation, wherewith he taxed Antipater, who was an imperious and tyrannous 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 Perfian pride in use of purple, but kept the ancient habit of Macedon, of black: True,' faith Alexander, but Antipater is all purple within.' Or that other, when Parmenio came to him in the plain of Arbela, and fhowed him the innumerable multitude of his enemies, especially as they appeared by the infinite number of lights, as it had been a new firmament of stars, and thereupon advised him to affail them by night: whereupon he answered, ‘That he would not steal the victory.'

For matter of policy, weigh that fignificant diftinction, fo much in all ages embraced, that he made between his two friends, Hephæftion and Craterus, when he said, That the one loved Alexander, and the other loved the king'; defcribing the principal difference of princes' beft fervants, that some

in affection love their person, and others in duty love their crown.

Weigh alfo that excellent taxation [= cenfure] 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 Dariuf's great offers, Parmenio had faid, 'Surely I would accept thefe offers, were I as Alexander'; faith Alexander, ‘So would I, were I as Parmenio.'

Laftly, weigh that quick and acute reply which he made when he gave so large gifts to his friends and fervants, and was asked what he did referve for himself, and he answered, 'Hope': weigh, I say, whether he had not cast up his account right, because hope must be the portion of all that refolve upon great enterprises. For this was Cæfar's portion when he went first into Gaul, his estate being then utterly overthrown with largeffes. And this was likewife the portion of that noble prince, howsoever transported with ambition, Henry Duke of Guife, of whom it was usually said, that he was the greateft ufurer in France, because he had turned all his estate into obligations.

To conclude, therefore, as certain critics are used to say hyperbolically, 'That if all fciences were loft, they might be found in Virgil'; fo certainly this may be faid 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 confider him not as Alexander the Great, but as Ariftotle's scholar, hath carried me too far. (Advancement of Learning, Book I.)

HISTORY.

Its Nature and Sources.

The books which are written do in their kinds represent the faculties of the mind of man: Poefy his imagination; Philofophy his reafon; and History his memory. Of which three faculties leaft exception is commonly taken to memory; because imagination is oftentimes idle and reafon litigious. So likewise History, of all writings, deferveth leaft taxation [=accufation], as

that which holdeth leaft of the author and most of the things themselves. Again, the ufe which it holdeth to man's life, if it be not the greateft, yet affuredly is the freeft from any ill accident or quality. For those which are converfant much in facts, as they attain to great variety, fo withal they become conceited; and those that are brought up in philosophy and fciences do wax (according as their nature is) fome of them too ftiff and opinionate, and fome others too perplexed and confused. Whereas Hiftory poffeffeth the mind of the conceits which are nearest allied unto action, and imprinteth them fo, as it doth not alter the complexion of the mind, neither to irresolution nor pertinacity. But this is true, that in no fort of writings there is a greater distance between the good and the bad, no, not between the most excellent poet and the vaineft rhymer, nor between the deepest philofophy and the most frivolous Schoolmen, than there is between good hiftories and those that bear the fame or the like title. In which regard, having proposed to write the History of England from the beginning

of the reign of King Henry the Eighth of that name near unto the present time, wherein Queen Elizabeth reigneth in good felicity, I am delivered of the excufe wherewith the best writers of history are troubled in their proëms, when they go about without breaking the bounds of modefty, to give a reasoh why they fhould write that again which others have written well, or at leaft tolerably, before. For those which I am to follow are such as I may rather fear the reproach of coming into their number, than the opinion of presumption if I hope to do better than they. But, in the meantime, it must be confidered, that the best of the ancient Hiftories were contrived out of divers particular Commentaries, Relations, and Narratives, which was not hard to digeft with ornament, and thereof to compound one entire story. And as at the first fuch Writers had the ease of others' labours, fo fince they have the whole commendation; in regard thefe former writings are for the most part loft, whereby their borrowings do not appear. But unto me the disadvantage is great, finding no public memories of any