These are my three very true stories, which, I The writers think, I find as diverting, and as tragic, as any of must have of tragedy those we make of our own heads wherewith to enter-recourse to history for tain the common people; and I wonder they who are the subject addicted to such relations do not rather cull out ten of their thousand very fine stories, which are to be found in plays. very good authors, that would save them the trouble of invention, and be more useful and entertaining. Whoever would compose a whole play from them would need to add nothing of his own but the connection only, as it were the solder of metal; and might, by this means, compile a great many true events of all sorts, disposing and diversifying them according as the beauty of the work should require, after the same manner almost as Ovid has patched up his Metamorphosis of that infinite number of various fables.

great affec

In this last couple it is moreover worthy of consi- Seneca's deration, "That Paulina voluntarily offered to lose tion to his "her life for the love of her husband, and that her wife. "husband had formerly also forbore dying for the "love of her." There is no mighty counterpoise in this exchange as to us; but, according to his Stoical humour, I presume he thought he had done as much for her, in prolonging his life upon her account, as if he had died for her. In one of his letters to Lucilius, after he has given him to understand, that, being seized with an ague in Rome, he presently took coach to go to a house he had in the country, contrary to his wife's opinion, who would by all means persuade him to stay; and that he told her, "That the ague he was seized with was not a fever "of the body, but of the place:" it follows thus; "She let me go," says he, "with giving me a strict

66

charge of my health: now I, who know that her "life is involved in mine, begin to make much of "myself, that I may preserve her; and I lose the privilege my age has given me, of being more

* Epist. civ.

"constant and resolute in many things, when I call "to mind, that there is a young lady who is inter"ested in this old man's health; and, since I cannot "persuade her to love me more courageously, she "makes me more solicitously to love myself; for "we must allow something to honest affections; "and sometimes, though occasions importune us to "the contrary, we must call back life, even though "it be with torment; we must hold the soul within our teeth, since the rule of living amongst good "men is not so long as they please, but as long as "they ought he that loves not his wife and his "friend so well as to prolong his life for them, but "will obstinately die, is too delicate and too effemi"nate the soul must impose this upon itself, when "the utility of our friends does so require: we must "sometimes lend ourselves to our friends, and, "when we would die for ourselves, must break that "resolution for their sakes: it is a testimony of a "noble courage to return to life for the sake of ano"ther's, as many excellent persons have done and "it is a mark of singular good-nature to preserve old

age (of which the greatest convenience is an in"difference for its duration, and a more stout and "disdainful use of life) when a man perceives that "this office is pleasing, agreeable, and useful to some person whom we are very fond of; and a "man reaps a very pleasing reward from it; for "what can be more delightful than to be so dear to "one's wife, as, upon her account, to become dear "to one's self? Thus has my Paulina imputed to "me not only her fears, but my own; it has not "been sufficient for me to consider how resolutely I "could die, but I have also considered how unable "she would be to bear it: I am enforced to live, "and sometimes to live is magnanimity." These are his own excellent words, according to his usual

manner.

CHAPTER XXVII.

Of three most excellent Men.

ferred to

IF I should be asked who I prefer, of all the men Homer pre-
that have come to my knowledge, I would answer,
"That I think three more excellent than all the rest:"
one of them Homer; not but Aristotle and Varro,
for example, were perhaps as learned as he; and
possibly Virgil might compare with him, even in his
own art; I leave this to be determined by such as
know them both; I, who, for my part, understand
but one of them, can only say this, according to my
poor talent, "That I do not believe the Muses
"themselves ever surpassed the Roman."

Tale facit carmen doctâ testudine, quale
Cynthius impositis temperat articulis.

As rapt'rous joys his lute and verse inspire,
As when we hear Apollo's voice and lyre.

And yet in this judgment we are not to forget, that
it is chiefly from Homer that Virgil derives his excel-
lence; that he is his guide and teacher; and that the
Iliad only has supplied him with body and matter,
out of which to compose his great and divine Æneis.
I do not reckon upon that alone, but take in several
other circumstances that render this poet admirable
to me, even as it were above human condition: and,
in truth, I often wonder, that he who has erected,
and by his authority given so many deities reputa-
tion in the world, was not deified himself, being both
blind and poor, and so well acquainted with the
sciences, before they were reduced into rule and cer-
tain observations, that all those who have since taken
upon them to establish governments, to carry on
wars, and to write either of philosophy or religion, of
what sect soever, or of the arts, have made use of

*Propert. lib. ii. eleg. ult. ver. 79, 80.

478

him, as of a most perfect instructor, in the knowledge
of all things; and of his books as a nursery of all
sorts of learning:

Qui quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non,
Pleniùs ac melius Chrysippo ac Crantore dixit.*

Who hath what's brave, what's base, what's hurtful, and
what's good,

Clearer than Crantor or Chrysippus show'd.

and as this other says,

A quo ceu fonte perenni

Vatum Pieriis labra rigantur aquis.†

At that clear spring the poets take their swill,
Which ever flows from the Pierian hill.

and another,

Ad Heliconiadum comites, quorum unus Homerus
Astra potitus.

Of all the poets, Homer is alone

Judg'd the most worthy of the Muses' throne.

and another,

Cujusque ex ore profusa

Omnis posteritas latices in carmina duxit,
Amnemque in tenues ausa est deducere rivos,

Unius foecunda bonis.§

From whose abundant spring

Succeeding poets draw the songs they sing;

From him they take, from him adorn their themes,
And into little channels cut his streams;

Rich in his store.

It is contrary to the order of nature that he has made the most excellent production that can possibly be; for the ordinary birth of things is imperfect; they thrive and gather strength by growing: whereas he has rendered even the infancy of poesy, and of several other sciences, mature, perfect, and complete.

* Hor. lib. i. epist. 2, ver. 3.

+Ovid. Amor. lib. iii. eleg. 9, ver. 25.
Lucret. lib. iii. ver. 1050.

Manil. Astron. lib. ii. ver. 8, &c.

For this reason he may be called the first and the last of the poets, according to the fair testimony antiquity has left us of him, "That, as there was none before "him whom he could imitate, so there has been "none since that could imitate him."* His words, according to Aristotle,t are the only words that have motion and action, and are the only substantial words. Alexander the Great, having found a rich little coffer amongst Darius's spoils,t gave order "It should be reserved for him to keep his "Homer in ;" saying, "That he was the best and "most faithful counsellor he had in his military af"fairs."§ For the same reason it was that Cleomenes, the son of Anaxandridas, said, "That he was "the Lacedæmonian poet, because he was the best "master for the discipline of war." This singular and particular commendation is also left of him in the judgment of Plutarch," That he is the only "author in the world that never glutted nor dis"gusted his readers, presenting himself always in "in different lights, and always flourishing in some new grace." That merry droll Alcibiades, having asked one who pretended to learning for a book of Homer, gave him a box on the ear because he had none, which he thought as scandalous as we should for one of our priests to be without a Breviary. ** Xenophanes complained one day to Hiero,†† the tyrant of Syracuse, That he was so poor he "had not wherewithal to maintain two servants:" the tyrant replied, "Homer, who was much poorer "than you are, keeps above ten thousand now he is

• Velleii Paterculi Hist. lib. i. cap. 5.
Arist. de Politica, cap. 24.

Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vii, cap, 29.

Plutarch, in the Life of Alexander, cap. 2.
In the Notable Sayings of the Lacedæmonians.
Plutarch, in his Treatise of Loquacity, chap. 5.

* Idem, in the Life of Alcibiades, chap. 3.

++ Idem, in the Notable Sayings of the ancient Kings, &c, at the word Hiero,