Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/243

 "Now if you use such words of me, I will tell your master of you."

131. Dionysius the elder, when he saw his son in many things very inordinate, said to him, "Did you ever know me do such things?" His son answered, "No, but you had not a tyrant to your father." The father replied, "No, nor you, if you take these courses, will have a tyrant to your son."

132. Calisthenes, the philosopher, that followed Alexander's court, and hated the king, being asked by one, how one should become the famousest man in the world, answered, "By taking him away that is." 133. Sir Edward Coke was wont to say, when a great man came to dinner to him, and gave him no knowledge of his coming, "Sir, since you sent me no word of your coming, you must dine with me; but if I had known of it in due time, I would have dined with you." 134. The Romans, when they spake to the people, were wont to style them, "Ye Romans:" when commanders in war spake to their army, they styled them, "My soldiers." There was a mutiny in Cæsar's army, and somewhat the soldiers would have had, yet they would not declare themselves in it, but only demanded a mission, or discharge; though with no intention it should be granted: but knowing that Cæsar had at that time great need of their service, thought by that means to wrench him to their other desires: whereupon with one cry they asked mission. Cæsar, after silence made, said; "I for my part, ye Romans." This title did actually speak them to be dismissed: which voice they had no sooner heard, but they mutinied again; and would not suffer him to go on with his speech, until he had called them by the name of his soldiers: and so with that one word he appeased the sedition.

135. Cæsar would say of Sylla, for that he did resign his dictatorship; "Sylla was ignorant of letters, he could not dictate."

136. Seneca said of Cæsar, "that he did quickly show the sword, but never leave it off."

137. Diogenes begging, as divers philosophers then used, did beg more of a prodigal man, than of the rest which were present. Whereupon one said to him; "See your baseness, that when you find a liberal mind, you will take most of him." "No," said Diogenes, "but I mean to beg of the rest again."

138. Jason the Thessalian was wont to say, "that some things must be done unjustly, that many things may be done justly."

139. Sir Nicholas Bacon being keeper of the seal, when Queen Elizabeth, in progress, came to his house at Redgrave, and said to him, "My lo. what a little house have you gotten?" said, "Madam, my house is well, but it is you that have made me too great for my house." 140. Themistocles, when an ambassador from a mean estate did speak great matters, said to him, "Friend, your words would require a city."

141. Agesilaus, when one told him there was one did excellently counterfeit a nightingale, and would have had him hear him, said, "Why I have heard the nightingale herself." 142. A great nobleman, upon the complaint of a servant of his, laid a citizen by the heels, thinking to bend him to his servant's desire; but the fellow being stubborn, the servant came to his lord, and told him, "Your lordship, I know, hath gone as far as well you may, but it works not; for yonder fellow is more perverse than before." Said my lord, "Let's forget him a while, and then he will remember himself." 143. One came to a cardinal in Rome, and told him, that he had brought his lordship a dainty white palfrey, but he fell lame by the way. Saith the cardinal to him, "I'll tell thee what thou shalt do: go to such a cardinal, and such a cardinal," naming him some half a dozen cardinals, "and tell them as much; and so whereas by thy horse, if he had been sound, thou couldst have pleased but one, with thy lame horse thou mayst please half a dozen."

144. Iphicrates the Athenian, in a treaty that he had with the Lacedæmonians for peace, in which question was about security for observing the same, said, "The Athenians would not accept of any security, except the Lacedæmonians did yield up unto them those things, whereby it might be manifest, that they could not hurt them if they would." 145. Euripides would say of persons that were beautiful, and yet in some years, "In fair bodies not only the spring is pleasant, but also the autumn." 146. After a great fight, there came to the camp of Consalvo, the great captain, a gentleman, proudly horsed and armed. Diego de Mendoza asked the great captain, "Who is this?" Who answered, "It is Saint Ermin, who never appears but after a storm."

147. There was a captain sent to an exploit by his general with forces that were not likely to achieve the enterprise; the captain said to him, "Sir, appoint but half so many." "Why?" saith the general. The captain answered, "Because it is better fewer die than more." 148. They would say of the Duke of Guise, Henry, that had sold and oppignerated all his patrimony, to suffice the great donatives that he had made; "that he was the greatest usurer of France, because all his state was in obligations."

147. Crasus said to Cambyses, "that peace was better than war; because in peace the sons did bury their fathers, but in the wars the fathers did bury their sons."

148. There was a harbinger who had lodged a gentleman in a very ill room, who expostulated with him somewhat rudely; but the harbinger