Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/247

 "Why doth the king send to me and to none else?" The messenger answered, "Because he takes you to be the only good man in Athens." Phocion replied, "If he thinks so, pray let him suffer me to be so still." 206. Cosmus, Duke of Florence, was wont to say of perfidious friends, "that we read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends."

207. Æneas Sylvius, that was Pope Pius Secundus, was wont to say; that the former popes did wisely set the lawyers on work to debate, whether the donation of Constantine the Great to Sylvester, of St. Peter's patrimony, were good and valid in law or no? the better to skip over the matter in fact, whether there were ever any such thing at all or no.

208. At a banquet where those that were called the seven wise men of Greece were invited by the ambassador of a barbarous king; the ambassador related that there was a neighbour mightier than his master, picked quarrels with him, by making impossible demands, otherwise threatening war; and now at that present had demanded of him, to drink up the sea. Whereunto one of the wise men said, "I would have him undertake it." " Why," saith the ambassador, "how shall he come off!" "Thus," saith the wise man: "let that king first stop the rivers which run into the sea, which are no part of the bargain, and then your master will perform it."

209. At the same banquet, the ambassador desired the seven, and some other wise men that were at the banquet, to deliver every one of them some sentence or parable, that he might report to his king the wisdom of Græcia, which they did; only one was silent; which the ambassador perceiving, said to him, "Sir, let it not displease you; why do not you say somewhat that I may report?" He answered, "Report to your lord, that there are of the Grecians that can hold their peace."

210. One of the Romans said to his friend, "What think you of one who was taken in the act and manner of adultery?" The other answered, "Marry, I think he was slow at despatch."

211. Lycurgus would say of divers of the heroes of the heathen, "That he wondered that men should mourn upon their days for them as mortal men, and yet sacrifice to them as gods."

212. A Papist being opposed by a Protestant, "that they had no Scripture for images," answered, "Yes; for you read that the people laid their sick in the streets, that the shadow of saint Peter might come upon them; and that a shadow was an image, and the obscurest of all images."

213. There is an ecclesiastical writer of the Papists, to prove antiquity of confession in the form that it now is, doth note, in very ancient times, even in the primitive times, amongst other foul slanders spread against the Christians, one was, "That they did adore the genitories of their priests. Which, he saith, grew from the posture of the confessant, and the priest in confession; which is, that the confessant kneels down, before the priest sitting in a chair raised above him."

214. Epaminondas, when his great friend and colleague in war was suitor to him to pardon an offender, denied him; afterwards, when a concubine of his made the same suit, he granted it to her; which when Pelopidas seemed to take unkindly, he said, "Such suits are to be granted to whores, but not to personages of worth."

215. The Lacedæmonians had in custom to speak very short, which being an empire, they might do at pleasure: but after their defeat at Leuctra, in an assembly of the Grecians, they made a long invective against Epaminondas; who stood up, and said no more than this; "I am glad we have taught you to speak long." 216. Fabricius, in conference with Pyrrhus, was tempted to revolt to him; Pyrrhus telling him, that he should be partner of his fortunes, and second person to him. But Fabricius answered, in a scorn, to such a motion, "Sir, that would not be good for yourself: for if the Epirotes once knew me, they will rather desire to be governed by me than by you."

217. Fabius Maximus being resolved to draw the war in length, still waited upon Hannibal's progress to curb him; and for that purpose he encamped upon the high ground; but Terentius his colleague fought with Hannibal, and was in great peril of overthrow; but then Fabius came down from the high grounds, and got the day. Where upon Hannibal said, "that he did ever think that that same cloud that hanged upon the hills would at one time or other give a tempest."

218. There was a cowardly Spanish soldier that in a defeat the Moors gave, ran away with the foremost. Afterwards, when the army generally fled, the soldier was missing. Whereupon it was said by some, that he was slain. "No sure," said one, "he is alive; for the Moors eat no hare's flesh."

219. Hanno the Carthaginian was sent commissioner by the state, after the second Carthaginian war to Rome, to supplicate for peace, and in the end obtained it: yet one of the sharper senators said, "You have often broken with us the peaces whereunto you have been sworn; I pray, by what gods will you swear?" Hanno answered, "By the same gods that have punished the former perjury so severely."

220. Thales being asked when a man should marry, said; "Young men not yet, old men not at all."

221. Thales said, "that life and death were all one." One that was present asked him, "Why do not you die then?" Thales said again, "Because they are all one."

222. Cæsar, after first he had possessed Rome