"Make me lame on either hand,
And of neither foot to stand,
Raise a bunch upon my back,
And make all my teeth to shake;
Nothing comes amiss to me,
So that life remaining be."

5. The Emperor Domitian was in such fear of receiving death by the hands of his followers, and in such a strong suspicion of treason against him, that he caused the walls of the galleries wherein he used to walk to be set and garnished with the stone phengites, to the end that by the light thereof he might see all that was done behind him.

6. Rhodius being, through his unseasonable liberty of speech, cast into a den by a tyrant, was there nourished, and kept as a hurtful beast, with great torment and ignominy: his hands were cut off, and his face disfigured with wounds. In this wretched case, when some of his friends gave him advice by voluntary abstinence to put an end to his miseries, by the end of his days: he replied, "That while a man lives, all things are to be hoped for by him."

7. Cn. Carbo, in his third consulship, being by Pompey's orders sent into Sicily to be punished, begged of the soldiers, with great humility, and with tears in his eyes, that they would permit him to attend the necessity of nature before he died; and this only that he might for a small space protract his stay in a miserable life. He delayed his time so long, till such time as his head was severed from his body as he sat.

8. A certain king of Hungary being en a time very sad, his brother, a jolly

9. Theophrastus, the philosopher, is said at his death to have accused nature, that she had indulged a long life to stags and crows, to whom it was of no advan tage, but had given to man a short one, to whom yet the length of it was of great concern; for thereby the life of man would be more excellent, being perfected with all arts, and adorned with all kinds of learning: he complained, therefore, that as soon as he had begun to perceive these things he was forced to expire, yet he lived to the eighty-fifth year of his age.

10. Mycerinus, the son of Cleops, King of Egypt, set open the temples of the gods, which his father Cleops and uncle Cephrenes had caused to be shutup; he gave liberty to the people, who were before oppressed, and reduced to extremity of calamity. He was also a lover and doer of justice above all the kings of his time, and was exceedingly beloved of his people. But from the oracle of the city Buti there was this prediction sent him, that he should live but six years, and die in the seventh. He re

37.- Laert.

seated

sented this message ill, and set back to the oracle reproaches and complaints: expostulating, that, whereas his father and his uncle had been umi dful of the gods, and great oppr srs of men, yet had they enjoyed a long life: but he, having lived in great piety and justice, must shut up his days so speedily. The oracle returned, that therefore he died, because he did not that which he should have done for Egypt should have been afflicted one hundred and fifty years, which the two former kings well understood, but himself had not. When My cerinus heard this, and that he was thus condemned, he caused divers lamps to be made, which, when night came, he lighted by these he indulged his genius, and kept himself in constant action night and day, wandering through the fens and woods, and such places where the most convenient and pleasurable reception was; and this he did that he might deceive the oracle; and that, whereas it had pronounced he should live but six years, he intended this way to lengthen them out to twelve.

II. Antigonus observing one of his soldiers to be a very valiant man, and ready to adventure upon any desperate piece of service, yet withal taking notice that he looked very pale and lean, would needs know of him what he ailed? and finding that he had upon him a secret and dangerous disease, he caused all possible means to be used for his recovery: which, when it was effected, the king perceived him to be less forward in service than formerly, and demanding the reason of it, heing enuously confessed, "That now he felt the sweets of life, and therefore was loth to lose it."

12. The most renowned of the Grecian generals, Themistocles, having pass ed the hundred and seventh year his age, and finding such sensible decays growing upon him, as made him see he was hastening to his end, he grieved that he must now depart, when, as he said, it was but now chiefly that he began to grow wise.

13. Titus Vespasianus, the emperor, going towards the territories of the Sabine, at his first odging and baitingplace was seized with a fever; whereupo, removing thence in his litter, it is said, that putting by the curtains of the window, he looked up to the heavens, complaining heavily that his life should be taken fron him who had not deserved to die so soon. For in all his life he had not done one action, whereof he thought he had reason to repent, unless it were one only what that one was, neither did he himself declare at that time, nor is it otherwise known: he died about the forty-second year of his age.

14. C. Caligula, the emperor, was so exceedingly afraid of death, that at the least thunder and lightning he would wink close with both eyes, and cover his whole head; but if it were greater, and any thing extraordinary, he would run under his bed. He fled suddenly by night from Messina, in Sicily, being af frighted with the smoke and rumbling noise of mount Etna. Beyond the river Rhine he rode in a German chariot between the straights, and the army marched in thick squadrons together: and when one had said, "Here will be no small disturbance in case any enemy should now appear," he was so affrighted that he mounted his horse, and turned hastily to the bridges and finding them full and choaked up with slaves and carriages, impatient of delay, he was from hand to hand, and over men's heads, conveyed on the other side of the water. Soon after hearing of the revolt of the Germans, he prepared to fly, aud prepared ships for his flight; resting himself upon this only comfort, that he should yet have provinces beyond sea, in case the conquerors should pass the Alps, or possess themselves of the city of Rome.

15. Amestis, the wife of the great monarch Xerxes, buried alive in the ground twelve persons, and offered them to Plute for the prolonging of her own life.

CHARE

CHAP. XLV.

Of the gross Flatteries of some Men,

As the sun-flower is always turning itself according to the course of the sun, but shuts and closes up its leaves as soon as that great luminary hath forsaken the horizon so the flatterer is always fawning upon the prosperous till their fortune begins to frown upon them: in this not unlike to other sorts of vermin, that are observed to desert falling hoses, and the carcases of the dying. Hope and fear have been the ccasions that some persons (otherwise of great worth) have sometimes declined to so low a degree of baseness, as to bestow their encomiums upon them who have merited the severest of their reproofs. Even Seneca himself was a fitterer of Nero, which may make useless Woader at that which follows.

1. Tacitus saith o Salvius Otho, that he did (adorare vulgus, projicere oscula, et mnia serviliter pro imperio), adore the people, scatter his kissa ad salutes, and crouch unto any servile advance his ambitious designs in the attainment of the empire.

expressions to

2. Tiridates, King of Armenia, when he was overcome by Corbulo (and brought prisoner to Nero at Rome), falling down on his knees, he said, "I am nephew to the great Lord Arsaces, brother to the two great kings Vologesus and Pacorus, and am yet thy servant; and I am come to worship thee no otherwise than I worship my god the Sun. Truly I will be such an one as thou shalt please to make me, for thou art my fate and for

Which flattery so pleased Nero, that he restored him to his kingdom, and gave him besides an hundred thousand pieces of gold.

3. Publius Affranius, a notable flatterer at Rome, hearing that Caligula, the emperor, was sick, went to him, and professed that he would willingly die, so that the emperor might recover. The emperor told him, "That he did not believe

him;" whereupon he confirmed it with an oath. Caligula, shortly after recovering, forced him to be as good as his word, and to undergo that in earnest which he had only spoken out of base and false flattery; for he caused him to be slain, as he said, lest he should be for

sworn.

4. Canute, King of England and Den mark, was told by a court parasite, "That all things in his realm were at his will, and that his pleasure once known none durst oppose." The king, there fore, appointed his chair of state to be set upon the sands, when the sea began to flow, and in the presence of his courtiers said unto it, "Thou art part of my dominion, and the ground on which I sit is mine; neither was there ever any that durst disobey my command that went away with impunity: wherefore 1 charge thee, that thou come not upon my land, neither that thou presume to wet the clothes or body of me thy lord." But the ser, according to its usual course, flowing more and more, wet his feet; whereupon the king rising up, said," Let all the inhabitants of the world know, that vain and frivolous is the power of kings, and that none is worthy the name of a king, but He to whose command the heaven, earth, and sea, by the bond of an everlasting law, are subject and obedient." After this, it is said, that the king never wore his crown.

5. The Athenians were the first that gave to Demetrius and Antigonus the title of kings; they caused them to be set down in their public records for saviour gods. They put down their ancient magistracy of the Archontes, from whom they denominated the year, and yearly elected a priest to these saviours, whose name they prefixed to their decrees and contracts. In the place where Demetrius dismounted from his chariot they erected an altar, which they dedicated to Demetrias, the dismounter. They added two tribes to the rest, which they called Demetrius and Antigonus. Above all, that of Stratocles is to be remembered, who was a known designer of the

greatest

greatest flattery. This man was author of a decree, that those who by the people were publicly sent unto Demetrius and Antigonus, should not be called ambas sadors, but Theori, or, Speakers to the Gods.

6. Valerius Maximus, in the dedication of his book of Memorable Examples to Tiberius the Emperor, thus flatteringly bespeaks him; "Thee, O Caesar, do I invoke in this my undertaking, who art the most certain safety of our country; in whose hands is the power of sea and land, by an equal consent of gods and men, and by whose celestial provi dence all those virtues, of which I am to speak, are benignly cherished, and the vices severely punished. For if the ancient orators did happily take their exordiums from the great and best Jupiter; if the most excellent poets did use to commence their writings by the invocation of some deity; by how much the more justice ought my meanness to have recourse unto your favour; seeing that all other divinity is collected by opinion, but yours, by present evidence, appears equal to your grandfather's and father's star, by the admirable brightness of which there is an accession of a glorious splendor to our ceremonies. For as for all other gods, we have indeed received them, but the Cæsars are made and acknowledged by ourselves."

7. Tiberius Cæsar coming into the Senate, one of them stood up, and said, that "It was fit the words of free men should be free also; and that nothing which was profitable should be dissembled or concealed." All men were attentive to an oration with such a preface; there was a deep silence, and Tiberius himself listened, when the flatterer proceeded thus: "Hear, O Cæsar, what it is that we are displeased with in thee, whereof yet no man dare openly make mention: you neglect yourself, and have no regard to your own person; you waste your body with continual cares and travails for our sakes, taking no rest or repose either day or night.

8. Alexander the Great had an imperfection in his neck, that obliged him to

carry it more on one side than the other; which was so exactly imitated by all his great officers, that his whole court could not shew a man without a wry neck.

9. Dionysius's flatterers ran against one another in his presence, stumbled at and overturned whatever was under foot, to shew they were as purblind as their sovereign.

10. King Henry VIII. of England, anno 1521, cut his hair very short, and all the English put themselves into the same cut, though the fashion at that time was to wear their hair very long.

11. Queen Anne, wife of King James Į. had a wen in her neck, to cover which she wore a ruff; and, if we may credit tradition, that first began the fashion of wearing ruffs in England.

CHAP. XLVI.

of such as have been found guilty of that for which they have reproached or disliked others.

AMONGST others who came to be spectators of the Olympic games, there was an old man of Athens: he passed to and fro, but no man offered him seatroom. When he came where the Spartan Ambassadors sat, they (who had been taught to reverence age) rose up, and gave him place amongst them: "Well" said the old man, "the Grecians know well enough what they ought to do, but the Spartans alone are those who do it." The following examples afford too many too nearly allied to the Grecians in this.

1. The married clergy of England would not hear of being divorced from their wives; the Bishops, therefore, were forced to call in the aid of the Pope. John de Crema, an Italian Cardinal, elated with youthful blood, and a gallant equipage, came over into England, to bluster the clergy out of their wives. He made a most pompous oration in the commendation of virginity, as one who, in his own person, knew well how to value such a jewel, by the loss

thereof;