"Id cinerem et manes credis curare sepultos?" ["Do you believe the dead regard such things?"--AEneid, iv. 34.] What sense have the two companions in greatest esteem amongst me, Epaminondas, of this fine verse that has been so many ages current in his praise, "Consiliis nostris laus est attrita Laconum;" ["The glory of the Spartans is extinguished by my plans. --"Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., v. 17.] or Africanus, of this other, "A sole exoriente supra Maeotis Paludes Nemo est qui factis me aequiparare queat." ["From where the sun rises over the Palus Maeotis, to where it sets, there is no one whose acts can compare with mine"--Idem, ibid.] Survivors indeed tickle themselves with these fine phrases, and by them incited to jealousy and desire, inconsiderately and according to their own fancy, attribute to the dead this their own feeling, vainly flattering themselves that they shall one day in turn be capable of the same character. However: "Ad haec se Romanus Graiusque, et Barbaras induperator Erexit; caucus discriminis atque laboris Inde habuit: tanto major famae sitis est, quam Virtutis." ["For these the Roman, the Greek, and the Barbarian commander hath aroused himself; he has incurred thence causes of danger and toil: so much greater is the thirst for fame than for virtue." --Juvenal, x. 137.] CHAPTER XLVII OF THE UNCERTAINTY OF OUR JUDGMENT Well says this verse: ["There is everywhere much liberty of speech."--Iliad, xx. 249.] For example: ["Hannibal conquered, but knew not how to make the best use of his victorious venture."--Petrarch, Son., 83.] Such as would improve this argument, and condemn the oversight of our leaders in not pushing home the victory at Moncontour, or accuse the King of Spain of not knowing how to make the best use of the advantage he had against us at St. Quentin, may conclude these oversights to proceed from a soul already drunk with success, or from a spirit which, being full and overgorged with this beginning of good fortune, had lost the appetite of adding to it, already having enough to do to digest what it had taken in: he has his arms full, and can embrace no more: unworthy of the benefit fortune has conferred upon him and the advantage she had put into his hands: for what utility does he reap from it, if, notwithstanding, he give his enemy respite to rally and make head against him? What hope is there that he will dare at another time to attack an enemy reunited and recomposed, and armed anew with anger and revenge, who did not dare to pursue them when routed and unmanned by fear? "Dum fortuna calet, dum conficit omnia terror." ["Whilst fortune is fresh, and terror finishes all." --Lucan, vii. 734.]