VIII. There are however, some among them, who by calling them fools, you do not say enough of; as they give cause to have themselves pronounced raving mad men; such, as when they see they are advancing to a lofty precipice, will attempt to scale the height; people, emulous of vain exaltations, who that they may shine on high, consent to be reduced to ashes, and who prefer the shortest life elevated in air, to a long duration on the humble earth. These take to themselves the motto of Saavedra, _dum luceam peream_; provided they shine, they are indifferent about being consumed. Such was the ambitious Agrippina, who, when the Chaldeans told her her son would obtain the empire, but that he would take away her life, answered spiritedly, _Occidat dum imperet_. Provided he reigns, I don’t mind his murdering me. Such again was Anna Bolen, who, finding herself condemned to death for an adultress, said proudly, They may do what they will with me, but they can’t deprive me of having been Queen of England; from whence may be inferred, that she esteemed it a preferable lot, to have been a Queen, and die with indignity in the flower of her age, than to enjoy a long life of honour as a private person. We should look with an eye of pity on geniuses of this character, not only with respect to their misfortunes, but to their delusion also; and we should degrade those from politicians to mad men, who knowing their danger, run headlong into it. IX. I will go so far as to acknowledge, that some iniquitous politicians, have experienced the gale of fortune favourable for them, even to the day of their deaths. Philip, King of Macedon, and father of Alexander, was fortunate in almost all his undertakings; for which he was as much indebted to his craft and deceptions, as to his arms; and in his conquests, was equally favoured by Mercury and Mars; and if his injustice to Pausanias, in not caring to punish the abominable act of turpitude, which Atalus, one of Philip’s captains, had violently perpetrated on him, had not irritated that generous youth to such a degree, that he murdered the unjust Prince with his fists, it might have been said, that none of his wicked deeds had ever been prejudicial to his fortune. Cornelius Scylla manifested, that he professed no regard to any religion, by the havock he made among the Grecian temples, which he accompanied with such piccant terms of contempt and derision of their deities, as they were well deserving of; and though he was extremely able in the conduct of war, he was not less so in political subtilties; which made his enemy Carbon say of him, that in the person of one man, he found himself engaged with a lion and a fox, but that he feared the fox more than the lion. His cruelty exceeded the bounds of barbarity, notwithstanding which, he was wonderfully successful. He first triumphed over the enemies of the republic, and afterwards over his personal ones. Nor did his putting