'But this exceeds all meanness of spirit in _persons of such quality as they were_, to think to derive any glory from babbling and prating, _even to the making use of their private letters to their friends, and so withal that_ though some of them _were never sent, the opportunity being lost_, they nevertheless published them; with this worthy excuse, that they were unwilling to lose their labour, and have their lucubrations thrown away.'--Was it not well becoming two consuls of Rome, _sovereign magistrates of the republic, that_ commanded the world, to spend their time in patching up elegant missives, in order to gain the reputation of being well versed _in their own mother tongue_? What could a pitiful schoolmaster have done worse, who got his living by it? If the _acts_ of Xenophon and Caesar had not far transcended their eloquence, I don't believe they would ever have taken the pains to _write_ them. They made it their business to recommend not their _saying_, but their _doing_. The companions of Demosthenes in the embassy to Philip, extolling that prince as handsome, eloquent, and a stout drinker, Demosthenes said that those were commendations more proper for a woman, an advocate, or a sponge. 'Tis not _his profession_ to know either how to hunt, or to dance well. Orabunt causas alii, coelique meatus Describent radio, et fulgentia sidera dicent, Hic regere imperio populos sciat. Plutarch says, moreover, that to appear so excellent in these less necessary qualities, is to produce witness against a man's self, that he has spent his time and study ill, which ought to have been employed in the acquisition of more necessary and more useful things. Thus Philip, King of Macedon, having heard _the great Alexander_, his son, _sing at a feast_ to the _wonder and envy of the best musicians_ there. 'Art thou not ashamed,' he said to him, 'to _sing so well_?' And to the same Philip, a musician with whom he was disputing about something concerning his art, said, '_Heaven forbid, sir, that so great a misfortune should ever befall you as to understand these things better than I_.' Perhaps this author might have made a similar reply, had _his_ been subjected to a similar criticism. And Lord Bacon quotes this story too, as he does many others, which this author has _first selected_, and for the same purpose; for, not content with appropriating his philosophy, and pretending to invent his design and his method, he borrows all his most significant stories from him, and brings them in to illustrate the same points, and the points are borrowed also: he makes use, indeed, of his common-place book throughout in the most shameless and unconscionable manner. 'Rack his style, Madam, _rack his style_?' he said to Queen Elizabeth, as he tells us, when she consulted him--he being then of her counsel learned, in the case of Dr. Hayward, charged with having written 'the book of the deposing of Richard the Second, and the _coming in_ of