Plutarch's Moralia (Holland)/Essay 9
OF BROTHERLY LOVE OR AMITY
THE SUMMARY
[A man should have profited but badly in the school of virtue, if endeavouring to carry himself honestly toward his friends and familiars, yea, and his very enemies, he continue still in evil demeanour with his own brethren, unto whom he is joined naturally by the streightest line and link that can be devised. But for that ever since the beginning of the world this proverbial sentence from time to time hath been current and found true; that the unity of brethren is a rare thing: Plutarch, after he had complained in the very entrance of this little book that such a malady as this reigned mightily in his time, goeth about afterwards to apply a remedy thereto. And to this effect he sheweth, that since brotherly amity is taught and prescribed by nature, those who love not their brethren be blockish, unnatural, enemies to their own selves; yea, and the greatest atheists that may be found. And albeit the obligation wherein we are bound to our parents amounteth to so high a sum as we are never able fully to discharge; he proveth notwithstanding, that brotherly love may stand for one very good payment toward that debt: whereupon he concludeth, that hatred between brethren ought to be banished; for that if it once creep in and get between, it will be a very hard matter to rejoin and reconcile them again. Afterwards he teacheth a ready and compendious way how a man ought to manage and use a brother ill disposed. In what manner brethren should carry themselves one to another, both during the life of their father and also after his decease; discoursing at large upon the duty of those who are the elder, or higher advanced in other respects; as also what they should do, who are the younger; namely, that as they are not equal to their other brethren in years, so they be their inferiors in place of honour and in wealth; likewise what means as well the one as the other are to follow, for to avoid envy and jealousy. Which done, he teacheth brethren who in age come very near their natural duty and kindness that they ought to shew one unto another; to which purpose he produceth proper examples of brotherly amity among the pagans: In the end, since he cannot possibly effect thus much, that brethren should evermore accord well together, he setteth down what course they are to take in their differences and disagreements; and how their friends ought to be common between them; and for a final conclusion, he treateth of that honest care and respective regard one of another that they ought to have, and especially of their kinsfolk, which he enricheth with two other notable examples.]
Those ancient statues representing the two brethren Castor and Pollux, the inhabitants of the city Sparta were wont in their language to call δόκανα. And two parallel pieces of timber they are of an equal distance asunder, united and joined together by two other pieces overthwart: now it should seem that this was a device fitting very well and agreeable to the brotherly amity of the said two gods, for to shew that undivisible union which was between them; and even so, I also do offer and dedicate unto you, O Nigrinus and Quintus, this little treatise as touching the amity of brethren, a gift common unto you both as those who are worthy of the same: for seeing that of your own accord you practise that already which it teacheth and exhorteth unto, you shall be thought not so much to be admonished thereby, as by your example to confirm and testify the same which therein is delivered; and the joy which you shall conceive to see that approved and commended which yourselves do, shall give unto your judgment a farther assurance to continue therein; as if your actions were allowed and praised by virtuous and honest beholders of the same.
Aristarchus verily, the father of Theodectes, scoffing at the great number of those sophisters or counterfeit sages in his days, said: That in old time hardly could be found seven wise men throughout the world; but in our days (quoth he) much ado there is to find so many fools or ignorant persons. But I may very well and truly say: That I see in this age wherein we live the amity of brethren to be as rare as their hatred was in times past. The examples whereof being so few as they were among our ancients, were thought by men in those days living, notable arguments to furnish tragedies and theatres with, as matters very strange and in a manner fabulous. But contrariwise, all they that live in this age, if haply they meet with two brethren that be good and kind one to another, wonder and marvel thereat as much as if they saw those Molionides (of whom Homer speaketh) whose bodies seemed to grow together in one: and as incredible and miraculous do they thinJc it, that brethren should use in common the patrimony, goods, friends and slaves which their fathers left behind unto them, as if one and the same soul alone ruled the feet, hands and eyes of two bodies.
And yet nature herself hath set down a lively example of that mutual behaviour and carriage that ought to be among brethren, and the same not far off, but even within our own bodies, wherein she hath framed and devised for the most part those members double, and as a man would say, brethren-like and twins, which be necessary, to wit, two hands, two feet, two eyes, two ears and two nostrils; shewing thereby that she hath thus distinguished them all, not only for their natural health and safety, but also for a mutual and reciprocal help, and not for to quarrel and fight one with another. As for the hands, when she parted them into many fingers, and those of unequal length and bigness, she hath made them of all other organical parts the most proper artificious and workmanlike instruments; insomuch as that ancient philosopher Anaxagoras ascribed the very cause of man's wisdom and understanding unto the hands. Howbeit, the contrary unto this should seem rather to be true; for man was not the wisest of all other living creatures in regard of his hands, but because by nature being endued with reason, given to be witty and capable of arts and sciences, he was likewise naturally furnished with such instruments as these.
Moreover, this is well known unto every man, that nature hath formed of one and the same seed, as of one principle of life, two, three, and more brethren; not to the end that they should be at debate and variance, but that being apart and asunder, they might the better and more commodiously help one another. For those men with three bodies and a hundred arms apiece, which the poets describe unto us (if ever there were any such), being joined and grown together in all their parts, were not able to do anything at all when they were parted asunder, or as it were, without themselves: which brethren can do well enough, namely, dwell and keep within house and go abroad together, meddle in affairs of state, exercise husbandry and tillage one with another, in case they preserve and keep well that principle of amity and benevolence which nature hath given them. For otherwise they should (I suppose) nothing differ from those feet which are ready to trip or supplant one another, and cause them to catch a fall: or they should resemble those hands and fingers which enfolded and clasp one another untowardly against the course of nature. But rather according as in one and the same body, the cold, the hot, the dry, and the moist, participating likewise in one and the same nature and nourishment, if they do accord and agree well together, engender an excellent temperature and most pleasant harmony, to wit, the health of the body, without which, neither all the wealth of the world, as men say,
Nor power of royal majesty.
Which equal is to deity,
have any pleasure, grace or profit: but in case these principal elements of our life covet to have more than their just proportion, and thereupon break out into a kind of civil sedition, seeking one to surcrease and overgrow another, soon there ensueth a filthy corruption and confusion which overthroweth the state of the body and the creature itself; semblably, by the concord of brethren, the whole race and house is in good case and flourisheth, the friends and familiars belonging to them (like a melodious quire of musicians) make a sweet consent and harmony: for neither they do, nor say, nor think anything that jarreth or is contrary one to the other,
Whereas in discord such, and taking part,
The worse eftsoons do speed, whiles better smart;
to wit, some ill-tongued varlet and pickthank carry-tale within the house, or some flattering claw-back coming between, and entering into the house, or else some envious and malicious neighbour in the city. For like as diseases do engender in those bodies which neither receive nor stand well affected to their proper and familiar nourishment, many appetites of strange and hurtful meats; even so, a slanderous calumniation of jealousy being gotten once among those of a blood and kindred, doth draw and bring withal evil words and naughty speeches, which from without are always ready enough to run thither where as a breach lieth open, and where there is some fault already.
That divine master and soothsayer of Arcadie, of whom Herodotus writeth, when he had lost one of his own natural feet, was forced upon necessity to make himself another of wood: but a brother being fallen out and at war with a brother, and constrained to get some stranger to be his companion, either out of the market-place and common hall of the city as he walketh there, or from the public place of exercise, where he useth to behold the wrestlers and others; in my conceit doth clothing else but willingly cut off a part or limb of his own body made of flesh, and engraffed fast unto him, for to set another in the place which is of another kind and altogether a stranger. For even necessity itself, which doth entertain, approve and seek for friendship and mutual acquaintance, teacheth us to honour, cherish and preserve that which is of the same nature and kind; for that without friends' society and fellowship we are not able to live solitary and alone as most savage beasts, neither will our nature endure it: and therefore in Menander he saith very well and wisely:
By jolly cheer and bankets day by day.
Think we to find (O father) trusty friends,
To whom ourselves and life commit we may?
No special thing for cost to make amends;
I found he hath, who by that means hath met
With shade of friends; for such I count no bet.
For to say a truth, most of our friendships be but shadows, semblances and images of that first amity which nature hath imprinted and engraffed in children toward their parents, in brethren toward their brethren: and he who doth not reverence nor honour it, how can he persuade and make strangers believe that he beareth sound and faithful goodwill unto strangers? Or what man is he who in his familiar greetings and salutations, or in his letters, will call his friend and companion brother, and cannot find in his heart so much as to go with his brother in the same way? For as it were a point of great folly and madness to adorn the statue of a brother, and in the meantime to beat and maim his body; even so, to reverence and honour the name of a brother in others, and withal to shun, hate, and disdain a brother indeed, were the case of one that were out of his wits, and who never conceived in his heart and mind that nature is the most sacred and holy thing in the world.
And here, in this place, I cannot choose but call to mind how at Rome upon a time I took upon me to be umpire between two brethren, of whom the one seemed to make profession of philosophy; but he was (as after it appeared) not only untruly entituled by the name of a brother, but also as falsely called a philosopher: for when I requested of him that he should carry himself as a philosopher toward his brother, and such a brother as altogether was unlettered and ignorant: In that you say (ignorant quoth he) I hold well with you, and I avow it a truth; but as for brother, I take it for no such great and venerable matter to have sprung from the same loins, or to have come forth of one womb. Well (said I again), it appears that you make no great account to issue out of the same natural members; but all men else besides you, if they do not think and imagine so in their hearts, yet I am sure they do both sing and say that nature first, and then law (which doth preserve and maintain nature), have given the chief place of reverence and honour next after the gods unto father and mother; neither can men perform any service more acceptable unto the gods than to pay willingly, readily, and affectionately unto parents who begat and brought them forth, unto nurses and fosters that reared them up, the interest and usury for the old thanks, besides the new which are due unto them.
And on the other side again, there is not a more certain sign and mark of a very atheist, than either to neglect parents, or to be any ways ungracious or defective in duty unto them: and therefore, whereas we are forbidden in express terms by the law to do wrong or hurt unto other men: if one do not behave himself to father and mother both in word and deed, so as they may have (I do not say no discontentment and displeasure, but) joy and comfort thereby, men esteem him to be profane, godless, and irreligious. Tell me now, what action, what grace, what disposition of children towards their parents, can be more agreeable and yield them greater contentment than to see good-will, kind affection, fast and assured love between brethren? the which a man may easily gather by the contrary in other smaller matters. For seeing that fathers and mothers be displeased otherwhiles with their sons, if they misuse or hardly intreat some home-born slave whom they set much store by: if, I say, they be vexed and angry when they see them to make no reckoning and care of their woods and grounds wherein they took some joy and delight; considering also that the good, kind-hearted old folk of a gentle and loving affection that they have, be offended if some hound or dog bred up within house, or an horse, be not well tended and looked unto; last of all, if they grieve when they perceive their children to mock, find fault with, or despise the lectures, narrations, sports, sights, wrestlers, and others that exercise feats of activity, which themselves sometime highly esteemed: Is there any likelihood that they in any measure can endure to see their children hate one another? to entertain brawls and quarrels continually? to be ever snarling, railing and reviling one another? and in all enterprises and actions always crossing, thwarting and supplanting one another? I suppose there is no man will so say.
Then on the contrary side, if brethren love together and be ready one to do for another; if they draw in one line and carry the like affection with them; follow the same studies and take the same courses; and how much nature hath divided and separated them in body, so much to join for it again in mind; lending one another their helping hands in all their negotiations ind affairs; following the same exercises; repairing to the same disputations; and frequenting the same plays, games, and pastimes, so as they agree and communicate in all things: certainly this great love and amity among brethren must needs yield sweet joy and happy comfort to their father and mother n their old age: and therefore parents take nothing so much pleasure when their children prove eloquent orators, wealthy men, or advanced to promotions and high places of dignities; as loving and kind one to another; like as a man shall never ee a father so desirous of eloquence, of riches, or of honour. as he is loving to his own children. It is reported of Queen ApoUonis the Cyzicen, mother to King Eumenes and to three other princes, to wit, Attains, Philetaerus, and Athenaeus, that she reputed and reported herself to be right happy, and rendered thanks unto the immortal gods, not for her riches nor royal port and majesty; but that it was her good fortune to see those three younger sons of hers serving as pensioners and esquires of the body to Eumenes their elder brother, and himself living fearless and in as security in the midst of them, standing about his person with their pollaxes, halberds, and partisans in their hands, and girded with swords by their sides. On the other side. King Xerxes, perceiving that his son Ochus set an ambush and laid trains to murder his brethren, died for very sorrow and anguish of heart. Terrible and grievous are the wars, said Euripides, between brethren; but unto their parents above all others most grievous; for that whosoever hateth his own brother, and may not vouchsafe him a good eye and kind look, cannot choose but in his heart blame the father that begat him, and the mother that bare him.
We read that Pisistratus married his second wife when his sons whom he had by the former were now men grown, saying: That since he saw them prove so good and towardly, he gladly would be the father of many more that might grow up like them; even so, good and loyal children will not only affect and love one another for their parents' sakes, but also love their parents so much the more, in regard of their mutual kindness, as making this account, thinking also and saying thus to themselves; That they are obliged and bounden unto them in many respects, but principally for their brethren, as being the most precious heritage, the sweetest and most pleasant possession that they inherit by them. And therefore Homer did very well when he brought in Telemachus among other calamities of his, reckoning this for one, that he had no brother at all; and saying thus:
For Jupiter my father's race in me alone
Now ended hath, and given me brother none.
As for Hesiodus, he did not well to wish and give advice to have an only begotten son, to be the full heir and universal inheritor of a patrimony; even that Hesiodus who was the disciple of those Muses whom men have named μούσας, as it were όμού ούσας, for that by reason of their mutual affection and sister-like love they keep always together. Certes, the amity of brethren is so respective to parents, that it is both a certain demonstration that they love father and mother, and also such an example and lesson unto their children to love together, as there is none other like unto it, but contrariwise, they take an ill precedent to hate their own brethren from the first original of their father: for he that liveth continually and waxeth old in suits of law, in quarrels and dissensions with his own brethren, and afterward shall seem to preach unto his children for to live friendly and lovingly together, doth as much as he who according to the common proverb:
The sores of others will seem to heal and cure,
And is himself of ulcers full impure;
and so by his own deeds doth weaken the efficacy of his words. If then Eteocles the Theban, when he had once said unto his brother Polynices, in Euripides:
To stars about sun-rising would I mount,
And under earth descend as far again,
By these attempts, if I might make account
This sovereign royalty of gods to gain,
should come afterwards again unto his sons and admonish them:
For to maintain and honour equal state.
Which knits friends ay in perfect unity.
And keeps those link'd who are confederate.
Preserving cities in league and amity:
For nothing more procures security.
In all the world, than doth equality,
who would not mock him and despise his admonition? And what kind of man would Atreus have been reputed, if after he bad set such a supper as he did before his brother, he should in this manner have spoken sentences and given instruction to his own children?
When great mishap and cross calamity
Upon a man is fallen suddenly.
The only meed is found by amity
Of those whom blood hath joined perfectly.
Banish therefore we must, and rid away clean, all hatred from among brethren, as a thing which is a bad nurse to parents in their old age, and a worse fostress to children in their youth; besides, it giveth occasion of slander, calumniation and obloquy among their fellow-citizens and neighbours, for thus do men conceive and deem of it: That brethren having been nourished and brought up together so familiarly from their very cradle, it cannot be that they should fall out and grow to such terms of enmity and hostility, unless they were privy one to another of some wicked plots and most mischievous practices. For great causes they must be that are able to undo great friendship and amity, by means whereof hardly or unneth afterwards they can be reconciled and surely knit again. For like as sundry pieces which have been once artificially joined together by the means of glue or solder, if the joint be loose or open, may be rejoined or soldered again; but if an entire body that naturally is united and grown in one, chance to be broken or cut and slit asunder, it will be an hard piece of work to find any glue or solder so strong as to reunite the same and make it whole and sound, even so those mutual amities which either for profit or upon some need were first knit between men, happen to cleave and part in twain, it is an easy matter to reduce them close together; but brethren if they be once alienated and estranged, so as that the natural bond of love cannot hold them together, hardly will they piece again or agree ever after: and say they be made friends and brought to atonement, certainly such reconciliation maketh in the former rent or breach an ill-favoured and filthy scar, as being always full of jealousy, distrust, and suspicion.
True it is that all jars and enmities between man and man, entering into the heart, together with those passions which be most troublesome and dangerous of all others, to wit, a peevish humour of contention, choler, envy, and remembrance of injuries done and past, do breed grief, pain, and vexation; but surely that which is fallen between brother and brother, who of necessity are to communicate together in all sacrifices and religious ceremonies belonging to their father's house, who are to be interred another day in one and the same sepulchre, and live in the meantime otherwhiles under one roof, and dwell in the same house, and enjoy possessions, lands, and tenements confining one upon another, doth continually present unto the eye that which tormenteth the heart, it putteth them in mind daily and hourly of their folly and madness; for by means thereof that face and countenance which should be most sweet, best known, and of all other likest, is become most strange, hideous and unpleasant to the eye; that voice which was wont to be even from the cradle friendly and familiar, is now become most fearful and terrible to the ear; and whereas they see many other brethren cohabit together in one house, sit at one table to take their repast, occupy the same lands, and use the
same servants, without dividing them; what a grief is it that they, thus fallen out, should part their friends, their hosts and guests, and in one word, make all things that be common among other brethren, private, and whatsoever should be familiar and acceptable, to become contrary and odious? Over and besides, here is another inconvenience and mischief which there is no man so simple but he must needs conceive and understand: That ordinary friends and table companions may be gotten and stolen (as it were) from others; alliance and acquaintance there may be had new, if the former be lost, even as armour, weapons and tools may be repaired if they be worn, or new made if the first be gone; but to recover a brother that is lost, it is not possible, no more than to make a new hand, if one be cut away, or to set in another eye in the place of that which is plucked out of the head: and therefore well said that Persian lady, when she chose rather to save the life of her brethren than of her children: For children (quoth she) I may have more, but since my father and mother be both dead, brother shall I never have.
But what is to be done, will some man say, in case one be matched with a bad brother? First, this we ought evermore to remember, that in all sorts of amities there is to be found some badness; and most true is that saying of Sophocles:
Who list to search throughout mankind.
More bad than good is sure to find.
No kindred there is, no society, no fellowship, no amity and love, that can be found sincere, sound, pure, and clear from all faults. The Lacedæmonian who had married a wife of little stature: We must (quoth he) of evils chuse ever the least; given so in mine advice a man may very well and wisely give counsel unto brethren, to bear rather with the most domestical imperfections and the infirmities of their own blood, than to try those of strangers; for as the one is blameless because it is necessary, so the other is blameworthy, for that it is voluntary: nor neither table-friend and fellow-gamester, nor play-fere of the same age, nor yet host or guest,
Is bound with links (of brass by hand not wrought)
Which shame by kind hath forg'd, and cost us nought,
but rather that friend who is of the same blood, who had his nourishment and bringing up with us, begotten of one father, and who lay in the same mother's womb; unto whom it seemeth that Virtue[1] herself doth allow connivancy and pardon of some faults, so as a man may say unto a brother when he doth a fault:
Witless, stark naught, yea, wretched though thou be,
Yet can I not forsake and cast off thee,
lest that (ere I be well aware) I might seem in my hatred towards thee for to punish sharply, cruelly and unnaturally in thy person some infirmity or vice of mine own father or mother instilled into thee by their seed. As for strangers and such as are not of our blood, we ought not to love first, and afterwards make trial and judgment of them; but first we must try and then trust and love them afterwards; whereas contrariwise, nature hath not given unto proof and experience the precedence and prerogative to go before love, neither doth she expect according to that common proverb; That a man should eat a bushel[2] or two of salt with one whom he minded to love and make his friend; but even from our nativity hath bred in us and with us the very principle and cause of amity, in which regard we ought not to be bitter unto such, nor to search too nearly into their faults and infirmities.
But what will you say now if contrariwise some there be, who if mere aliens and strangers otherwise, yet if they take a foolish love and liking unto them, either at the tavern or at some game and pastime, or fall acquainted with them at the wrestling or fencing school, can be content to wink at their faults, be ready to excuse and justify them, yea, and take delight and pleasure therein; but if their brethren do amiss, they be exceeding rigorous unto them and inexorable; nay, you shall have many such, who can abide to love churlish dogs and skittish horses, yea, and find in their hearts to feed and make much of fell ounces, shrewd cats, curst unhappy apes, and terrible lions; but they cannot endure the hasty and choleric humour, the error and ignorance, or some little ambitious humour of a brother. Others again there be who unto their concubines and harlots will not stick to assign over and pass away goodly houses and fair lands lying thereto; but with their brethren they will wrangle and go to law, nay, they will be ready to enter the lists and combat for a plot of ground whereupon a house standeth, about some comer of a messuage or end of a little tenement and afterwards attributing unto this their hatred of brethren the colourable name of hating sin and wickedness, they go up and down cursing, detesting, and reproaching them for their vices, whiles in others they are never offended nor discontented therewith, but are willing enough daily to frequent and haunt their company. Thus much in general terms by way of preamble or proem of this whole treatise.
It remaineth now that I should enter into the doctrine and instructions thereto belonging: wherein I will not begin as other have done at the partition of their heritage or patrimony; but at the naughty emulation, heart-burning and jealousy which ariseth between them during the life of their parents. Agesilaus, King of Lacedaemon, was wont always to send as a present unto each one of the ancients of the city, ever as they were created senators, a good ox, in testimony that he honoured their virtue: at length the lords, called Ephori, who were the censurers and overseers of each man's behaviour, condemned him for this in a fine to be paid unto the state, subscribing and adding a reason withal; for that by these gifts and largesses he went about to steal away their hearts and favours to himself alone, which ought indifferently to regard the whole body of the city; even so a man may do well to give this counsel unto a son, in such wise to respect and honour his father and mother, that he seek not thereby to gain their whole love, nor seem to turn away their favour and affection from other children wholly unto himself; by which practice many do prevent, undermine, and supplant their brethren, and thus under a colourable and honest pretence in shew, but in deed unjust and unequal, cloak and cover their avarice and covetous desire; for after a cautelous and subtle manner they insinuate themselves and get between them and home, and so defraud and cozen them ungentlemanly of their parents' love, which is the greatest and fairest portion of their inheritance, who espying their time, and taking the opportunity and vantage when their brethren be otherwise employed, and least doubt of their practices, then they bestir them most, and shew themselves in best order, obsequious, double-diligent, sober and modest, and namely in such things as their other brethren do either fail or seem to be slack and forgetful. But brethren ought to do clean contrary, for if they perceive their father to be angry and displeased with one of them, they should interpose themselves and undergo some part of the heavy load, hey ought to ease their brother, and by bearing a part, help to make the burden lighter: then (I say) must they by their service and ministry gratify their brother so much as to bring him in come sort in grace and favour again with their father, and when he hath failed so far forth in neglecting the opportunity of time, or omitting some other business which hardly will afford excuse, they are to lay the fault and blame upon his very nature and disposition, as being more meet and fitted for other matters. And hereto accordeth well that speech of Agamemnon in Homer:
He faulted not through idleness,
Nor yet for want of wit,
But look'd on me, and did expect
My motive unto it.
Even so one good brother may excuse another and say: He thought I should have done it, and left this duty for me to do: neither are fathers themselves strait-laced, but willingly enough to admit such translations and gentle inversions of names as these; they can be content to believe their children, when they term the supine negligence of their brethren plain simplicity, their stupidity and blockishness, upright dealing and a good conscience; their quarrelous and litigious nature, a mind loth to be trodden under foot and utterly despised.
In this manner he that will proceed with an intent only to appease his father's wrath shall gain thus much moreover; That not only his father's choler will thereby be much diminished toward his brother, but his love also much more increased unto himself: howbeit, afterwards when he hath thus made all well, and satisfied his father to his good contentment, then must he turn and address himself to his brother apart, touch him to the quick, spare him never a whit, but with all liberty of language tell him roundly of his fault and rebuke him for his trespass; for surely it is not good to use indulgency and connivancy to a brother, no more than to insult over him too much, and tread him under foot if he have done amiss, for as this bewrayeth a joy that one taketh at his fall, so that implieth a guiltiness with him in the same transgression: but in this rebuke and reproof such measure would be kept that it may testify a care to do him good, and yet a displeasure for his fault; for commonly he that hath been a most earnest advocate and affectionate intercessor for him to his father and mother, will be his sharpest accuser afterwards when he hath him alone by himself. But put the case, that a brother having not at all offended, be blamed notwithstanding and accused to father and mother, howsoever in other things it is the part of humanity and dutiful kindness to sustain and bear all anger and froward displeasure of parents; yet in this case the allegations and defences of one brother in the justification of another, when he is innocent, unjustly traduced, and hardly used or wronged by his parents, are not to be blamed, but allowable and grounded upon honesty: neither need a brother fear to hear that reproach in Sophocles:
Thou graceless imp, so far grown out of kind,
As with thy sire a counter plea to find,
when frankly and freely he speaketh in the behalf of his brother, seeming to be unjustly condemned and oppressed. For surely by this manner of process and pleading, they that are convicted take more joy in being overthrown than if they had gained the victory and better hand.
Now after that a father is deceased, it is well beseeming and fit that brethren should more affectionately love than before, and stick more close together: for then presently their natural love unto their father which is common to them all ought to appear indifferently in mourning together and lamenting for his death: then are they to reject and cast behind them all suspicions surmised or buzzed into their heads by varlets and servants, all slanderous calumniations and false reports, brought into them by pick-thanks and carry-tales on both sides, who would gladly sow some dissension between them: then are they to give ear unto that which fables do report of the reciprocal love of Castor and Pollux; and namely, how it is said, that Pollux killed one with his fist for rounding him in the ear, and whispering a tale against his brother Castor. Afterwards, when they shall come to the parting of their patrimony and father's goods among them, they ought not (as it were) to give defiance and denounce war one against another, as many there be who come prepared for that purpose ready to encounter, singing this quote:
O Alal' Alala, now hearken and come fight.
Who art of war so fell, the daughter right.
But that very day of all others they ought to regard and observe most, as being the time which to them is the beginning either of Mortal war and enmity irreconcileable, or else of perfect friendship and amity perdurable: at which instant they ought among themselves alone to divide their portions, if it be possible; if not, then to do it in the presence of one indifferent and common friend between them, who may be a witness to their whole order and proceeding; and so, when after a loving and kind manner, and as becometh honest and well-disposed persons, they have by casting lots gotten each one that which is his right: by which course (as Plato said) they ought to think that there is given and received that which is meet and agreeable for every one, and so to hold themselves therewith contented: this done, I say they are to make account that the ordering, managing, and administration only of the goods and heritage is parted and divided; but the enjoying, use, and possession of all remaineth yet whole in common between them. But those that in this partition and distribution of goods pluck one from another the nurses that gave them suck, or such youths as were fostered and brought up together with them of infants, and with whom always they had lived and loved familiarly; well may they prevail so far forth with eager pursuing their wilfulness, as to go away with the gain of a slave, perhaps of greater price: but instead thereof they lose the greatest and most precious things in all their patrimony and inheritance, and utterly betray the love of a brother, and the confidence that otherwise they might have had in him. Some also we have known, who upon a peevish wilfulness only, and a quarrelous humour, and without any gain at all, have in the partition of their father's goods carried themselves no better nor with greater modesty and respect, than if it had been some booty or pillage gotten in war. Such were Charicles and Antiochus, of the city Opus, two brethren, who ever as they met with a piece of silver plate, made no more ado but cut it quite through the midst, and if there came a garment into their hands, in two pieces it went, slit (as near as they could aim) just in the middle, and so they went either of them away with his part, dividing (as it were) upon some tragical curse and execration
Their house and all the goods therein
By edge of sword so sharp and keen.
Others there be who make their boast and report with joy unto others, how in the partition of their patrimony they have by cunning casts coney-catched their brethren, and over-wrought them so by their cautelous circumvention, fine wit and sly policies, as that they have gone away with the better part by odds: whereas indeed they should rejoice rather and please themselves, if in modesty, courtesy, kindness, and yielding of their own right they had surpassed and gone beyond their brethren. In which regard Athenodorus deserveth to be remembered in this place; and indeed there is not one here in these parts but remembereth him well enough. This Athenodorus had one brother elder than himself, named Zenon, who having taken upon him the management of the patrimony left unto them both by their father, had embezzled and made away a good part of it; and in the end, for that by force he had carried away a woman and married her, was condemned for a rape, and lost all his own and his brother's goods, which by order of law was forfeit and confiscate to the exchequer of the emperor: now was Athenodorus abovesaid a very beardless boy still, without any hair on his face; and when by equity and the court of conscience, his portion out of his father's goods was awarded and restored unto him, he forsook not his brother, but brought all abroad and parted the one half thereof with him again; and notwithstanding that he knew well enough that his brother had used no fair play, but cunningly defrauded him of much in the division thereof, yet was he never angry with him nor repented of his kindness, but mildly, cheerfully, and patiently endured that unthankfulness and folly of his brother, so much divulged and talked of throughout all Greece.
As for Solon, when he pronounced sentence and determined in this manner as touching the government of the weal-public; That equality never bred sedition; seemed very confusedly to bring in the proportion arithmetical which is popular, in place of that other fair and good proportion called geometrical. But he that in an house or family would advise brethren (as Plato did the citizens of his commonwealth), above all, if possible it were to take away these words, mine and thine; mine and not mine; or at leastwise (if that may not be) to stand contented with an equal portion, and to maintain and preserve equality; certes, he should lay a notable and singular foundation of amity, concord and peace, and always build thereupon the famous examples of most noble and renowned personages, such as Pittachus was, who when the King of Lydia demanded of him whether he had money and goods enough? I may have (quoth he) more by one half if I would, by occasion of my brother's death, whose heir I am.
But forasmuch as not only in the possession, augmentation and diminishing of goods, the less is evermore set as an adverse and cross enemy to the more, but also (as Plato said) simply and universally there is always motion and stirring in unquality, but rest and repose in equality; and so all uneven dealing and unequal partition is dangerous for breeding dissension among brethren: and unpossible it is that in all respects they should be even and equal; for that either nature at first from their very nativity, or fortune afterwards, hath not divided with even hand their several graces and favours among them, whereupon proceed envy and jealousy, which are per nicious maladies and deadly plagues, as well to houses and families as also to states and cities: in these regards (I say), therefore, a great regard and heed would be taken, both to prevent and also to remedy such mischiefs with all speed, when they begin first to ingender.
As for him who is indued with better gifts, and hath the vantage over his other brethren, it were not amiss to give him counsel, first to communicate unto them those gifts wherein he seemeth to excel and go beyond them; namely, in gracing and honouring them as well as himself by his credit and reputation, in advancing them by the means of his great friends, and drawing them unto their acquaintance; and in case he be more eloquent than they, to offer them the use thereof, which although it be employed (as it were) in common, is yet nevertheless his own still: then let him not shew any sign of pride and arrogancy, as though he disdained them, but rather in some measure by abasing, submitting and yielding a little to them in his behaviour, to preserve himself from envy, unto which his excellent parts do lie open; and in one word, to reduce that inequality which fortune hath made, unto some equality, as far forth as possible it is to do, by the moderate carriage of his mind. Lucullus verily would never deign to accept of any dignity or place of rule before his brother, notwithstanding he was his elder, but letting his own time slip, expected the turn and course of his brother. Neither would Pollux take upon him to be a god alone by himself, but chose rather with his brother Castor to be a demi-god, and for to communicate unto him his own immortality, thought it no disgrace to participate with his mortal condition; and even so may a man say unto one whom he would admonish: My good friend, it lies in you without diminishing one whit of those good things which you have at this present, to make your brother equal unto yourself, and to join him in honour with you, giving him leave to enjoy (as it were) your greatness, your glory, your virtue, and your fortune; like as Plato did in times past, who by putting down in writing the name of his brethren, and bringing them in as persons speaking in his most noble and excellent treatises, caused them by that means to be famous and renowned in the world. Thus he graced Glaucus and Adamantus in his books of policy: thus he honoured Antiphon, the youngest of them all, in his dialogue named Parmenides.
Moreover, as it is an ordinary thing to observe great difference and odds in the natures and fortunes of brethren; so it is in manner impossible, that in all things and in every respect any one of them should excel the rest. For true it is, that the four elements, which they say were created of one and the same matter, have powers and qualities altogether contrary; but surely it was never yet seen that of two brethren by one father ind mother, the one should be like unto that wise man whom the Stoics do feign and imagine, to wit, fair, lovely, bountiful, honourable, rich, eloquent, studious, civil, and courteous; and the other, foul, ill-favoured, contemptible, illiberal, needy, not able to speak and deliver his mind, untaught, ignorant, uncivil and unsociable. But even in those that are more obscure, base, and abject than others there is after a sort some spark of grace, of valour, of aptness and inclination to one good thing or other: for as the common proverb goeth:
With calthrap thistles, rough and keen, with prickyxest-harow,
Close Sions fair and soft, yea, white-wallflowers are seen to grow.
These good parts, therefore, be they more or less in others, if he that seemeth to have them in far better and in greater measure, do not debase, smother, hide, and hinder them, nor deject his brother (as in some solemnity of games for the prize) from all the principal honours, but rather yield reciprocally unto him in some points, and acknowledge openly that in many things he is more excellent, and hath a greater dexterity than himself, withdrawing always closely all occasions and matter of envy, as it were fuel from the fire, shall either quench all debate, or rather lot suffer it at all to breed or grow to any head and substance.
Now he that always taketh his brother as a colleague, counsellor, and coadjutor with him, in those causes wherein limself is taken to be his superior: as, for example, if he be I professed rhetorician and orator, using his brother to plead causes; if he be a politician, asking his advice in government; of a man greatly friended, employing him in actions and affairs abroad; and in one word, in no matter of consequence and which may win credit and reputation, leaving not his brother but, but making him his fellow and companion in all great and honourable occasions, and so giving out of him, taking his counsel if he be present, and expecting his presence if he be absent, and generally making it known that he is a man not of less execution than himself, but one rather that loveth not much to put himself forth, nor stands so much upon winning reputation in the world, and seeking to be advanced in credit; by this means he shall lose nothing of his own, but gain much unto his brother. These be the precepts and advertisements that a man may give unto him that is the better and superior.
To come now to him who is the inferior, he ought thus to think in his mind: That his brother is not one alone that hath no fellow, nor the only man in the world who is richer, better learned, or more renowned and glorious than himself, but that oftentimes he also is inferior to a great number, yea, and to many millions of us men,
Who on the earth so large do breed,
Upon her fruits who live and feed.
but if he be such an one as either goeth up and down, bearing envy unto all the world; or if he be of so ill a nature, as that among so many men that are fortunate, he alone and none but he troubleth him, who ought of all other to be dearest and is most nearly joined unto him by the obligation of blood, a man may well say of him; That he is unhappy in the highest degree, and hath not left unto another man living any means to go beyond him in wretchedness. As Metellus therefore thought that the Romans were bound to render thanks unto the gods in heaven, for that Scipio, so noble and brave a man, was born in Rome and not in any other city; so every man is to wish and pray unto the gods, that himself may surmount all other men in prosperity, if not, yet that he might have a brother at leastwise to attain unto that power and authority so much desired; but some there be so unfortunate and unlucky by nature, in respect of any goodness in them, that they can rejoice and take a great glory in this, to have their friends advanced unto high places of honour, or to see their hosts and guests abroad, princes, rulers, rich and mighty men, but the resplendent glory of their brethren they think doth eclipse and darken their own renown; they delight and joy to hear the fortunate exploits of their fathers recounted, or how their great grandsires long ago had the conduct of armies, and were lord praetors and generals in the field, wherein they themselves had never any part, nor received thereby either honour or profit; but if there have fallen unto their brethren any great heritages or possessions, if they have risen unto high estate and achieved honourable dignities, if they are advanced by rich and noble marriages, then they are cast down and their hearts be done. And yet it had behoved and right meet it were in the first place, to be envious to no man at all; but if that may not be, the next way were to turn their envy outward, and eye-bite strangers, and to shew our spite unto aliens who are abroad, after the manner of those who to rid themselves from civil seditions at home, turn the same upon their enemies without, and set them together by the ears, and like as Diomedes in Homer said unto Glaucus:
Of Trojans and their allies both,
Who aid them for goodwill
Right many are beside yourself
For me in fight to kill:
And you likewise have Greeks enough
With whom in bloody field
You may your prowess try, and not
Meet me with spear and shield.
Now forasmuch as those especially who by nature are ambitious and disposed to thirst after glory, be for the most part envious and jealous toward those who are more honoured and renowned than they; it were very expedient for brethren if they would avoid this inconvenience, not to seek for to attain either honour or authority and credit all by the same means, but some by one thing and some by another: for we see by daily experience, it is an ordinary matter that wild beasts do fight and war one with another, namely, when they feed in one and the same pasture; and among champions and such as strive for the mastery in feats of activity, we count those for their adversaries and concurrents only who profess and practise the same kind of game or exercise; for those that go to it with fists and buffets are commonly friends good enough to such sword-fencers as fight at sharp to the utterance, and well-willers to the champions called Pancratiastae: likewise the runners in a race agree full well with wrestlers: these, I say, are ready to aid, assist and favour one another, which is the reason that of the two sons of Tyndarus, Pollux won the prize always at buffets, but Castor, his brother, went away with the victory in the race. And Homer very well in his poem feigned that Teucer was an excellent archer, and became famous thereby, but his brother Ajax was best at close fight and hand-strokes, standing to it heavily armed at all pieces:
And with his shield so bright and wide
His brother Teucer he did hide.
And thus it is with them that govern a state and commonweal; those that be men of arms and manage martial affairs never lightly do envy them much who deal in civil causes and use to make speeches unto the people; likewise among those that profess rhetoric and eloquence, advocates who plead at bar, never fall out with those sophisters that read lectures of oratory; among professors of physic, they that cure by diet envy not the chirurgeons who work by hand; whereas they who endeavour and seek to win credit and estimation by the same art, or by their faculty and sufficiency in any one thing, do as much (especially if they be badly minded withal) as those rivals who, loving one mistress, would be better welcome and find more grace and favour at her hands one than another.
True it is, I must needs confess, that they who go divers ways do no good one to another; but surely such as choose sundry courses of life do not only avoid the occasions of envy, but also by that means the rather have mutual help one by the other: thus Demosthenes and Chares sorted well together; Æschines likewise and Eubulus accorded; Hyperides also and Leosthenes were lovers and friends; in every which couple the former employed themselves in pleading and speaking before the people, and were writers and pen-men, whereas the other conducted armies, were warriors and men of action. Brethren therefore who cannot communicate in glory and credit together without envy, ought to set their desires and ambitious minds as far remote one from another, and turn them full as contrary as they can, if they would find comfort, and not receive displeasure by the prosperity and happy success one of another: but above all, a principal care and regard they must have of their kindred and alliance, yea, and otherwhiles of their very wives, and namely, when they be ready with their perilous speeches many times to blow more coals, and thereby enkindle their ambitious humour. Your brother (quoth one) doth wonders; he carrieth ill before him; he beareth the sway; no talk there is but of him; he is admired, and every man maketh court to him: whereas there is no resort to you; no man cometh toward you; clothing is there in you that men regard or set by. When these suggestions shall be thus whispered, a brother that is wise and veil minded may well say thus again: I have a brother indeed whose name is up and carrieth a great side; and verily the greater part of his credit and authority is mine and at my commandment. For Socrates was wont to say, that he would choose rather to have Darius his friend, than his darics,[3] And a brother who is of sound and good judgment will think hat he hath no less benefit when his brother is placed in great state of government, blessed with rickes, or advanced to credit and reputation by his gift of eloquence, than if himself were ruler, wealthy, learned, and eloquent. Thus you may see the best and readiest means that are to qualify and mitigate this inequality between brethren.
Now there be other disagreements besides, that grow quickly between, especially if they want good bringing up and are not well taught, and namely, in regard of their age. For commonly the elder, who think that by good right they ought to have the command, rule, and government of their younger brethren in everything, and who held it great reason that they should be honoured, and have power and authority always above them, commonly do use them hardly and are nothing kind and lightsome unto them: the younger again being stubborn, wilful and unruly, ready also to shake off the bridle, are wont to make no reckoning of their elder brethren's prerogative, but set them at naught and despise them; whereby it cometh to pass that as the younger of one side envied, are held down with envy, and kept under always by their elder brethren, and so shun their rebukes and scorn their admonitions; so these, on the other side, desirous to hold their own and maintain their pre-eminence and sovereignty over them, stand always in dread lest their younger brethren should grow too much, as if the rising of them were their fall. But like as the case standeth in a benefit or good turn that is done, men say it is meet that the receiver should esteem the thing greater than it is, and the giver make the least of it; even so, he that can persuade the elder, that the time whereby he hath the vantage of his other brethren is no great thing; and likewise the younger, that he should reckon the same birthright for no small matter, he shall do a good deed between them, in delivering the one from disdain, contempt, and suspicion, and the other from irreverence and negligence.
Now forasmuch as it is meet that the elder should take care and charge, teach, and instruct, admonish and reprove the younger; and as fit likewise the younger should honour, imitate, and follow the elder: I could wish that the solicitude and care of the elder savoured rather of a companion and fellow than of a father; that himself also would seem not so much to command as to persuade, and to be more prompt and ready to joy for his younger brother's well-doing, and to praise him for it, than in any wise take pleasure in reprehending and blaming him if haply he have forgotten his duty; and in one word, to do the one not only more willingly, but also with greater humanity than the other. Moreover, the zeal and emulation in the younger ought rather to be of the nature of an imitation, than either of jealousy or contention; for that imitation presupposeth an opinion of admiration, whereas jealousy and contention implieth envy, which is the reason that they affect and love those who endeavour to resemble and be like unto them; but contrariwise, they are offended at those and keep them down who strive to be their equals.
Now among many honours, which it beseemeth the younger to render unto his elder, obedience is that which deserveth most commendation, and worketh a more assured and hearty affection accompanied with a certain reverence, which causeth the elder reciprocally and by way of requital to yield the like and to give place unto him. Thus Cato, having from his infancy honoured and reverenced his elder brother Csepion, by all manner of obeisance and silence before him; in the end gained thus much by it, that when they were both men grown, he had so won him and filled him (as it were) with so great a respect and reverence of him, that he would neither say nor do ought without his privity and knowledge. For it is reported that when Csepion lad one day signed and sealed with his own signet a certain etter testimonial, Cato his brother coming afterwards would lot set to his seal; which, when Caepion understood, he called for the foresaid testimonial and pluckt away his own seal, before he had once demanded for what occasion his brother would not believe the deed, but suspected his testimony? It seemeth likewise that the brethren of Epicurus shewed great aspect and reverence unto him, in regard of the love and careful goodwill that he bare unto them; which appeared in this, that as to all other things else of his, so to his philosophy especially, they were so wedded, as if they had been inspired therewith. For albeit they were seduced and deceived in their opinion, giving out and holding always (as they did) from their infancy, that never was any man so deep a clerk nor so great a philosopher as their brother Epicurus: yet it is wonderful to consider as well him that could so frame and dispose them, as themselves also for being so disposed and affectionate unto him. And verily, even among the more modern philosophers of later time, Apollonius the Peripatetic, had convinced him of untruth (whosoever he was) that said lordship and glory could like no fellowship, for he made his brother Sotion more famous and renowned than himself. For mine own part, to say somewhat of myself; albeit that fortune hath done me many favours, in regard whereof I am bound to render unto her much thanks; there is not any one for which I take myself so much obliged and beholden unto her, as for the love that my brother Timon hath always shewed and doth yet shew unto me; a thing that no man is able to deny who hath never so little been in our company, and you least of all others may doubt who have conversed so familiarly with us.
Now there be other occasions of trouble which ought to be taken heed of among those brethren which are of like age or somewhat near in years; small passions (I wot well) they be, but many they are, and those ordinary and continual; by means whereof they bring with them an evil custom of vexing, fretting and angering one another ever and anon for small things, which in the end turn into hatred and enmity irreconcilable: for when they have begun to quarrel one with another at their games and pastimes, about the feeding and fighting of some little creatures that they keep, to wit, quails or cocks, and afterwards about the wrestling of their boys and pages at the school, or the hunting of their hounds in the chase, or the caparison of their horses; they can no more hold and refrain (when as they be men) their contentious vein and ambition in matters of more importance: thus the greatest and mightiest men among the Greeks in our time, banding at the first one against another in taking parts with their dancers, and then in siding with their minstrels, afterwards by comparing one with another who had the better ponds or bathing pools in the territory of Edepsus, who had the fairer galleries and walking-places, the statelier halls and places of pleasure, evermore changing and exchanging, and fighting (as it were) for the vantage of a place, striving still by way of odious comparison, cutting and diverting another way the conduct pipes of fountains, are become so much exasperate one against another, that in the meantime they are utterly undone; for the tyrant is come, and hath taken all from them; banished they are out of their own native country; they wander as poor vagabonds through the world, and I may be bold (well near) to say, they are so far changed from that they were afore, that they be others quite, this only excepted, that they be the same still in hatred one to another. Thus it appeareth evidently, that brethren ought not a little to resist the jealousy and contentions which breed among them upon small trifles, even in the very beginning, and that by accustoming themselves to yield and give place reciprocally one to another, suffering themselves to be overcome and take the foil, and joying rather to pleasure and content one another, than to win the better hand one of another: for the victory which in old time they called the Cadmian victory was nothing else but that victory between brethren about the city of Thebes, which is of all other the most wicked and mischievous.
What shall we say moreover? do not the affairs of this life minister many occasions of disagreement and debate even among those brethren which are most kind and loving of all other? yes, verily. But even therein also, we must be careful to let the said affairs to combat alone by themselves, and not to put thereto any passion of contention or anger, as an anchor or hook to catch hold of the parties, and pull them together for to quarrel, and enter into debate; but as it were in a balance, to look jointly together, on whether side right and equity doth encline and bend, and so soon as ever we can, to put matters in question to the arbitrament and judgment of some good and indifferent persons, to purge and make clear all, before they are grown so far as that they have gotten a stain or tincture of cankered malice, which afterwards will never be washed or scoured out: which done, we are to imitate the Pythagoreans, who being neither joined in kindred or consanguinity, nor yet allied by affinity, but the scholars in one school, and the fellows of one and the same discipline, if peradventure at any time they were so far carried away with choler, that they fell to interchange reproachful and reviling taunts, yet before the sun was gone down they would shake hands, kiss, and embrace one another, be reconciled, and become good friends again. For like as if there be a fever, occasioned by a botch or rising in the share, there is no danger thereof, but if when the said botch is gone, the fever still continue, then it seemeth to be a malady proceeding from some more inward, secret, and deeper cause; even so the variance between two brethren, when it ceaseth together with the deciding of a business, we must think dependeth upon the same business and upon nothing else, but if the difference remain still when the controversy is ended, surely then it was but a colourable pretence thereof, and there was within some root of secret malice which caused it.
And here in this place it would serve our purpose very well to hear the manner of proceeding in the decision of a controversy between two brethren of a barbarous nation, and the same not for some little parcel of land, nor about poor slaves or silly sheep, but for no less than the kingdom of Persia: for after the death of Darius, some of the Persians would have had Ariamenes to succeed and wear the crown, as being the eldest son of the king late deceased; others again stood earnestly for Xerxes, as well for that he had to his mother Atossa, the daughter of that great Cyrus, as because he was begotten by Darius when he was crowned king. Ariamenes then came down out of Media to claim his right; not in arms, as one that minded to make war, but simply and peaceably, attended only with his ordinary train and retinue, minding to enter upon the kingdom by justice and order of law. Xerxes in the meanwhile, and before his brother came, being present in place, ruled as king and exercised all hose fvmctions that appertained thereto: his brother was no ooner arrived but he took willingly the diadem or royal frontlet from his head, and the princely chaplet or coronet which the Persian kings are wont to wear upright, he laid down, and went toward his brother to meet him upon the way, and with kind greeting embraced him: he sent also certain presents unto him, with commandment unto those that carried them to say thus: Xerxes thy brother honoureth thee now with these presents here, but if by the sentence and judgment of the peers and lords of Persia he shall be declared king, his will and pleasure is, that thou shalt be the second person in the realm and next unto him. Ariamenes answered the message in this wise: These presents I receive kindly from my brother, but I am persuaded that the kingdom of Persia by right belongeth unto me; as for my brethren, I will reserve that honour which is meet and due unto them next after myself, and Xerxes shall be the first and chief of them all. Now when the great day of judgment was at hand when this weighty matter should be determined, the Persians by one general and common consent declared Artabanus, the brother of Darius late departed, to be the umpire and competent judge for to decide and end this cause. Xerxes was unwilling to stand unto his award, being but one man, as who reposed more trust and confidence in the number of the princes and nobles of the realm; but his mother Atossa reproving him for it: Tell me (quoth she), my son, wherefore refusest thou Artabanus to be thy judge, who is your uncle, and besides, the best man of all the Persians? and why dost thou fear so much the issue of his judgment, considering that if thou miss, yet the second place is most honourable, namely, to be called the king's brother of Persia? Then Xerxes, persuaded by his mother, yielded; and after many allegations brought and pleaded on both sides judicially, Artabanus at length pronounced definitively that the kingdom of Persia appertained unto Xerxes: with that Ariamenes incontinently leapt from his seat, went and did homage unto his brother, and taking him by the right hand, enthronised and installed him king: from which time forward he was always the greatest person next unto his brother; and shewed himself so loving and affectionate unto him, that in his quarrel he fought most valiantly in the naval battle before Salaminas, where in his service and for his honour he lost his life. This example may serve for an original pattern of true benevolence and magnanimity, so pure and uncorrupt as it cannot in any one point be blamed or stained.
As for Antiochus, as a man may reprehend in him his ambitious mind and excessive desire of rule; so he may as well wonder that considering his vain-glorious spirit, all brotherly love was not in him utterly extinct; for being himself the younger, he waged war with Seleucus for the crown, and kept his mother sure enough for to side with him and take his part; now it happened that during this war and when it was at the hottest, Seleucus struck a battle with the Galatians, lost the field, and was himself not to be found, but supposed certainly to have been slain and cut in pieces, together with his whole army, which by the barbarians were put to the sword and massacred; when news came unto Antiochus of this defeature, he laid away his purple robes, put on black, caused the court gates to be shut, and mourned heavily for his brother, as if he had been dead: but being afterwards advertised that he was alive, safe and sound, and that he went about to gather new forces and make head again, he came abroad, sacrificed with thanksgiving unto the gods, and commanded all those cities and states which were under his dominion to keep holiday, to sacrifice and wear chaplets of flowers upon their heads in token of public joy. The Athenians, when they had devised an absurd and ridiculous fable as touching the quarrel between Neptune and Minerva, intermeddled withal another invention, which soundeth to some reason, tending to the correction of the same, and as it were to make amends for that absurdity, for they suppress always the second of August, upon which day happened (by their saying) that debate aforesaid between Neptune and Minerva.
What should let and hinder us likewise, if it chance that we enter into any quarrel or debate with our allies and kinsfolk in blood, to condemn that day to perpetual oblivion, and to repute and reckon it among the cursed and dismal days; but in no wise by occasion of one such unhappy day to forget so many other good and joyful days wherein we have lived and been brought up together; for either it is for nothing and in vain that nature hath endued us with meekness and harmless long-sufferance, or patience the daughter of modesty and mediocrity, or else surely we ought to use these virtues and good gifts of her principally to our allies and kinsfolk; and verily to crave and receive pardon of them when we ourselves have offended and done amiss, declareth no less love and natural affection than to forgive them if they have trespassed against us. And therefore we ought not to neglect them if they be angry and displeased; nor to be strait-laced and stiffly stand against them when they come to justify or excuse themselves; but rather both when ourselves have faulted, oftentimes to prevent their anger by excuse, making or asking forgiveness, and also by pardoning them before they come to excuse if we have been wronged by them.
And therefore Euclides, that great scholar of Socrates, is much renowned and famous in all schools of philosophy, for that when he heard his brother break out into these beastly and wicked words against him. The foul ill take me if I be not revenged and meet with thee; and a mischief come to me also (quoth he again) if I appease not thine anger, and persuade thee to love me as well as ever thou didst. But King Eumenes not in word but in deed and effect surpassed all others in meekness and patience: for Perseus, king of the Macedonians, being his mortal enemy, had secretly addressed an ambush and set certain men of purpose to murder him about Delphos, espying their time when they saw him going from the seaside to the said town for to consult with the oracle of Apollo: now when he was gone a little past the ambush they began to assail him from behind, tumbling down and throwing mighty stones upon his head and neck, wherewith he was so astonished that his sight failed, and he fell withal, in that manner as he was taken for dead: now the rumour hereof ran into all parts, insomuch as certain of his servitors and friends made speed to the city Pergamus, reporting the tidings of this occurrent, as if they had been present and seen all done; whereupon Attalus, the eldest brother next unto himself, an honest and kind-hearted man, one also who always had carried himself most faithfully and loyally unto Eumenes, was not only declared king, and crowned with the royal diadem; but that which more is, espoused and married Queen Stratonice, his said brother's wife, and lay with her. But afterwards, when counter-news came that Eumenes was alive and coming homeward again, Attalus laid aside his diadem, and taking a partisan or javelin in his hand (as his manner beforetime was), with other pensioners and squires of the body he went to meet his brother: King Eumenes received him right graciously, took him lovingly by the hand, embraced the queen with all honour, and of a princely and magnanimous spirit put up all; yea, and when he had lived a long time after without any complaint, suspicion, and jealousy at all, in the end at his death made over and assigned both the crown and the queen his wife unto his brother, the aforesaid Attalus: and what did Attalus now after his brother's decease? he would not foster and bring up (as heir apparent) so much as one child that he had by Stratonice his wife, although she bear unto him many; but he nourished and carefully cherished the son of his brother departed, until he was come to full age, and then himself in his lifetime with his own hands set the imperial diadem and royal crown upon his head, and proclaimed him king. But Cambyses contrariwise, frighted upon a vain dream which he had, that his brother was come to usurp the kingdom of Asia, without expecting any proof or presumption thereof, put him to death for it; by occasion whereof, the succession in the empire went out of the race of Cyrus upon his decease, and was devolved upon the line of Darius, who reigned after him; a prince who knew how to communicate the government of his affairs and his regal authority, not only with his brethren, but also with his friends.
Moreover, this one point more is to be remembered and observed diligently in all variances and debates that are risen between brethren: namely, then especially, and more than at any time else, to converse and keep company with their friends; and on the other side to avoid their enemies and evil-willers, and not to be willing so much as to vouchsafe them any speech or entertainment. Following herein the fashion of the Candiots, who being oftentimes fallen out and in civil dissension among themselves, yea and warring hot one with another, no sooner hear news of foreign enemies coming against them, but they rank themselves, banding jointly together against them; and this combination is that which thereupon is called syncretesmos. For some there be that (like as water runneth always to the lower ground, and to places that chink or cleave asunder) are ready to side with those brethren or friends that be fallen out, and by their suggestions buzzed into their ears, ruinate and overthrow all acquaintance, kindred and amity, hating indeed both parties, but seeming to bear rather upon the weaker side, and to settle upon him who of imbecility soon yieldeth and giveth place. And verily those that be simple and harmless friends, such as commonly young folk are, apply themselves commonly to him that aff ecteth a brother, helping and increasing that love what he may; but the most malicious enemies are they who espying when one brother is angry or fallen out with another, seem to be angry and offended together with him for company; and these do most hurt of all others. Like as the hen therefore in Æsop answered unto the cat, making semblance as though he heard her say she was sick, and therefore in kindness and love asking how she did? I am well enough (quoth she), I thank you, so that you were farther off; even so, unto such a man as is inquisitive and entereth into talk as touching the debate of brethren to sound and search into some secrets between them, one ought to answer thus: Surely there would be no quarrel between my brother and me if neither I nor he would give ear to carry-tales and pick-thanks between us.
But now it Cometh to pass (I wot not how), that when our eyes be sore and in pain, we turn away our sight unto those bodies and colours which make no reverberation or repercussion back again upon it; but when we have some complaint and quarrel, or conceive anger or suspicion against our brethren, we take pleasure to hear those that make all worse, and are apt enough to take any colour and infection, presented to us by them, where it were more needful and expedient at such a time to avoid their enemies and evil-willers, and to keep ourselves out of the way from them; and contrariwise to converse with their allies, familiars, and friends; and with them to bear company especially, yea, and to enter into their own houses for to complain and blame them before their very wives, frankly and with liberty of speech. And yet it is a common saying. That brethren when they walk together should not so much as let a stone to be betwixt them; nay, they are discontented and displeased in mind, in case a dog chance to run overthwart them; and a number of such other things they fear, whereof there is not one able to make any breach or division between brethren; but in the meanwhile they perceive not how they receive into the midst of them, and suffer to traverse and cross them, men of a currish and dogged nature, who can do nothing else but bark between, and sow false rumours and calumniations between one and another, for to provoke them to jar and fall together by the ears: and therefore to great reason and very well to this purpose said Theophrastus; That if all things (according to the old proverb) should be common among friends, then most of all they ought to entertain friends in common; for private familiarities and acquaintances apart one from another are great means to disjoin and turn away their hearts; for if they fall to love others, and make choice of other familiar friends, it must needs follow by consequence to take pleasure and delight in other companies, to esteem and affect others, yea, and to suffer themselves to be ruled and led by others. For friendships and amities frame the natures and dispositions of men; neither is there a more certain and assured sign of different humours and divers natures than the choice and election of different friends, in such sort as neither to eat and drink, nor to play, nor to pass and spend whole days together in good fellowship and company, is so effectual to hold and maintain the concord and goodwill of brethren, as to hate and love the same persons; to joy in the same acquaintance: and contrariwise to abhor and shun the same company; for when brethren have friends common between them, the said friends will never suffer any surmises, calumniations and quarrels to grow between; and say that peradventure there do arise some sudden heat of choler or grudging fit of complaint, presently it is cooled, quenched and suppressed by the mediation of conunon friends; for ready they will be to take up the quarrel and scatter it so as it shall vanish away to nothing if they be indifferently affectionate to them both, and that their love incline no more to the one side than to the other: for like as tin-solder doth knit and rejoin a crackt piece of brass, in touching and taking hold of both sides and edges of the broken pieces, for that it agreeth and sorteth as well to the one as to the other, and suffereth from them both alike; even so ought a friend to be fitted and suitable indifferently unto both brethren, if he would knit surely, and confirm strongly their mutual benevolence and goodwill. But such as are unequal and cannot intermeddle and go between the one as well as the other, make a separation and disjunction, and not a sound joint, like as certain notes or discords in music. And therefore it may well be doubted and question made whether Hesiodus did well or no when he said:
Make not a feere I thee advise
Thy brother's peer in any wise.
For a discreet and sober companion common to both (as I said) 3efore, or rather incorporate (as it were) into them, shall ever be a sure knot to fasten brotherly love. But Hesiodus (as it should seem) meant and feared this in the ordinary and vulgar sort of men, who are many of them naught, by reason that so customably they be given to jealousy and suspicion, yea and to self-love, which if we consider and observe, it is well; but with this regard always, that although a man yield equal goodwill unto a friend as unto a brother, yet nevertheless in case of concurrence, he ought to reserve ever the pre-eminence and first place for his brother, whether it be in preferring him in my election of magistrates, or to the managing of state affairs or in bidding and inviting him to a solemn feast, or public assembly to consult and debate of weighty causes; or in recommending him to princes and great lords. For in such cases, which in the common opinion of the world are reputed matters of honour and credit, a man ought to render the dignity, honour, and reward which is beseeming and due to blood by the course of nature. For in these things the advantage and prerogative will not purchase so much glory and reputation to a friend, as the repulse and putting-by bring disgrace, discredit, and dishonour unto a brother.
Well, as touching this old said saw and sentence of Hesiodus, I have treated more at large elsewhere; but the sententious saying of Menander full wisely set down in these words:
No man who loves another shall you see
Well pleas'd, himself neglected for to be,
putteth us in mind and teacheth us to have good regard and care of our brethren, and not to presume so much upon the obligation of nature, as to despise them. For the horse is a beast by nature loving to a man, and the dog loves his master; but in case you never think upon them nor see unto them (as you ought), they will forego that kind affection, estrange themselves and take no knowledge of you. The body also is most nearly knit and united to the soul by the greatest bond of nature that can be; but in case it be neglected and contemned by her, or not cherished so tenderly as it looketh to be, unwilling shall you see it to help and assist her, nay, full untowardly will it execute, or rather give over it will altogether every action. Now to come more near and to particularise upon this point, honest and good is that care and diligence which is employed and shewed to thy brethren themselves alone; but better it would be far if thy love and kind affections be extended as far as to their wives' fathers and daughters' husbands, by carrying a friendly mind and ready will to pleasure them likewise, and to do for them in all their occasions; if they be courteous and affable in saluting their servants, such especially as they love and favour; thankful and beholding to their physicians who had them in cure during sickness and were diligent about them; acknowledging themselves bound unto their faithful and trusty friends, or to such as were willing and forward to take such part as they did in any long voyage and expedition, or to bear them company in warfare. And as for the wedded wife of a brother whom he is to reverence, repute and honour no less than a most sacred and holy relique or monument, if at any time he happen to see her, it will become him to speak all honour and good of her husband before her; or to be offended and complain (as well as she) of her husband, if he set not that store by her as he ought, and when she is angered to appease and still her. Say also that she have done some light fault and offended her husband, to reconcile him again Unto her and entreat him to be content and to pardon her; and likewise if there be some particular and private cause of difference between him and his brother, to acquaint the wife therewith, and by her means to complain thereof, that she may lake up the matter by composition and end the quarrel.
Lives thy brother a bachelor and hath no children? thou oughtest in good earnest to be angry with him for it, to solicit him to marriage, yea with chiding, rating and by all means urge him to leave this single life, and by entering into wedlock to be linked in lawful alliance and affinity: hath he children? then you are to shew your goodwill and affection more manifestly, as well toward him as his wife, in honouring him more than ever before, in loving his children as if they were your own, yea, and shewing yourself more indulgent, kind, and affable unto them; that if it chance they do faults and shrewd turns (as little ones are wont), they run not away, nor retire into some blind and solitary comer for fear of father and mother, or by that means light into some light, unhappy, and ungracious company, but may have recourse and refuge unto their uncle, where they may be admonished lovingly, and find an intercessor to make their excuse and get their pardon. Thus Plato reclaimed his brother's son or nephew Speusippus from his loose life and dissolute riot, without doing any harm or giving him foul words, but by winning him with fair and gentle language (whereas his father and mother did nothing but rate and cry out upon him continually, which caused him to run away and keep out of their sight) he imprinted in his heart a great reverence of him, and a fervent zeal to imitate him, and to set his mind to the study of philosophy, notwithstanding many of his friends thought hardly of him and blamed him not a little, for that he took not another course with the untoward youth, namely, to rebuke, check, and chastise him sharply: but this was evermore his answer unto them: That he reproved and took him down sufficiently by shewing unto him by his own life and carriage what difference there was between vice and virtue, between things honest and dishonest.
Alenas, sometime king of Thessaly, was hardly used and overawed by his father, for that he was insolent, proud, and violent withal; but contrariwise, his uncle by the father's side would give him entertainment, bear him out, and make much of him: Now when upon a time the Thessalians sent unto Delphos certain lots, to know by the oracle of god Apollo who should be their king? the foresaid uncle of Alenas unwitting to his brother put in one for him: Then Pythia the prophetess gave answer from Apollo and pronounced that Alenas should be king: The father of Alenas denied, and said that he had cast in no lot for him; and it seemed unto every man that there was some error in writing of those bills or names for the lottery: whereupon new messengers were dispatched to the oracle for to clear this doubt; and then Pythia, in confirmation of the former choice, answered:
I mean that youth with reddish hair,
Whom dame Archedice in womb did bear.
Thus Alenas, declared and elected king of Thessaly, by the oracle of Apollo, and by the means withal of his father's brother, both proved himself afterward a most noble prince, excelling all his progenitors and predecessors, and also raised the whole nation and his country a great name and mighty puissance.
Furthermore, it is seemly and convenient by joying and taking a glory in the advancement, prosperity, honours and dignities of brothers' children, to augment the same, and to encourage and animate them to virtue, and when they do well, to praise them to the full. Haply it might be thought an odious and unseemly thing for a man to commend much his own son, but surely to praise a brother's son is an honourable thing, and since it proceedeth not from the love of a man's self, it cannot be thought but right, honest, and (in truth) divine:[4] for surely methinks the very name itself (of uncle) is sufficient to draw brethren to affect and love dearly one another, and so consequently their nephews: and thus we ought to propose unto ourselves for to imitate the better sort and such as have been immortalised and deified in times past: for so Hercules, notwithstanding he had seventy sons within twain of his own, yet he loved lolaus, his brother's son, no less than any of them; insomuch as even at this day in most places there is but one altar erected for him and his said nephew together, and men pray jointly unto Hercules and lolaus. Also, when his brother Iphiclus was slain in that famous battle which was fought near
Lacedaemon, he was so exceedingly displeased, and took such indignation thereat, that he departed out of Peloponnesus and left the whole country. As for Leucothea, when her sister was dead, she nourished and brought up her child, and together with her, ranged it among the heavenly saints: whereupon the Roman dames even at this day, when they celebrate the feast of Leucothea (whom they name Matuta) carry in their arms and cherish tenderly their sisters' children, and not their own.