There remains yet another way to discover him by
his inclinations towards your intimates and familiars. For
there is nothing more agreeable to a true and cordial acquaintance than to love and to be beloved with many; and
therefore he always sedulously endeavors to gain his friend
the affections and esteem of other men. For being of
opinion that all things ought to be in common amongst
friends, he thinks nothing ought to be more so than they
themselves. But the faithless, the adulterate friend of base
alloy, who is conscious to himself of the disservice he does
true friendship by that false coin of it which he puts upon
us, is naturally full of emulation and envy, even towards
those of his own profession, endeavoring to outdo them in
their common talent of babbling and buffoonry, whilst he
reveres and cringes to his betters, whom he dares no more
vie with than a footman with a Lydian chariot, or lead (to
use Simonides's expression) with refined gold. Therefore
this light and empty counterfeit, finding he wants weight
when put into the balance against a solid and substantial
friend, endeavors to remove him as far as he can, like
him who, having painted a cock extremely ill, commanded
his servant to take the original out of sight; and if he
cannot compass his design, then he proceeds to compliment
and ceremony, pretending outwardly to admire him as a
[p. 137]
person far beyond himself, whilst by secret calumnies he
blackens and undermines him. And if these chance to
have galled and fretted him only and have not thoroughly
done their work, then he betakes himself to the advice of
Medius, that arch parasite and enemy to the Macedonian
nobility, and chief of all that numerous train which Alexander entertained in his court. This man taught his disciples to slander boldly and push home their calumnies;
for, though the wound might probably be cured and skinned
over again, yet the teeth of slander would be sure to leave
a scar behind them. By these scars, or (to speak more
properly) gangrenes and cancers of false accusations, fell
the brave Callisthenes, Parmenio, and Philotas; whilst Alexander himself became an easy prey to an Agnon, Bagoas,
Agesias, and Demetrius, who tricked him up like a barbarian statue, and paid the mortal the adoration due to a God.
So great a charm is flattery, and, as it seems, the greatest
with those we think the greatest men; for the exalted
thoughts they entertain of themselves, and the desire of a
universal concurrence in the same opinion from others, both
add courage to the flatterer and credit to his impostures.
Hills and mountains indeed are not easily taken by stratagem or ambuscade; but a weak mind, swollen big and lofty
by fortune, birth, or the like, lies naked to the assaults of
every mean and petty aggressor.
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