ere cruel or frantic unless when you were drunk. This I
absolutely deny. You were not drunk when you crucified Hephaestion's
physician for not curing a man who killed himself by his intemperance in
his sickness, nor when you sacrificed to the manes of that favourite
officer the whole nation of the Cusseans--men, women, and children--who
were entirely innocent of his death--because you had read in Homer that
Achilles had immolated some Trojan captives on the tomb of Patroclus. I
could mention other proofs that your passions inflamed you as much as
wine, but these are sufficient.

_Alexander_.--I can't deny that my passions were sometimes so violent as
to deprive me for a while of the use of my reason; especially when the
pride of such amazing successes, the servitude of the Persians, and
barbarian flattery had intoxicated my mind. To bear at my age, with
continual moderation, such fortune as mine, was hardly in human nature.
As for you, there was an excess and intemperance in your virtues which
turned them all into vices. And one virtue you wanted, which in a prince
is very commendable and beneficial to the public--I mean, the love of
science and of the elegant arts. Under my care and patronage they were
carried in Greece to their utmost perfection. Aristotle, Apelles, and
Lysippus were among the glories of my reign. Yours was illustrated only
by battles. Upon the whole, though, from some resemblance between us I
should naturally be inclined to decide in your favour, yet I must give
the priority in renown to your enemy, Peter Alexowitz. That great
monarch raised his country; you ruined yours. He was a legislator; you
were a tyrant.

DIALOGUE XXI.

CARDINAL XIMENES--CARDINAL WOLSEY.

_Wolsey_.--You seem to look on me, Ximenes, with an air of superiority,
as if I was not your equal. Have you forgotten that I was the favourite
and first Minister of a great King of England? that I was at once Lord
High Chancellor, Bishop of Durham, Bishop of Winchester, Archbishop of
York, and Cardinal Legate? On what other subject were ever accumulated
so many dignities, such honours, such power?

_Ximenes_.--In order to prove yourself my equal, you are pleased to tell
me what you had, not what you did. But it is not the having great
offices, it is the doing great things, that makes a great Minister. I
know that for some years you governed the mind of King Henry VIII., and
consequently his kingdom, with the most ab