Alexander, a worthy man, but furious in his anger, overtaken in drink:
Caesar and Scipio valiant and wise, but vainglorious, ambitious: Vespasian
a worthy prince, but covetous: [755]Hannibal, as he had mighty virtues, so
had he many vices; _unam virtutem mille vitia comitantur_, as Machiavel of
Cosmo de Medici, he had two distinct persons in him. I will determine of
them all, they are like these double or turning pictures; stand before
which you see a fair maid, on the one side an ape, on the other an owl;
look upon them at the first sight, all is well, but farther examine, you
shall find them wise on the one side, and fools on the other; in some few
things praiseworthy, in the rest incomparably faulty. I will say nothing of
their diseases, emulations, discontents, wants, and such miseries: let
poverty plead the rest in Aristophanes' Plutus.

Covetous men, amongst others, are most mad, [756]they have all the symptoms
of melancholy, fear, sadness, suspicion, &c., as shall be proved in its
proper place,

"Danda est Hellebori multo pars maxima avaris."

"Misers make Anticyra their own;
Its hellebore reserved for them alone."

And yet methinks prodigals are much madder than they, be of what condition
they will, that bear a public or private purse; as a [757]Dutch writer
censured Richard the rich duke of Cornwall, suing to be emperor, for his
profuse spending, _qui effudit pecuniam, ante pedes principium Electorum
sicut aquam_, that scattered money like water; I do censure them, _Stulta
Anglia_ (saith he) _quae, tot denariis sponte est privata, stulti principes
Alemaniae, qui nobile jus suum pro pecunia vendiderunt_; spendthrifts,
bribers, and bribe-takers are fools, and so are [758]all they that cannot