Protected over with a glittering shield.1And amongst those who are concerned in the Common wealth a general of an army does not much envy the leaders of the people, nor among those that profess rhetoric do the lawyers envy the sophisters, nor amongst the physicians do those who prescribe rules for diet envy the chirurgeon; but they mutually aid and assert the credit of one another. But for brothers to study to be eminent in the same art and faculty is all the same, amongst ill men, as [p. 55] if rival lovers, courting one and the same mistress, should both strive to gain the greatest interest in her affections. Those indeed that travel different ways can probably do one another but little good; but those who carry on quite different designs, and take several methods in their conversations, avoid envy, and many times do one another a kindness. As Demosthenes and Chares, and again Aeschines and Eubulus, Hyperides and Leosthenes, the one treating the people with their discourses and writings, the others assisting them by action and conduct. Therefore, where the disposition of brothers is such that they cannot agree in prosecuting the same methods of becoming great, it is convenient that one of them should so command himself as to assume the most different inclinations and designs from his brother; that, if they both aim at honor, they may serve their ambition by different means, and that they may cheerfully congratulate each other on the success of their designs, and so enjoy at once their honor and them selves.
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Brothers should not be like the scales of a balance,
the one rising upon the other's sinking; but rather like
numbers in arithmetic, the lesser and greater mutually
helping and improving each other. For that finger which
is not active in writing or touching musical instruments is
not inferior to those that can do both; but they all move and
[p. 54]
act, one as well as another, and are assistant to each other,
which makes the inequality among them seem designed
by Nature, when the greatest cannot be without the help
of the least that is placed in opposition to it. Thus Craterus and Perilaus, brothers to kings Antigonus and Cassander, betook themselves, the one to managing of military,
the other of his domestic affairs. On the other hand,
the men like Antiochus, Seleucus, Grypus, and Cyzicenus,
disdaining any meaner things than purple and diadems,
brought a great deal of trouble and mischief upon one
another, and made Greece itself miserable with their quarrels. But in regard that men of ambitious inclinations
will be apt to envy those who have got the start of them
in honor, I judge it most convenient for brothers to take
different methods in pursuit of it, rather than to vex and
emulate one another in the same way. Those beasts fight
and war one with another who feed in one pasture, and
wrestlers are antagonists when they strive in the same
game. But those that pretend to different games are the
greatest friends, and ready to take one another's parts with
the utmost of their skill and power. So the two sons of
Tyndarus, Castor and Pollux, carried the day,—Pollux at
cuffs, and Castor at racing. Thus Homer brings in Teucer as expert in the bow, whom his brother Ajax, who was
best in close fight,
1 Il. VIII. 272.
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