EXCELLENCIE XVIII.
Emulacion de idaeas
THe greatest part of Heroes left no sons behind them, and though they did, yet they prov'd not Heroes: but yet they wanted not imitators. Heaven rather expos'd them for examples of va∣lour, than for propagators of nature.
Eminent men are the living texts of reputation, from whom an able man may take lessons of great∣nesse Page 138 by repeating their actions, and interpreting their exployts.
They must still set be∣fore them such as are the first in every predicament, not so much for Imitation as Emulation, not to fol∣low but to get before them.
Achilles was the Hero∣ick wakener of Alexan∣der, who sleeping in his sepulchre, awakened him by the Emulation of his fame; The generous Ma∣cedonian open'd his eyes, asmuch to weep, as to be∣hold him, and wept not to see Achilles in his to•mb, but to see himself Page 139 so farr behind him in re∣nown.
Alexander engaged Cae∣sar in the very same kind, & look what Achilles was to Alexander, Alexander was the same to Caesar. It prickt him to the quick in the generositie of his heart, and thrust him on so farr, that he put fame into the balance, and greatnesse into comparison: because if Alexander made the Orient to be the large the∣ater of his prowesses, Caesar made the Occident to be so of his.
The Magnanimous Don Alonso of Aragon and Page 140 Naples, us'd to say, that a couragious Horse, was not more moov'd by the sound of the trumpet, than he felt himself enflam'd by the trump of Caesar's fame.
And it is worth obser∣vation to see how these Heroes go inheriting each others greatnes, by their emulation, and by their greatnesse, their fame.
In every employment there are some that occu∣py the first classe, and o∣thers the lowest: Some are the miracles of excel∣lency, and others the An∣tipodes of miracles, let a wise man graduate them as Page 141 they deserve, and make himself perfect in the ca∣tegorie of Heroes, and in the catalogue of fame.
Plutark in his parallels made a table of the Heroes of former ages, and Pau∣lus Jovius in his elogies, a list of the modern.
Now it is desir'd per∣haps to have an absolute Chrysis, but what wit shall presume to make one?
It is easie to assigne them a place in time, but it is hard to set a right va∣lew upon them. It might have been an universall Idaea: if it had not past to be a miracle, leaving all Page 142 imitation in idleness, and only taking up admira∣tion.
That Monarck of He∣roes, the first of the worlds inanimated wonders and 4th of Spanish Philips, to whom as to the sun of the House of Austria, they owe their foure sphere, Let him be a generall looking glasse that repre∣sents not only magnitudes but maximities. Let him be call'd the common ob∣ject of emulation for He∣roes, being the center of all his own prowesses, and let applause equivocate it self into blasons, with Eminent, ph〈…〉ies: of Page 143 sense. He that for his fe∣licity * may be call'd the fortunate, for his courage the valiant, for his wise∣dome the discreet, for his zeal the most catholick, for his ayrinesse the most entregented, and in all things the universall.
