is of those that have some natural dispositions which find better grace
in youth than in age; such as is a fluent and luxuriant speech; which
becomes youth well, but not age: so Tully saith of Hortensius,[35] _Idem
manebat, neque idem decebat_. The third is of such as take too high a
strain at the first, and are magnanimous more than tract of years can
uphold. As was Scipio Africanus, of whom Livy saith[36] in effect,
_Ultima primis cedebant_. IV OF REVENGE Revenge is a kind of wild
justice; which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed
it out. For as for the first wrong, it doth but offend the law; but the
revenge of that wrong putteth the law out of office. Certainly, in
taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it
over, he is superior; for it is a prince's part to pardon. And Solomon,
I am sure, saith, _It is the glory of a man to pass by an offense._ That
which is past is gone, and irrevocable; and wise men have enough to do
with things present and to come; therefore they do but trifle with
themselves, that labor in past matters. There is no man doth a wrong for
the wrong's sake; but thereby to purchase himself profit, or pleasure,
or honor, or the like. Therefore why should I be angry with a man for
loving himself better than me? And if any man should do wrong merely out
of ill-nature, why, yet it is but like the thorn or brier, which prick
and scratch, because they can do no other. The most tolerable sort of
revenge is for those wrongs which there is no law to remedy; but then
let a man take heed the revenge be such as there is no law to punish;
else a man's enemy is still beforehand, and it is two for one. Some,
when they take revenge, are desirous the party should know whence it
cometh. This is the more generous. For the delight seemeth to be not so
much in doing the hurt as in making the party repent. But base and
crafty cowards are like the arrow that flieth in the dark. Cosmus,[37]
Duke of Florence, had a desperate saying against perfidious or
neglecting friends, as if those wrongs were unpardonable: _You shall
read_ (saith he) _that we are commanded to
