Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.4, 1865).djvu/220

212 ALEXANDER. had been engaged in so many signal battles did not know by experience, that those who labor sleep more sweetly and soundly than those who are labored for, and could fail to see by comparing the Persians' manner of liv- ing with their own, that it was the most abject and slav- ish condition to be voluptuous, but the most noble and royal to undergo pain and labor. He argued with them further, how it was possible for any one who pretended to be a soldier, either to look well after his horse, or to keep his armor bright and in good order, who thought it much to let his hands be serviceable to what was nearest to him, his own body. " Are you still to learn," said he, " that the end and perfection of our victories is to avoid the vices and infirmities of those whom we subdue ? " And to strengthen his precepts by example, lie applied himself now more vigorously than ever to hunting and warlike expeditions, embracing all opportunities of hard- ship and danger, insomuch that a Lacedaemonian, who was there on an embassy to him, and chanced to be by when he encountered with and mastered a huge lion, told him he had fought gallantly with the beast, which of the two should be king. Craterus caused a representa- tion to be made of this adventure, consisting of the lion and the dogs, of the king engaged with the lion, and himself coming in to his assistance, all expressed in figures of brass, some of which were by Lysippus, and the rest by Leochares; and had it dedicated in the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Alexander exposed his person to dan- ger in this manner, with the object both, of inuring him- self, and inciting others to the performance of brave and virtuous actions. But his followers, who were grown rich, and conse- quently proud, longed to indulge themselves in pleasure and idleness, and were weary of marches and expeditions, and at last went on so far as to censure and speak ill of