“To deeds so dreadful could religion prompt.” The poet refers to the sacrifice by Agamemnon, the Grecian leader, of his daughter Iphigenia, with the view of appeasing the wrath of Diana.—Lucret. i. 95.

Montaigne has treated this subject before Bacon, under the title of De l’incommodité de la Grandeur. (B. iii. ch. vii.)

“Death presses heavily upon him, who, well known to all others, dies unknown to himself.”—Sen. Thyest. ii. 401.

“He often warns, too, that secret revolt is impending, that treachery and open warfare are ready to burst forth.”—Virg. Georg. i. 465.

“Mother Earth, exasperated at the wrath of the Deities, produced her, as they tell, a last birth, a sister to the giants Cœus, and Enceladus.”—Virg. Æn. iv. 179.

“Hence devouring usury, and interest accumulating in lapse of time; hence shaken credit, and warfare, profitable to the many.”—Lucan. Phars. i. 181.

“’Tis the especial virtue of a prince to know his own men.”

“A land strong in arms and in the richness of the soil.”—Virg. Æn. i. 535.