But when the father is dead, it is fitting brothers
				should close the nearer in affection; immediately in their
				sadness and sorrow communicating their mutual love, and,
				in the next place, rejecting the suspicious stories and suggestions of servants, discountenancing their sly methods
				and subtle applications, and amongst other stories, adverting to the fable of Jupiter’s sons, Castor and Pollux,
				whose love to one another was such that Pollux, when
				one was whispering to him somewhat against his brother,
				killed him with a blow of his fist. And when they
				come to dividing their parents’ goods, let them take
				
				 
				
				heed that they come not with prejudice and contentious
				resolutions, giving defiance and shouting the warcry,
				as so many do. But let them observe with caution
				that day above all others, as it may be to them the beginning either of mortal enmity or of friendship and concord.
				And then, either amongst themselves, or, if need be, in
				the presence of some common and indifferent friend, let
				them deal fairly and openly, allowing Justice (as Plato
				says) to draw the lot, giving and receiving what may consist with love and friendship. Thus they will appear to
				be sharers only in the care and disposal of these things,
				whilst the propriety and enjoyment is free and common to
				them all. But they that take an advantage in the controversy, and seize from one another nurses and children
				who have been fostered and brought up with them, prevailing by their eagerness, may perhaps go away with the
				gain of a single slave, but they have forfeited in the stead
				of it the best legacy their parents could have left them,
				the love and confidence of their brothers. I have known
				some brothers, without the instigation of lucre, and merely
				out of a savage disposition, fly upon the goods of their
				deceased parents with as much ravine and fierceness as
				they would upon the spoil of an enemy. Such were the
				actions of Charicles and Antiochus the Opuntians, who
				divided a silver cup and a garment in two pieces, as
				though by some tragical imprecation they had been set on
				
 	 To share the patrimony with a sword. Eurip. Phoeniss . 68. 
 
 Others I have known proclaiming the success of their
					subtle methods of fierce and eager and sometimes sly and
					fallacious reasonings, by which means they have compassed
					larger proportion from their deluded brethren. Whereas
					their just actions and their kind and humble carriage had
					less reproached their pride, but raised the esteem of their
					persons. Wherefore that action of Athenodorus is very
					
					 
					
					memorable, and indeed generally remembered by our countrymen. His elder brother Xeno in the time of his guardianship had wasted a great part of his substance, and at
					last was condemned for a rape, and all that was left was
					confiscated. Athenodorus was then but a youth; but
					when his share of the estate was given to him, he had
					that regard to his brother, that he brought all his own proportion and freely exposed it to a new division with him.
					And though in the dividing it he suffered great abuse from
					him, he resented it not so much as to repent of what he
					had done, but endured with most remarkable meekness
					and unconcerned ease his brother’s outrage, that was
					become notorious throughout all Greece. Solon discoursing about the commonwealth approved of equality, as being that which would occasion no
				tumult or faction. But this opinion appeared too popular;
				for by this arithmetical method he would have set up
				democracy in the room of a far happier government, consisting with a more suitable (viz., a geometrical) proportion.
				But he that advises brethren in the dividing of an estate
				should give them Plato’s counsel to the citizens, that they
				would lay aside self-interest, or, if they cannot be persuaded to that, to be satisfied with an equal division. And
				this is the way to lay a good and lasting foundation of love
				and peace betwixt them. Besides that, he may have the
				advantage of naming eminent instances. Such was that of
				Pittacus, who, being asked of the Lydian king whether he
				had any estate, replied that he had twice as much as he
				wanted, his brother being dead. But since that not only
				in the affluence or want of riches he that has a less share
				is liable to hostility with him that has more, but generally,
				as Plato says, in all inequality there is inquietude and disturbance, and in the contrary a during confidence; so a
				disparity among brethren tends dangerously to discord.
				But for them to be equal in all respects, I grant, is impossible.
				
				 
				
				 For what through the difference that nature made
				immediately betwixt them at the first, and what through
				the following contingencies of their lives, it comes to pass
				that they contract an envy and hatred against one another,
				and such abominable humors as render them the plagues
				not only of their private families but even of commonwealths. And this indeed is a disease which it were well
				to prevent, or to cure when it is engendered. I would
				persuade that brother therefore that excels his fellows in
				any accomplishments, in those very things to communicate
				and impart to them the utmost he can, that they may shine
				in his honor, and flourish with his interest. For instance,
				if he be a good orator, to endeavor to make that faculty
				theirs, accounting it never the less for being imparted. And
				care ought to be taken that all this kindness be not followed with a fastidious pride, but rather with such a
				becoming condescension and familiarity as may secure
				his worth from envy, and by his own equanimity and
				sweet disposition, as far as is possible, make up the
				inequality of their fortunes. Lucullus refused the honor
				of magistracy on purpose to give way to his younger
				brother, contentedly waiting for the expiration of his year.
				Pollux chose rather to be half a deity with his brother
				than a deity by himself, and therefore to debase himself
				into a share of mortality, that he might raise his brother as
				much above it. You then are a happy man, one would
				think, that can oblige your brother at a cheaper rate, illustrate him with the honor of your virtues, and make him
				great like yourself, without any damage or derogation.
				Thus Plato made his brothers famous by mentioning them
				in the choicest of his books,—Glauco and Adimantus in
				that concerning the Commonwealth, and Antipho his
				youngest brother in his Parmenides. Besides, as there is difference in the natures and
				fortunes of brothers, so neither is it possible that the one
				
				 
				
				should excel the other in every particular thing. The
				elements exist out of one common matter, yet they are
				qualified with quite contrary faculties. No one ever saw
				two brothers by the same father and mother so strangely
				distinguished that, whereas the one was a Stoic and withal
				a wise man,—a comely, pleasant, liberal, eminent,
				wealthy, eloquent, studious, courteous man,—the other
				was quite contrary to all these. But, however, the vilest,
				the most despicable things have some proportion of good,
				or natural disposition to it.
				
				 Thus amongst hated thorns and prickly briers
				 The fragrant violet retires. 
 Now therefore, he who has the eminency in other things,
					if he yet do not hinder nor stifle the credit of what is
					laudable in his brother, like an ambitious antagonist that
					grasps at all the applause, but if he rather yield to him,
					and declare that in many things he excels him, by this
					means takes away all occasion of envy, which being like
					fire without fuel, must needs die without it. Or rather he
					prevents the very beginnings of envy, and suffers it not so
					much as to kindle betwixt them. But he who, where he
					knows himself far superior to his brother, calls for his
					help and advice, whether it be in the business of a rhetorician, a magistrate, or a friend,—in a word, he that neglects or leaves him out in no honorable employment or
					concern, but joins him with himself in all his noble and
					worthy actions, employs him when present, waits for him
					when absent, and makes the world take notice that he is
					as fit for business as himself, but of a more modest and
					yielding disposition,—all this while has done himself no
					wrong, and has bravely advanced his brother. And this is the advice one would offer to the excelling brother. The other should consider that, as his
				brother excels him in wealth, learning, esteem, he must
				expect to come behind not him only but millions more,
				
				 Who live o’ th’ offsprings of the spacious earth. 
 But if he envies all that are so happy, or is the only one
					in the world that repines at his own brother’s felicity, his
					malicious temper speaks him one of the most wretched
					creatures in the world. Wherefore, as Metellus’s opinion
					was, that the Romans were bound to thank the Gods that
					Scipio, being such a brave man, was not born in another
					city; so he who aspires after great things, if he miss of
					his designs for himself, can do no less than entitle his
					brother to his best wishes. But some are so unlucky in
					estimating of virtuous and worthy actions that, whereas
					they are overjoyed to see their friends grow in esteem, and
					are not a little proud of entertaining persons of honor or
					great opulency, their brother’s worth and eminency is in
					the mean time looked upon with a jealous eye, as though
					it threatened to cloud and eclipse the splendor of their
					condition. How do they exalt themselves at the memory
					of some prosperous exploits of their father, or the wise
					conduct of their great-grandfather, by all which they are
					nothing advantaged? But again, how are they daunted
					and dispirited to see a brother preferred to inheritances,
					dignities, or honorable marriage? But we should not
					envy any one; but if this cannot be, we ought at least to
					turn our malice and rancor out of the family against worse
					objects, in imitation of those who ease the city of sedition
					by turning the same upon their enemies without. We may
					say, as Diomedes said to Glaucus:
					
					 Trojans I have and friends; you, what I hate,—
					 Grecians to envy and to emulate. Il . VI. 227. 
 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
				
				 
				
				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,
				
 	 Protected over with a glittering shield. Il . VIII. 272. 
 
 And 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
					
					 
					
					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.