Book VIII., is devoted to him and how he was treated by his

contemporaries. [28] _Another._--Epicurus, founder of the Epicurean philosophy. He lived B. C. about 300 years. [29] _Water crooks a stick_.--An allusion to the bent appearance which a stick has in water, consequent upon the refraction of light. [30] _The wars_.--This fable appears to have been composed about the beginning of the year 1677. The European powers then found themselves exhausted by wars, and desirous of peace. England, the only neutral, became, of course, the arbiter of the negotiations which ensued at Nimeguen. All the belligerent parties invoked her mediation. Charles II., however, felt himself exceedingly embarrassed by his secret connections with Louis XIV., which made him desire to prescribe conditions favourable to that monarch; while, on the other hand, he feared the people of England, if, treacherous to her interests, he should fail to favour the nations allied and combined against France.--Translator. _Vide_ Hume: who also says that the English king "had actually in secret sold his neutrality to France, and he received remittances of 1,000,000 livres a year, which was afterwards increased to 2,000,000 livres; a considerable sum in the embarrassed state of his revenue." Hume's _Hist. England_, Bell's edit., 1854, vol. vi., p. 242. [31] _Augustus, Julius._--Augustus Caesar was eminent for his pacific policy, as Julius Caesar was eminent for his warlike policy. * * * * *