XVII. ALL BEST.

AT the siege and taking of New Carthage in Spain, there was a dissension betwixt the soldiers, about the crown mural due to him who first footed the walls of the city. Two pretended to the crown: parts were taken, and the Roman 158army, siding in factions, was likely to fall foul, Plutarch in and mutually fight against itself. Scipio the general prevented the danger by providing two mural crowns,²⁸²⁸Plutarch in Scipio’s Life, p. 187. giving one to each who claimed it, affirming that, on the examination of the proofs, both did appear to him at the same instant to climb the wall. O let us not set several kinds of prayers at variance betwixt themselves which of them should be most useful, most honorable. All are most excellent at several times, crown-groans, crown-ejaculations, crown-extemporary, crown-set, crown-mixed prayer; I dare boldly say, he that in some measure loves not all kind of lawful prayers, loves no kind of lawful prayers. For if we love God the Father, we can hate no ordinance, his child, though perchance an occasion may affect one above another.