but to dispense
in bounty thine accumulated store. Think it no shame that to enhance thy
reputation thou wouldst have slain me; nor deem that I marvel thereat. To
slay not one man, as thou wast minded, but countless multitudes, to waste
whole countries with fire, and to raze cities to the ground has been
well-nigh the sole art, by which the mightiest emperors and the greatest
kings have extended their dominions, and by consequence their fame.
Wherefore, if thou, to increase thy fame, wouldst fain have slain me,
'twas nothing marvellous or strange, but wonted."

Whereto Mitridanes made answer, not to excuse his wicked design, but to
commend the seemly excuse found for it by Nathan, whom at length he told
how beyond measure he marvelled that Nathan had not only been consenting
to the enterprise, but had aided him therein by his counsel. But Nathan
answered:--"Liefer had I, Mitridanes, that thou didst not marvel either
at my consent or at my counsel, for that, since I was my own master and
of a mind to that emprise whereon thou art also bent, never a soul came
to my house, but, so far as in me lay, I gave him all that he asked of
me. Thou camest, lusting for my life; and so, when I heard thee crave it
of me, I forthwith, that thou mightst not be the only guest to depart
hence ill content, resolved to give it thee; and to that end I gave thee
such counsel as I deemed would serve thee both to the taking of my life
and the preservation of thine own. Wherefore yet again I bid thee, nay, I
entreat thee, if so thou art minded, to take it for thy satisfaction: I
know not how I could better bestow it. I have had the use of it now for
some eighty years, and pleasure and solace thereof; and I know that, by
the course of Nature and the common lot of man and all things mundane, it
can continue to be mine for but a little while; and so I deem that 'twere
much better to bestow it, as I have ever bestowed and dispensed my
wealth, than to keep it, until, against my will, it be reft from me by
Nature. 'Twere but a trifle, though 'twere a hundred years: how
insignificant, then, the six or eight years that are all I have to give!
Take it, then, if thou hadst lief, take it, I pray thee; for, long as I
have lived here, none have I found but thee to desire it; nor know I when
I may find another, if thou take it not, to demand it of me. And if,
peradventure, I should find one such, yet I know that the longer I keep
it, the less its worth will be;