Ha! I forbade you to subtilise; and that puts you out of humour. But how is it that you are so spoiled? Do all your generals inform you of their reasons?
PARMENIO.
All, prince!--Except the young ones.
PHILOTAS.
Excellent! Parmenio, if I were so sensitive as you----
PARMENIO.
And yet he only to whom experience has given twofold sight can command my blind obedience.
PHILOTAS.
Then I shall soon have to ask your pardon. Well, I ask your pardon, Parmenio! Do not grumble, old man! Be kind again, old father! You are indeed wiser than I am. But not the wisest only have the best ideas. Good ideas are gifts of fortune, and good fortune, as you well know, often gives to the youth rather than to the old man. For Fortune is blind. Blind, Parmenio! Stone blind to all merit. If it were not so, would you not have been a general long ago?