he spoke bitterly, but whether he spoke so from interested motives,[451]
so the rebuke of a friend void of all private feeling is solemn and
grave and what one dare not lightly face. And if anyone shows plainly in
his freedom of speech, that he altogether passes over and dismisses any
offences his friend has done to himself, and only blames him for other
shortcomings, and does not spare him but gives him pain for the
interests of others, the tone of his outspokenness is invincible, and
the sweetness of his manner even intensifies the bitterness and
austerity of his rebuke. And so it has well been said, that in anger and
differences with our friends we ought more especially to act with a view
to their interest or honour. And no less friendly is it, when it appears
that we have been passed over and neglected, to boldly put in a word for
others that are neglected too, and to remind people of them, as Plato,
when he was out of favour with Dionysius, begged for an audience, and
Dionysius granted it, thinking that Plato had some personal grievance
and was going to enter into it, but Plato opened the conversation as
follows, "If, Dionysius, you knew that some enemy had sailed to Sicily
with a view to do you some harm, but found no opportunity, would you
allow him to sail back again, and go off scot-free?" "Certainly not,
Plato," replied Dionysius, "for we must not only hate and punish the
deeds of our enemies, but also their intentions." "If then," said Plato,
"anyone has come here for your benefit, and wishes to do you good, and
you do not find him an opportunity, is it right to let him go away with
neglect and without thanks?" And on Dionysius asking, who he meant, he
replied, "I mean AEschines, a man of as good a character as any of
Socrates' pupils whatever, and able to improve by his conversation any
with whom he might associate: and he is neglected, though he has made a
long voyage here to discuss philosophy with you." This speech so
affected Dionysius, that he at once threw his arms round Plato and
embraced him, admiring his benevolence and loftiness of mind, and
treated AEschines well and handsomely.
Sec. XXVII. In the next place, let us clear away as it were and remove all
insolence, and jeering, and mocking, and ribaldry, which are the evil
seasonings of freedom of speech. For as, when the surgeon performs an
operation, a certain neatness and delicacy of touch ought to accompany
his use of the knife, but all pantomimic and venturesome and fashionable
suppleness and over-finicalness ought to be far away from his hand, so
freedom of speech admits of dexterity and politeness, provided that a
pleasant way of putting it does not destroy the power of the rebuke, for
impudence and coarseness and insolence, if added to freedom of speech,
entirely mar and ruin the effect. And so the harper plausibly and
elegantly silenced Philip, who ventured to dispute with him about proper
playing on the harp, by answering him, "God forbid that you should be so
unfortunate, O king, as to understand harping better than me." But that
was not a right answer of Epicharmus, when Hiero a few days after
putting to death some of his friends invited him to supper, "You did not
invite me," he said, "the other day, when you sacrificed your friends."
Bad also was that answer of Antiphon, who, when Dionysius asked him
"which was the best kind of bronze," answered, "That of which the
Athenians made statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton." For this
unpleasant and bitter kind of language profits not those that use it,
nor does scurrility and puerile jesting please, but such kind of
speeches are indications of an incontinent tongue inspired by hate, and
full of malignity and insolence, and those who use such language do but
ruin themselves, recklessly dancing on the verge of a well.[452] For
Antiphon was put to death by Dionysius, and Timagenes lost the
friendship of Augustus, not by using on any occasion too free a tongue,
but at supper-parties and walks always declining to talk seriously,
"only saying what he knew would make the Argives laugh,"[453] and thus
virtually charging friendship with being only a cloak for abuse. For
even the comic poets have introduced on the stage many grave sentiments
well adapted to public life, but joking and ribaldry being mixed with
them, like insipid sauces with food, destroy their effect and make them
lose their nourishing power, so that the comic poets only get a
reputation for malignity and coarseness, and the audience get no benefit
from what is said. We may on other occasions jest and laugh with our
friends, but let our outspokenness be coupled with seriousness and
gravity, and if it be on important matters, let our speech be
trustworthy and moving from its pathos, and animation, and tone of
voice. And on all occasions to let an opportunity slip by is very
injurious, but especially does it destroy the usefulness of freedom of
speech. It is plain therefore that we must abstain from freedom of
speech when men are in their cups. For he disturbs the harmony of a
social gathering[454] who, in the midst of mirth and jollity, introduces
a topic that shall knit the brows and contract the face, and shall act
as a damper to the Lysian[455] god, who, as Pindar says, "looses the
rope of all our cares and anxieties." There is also great danger in such
ill-timed freedom of speech. For wine makes people easily slip into
rage, and oftentimes freedom of speech in liquor makes enemies. And
generally speaking it is not noble or brave but cowardly to conceal your
ideas when people are sober and to give free vent to them at table,
snarling like cowardly dogs. We need say no more therefore on this head.
Sec. XXVIII. But since many people do not think fit or even dare to find
fault with their friends when in prosperity, but think that condition
altogether out of the reach and range of rebuke, but inveigh against
them if they have made a slip or stumble, and trample upon them if they
are in dejection and in their power, and, like a stream swollen above
its banks, pour upon them then the torrent of all their eloquence,[456]
and enjoy and are glad at their reverse of fortune, owing to their
former contempt of them when they were poor themselves, it is not amiss
to discuss this somewhat, and to answer those words of Euripides,
"What need of friends, when things go well with us?"[457]
for those in prosperity stand in especial need of friends who shall be
outspoken to them, and abate their excessive pride. For there are few
who are sensible in prosperity, most need to borrow wisdom from others,
and such considerations as shall keep them lowly when puffed up and
giving themselves airs owing to their good fortune. But when the deity
has abased them and stripped them of their conceit, there is something
in their very circumstances to reprove them and bring about a change of
mind. And so there is no need then of a friendly outspokenness, nor of
weighty or caustic words, but truly in such reverses "it is sweet to
look into the eyes of a friendly person,"[458] consoling and cheering
one up: as Xenophon[459] tells us that the sight of Clearchus in battle
and dangers, and his calm benevolent face, inspired courage in his men
when in peril. But he who uses to a man in adversity too great freedom
and severity of speech, like a man applying too pungent a remedy to an
inflamed and angry eye, neither cures him nor abates his pain, but adds
anger to his grief, and exasperates his mental distress. For example
anyone well is not at all angry or fierce with a friend, who blames him
for his excesses with women and wine, his laziness and taking no
exercise, his frequent baths, and his unseasonable surfeiting: but to a
person ill all this is unsufferable, and even worse than his illness to
hear, "All this has happened to you through your intemperance, and
luxury, your dainty food, and love for women." The patient answers, "How
unseasonable is all this, good sir! I am making my will, the doctors are
preparing me a dose of castor and scammony, and you are scolding me and
plying me with philosophy." And thus the affairs of the unfortunate do
not admit of outspokenness and a string of Polonius-like saws, but they
require kindness and help. For when children fall down their nurses do
not run up to them and scold, but pick them up, and clean them, and tidy
their dress, and afterwards find fault and correct them. The story is
told of Demetrius of Phalerum, when an exile from his native country,
and living a humble and obscure life at Thebes, that he was not pleased
to see Crates approaching, for he expected to receive from him cynical
outspokenness and harsh language. But as Crates talked kindly to him,
and discussed his exile, and pointed out that there was no evil in it,
or anything that ought to put him about, for he had only got rid of the
uncertainties and dangers of public life, and at the same time bade him
trust in himself and his condition of mind, Demetrius cheered up and
became happier, and said to his friends, "Out upon all my former
business and employments, that left me no leisure to know such a man as
this!"
"For friendly speech is good to one in grief,
While bitter language only suits the fool."[460]
This is the way with generous friends. But the ignoble and low
flatterers of those in prosperity, as Demosthenes says fractures and
sprains always give us pain again when the body is not well,[461] adhere
to them in reverses, as if they were pleased at and enjoyed them. But
indeed if there be any need of reminding a man of the blunders he
committed through unadvisedly following his own counsel, it is enough to
say, "This was not to my mind, indeed I often tried to dissuade you from
it."[462]
Sec. XXIX. In what cases then ought a friend to be vehement, and when ought
he to use emphatic freedom of language? When circumstances call upon him
to check some headlong pleasure or rage or insolence, or to curtail
avarice, or to correct some foolish negligence. Thus Solon spoke out to
Croesus, who was corrupted and enervated by insecure good fortune,
bidding him look to the end.[463] Thus Socrates restrained Alcibiades,
and wrung from him genuine tears by his reproof, and changed his
heart.[464] Such also was the plain dealing of Cyrus with Cyaxares, and
of Plato with Dion, for when Dion was most famous and attracted to
himself the notice of all men, by the splendour and greatness of his
exploits, Plato warned him to fear and be on his guard against "pleasing
only himself, for so he would lose all his friends."[465] Speusippus
also wrote to him not to plume himself on being a great person only with
lads and women, but to see to it that by adorning Sicily with piety and
justice and good laws he might make the Academy glorious. On the other
hand Euctus and Eulaeus, companions of Perseus, in the days of his
prosperity ingratiated themselves with him, and assented to him in all
things, and danced attendance upon him, like all the other courtiers,
but when he fled after his defeat by the Romans at Pydna, they attacked
him and censured him bitterly, reminding him and upbraiding him in
regard to everything he had done amiss or neglected to do, till he was
so greatly exasperated both from grief and rage that he whipped out his
sword and killed both of them.
Sec. XXX. Let so much suffice for general occasions of freedom of speech.
There are also particular occasions, which our friends themselves
furnish, that one who really cares for his friends will not neglect, but
make use of. In some cases a question, or narrative, or the censure or
praise of similar things in other people, gives as it were the cue for
freedom of speech. Thus it is related that Demaratus came to Macedonia
from Corinth at the time when Philip was at variance with his wife and
son, and when the king asked if the Greeks were at harmony with one
another, Demaratus, being his well-wisher and friend, answered, "It is
certainly very rich of you, Philip, inquiring as to concord between the
Athenians and Peloponnesians, when you don't observe that your own house
is full of strife and variance."[466] Good also was the answer of
Diogenes, who, when Philip was marching to fight against the Greeks,
stole into his camp, and was arrested and brought before him, and the
king not recognizing him asked if he was a spy, "Certainly," replied he,
"Philip, I have come to spy out your inconsiderate folly, which makes
you, under no compulsion, come here and hazard your kingdom and life on
a moment's[467] cast of the die." This was perhaps rather too strong a
remark.
Sec. XXXI. Another suitable time for reproof is when people have been
abused by others for their faults, and have consequently become humble,
and abated their pride. The man of tact will ingeniously seize the
occasion, checking and baffling those that used the abuse, but privately
speaking seriously to his friend, and reminding him, that he ought to be
more careful if for no other reason than to take off the edge of his
enemies' satire. He will say, "How can they open their mouths against
you, or what can they urge, if you give up and abandon what you get this
bad name about?" Thus pain comes only from abuse, but profit from
reproof. And some correct their friends more daintily by blaming
others; censuring others for what they know are their friends' faults.
Thus my master Ammonius in afternoon school, noticing that some of his
pupils had not dined sufficiently simply, bade one of his freedmen
scourge his own son, charging him with being unable to get through his
dinner without vinegar,[468] but in acting thus he had an eye to us, so
that this indirect rebuke touched the guilty persons.
Sec. XXXII. We must also beware of speaking too freely to a friend in the
company of many people, remembering the well-known remark of Plato. For
when Socrates reproved one of his friends too vehemently in a discussion
at table, Plato said, "Would it not have been better to have said this
privately?" Whereupon Socrates replied, "And you too, sir, would it not
have become you to make this remark also privately?" And Pythagoras
having rebuked one of his pupils somewhat harshly before many people,
they say the young fellow went off and hung himself, and from that
moment Pythagoras never again rebuked anyone in another's presence. For,
as in the case of some foul disease, so also in the case of wrong-doing
we ought to make the detection and exposure private, and not
ostentatiously public by bringing witnesses and spectators. For it is
not the part of a friend but a sophist to seek glory by the ill-fame of
another, and to show off in company, like the doctors that perform
wonderful cures in the theatres as an advertisement.[469] And
independently of the insult, which ought not to be an element in any
cure, we must remember that vice is contentious and obstinate. For it is
not merely "love," as Euripides says, that "if checked becomes more
vehement," but an unsparing rebuke before many people makes every
infirmity and vice more impudent. As then Plato[470] urges old men who
want to teach the young reverence to act reverently to them first
themselves, so among friends a gentle rebuke is gently taken, and a
cautious and careful approach and mild censure of the wrong-doer
undermines and destroys vice, and makes its own modesty catching. So
that line is most excellent, "holding his head near, that the others
might not hear."[471] And most especially indecorous is it to expose a
husband in the hearing of his wife, or a father before his children, or
a lover in the presence of the loved one, or a master before his
scholars. For people are beside themselves with pain and rage if
reproached before those with whom they desire to be held in good repute.
And I think it was not so much wine that exasperated Alexander with
Clitus, as his seeming to put him down in the presence of many people.
And Aristomenes, the tutor of Ptolemy,[472] because he went up to the
king and woke him as he was asleep in an audience of some ambassadors,
gave a handle to the king's flatterers who professed to be indignant on
his behalf, and said, "If after your immense state-labours and many
vigils you have been overpowered by sleep, he ought to have rebuked you
privately, and not put his hands upon you before so many people." And
Ptolemy sent for a cup of poison and ordered the poor man to drink it
up. And Aristophanes said Cleon blamed him for "railing against the
state when strangers were present,"[473] and so irritating the
Athenians. We ought therefore to be very much on our guard in relation
to this point too as well as others, if we wish not to make a display
and catch the public ear, but to use our freedom of speech for
beneficial purposes and to cure vice. Moreover, what Thucydides has
represented the Corinthians saying of themselves, that "they had a right
to blame their neighbours,"[474] is not a bad precept for those to
remember who intend to use freedom of speech. Lysander, it seems, on one
occasion said to a Megarian, who was speaking somewhat boldly on behalf
of Greece among the allies, "Your words require a state to back
them":[475] similarly every man's freedom of speech requires character
behind it, and especially true is this in regard to those who censure
and correct others. Thus Plato said that his life was a tacit rebuke to
Speusippus: and doubtless Xenocrates by his mere presence in the
schools, and by his earnest look at Polemo, made a changed man of him.
Whereas a man of levity and bad character, if he ventures to rebuke
anybody, is likely to hear the line,
"He doctors others, all diseased himself."[476]
Sec. XXXIII. Yet since circumstances frequently call on people who are bad
themselves in association with other such to reprove them, the most
convenient mode of reproof will be that which contrives to include the
reprover in the same indictment as the reproved, as in the case of the
line,
"Tydides, how on earth have we forgot
Our old impetuous courage?"[477]
and,
"Now are we all not worth one single Hector."[478]
In this mild way did Socrates rebuke young men, as not himself without
ignorance, but one that needed in common with them to prosecute virtue,
and seek truth. For they gain goodwill and influence, who seem to have
the same faults as their friends, and desire to correct themselves as
well as them. But he who is high and mighty in setting down another, as
if he were himself perfect and without any imperfections, unless he be
of a very advanced age, or has an acknowledged reputation for virtue and
worth, does no good, but is only regarded as a tiresome bore. And so it
was wisely done of Phoenix to relate his own mishaps, how he had meant
killing his father, but quickly repented at the thought "that he would
be called by the Achaeans parricide,"[479] that he might not seem to be
rebuking Achilles, as one that had himself never suffered from excess of
rage. For kindness of this sort has great influence, and people yield
more to those who seem to be sympathetic and not supercilious. And since
we ought not to expose an inflamed eye to a strong light, and a soul a
prey to the passions cannot bear unmixed reproof and rebuke, one of the
most useful remedies will be found to be a slight mixture of praise, as
in the following lines,
"Ye will not sure give up your valiant courage,
The best men in the host! I should not care
If any coward left the fight, not I;
But you to do so cuts me to the heart."[480]
And,
"Where is thy bow, where thy wing'd arrows, Pandarus,
Where thy great fame, which no one here can match?"[481]
Such language again plainly cheers very much those that are down as,
"Where now is Oedipus, and his famous riddles?"[482]
and,
"Does much-enduring Hercules say this?"[483]
For not only does it soften the harsh imperiousness of censure, but
also, by reminding a man of former noble deeds, implants a desire to
emulate his former self in the person who is ashamed of what is low, and
makes himself his own exemplar for better things. But if we make a
comparison between him and other men, as his contemporaries, his
fellow-citizens, or his relations, then the contentious spirit inherent
in vice is vexed and exasperated, and is often apt to chime in angrily,
"Why don't you go off to my betters then, and leave off bothering me?"
We must therefore be on our guard against praising others, when we are
rebuking a man, unless indeed it be their parents, as Agamemnon says in
Homer,
"Little like Tydeus is his father's son!"[484]
or as Odysseus in the play called "The Scyrians,"[485]
"Dost thou card wool, and thus the lustre smirch
Of thy illustrious sire, thy noble race?"
Sec. XXXIV. But it is by no means fitting when rebuked to rebuke back, and
when spoken to plainly to answer back, for that soon kindles a flame and
causes dissension; and generally speaking such altercation will not look
so much like a retort as an inability to bear freedom of speech. It is
better therefore to listen patiently to a friend's rebuke, for if he
should afterwards do wrong himself and so need rebuke, he has set you
the example of freedom of speech. For being reminded without any malice,
that he himself has not been accustomed to spare his friends when they
have done wrong, but to convince them and show them their fault, he will
be the more inclined to yield and give himself up to correction, as it
will seem a return of goodwill and kindness rather than scolding or
rage.
Sec. XXXV. Moreover, as Thucydides says "he is well advised who [only]
incurs envy in the most important matters,"[486] so the friend ought
only to take upon himself the unpleasant duty of reproof in grave and
momentous cases. For if he is always in a fret and a fume, and rates his
acquaintances more like a tutor than a friend, his rebuke will be blunt
and ineffective in cases of the highest importance, and he will resemble
a doctor who dispenses some sharp and bitter, but important and costly,
drug in trifling cases of common occurrence, where it was not at all
needed, and so will lose all the advantages that might come from a
judicious use of freedom of speech. He will therefore be very much on
his guard against continual fault-finding, and if his friend is always
pettifogging about minute matters, and is needlessly querulous, it will
give him a handle against him in more important shortcomings. Philotimus
the doctor, when a patient who had abscesses on his liver showed him his
sore finger, said to him, "My friend, it is not the whitlow that
matters."[487] So an opportunity sometimes offers itself to a friend to
say to a man, who is always finding fault on small and trivial points,
"Why are we always discussing mere child's play, tippling,[488] and
trifles? Let such a one, my dear sir, send away his mistress, or give up
playing at dice, he will then be in my opinion in all respects an
excellent fellow." For he who receives pardon on small matters is
content that his friend should rebuke him on matters of more moment: but
the man who is ever on the scold, everywhere sour and glum, knowing and
prying into everything, is scarcely tolerable to his children or
brothers, and insufferable to his slaves.
Sec. XXXVI. But since "neither," to use the words of Euripides, "do all
troubles proceed only from old age,"[489] nor from the stupidity of our
friends, we ought to observe not only the shortcomings but also the good
points of our friends, aye, by Zeus, and to be ready to praise them
first, and only censure them afterwards. For as iron receives its
consistency and temper by first being submitted to fire and so made soft
and then dipped into cold water, so when friends have been first warmed
and melted with praises we can afterwards use gentle remonstrance, which
has a similar effect to that of dipping in the case of the metal. For an
opportunity will offer itself to say, "Are those actions worthy to be
compared with these? Do you see what fruits virtue yields? These are the
things we your friends ask of you, these become you, for these you are
designed by nature; but all that other kind of conduct we must reject
with abhorrence, 'cast it away on a mountain, or throw it into the
roaring sea.'"[490] For as a clever doctor would prefer to cure the
illness of his patient by sleep and diet rather than by castor or
scammony, so a kind friend and good father or teacher delight to use
praise rather than blame to correct the character. For nothing makes
rebuke less painful or more beneficial than to refrain from anger, and
to inveigh against wrong-doing mildly and kindly. And so we ought not
sharply to drive home the guilt of those who deny it, or prevent their
making their defence, but even contrive to furnish them with specious
excuses, and if they seem reluctant to give a bad motive for their
action we ought ourselves to find for them a better, as Hector did for
his brother Paris,
"Unhappy man, thy anger was not good,"[491]
suggesting that his absconding from the battle was not running away or
cowardice, but only anger. And Nestor says to Agamemnon,
"You only yielded to your lofty passion."[492]
For it has, I think, a better moral tendency to say "You forgot," or
"You did it inadvertently," than to say "You acted unfairly," or "You
behaved shamefully:" as also "Don't contend with your brother," than
"Don't envy your brother;" and "Avoid the woman who is your ruin," than
"Stop ruining the woman." Such is the language employed in rebuke that
desires to reform and not to wound; that rebuke which looks merely at
the effect to be produced acts on another principle. For when it is
necessary to stop people on the verge of wrong-doing, or to check some
violent and irregular impulse, or if we wish to rouse and infuse vigour
in those who prosecute virtue only feebly and languidly, we may then
assign strange and unbecoming motives for their behaviour. As Odysseus
in Sophocles' play,[493] striving to rouse Achilles, says he is not
angry about his supper,[494] but "that he is afraid now that he looks
upon the walls of Troy," and when Achilles was vexed at this, and talked
of sailing home again, he said,
"I know what 'tis you shun: 'tis not ill fame:
But Hector's near, it is not safe to beard him."
Thus by frightening the high-spirited and courageous man by the
imputation of cowardice, and the sober and orderly man by that of
licentiousness, and the liberal and munificent man by that of meanness
and avarice, people urge them on to what is good, and deter them from
what is bad, showing moderation in cases past remedy, and exhibiting in
their freedom of speech more sorrow and sympathy than fault-finding; but
in the prevention of wrong-doing and in earnest fighting against the
passions they are vehement and inexorable and assiduous: for that is the
time for downright plainness and truth. Besides we see that enemies
censure one another for what they have done amiss, as Diogenes
said,[495] he who wished to lead a good life ought to have good friends
or red-hot enemies, for the former told you what was right, and the
latter blamed you if you did what was wrong. But it is better to be on
our guard against wrong actions, through listening to the persuasion of
those that advise us well, than to repent, after we have done wrong, in
consequence of the reproaches of our enemies. And so we ought to employ
tact in our freedom of speech, as it is the greatest and most powerful
remedy in friendship, and always needs a well-chosen occasion, and
moderation in applying it.
Sec. XXXVII. Since then, as I have said before, freedom of speech is often
painful to the person who is to receive benefit from it, we must imitate
the surgeons, who, when they have performed an operation, do not leave
the suffering part to pain and smart, but bathe and foment it; so those
who do their rebuking daintily run[496] off after paining and smarting,
and by different dealing and kind words soothe and mollify them, as
statuaries smooth and polish images which have been broken or chipped.
But he that is broken and wounded by rebuke, if he is left sullen and
swelling with rage and off his equilibrium, is henceforth hard to win
back or talk over. And so people who reprove ought to be especially
careful on this point, and not to leave them too soon, nor break off
their conversation and intercourse with their acquaintances at the
exasperating and painful stage.
[348] Plato, "Laws," v. p. 731 D, E.
[349] "Laws," v. p. 730 C.
[350] Inscribed in the vestibule of the temple of Apollo
at Delphi. See Pausanias, x. 24.
[351] Used here apparently proverbially for poverty or
low position in life.
[352] Wyttenbach well compares Cicero, "De Amicitia,"
xviii.: "Accedat huc suavitas quaedam oportet sermonum
atque morum, haudquaquam mediocre condimentum amicitiae.
Tristitia autem et in omni re severitas, habet illa
quidem gravitatem: sed amicitia remissior esse debet, et
liberior, et dulcior, et ad omnem comitatem
facilitatemque proclivior."
[353] Hesiod, "Theogony," 64.
[354] Euripides, "Ion," 732.
[355] Our author assigns this saying to Prodicus, "De
Sanitate Praecepta," Sec. viii. But to Evenus, "Quaest.
Conviv." Lib. vii. Prooemium, and "Platonicae
Quaestiones," x. Sec. iii.
[356] As was usual. See Homer, "Odyssey," i. 146. Cf.
Plautus, "Persa," v. iii. 16: "Hoc age, accumbe: hunc
diem suavem meum natalem agitemus amoenum: date aquam
manibus: apponite mensam."
[357] From a play of Eupolis called "The Flatterers."
Cf. Terence, "Eunuchus," 489-491.
[358] See Athenaeus, 256 D. Compare also Valerius Maximus,
ix. 1.
[359] "Videatur Casaubonus ad Athenaeum, vi. p. 243
A."--_Wyttenbach._
[360] "Republic," p. 361 A.
[361] See Herodotus, iii. 78.
[362] See Erasmus, "Adagia," p. 1883.
[363] "Proverbium etiam a Cicerone laudatum 'De
Amicitia,' cap. vi.: Itaque non aqua, non igne, ut
aiunt, pluribus locis utimur, quam amicitia. Notavit
etiam Erasmus 'Adag.' p. 112."--_Wyttenbach._
[364] Compare Sallust, "De Catilinae Conjuratione," cap.
xx.: "Nam idem velle atque idem nolle, ea demum firma
amicitia est."
[365] "Proverbiale, quo utitur Plutarchus in Alcibiade,
p. 203 D. Iambus Tragici esse videtur, ad Neoptolemum
dictus."--_Wyttenbach._
[366] As the polypus, or chameleon.
[367] Plato, "Phaedrus," p. 239 D.
[368] Wyttenbach compares Juvenal, iii. 100-108.
[369] See my note "On Abundance of Friends," Sec. ix.
Wyttenbach well points out the felicity of the
expression here, "siquidem parasitus est [Greek: aoikos
kai anestios]."
[370] Euripides, "Hippolytus," 219, 218. Cf. Ovid,
"Heroides," iv. 41, 42.
[371] Compare "How one may be aware of one's progress in
virtue," Sec. x. Cf. also Horace, "Satires," ii. iii. 35;
Quintilian, xi. 1.
[372] "Odyssey," xxii. 1.
[373] The demagogue is a kind of flatterer. See
Aristotle, "Pol." iv. 4.
[374] Cf. Aristophanes, "Acharnians," 153, [Greek: hoper
machimotaton thrakon ethnos].
[375] Plato was somewhat of a traveller, he three times
visited Syracuse, and also travelled in Egypt.
[376] As to the polypus, see "On Abundance of Friends,"
Sec. ix.
[377] As "Fumum et opes _strepitumque_ Romae."--Horace,
"Odes," iii. 29. 12.
[378] Homer, "Odyssey," xvi. 181.
[379] Sophocles, "Antigone," 523.
[380] As to these traits in Plato and Aristotle, compare
"De Audiendis Poetis," Sec. viii. And as to Alexander,
Plutarch tells us in his Life that he used to hold his
head a little to the left, "Life," p. 666 B. See also
"De Alexandri Fortuna aut Virtute," Sec. ii.
[381] "De Chamaeleonte Aristoteles 'Hist. Animal.' i. 11;
'Part. Animal.' iv. 11; Theophrastus Eclog. ap. Photium
edit. Aristot. Sylburg. T. viii. p. 329: [Greek:
metaballei de ho chamaileon eis panta ta chromata; plen
ten eis to leukon kai to eruthron ou dechetai metabolen.]
Similiter Plinius 'Hist. Nat.' viii. 51."--_Wyttenbach._
[382] See Athenaeus, 249 F; 435 E.
[383] Cf. Juv. iii. 113; "Scire volunt secreta domus,
atque inde timeri."
[384] Cf. Menander apud Stob. p. 437: [Greek: Ta deuter
aiei ten gynaika dei legein, Ten d' egemonian ton olon
ton andr' echein].
[385] As Lord Stowell used to say that "dinners
lubricated business."
[386] Homer, "Iliad," xi. 643.
[387] Homer, "Odyssey," iv. 178, 179.
[388] Perhaps the poley-germander. See Pliny, "Nat.
Hist," xxi. 84. The line is from Nicander Theriac. 64.
[389] "Iliad," viii. 281, 282.
[390] "Iliad," x. 243.
[391] "Iliad," vii. 109, 110.
[392] Xenophon, "Agesilaus," xi. 5. p. 673 C.
[393] To filch the grain from the bin or granary would
not of course be so important a theft as to steal the
seed-stock preserved for sowing. So probably Cato, "De
Re Rustica," v. Sec. iv.: "Segetem ne defrudet," sc.
villicus.
[394] Thucydides, iii. 82.
[395] Plato, "Republic," v. p. 474 E. Compare also
Lucretius, iv. 1160-1170; Horace, "Satires," i. 3. 38
sq.
[396] This Ptolemy was a votary of Cybele, and a
spiritual ancestor of General Booth. The worship of
Cybele is well described by Lucretius, ii. 598-643.
[397] This was Ptolemy Auletes, as the former was
Ptolemy Philopator.
[398] See Suetonius, "Nero," ch. 21.
[399] "Plerumque _minuta voce
cantillare_."--_Wyttenbach._ What Milton would have
called "a lean and flashy song."
[400] Naso suspendit adunco, as Horace, "Sat." i. 6. 5.
[401] See Athenaeus, p. 434 C.
[402] As Gnatho in Terence, "Eunuch." 496-498.
[403] Reading [Greek: Helon], as Courier, Hercher.
[404] "Iliad," x. 249. They are words of Odysseus.
[405] This was carrying flattery rather far.
"Mithridatis medicinae scientia multis memorata
veterum."--_Wyttenbach._
[406] Euripides, "Alcestis," 1159.
[407] Our author gives this definition to Simonides, "De
Gloria Atheniensium," Sec. iii.
[408] So our author again, "On Contentedness of Mind," Sec.
xii.
[409] See Herodotus, i. 30, 33; Juvenal, x. 274, 275;
and Pausanias, ii. 20.
[410] "Nobile Stoae Paradoxum. Cicero Fin. iii. 22, ex
persona Catonis. Horatius ridet Epistol. i. 1. 106-108.
Ad summam sapiens uno minor est Jove: dives, Liber,
honoratus, pulcher, rex denique regum; Praecipue sanus,
nisi quum pituita molesta est."--_Wyttenbach._
[411] See also "On Contentedness of Mind," Sec. xii.
[412] Homer, "Iliad," xvi. 141. See the context also
from 130 sq.
[413] Our author has used this illustration again in
"Phocion," p. 742 B.
[414] Namely in Sec. xxvii. where [Greek: parrhesia] is
discussed.
[415] Contrary to the severe training he ought to
undergo, well expressed by Horace, "De Arte Poetica,"
412-414.
[416] Reading with Hercher [Greek: apotympanizontos kai
streblountos]. This was Ptolemy Physcon.
[417] "Unus ex Alexandri adulatoribus: memoratus Curtio
viii. 5, 6."--_Wyttenbach._
[418] A common proverb among the ancients. See "Conjugal
Precepts," Sec. xl.; Erasmus, "Adagia," pp. 1222, 1838.
[419] A line out of AEschylus' "Myrmidons." Quoted again
by our author, "Of Love," Sec. V.
[420] Cleopatra.
[421] Homer, "Odyssey," x. 329. They are the words of
Circe to Odysseus. But the line was suspected even by
old grammarians, and is put in brackets in modern
editions of the "Odyssey."
[422] See Lucretius, iv. 1079-1085.
[423] So Pliny, "Hist. Nat." xxv. 95: "Remedio est
(cicutae), priusquam perveniat ad vitalia, vini natura
excalfactoria: sed in vino pota irremediabilis
existimatur."
[424] Assigned to Pittacus by our author, "Septem
Sapientum Convivium," Sec. ii.
[425] So Wyttenbach, who reads [Greek: enstaseis], and
translates, "et libertate loquendi in nobis
reprehendendis utitur, quando nos cupiditatibus
morbisque animi nostri non indulgere, sed resistere,
volumus."
[426] "Phoenissae," 469-472.
[427] Like Juvenal's "Graeculus esuriens in caelum,
jusseris, ibit."--Juvenal, iii, 78.
[428] These are two successive lines found three times
in Homer, "Iliad," xiv. 195, 196; xviii. 426, 427;
"Odyssey," v. 89, 90. The two lines are in each case
spoken by one person.
[429] Probably lines from "The Flatterer" of Menander.
[430] From the "Ino" of Euripides.
[431] From the "Erechtheus" of Euripides.
[432] We know from Athenaeus, p. 420 D, that Apelles and
Arcesilaus were friends.
[433] An allusion to Hesiod, "Works and Days," 235. Cf.
Horace, "Odes," iv. 5. 23.
[434] See the beautiful story of Baucis and Philemon,
Ovid, "Metamorphoses," viii. 626-724: "Cura pii dis
sunt, et qui coluere coluntur."
[435] Compare Terence, "Andria," 43, 44. So too Seneca,
"De Beneficiis," ii. 10: "Haec enim beneficii inter duos
lex est: alter statim oblivisci debet dati, alter
accepti nunquam. Lacerat animum et premit frequens
meritorum commemoratio."
[436] A similar story about the Samians and
Lacedaemonians is told by Aristotle, "Oeconom." ii. 9.
[437] A line from Euripides, "Iphigenia in Aulis," 407.
[438] Also in "Conjugal Precepts," Sec. xxix.
[439] See Persius, iii. 21, 22, with Jahn's Note.
[440] See "On Love," Sec. xxi.
[441] "Auri plumbique oppositio fere proverbialis est.
Petronius, 'Satyricon,' 43. Plane fortunae filius: in
manu illius plumbum aureum fiebat."--_Wyttenbach._ The
passage about the Lydian chariot is said to be by Pindar
in our author, "Nicias," p. 523 D.
[442] Wyttenbach compares Seneca, "Epist." cxxiii. p.
495: "Horum sermo multum nocet: nam etiamsi non statim
officit, semina in animo relinquit, sequiturque nos
etiam cum ab illis discesserimus, resurrecturum postea
malum."
[443] Compare Cicero, "De Amicitia," xxvi.: "Assentatio,
quamvis perniciosa sit, nocere tamen nemini potest, nisi
ei, qui eam recipit atque ea delectatur. Ita fit, ut is
assentatoribus patefaciat aures suas maxime, qui ipse
sibi assentetur et se maxime ipse delectet."
[444] Compare Sec. i.
[445] Compare our Author, "Quaestiones Convivalium,"
viii. p. 717 F.
[446] So Horace, "Satires," i. 2, 24: "Dum vitant stulti
vitia in contraria currunt."
[447] Homer, "Iliad," xiv. 84, 85.
[448] Compare Cicero, "De Officiis," i. 25: "Omnis autem
animadversio et castigatio contumelia vacare debet:
neque ad ejus, qui punitur aliquem aut verbis fatigat,
sed ad reipublicae utilitatem referri."
[449] "Iliad," xi. 654.
[450] "Iliad," xvi. 33-35.
[451] Cf. Plutarch, "Phocion," p. 746 D.
[452] A proverb of persons on the brink of destruction.
Wells among the ancients were uncovered.
[453] "Iliad," ii. 215, of Thersites. As to Theagenes,
see Seneca, "De Ira," ii. 23.
[454] Literally, "brings a cloud over fair weather."
[455] The MSS. have Lydian. Lysian Dionysus is also
found in Pausanias, ix. 16. Lyaeus is suggested by
Wyttenbach, and read by Hercher. Lysius or Lyaeus will
both be connected with [Greek: luo], and so refer to
Dionysus as the god that looses or frees us from care.
See Horace, "Epodes," ix. 37, 38.
[456] Compare Juvenal, iii. 73, 74: "Sermo Promptus et
Isaeo torrentior."
[457] "Orestes," 667.
[458] Euripides, "Ion," 732.
[459] "Anabasis," ii. 6, 11.
[460] Perhaps by Euripides.
[461] "Olynth." ii. p. 8 C; "Pro Corona," 341 C.
[462] Homer, "Iliad," ix. 108, 109. They are the words
of Nestor to Agamemnon.
[463] See Herodotus, i. 30-32.
[464] See Plato's "Symposium," p. 215 E.
[465] See Plato, "Epist." iv. p. 321 B.
[466] See our author, "Apophthegmata," p. 179 C.
[467] Compare Horace, "Satires," i. 1. 7, 8: "Quid enim,
concurritur: horae Momento cita mors venit aut victoria
laeta."
[468] And so being dainty. See Athenaeus, ii. ch. 76.
[469] We see from this and other places that the
mountebanks and quacks of the Middle Ages and later
times existed also among the ancients. Human nature in
its great leading features is ever the same. "Omne
ignotum pro magnifico est."
[470] "Laws," p. 729 C.
[471] Homer, "Odyssey," i. 157; iv. 70; xvii. 592.
[472] Ptolemy V., Epiphanes. The circumstances are
related by Polybius, xv. 29; xvii. 35.
[473] See "Acharnians," 501, 502.
[474] Thucydides, i. 70: [Greek: kai hama, eiper tines
kai alloi, nomizomen axioi einai tois pelas psogon
epenenkein].
[475] See our Author, "Apophthegmata," p. 190 E.
[476] A line of Euripides, quoted again in "How a Man
may be benefited by his Enemies," Sec. iv.
[477] Homer, "Iliad," xi. 313.
[478] Do. viii. 234, 235.
[479] Do. ix. 461.
[480] "Iliad," xiii. 116-119.
[481] Do. v. 171, 172.
[482] Euripides, "Phoenissae," 1688.
[483] Euripides, "Hercules Furens," 1250.
[484] "Iliad," v. 800. Athene is the speaker.
[485] A play by Sophocles, now only in fragments,
relating the life of Achilles in the island of Scyros,
the scene of his amour with Deidamia, the daughter of
Lycomedes, by whom he became the father of Pyrrhus.
[486] Thucydides, ii. 64. Quoted again in "On Shyness,"
Sec. xviii.
[487] See also "De Audiendo," Sec. x.
[488] [Greek: potous] comes in rather curiously here.
Can any other word lurk under it?
[489] "Phoenissae," 528, 529.
[490] Homer, "Iliad," vi. 347.
[491] Do. vi. 326.
[492] Homer, "Iliad," ix. 109, 110.
[493] In Dindorf's "Poetae Scenici Graeci," Fragment 152.
[494] As it is not quite clear why Achilles should have
been angry about his supper, [Greek: dia to deipnon],
apropos of the context, Wyttenbach ingeniously suggests,
as this lost play of Sophocles was called [Greek: Syn
deipnon], that Plutarch may have written [Greek: en to
Deipno].
[495] Compare "How One may be aware of one's Progress in
Virtue," Sec. xi.
[496] "Ductum e proverbiali dictione [Greek: balonta
ekpheugein], emisso telo aufugere."--_Wyttenbach._
HOW A MAN MAY BE BENEFITED BY
HIS ENEMIES.
Sec. I. I am well aware, Cornelius Pulcher, that you prefer the mildest
manners in public life, by which you can be at once most useful to the
community, and most agreeable in private life to those who have any
dealings with you. But since it is difficult to find any region without
wild beasts, though it is related of Crete;[497] and hitherto there has
been no state that has not suffered from envy, rivalry, and strife, the
most fruitful seeds of hostility; (for, even if nothing else does, our
friendships involve us in enmities, as Chilo[498] the wise man
perceived, who asked the man who told him he had no enemy, whether he
had a friend either), it seems to me that a public man ought not only to
examine the whole question of enemies in its various ramifications, but
also to listen to the serious remark of Xenophon,[499] that a sensible
man will receive profit even from his enemies. The ideas therefore that
lately occurred to me to deliver, I have now put together nearly in the
identical words and send them to you, with the exception of some matter
also in "Political Precepts,"[500] a treatise which I have often noticed
in your hands.
Sec. II. People in old times were well satisfied if they were not injured
by strange and wild beasts, and that was the only motive of their fights
with them, but those of later days have by now learnt to make use of
them, for they feed on their flesh, and clothe themselves with their
wool, and make medical use of their gall and beestings, and turn their
hides into shields, so that we might reasonably fear, if beasts failed
man, that his life would become brutish, and wild, and void of
resources. Similarly since all others are satisfied with not being
injured by their enemies, but the sensible will also (as Xenophon says)
get profit out of them, we must not be incredulous, but seek a method
and plan how to obtain this advantage, seeing that life without an enemy
is impossible. The husbandman cannot cultivate every tree, nor can the
hunter tame every kind of animal, so both seek means to derive profit
according to their several necessities, the one from his barren trees,
the other from his wild animals. Sea-water also is undrinkable and
brackish, but it feeds fish, and is a sort of vehicle to convey and
transport travellers anywhere. The Satyr, when he saw fire for the first
time, wished to kiss it and embrace it, but Prometheus warned him,
"Goat, thou wilt surely mourn thy loss of beard."[501]
For fire burns whoever touches it, but it also gives light and warmth,
and is an instrument of art to all those who know how to use it.[502]
Consider also in the case of the enemy, if he is in other respects
injurious and intractable, he somehow or other gives us a handle to make
use of him by, and so is serviceable. And many things are unpleasant and
detestable and antagonistic to those to whom they happen, but you must
have noticed that some use even illnesses as a period of rest for the
body, and others by excessive toil have strengthened and trained their
bodily vigour, and some have made exile and the loss of money a passage
to leisure and philosophy, as did Diogenes and Crates. And Zeno, when he
heard of the wreck of the ship which contained all his property, said,
"Thou hast done well, Fortune, to confine me to my threadbare
cloak."[503]
For as those animals that have the strongest and healthiest stomachs eat
and digest serpents and scorpions, and some even feed on stones and
shells, which they convert into nourishment by the strength and heat of
their stomachs, while fastidious people out of health almost vomit if
offered bread and wine, so foolish people spoil even their friendships,
while the wise know how to turn to account even their enmities.
Sec. III. In the first place then it seems to me that what is most
injurious in enmity may become most useful to those that pay attention
to it? To what do I refer? Why, to the way in which your enemy ever wide
awake pries into all your affairs, and analyzes your whole life, trying
to get a handle against you somewhere, able not only to look through a
tree, like Lynceus,[504] or through stones and shells, but through your
friend and domestic and every intimate acquaintance, as far as possible
detecting your doings, and digging and ferreting into your designs. For
our friends are ill and often die without our knowing anything about it
through our delay and carelessness, but we almost pry into even the
dreams of our enemies; and our enemy knows even more than we do
ourselves of our diseases and debts and differences with our wives.[505]
But they pay most attention to our faults and hunt them out: and as
vultures follow the scent of putrid carcases, and cannot perceive sound
and wholesome ones, so the diseases and vices and crimes of life attract
the enemy, and on these those that hate us pounce, these they attack and
tear to pieces. Is not this an advantage to us? Certainly it is. For it
teaches us to live warily and be on our guard, and neither to do or say
anything carelessly or without circumspection, but ever to be vigilant
by careful mode of living that we give no handle to an enemy. For the
cautiousness that thus represses the passions and follows reason
implants a care and determination to live well and without reproach. For
as those states that have been sobered by wars with their neighbours and
continual campaigns love the blessings of order and peace, so those
people who are compelled to lead a sober life owing to their enemies,
and to be on their guard against carelessness and negligence, and to do
everything with an eye to utility, imperceptibly glide into a faultless
mode of life, and tone down their character, even without requiring much
assistance from precepts. For those who always remember the line,
"Ah! how would Priam and his sons rejoice,"[506]
are by it diverted from and learn to shun all such things as their
enemies would rejoice and laugh at. Again we see actors[507] and singers
on the stage oftentimes slack and remiss, and not taking sufficient
pains about their performances in the theatres when they have it all to
themselves; but when there is a competition and contest with others,
they not only wake up but tune their instruments, and adjust their
chords, and play on the flute with more care. Similarly whoever knows
that his enemy is antagonistic to his life and character, pays more
attention to himself, and watches his behaviour more carefully, and
regulates his life. For it is peculiar to vice to be more afraid of
enemies than friends in regard to our faults. And so Nasica, when some
expressed their opinion that the Roman Republic was now secure, since
Carthage was rased to the ground and Achaia reduced to slavery, said,
"Nay rather we are now in a critical position, since we have none left
to fear or respect."
Sec. IV. Consider also that very philosophical and witty answer of Diogenes
to the man who asked, "How shall I avenge myself on my enemy?" "By
becoming a good and honest man."[508] Some people are terribly put about
if they see their enemies' horses in a good condition, or hear their
dogs praised; if they see their farm well-tilled, their garden
well-kept, they groan aloud. What a state think you then they would be
in, if you were to exhibit yourself as a just man, sensible and good, in
words excellent, in deeds pure, in manner of life decorous, "reaping
fruit from the deep soil of the soul, where good counsels grow."[509]
Pindar says[510] "those that are conquered are reduced to complete
silence:" but not absolutely, not all men, only those that see they are
outdone by their enemies in industry, in goodness, in magnanimity, in
humanity, in kindnesses; these, as Demosthenes says, "stop the tongue,
block up the mouth, choke people, and make them silent."[511]
"Be better than the bad: 'tis in your power."[512]
If you wish to vex the man who hates you, do not abuse him by calling
him a pathick, or effeminate, or intemperate, or a low fellow, or
illiberal; but be yourself a man, and temperate, and truthful, and kind
and just in all your dealings with those you come across. But if you are
tempted to use abuse, mind that you yourself are very far from what you
abuse him for, dive down into your own soul, look for any rottenness in
yourself, lest someone suggest to you the line of the tragedian,
"You doctor others, all diseased yourself."[513]
If you say your enemy is uneducated, increase your own love of learning
and industry; if you call him coward, stir up the more your own spirit
and manliness; and if you say he is wanton and licentious, erase from
your own soul any secret trace of the love of pleasure. For nothing is
more disgraceful or more unpleasant than slander that recoils on the
person who sets it in motion; for as the reflection of light seems most
to injure weak eyes, so does censure when it recoils on the censurer,
and is borne out by the facts. For as the north-east wind attracts
clouds, so does a bad life draw upon itself rebukes.
Sec. V. Whenever Plato was in company with people who behaved in an
unseemly manner, he used to say to himself, "Am I such a person as
this?"[514] So he that censures another man's life, if he straightway
examines and mends his own, directing and turning it into the contrary
direction, will get some advantage from his censure, which will be
otherwise idle and unprofitable. Most people laugh if a bald-pate or
hump-back jeer and mock at others who are so too: it is quite as
ridiculous to jeer and mock if one lies open to retort oneself, as Leo
of Byzantium showed in his answer to the hump-back who jeered at him for
weakness of eyes, "You twit me with an infirmity natural to man, while
you yourself carry your Nemesis on your back."[515] And so do not abuse
another as an adulterer, if you yourself are mad after boys: nor as a
spendthrift, if you yourself are niggardly. Alcmaeon said to Adrastus,
"You are near kinsman to a woman that slew her husband." What was his
reply? He retaliated on him with the appropriate retort, "But you killed
with your own hand the mother that bore you."[516] And Domitius said to
Crassus, "Did you not weep for the lamprey that was bred in your
fishpond, and died?" To which Crassus replied, "Did you weep, when you
buried your three wives?" He therefore that intends to abuse others must
not be witty and noisy and impudent, but a man that does not lie open to
counter-abuse and retort, for the god seems to have enjoined upon no one
the precept "Know thyself" so much as on the person who is censorious,
to prevent people saying just what they please, and hearing what don't
please them. For such a one is wont, as Sophocles[517] says, "idly
letting his tongue flow, to hear against his will, what he willingly
says ill of others."
Sec. VI. This use and advantage then there is in abusing one's enemy, and
no less arises from being abused and ill-spoken of oneself by one's
enemies. And so Antisthenes[518] said well that those who wish to lead a
good life ought to have genuine friends or red-hot enemies; for the
former deterred you from what was wrong by reproof, the latter by abuse.
But since friendship has nowadays become very mealy-mouthed in freedom
of speech, voluble in flattery and silent in rebuke, we can only hear
the truth from our enemies. For as Telephus[519] having no surgeon of
his own, submitted his wound to be cured by his enemy's spear, so those
who cannot procure friendly rebuke must content themselves with the
censure of an enemy that hates them, reprehending and castigating their
vices, and regard not the animus of the person, but only his matter. For
as he who intended to kill the Thessalian Prometheus[520] only stabbed a
tumour, and so lanced it that the man's life was saved, and he was rid
of the tumour by its bursting, so oftentimes abuse, suddenly thrust on a
man in anger or hatred, has cured some disease in his soul which he was
ignorant of or neglected. But most people when they are abused do not
consider whether the abuse really belongs to them properly, but look
round to see what abuse they can heap on the abuser, and, as wrestlers
get smothered with the dust of the arena, do not wipe off the abuse
hurled at themselves, but bespatter others, and at last get on both
sides grimy and discoloured. But if anyone gets a bad name from an
enemy, he ought to clear himself of the imputation even more than he
would remove any stain on his clothes that was pointed out to him; and
if it be wholly untrue, yet he ought to investigate what originated the
charge, and to be on his guard and be afraid lest he had unawares done
something very near akin to what was imputed to him. As Lacydes, the
king of the Argives, by the way he wore his hair and by his mincing walk
got charged with effeminacy: and Pompey's scratching his head with one
finger was construed in the same way, though both these men were very
far from effeminacy or wantonness. And Crassus was accused of an
intrigue with one of the Vestal Virgins, because he wished to purchase
from her a pleasant estate, and therefore frequently visited her and
waited upon her. And Postumia, from her readiness to laugh and talk
somewhat freely with men, got accused and even had to stand her trial
for incest,[521] but was, however, acquitted of that charge: but Spurius
Minucius the Pontif ex Maximus, when he pronounced her innocent, urged
her not to be freer in her words than she was in her life. And though
Themistocles[522] was guiltless of treason, his intimacy with Pausanias,
and the letters and messages that frequently passed between them, laid
him under suspicion.
Sec. VII. Whenever therefore any false charge is made against us, we ought
not merely to despise and neglect it as false, but to see what word or
action, either in jest or earnest, has made the charge seem probable,
and this we must for the future be earnestly on our guard against and
shun. For if others falling into unforeseen trouble and difficulties
teach us what is expedient, as Merope says,
"Fortune has made me wise, though she has ta'en
My dearest ones as wages,"[523]
why should we not take an enemy, and pay him no wages, to teach us, and
give us profit and instruction, in matters which had escaped our notice?
For an enemy has keener perception than a friend, for, as Plato[524]
says, "the lover is blind as respects the loved one," and hatred is both
curious and talkative. Hiero was twitted by one of his enemies for his
foul breath, so he went home and said to his wife, "How is this? You
never told me of it." But she being chaste and innocent replied, "I
thought all men's breath was like that."[525] Thus perceptible and
material things, and things that are plain to everybody, are sooner
learnt from enemies than from friends and intimates.
Sec. VIII. Moreover to keep the tongue well under control, no small factor
in moral excellence, and to make it always obedient and submissive to
reason, is not possible, unless by practice and attention and
painstaking a man has subdued his worst passions, as for example anger.
For such expressions as "a word uttered involuntarily," and "escaping
the barrier of the teeth,"[526] and "words darting forth spontaneously,"
well illustrate what happens in the case of ill-disciplined souls, ever
wavering and in an unsettled condition through infirmity of temper,
through unbridled fancy, or through faulty education. But, according to
divine Plato,[527] though a word seems a very trivial matter, the
heaviest penalty follows upon it both from gods and men. But silence can
never be called to account, is not only not thirsty, to borrow the
language of Hippocrates, but when abused is dignified and Socratic, or
rather Herculean, if indeed it was Hercules who said,
"Sharp words he heeded not so much as flies."[528]
Not more dignified and noble than this is it to keep silent when an
enemy reviles you, "as one swims by a smooth and mocking cliff," but in
practice it is better. If you accustom yourself to bear silently the
abuse of an enemy, you will very easily bear the attack of a scolding
wife, and will remain undisturbed when you hear the sharp language of a
friend or brother, and will be calm and placid when you are beaten or
have something thrown at your head by your father or mother. For
Socrates put up with Xanthippe, a passionate and forward woman, which
made him a more easy companion with others, as being accustomed to
submit to her caprices; and it is far better to train and accustom the
temper to bear quietly the insults and rages and jeers and taunts of
enemies and estranged persons, and not to be distressed at it.
Sec. IX. Thus then must we exhibit in our enmities meekness and
forbearance, and in our friendships still more simplicity and
magnanimity and kindness. For it is not so graceful to do a friend a
service, as disgraceful to refuse to do so at his request; and not to
revenge oneself on an enemy when opportunity offers is generous. But the
man who sympathizes with his enemy in affliction, and assists him in
distress, and readily holds out a helping hand to his children and
family and their fortunes when in a low condition, whoever does not
admire such a man for his humanity, and praise his benevolence,
"He has a black heart made of adamant
Or iron or bronze."[529]
When Caesar ordered the statues of Pompey that had been thrown down to be
put up again,[530] Cicero said, "You have set up again Pompey's statues,
and in so doing have erected statues to yourself." We ought not
therefore to be niggardly in our praise and honour of an enemy that
deserves a good name. For he who praises another receives on that
account greater praise himself, and is the more credited on another
occasion when he finds fault, as not having any personal ill-feeling
against the man, but only disapproving of his act; and what is most
noble and advantageous, the man who is accustomed to praise his enemies,
and not to be vexed or malignant at their prosperity, is as far as
possible from envying the good fortune of his friends, and the success
of his intimates. And yet what practice will be more beneficial to our
minds, or bring about a happier disposition, than that which banishes
from us all jealousy and envy? For as in war many necessary things,
otherwise bad, are customary and have as it were the sanction of law, so
that they cannot be abolished in spite of the injury they do, so enmity
drags along in its train hatred, and envy, and jealousy, and malignity,
and revenge, and stamps them on the character. Moreover knavery, and
deceit, and villainy, that seem neither bad nor unfair if employed
against an enemy, if they once get planted in the mind are difficult to
dislodge; and eventually from force of habit get used also against
friends, unless they are forewarned and forearmed through their previous
acquaintance with the tricks of enemies. If then Pythagoras,[531]
accustoming his disciples to abstain from all cruelty and inhumanity to
the brute creation, did right to discountenance bird-fowling, and to buy
up draughts of fishes and bid them be thrown into the water again, and
to forbid killing any but wild animals, much more noble is it, in
dissensions and differences with human beings, to be a generous, just
and true enemy, and to check and tame all bad and low and knavish
propensities, that in all intercourse with friends a man may keep the
peace and abstain from doing an injury. Scaurus was an enemy and accuser
of Domitius, but when one of Domitius' slaves came to him to reveal some
important matters which were unknown to Scaurus, he would not hear him,
but seized him and sent him back to his master. And when Cato was
prosecuting Murena for canvassing, and was getting together his
evidence, he was accompanied as was usual by people who watched what he
was doing,[532] and would often ask him if he intended that day to get
together his witnesses and open the case, and if he said "No," they
believed him and went their way. All this is the greatest proof of the
credit which was reposed in Cato, but it is better and more important,
that we should accustom ourselves to deal justly even with our enemies,
and then there will be no fear that we should ever act unjustly and
treacherously to our friends and intimates.
Sec. X. But since, as Simonides says, "all larks must have their
crests,"[533] and every man's nature contains in it pugnacity and
jealousy and envy, which last is, as Pindar says, "the companion of
empty-headed men," one might get considerable advantage by purging
oneself of those passions against enemies, and by diverting them, like
sewers, as far as possible from companions and friends.[534] And this it
seems the statesmanlike Onomademus had remarked, for being on the
victorious side in a disturbance at Chios, he urged his party not to
expel all of the different faction, but to leave some, "in order," he
said, "that we may not begin to quarrel with our friends, when we have
got entirely rid of our enemies." So too our expending these passions
entirely on our enemies will give less trouble to our friends. For it
ought not to be, as Hesiod[535] says, that "potter envies potter, and
singer envies singer, and neighbour neighbour," and cousin cousin, and
brother brother, "if hastening to get rich" and enjoying prosperity. But
if there is no other way to get rid of strife and envy and quarrels,
accustom yourself to be vexed at your enemies' good fortune, and sharpen
and accentuate on them your acerbity. For as judicious gardeners think
they produce finer roses and violets by planting alongside of them
garlic and onions, that any bitter or strong elements may be transferred
to them, so your enemy's getting and attracting your envy and malignity
will render you kinder and more agreeable to your prosperous friends.
And so let us be rivals of our enemies for glory or office or righteous
gain, not only being vexed if they get ahead of us, but also carefully
observing all the steps by which they get ahead, and trying to outdo
them in industry, and hard work, and soberness, and prudence; as
Themistocles said Miltiades' victory at Marathon would not let him
sleep.[536] For he who thinks his enemy gets before him in offices, or
advocacies, or state affairs, or in favour with his friends or great
men, if from action and emulation he sinks into envy and despondency,
makes his life become idle and inoperative. But he who is not blinded by
hate,[537] but a discerning spectator of life and character and words
and deeds, will perceive that most of what he envies comes to those who
have them from diligence and prudence and good actions, and exerting
himself in the same direction he will increase his love of what is
honourable and noble, and will eradicate his vanity and sloth.
Sec. XI. But if our enemies seem to us to have got either by flattery, or
fraud, or bribery, or venal services, ill-got and discreditable power at
court or in state, it ought not to trouble us but rather inspire
pleasure in us, when we compare our own liberty and purity and
independence of life. For, as Plato[538] says, "all the gold above or
below the earth is not of equal value with virtue." And we ought ever to
remember the precept of Solon, "We will not exchange our virtue for
others' wealth."[539] Nor will we give up our virtue for the applause of
banqueting theatres, nor for honours and chief seats among eunuchs and
harlots, nor to be monarchs' satraps; for nothing is to be desired or
noble that comes from what is bad. But since, as Plato[540] says, "the
lover is blind as respects the loved one," and we notice more what our
enemies do amiss, we ought not to let either our joy at their faults or
our grief at their success be idle, but in either case we ought to
reflect, how we may become better than them by avoiding their errors,
and by imitating their virtues not come short of them.
[497] So Pliny, viii. 83: "In Creta Insula non vulpes
ursive, atque omnino millum maleficum animal praeter
phalangium."
[498] See the same remark of Chilo, "On Abundance of
Friends," Sec. vi.
[499] "Oeconom." i. 15.
[500] A treatise of Plutarch still extant.
[501] A line from a lost Satyric Play of AEschylus,
called "Prometheus Purphoros."
[502] So fire is called [Greek: pantechnon] in AEschylus,
"Prometheus Desmotes," 7.
[503] Compare Seneca, "De Animi Tranquillitate," cap.
xiii.: "Zeno noster cum omnia sua audiret submersa,
Jubet, inquit, me fortuna expeditius philosophari."
[504] See Horace, "Epistles," i. I. 28; Pausanias, iv.
2.
[505] See Plautus, "Trinummus," 205-211.
[506] Homer, "Iliad," i. 255.
[507] Literally "the artists of Dionysus." We know what
they were from our author's "Quaestiones Romanae," Sec. 107:
[Greek: dia ti tous peri ton Dionuson technitas
histrionas Rhomaioi kalousin];
[508] Compare "De Audiendis Poetis," Sec. iv.
[509] AEschylus, "Septem contra Thebas," 593, 594.
[510] Pindar, "Fragm." 253.
[511] Demosthenes, "De Falsa Legatione," p. 406.
[512] Euripides, "Orestes," 251.
[513] A line from Euripides. Quoted also "De Adulatore
et Amico," Sec. xxxii.
[514] Compare "De Audiendo," Sec.vi. See also Horace,
"Satires," i, 4. 136, 137.
[515] The story is somewhat differently told, "Quaest.
Conviv.," Lib. ii. Sec. ix.
[516] From a lost play of Euripides.
[517] In some lost play. Compare Hesiod, "Works and
Days," 719-721; Terence, "Andria," 920.
[518] The sentiment is assigned to Diogenes twice
elsewhere by our author, namely, "How One may be aware
of one's Progress in Virtue," Sec. xi., and "How One may
discern a Flatterer from a Friend," Sec. xxxvi.
[519] See Propertius, ii. 1. 63, 64; Ovid,
"Metamorphoses," xii. 112; xiii. 171; "Tristia," v. 2.
15, 16; "Remedia Amoris," 47, 48; Erasmus, "Adagia," p.
221.
[520] "Jason Pheraeus cognomine Prometheus dictus est.
Vide Ciceronem, 'Nat. Deor.' iii. 29; Plinium, vii. 51;
Valerium Maximum, i. 8, Extem. 6."--_Wytttenbach._
[521] She was a Vestal Virgin. See Livy, iv. 44.
[522] See Thucydides, i. 135, 136.
[523] From a lost play of Euripides. Compare the
proverb, [Greek: pathemata mathemata].
[524] "Laws," v. p. 731 E.
[525] Told again "Reg. et Imperator. Apophthegm.," p.
175 B.
[526] A favourite image of Homer, employed "Iliad," iv.
350; xiv. 83; "Odyssey," i. 64; xxiii. 70.
[527] "Laws," xi. p. 935 A. Quoted again "On
Talkativeness," Sec. vii.
[528] See Pausanias, v. 14.
[529] From a Fragment of Pindar.
[530] See Suetonius, "Divus Julius," 75: "Sed et statuas
L. Sullae atque Pompeii a plebe disjectas reposuit."
[531] Compare our author, "Quaestiones Convivalium,"
viii. p. 729 E.
[532] No doubt in the interest of the defendant. See our
author, "Cato Minor," p. 769 B.
[533] A Greek proverb, see Erasmus, "Adagia," p. 921.
[534] So Cicero, "Nat. Deor." ii. 56: "In aedibus
architecti avertunt ab oculis naribusque dominorum ea
quae profluentia necessario taetri essent aliquid
habitura."
[535] "Works and Days," 23-26. Our "Two of a trade
seldom agree."
[536] Compare "How One may be aware of one's Progress in
Virtue," Sec. xiv.
[537] For as the English proverb says, "Hatred is blind
as well as love."
[538] "Laws," v. p. 728 A.
[539] Quoted more fully "How One may be aware of one's
Progress in Virtue," Sec. vi.
[540] "Laws," v. p. 731 E. See also above, Sec. vii.