But, to say truth, to excuse his arrogance with so base a confession is
ridiculous. He then who would be an exact man corrects himself for his
forgetfulness, ignorance, ambition, or eagerness for certain knowledge
and discourses. So does Ulysses when he says of the Sirens,
Thus the sweet charmers warbled o’er the main,
My soul takes wing to meet the heavenly strain;
I give the sign, and struggle to be free;
and again, when he sang of his visit to the Cyclops,
Their wholesome counsel rashly I declined,
Curious to view the man of monstrous kind,
And try what social rites a savage lends.[180]
And for the most part it is a good antidote against envy, to mix
amongst our praises those faults that are not altogether ungenerous and
base. Therefore many temper them not only with confessions of poverty
or unskilfulness, but even of vile descent. So Agathocles, carousing
amongst the Sicilian youth in golden bowls very curiously wrought,
commanded earthen pots to be brought in. See (says he) what diligence,
laboriousness, and fortitude can do! Once we made muggen jugs, but now
vessels of gold. For his original was so mean and contemptible, that
it was thought he had served in a potter’s shop who at last governed
almost all Sicily.
14. These are the outward preventions or remedies against diseases
that may arise from the speaking of one’s self. There are some others
inward, which Cato has recourse to when he tells us he was envied for
neglecting his domestic affairs and being vigilant whole nights in
those of his country. So with this:
How shall I boast, who grew so easily,
Though mustered ’mongst the common soldiery;
Great in my fortune as the bravest be?
And this:
But I am loath to lose past labor’s gains;
Nor will retreat from a fresh troop of pains.[181]
For as they who obtain great possessions of houses or lands gratis and
with little difficulty are under the eye of envy, but not if their
purchases were troublesome and dear, so it is with them who arrive at
honor and applause.
15. Well then, since it is evident we may praise ourselves not only
inoffensively and without being liable to envy, but with great
advantage too; that we may seem not to do this for itself, but for a
further and better end, first consider whether it may prove for the
instruction of the company, by exciting them to a virtuous emulation.
For so Nestor’s relation of his own achievements inflamed Patroclus
and nine others with a vehement desire of single combat; and we know
the counsel that brings persuasive deeds as well as words, a lively
exemplar, and an immediate familiar incentive, insouls a man with
courage, moves, yea, vehemently spurs him up to such a resolution of
mind as cannot doubt the possibility and success of the attempt. This
was the reason of that chorus in Lacedaemon consisting of boys, young
men, and old men, which thus sang in parts:—
Old Men. Once we were young, and bold and strong.
Boys. And we shall be no less ere long.