Well and politicly in this public entertainment did the legislator
propose to the youth obvious and domestic examples of such as had
already performed the things he exhorted them to.
16. Moreover, it is not only available for the exciting of a generous
emulation, but sometimes requisite for the silencing and taming an
insolent and audacious man, to talk a little gloriously of one’s self.
As Nestor in this:
I have conversed with men more gallant far
Than you; much your superiors they in all things were,
Nor did they ever to contemn me dare.[183]
And Aristotle writes to Alexander, that not only those who have mighty
empires may think highly of themselves, but they also who have worthy
thoughts and notions of the Gods. Such a remark as this is also
profitable against enemies, and recalls the spirits: