Do they
not stuff themselves more vulgarly, get drunk more
conspicuously, leave the table last of all, and expect
to carry away more delicacies than anyone else?
Some, more subtle than the rest, have often gone so
far as to sing.”
All this, he thought, was ridiculous: and he made
special mention of people who cultivate philosophy
for hire and put virtue on sale over a counter, as it
were: indeed, he called the lecture-rooms of these
men factories and bazaars. For he maintained that
one who intends to teach contempt for wealth
should first of all show that he is himself above
gain.
 

Certainly he used to put these principles into
practice consistently, not only giving instruction
without recompense to all who desired it, but
helping the needy and holding all manner of super-

 

fluity in contempt. So far was he from coveting the
property of others that even when his own property
was going to rack and ruin he did not concern
himself about it. Although he had a farm not far
from the city, he’ did not care to set foot on it for
many years. More than this, he used to say that it
was not his at all. His idea was, I take it, that we
are not “owners” of any of these things by natural
law, but that we take over the use of them for
an indefinite period by custom and inheritance, and
are considered their proprietors for a brief space;
and when our allotted days of grace are past
another takes them over and enjoys the title.
He likewise sets no mean example for those who
care to imitate him in his simple diet, his moderate
physical exercises, his earnest face, his plain clothes
and above all, his well-balanced understanding and
his kindly ways.

 

He always advised his disciples
not to postpone being good, as most people do, by
setting themselves a limit in the form of a holiday or
a festival, with the intention of beginning from that
date to shun lies and do as they should; for he
deemed that an inclination towards the higher life
brooked no delay. He made no secret of his
condemnation of the sort of philosophers who think it
a course in virtue if. they train the young to enduré
“full many pains and toils,"
 Evidently a quotation: the source is unknown. 
the majority
recommending cold baths, though some whip them,
and still others, the more refined. of their sort, scrape
” the surface of their skin with a knife-blade.

 
It was his



 

opinion that this hardness and insensibility should
be created rather in the souls of men, and that
he who elects to give the best possible education
ought to have an eye to soul, to body, and to age
and previous training, that he may not subject
himself to criticism on the score of setting his pupils
tasks beyond their strength. Indeed, he asserted
that many die as a result of strains so unreasonable.
I myself saw one student who, after a taste of the
tribulations in that camp, had made off without a
backward glance as soon as he heard true doctrine,
and had come to Nigrinus: he was clearly the
better for it.

 
At length leaving the philosophers, he recurred to
the rest of mankind, and told about the uproar of
the city, the crowding, the theatres, the races, the
statues. of the drivers, the names of the horses, and
the conversations in the streets about these matters.
The craze for horses is really great, you know, and
men with a name for earnestness have caught it in
great numbers.