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.

 
Next he touched upon another human comedy,
played by the people who occupy themselves with
life beyond the grave and with last wills, adding
that sons of Rome speak the truth only once in their
whole lives (meaning in their wills), in order that
they may not reap the fruits of their truthfulness!
 A famous instance is the case of Petronius, who expressed
his opinion of Nero in his will and made the emperor his
executor. 
I could not help interrupting him with laughter
when he said that they want to have their follies
buried with them and to leave their stupidity on
record, inasmuch as some of them leave instructions



 

that clothing be burned with them which they prized
in life, others that servants stay by their tombs,
and here and there another that his gravestone be
wreathed with flowers.

They remain foolish even
on their deathbeds.