He did not cultivate the irony of
Socrates; his conversations were full of Attic charm,
so that his visitors, on going away, did not feel
contempt for him because he was ill-bred or aversion
to his criticisms because they were gloomy, but
were beside themselves for joy and were far better,
happier and more hopeful of the future than when
they came.

 

He never was known to make an
uproar or excite himself or get angry, even if he had
to rebuke someone; though he assailed sins, he
forgave sinners, thinking that one should pattern
after doctors, who heal sicknesses but feel no anger
at the sick. He considered that it is human to err,
divine or all but divine to set right what has gone
amiss.

 
Leading such“a life, he wanted nothing for
himself, but helped his friends in a reasonable way.
Some of them, who were seemingly favoured by
fortune, he reminded that they were elated over
imaginary blessings of brief span. Others, who were
bewailing poverty, fretting at exile or finding fault
with old age or sickness, he laughingly consoled,
saying that they failed to see that after a little they
would have surcease of worries and would all soon find



 

oblivion of their fortunes, good and bad, and lasting
liberty.

 

He made it his business also to reconcile
brothers at variance and to miake terms of peace
between wives and husbands. On occasion, he has
talked reason to excited mobs, and has usually persuaded them to serve their country in a temperate
spirit.

 

Such was the character of his philosophy—kind,
gentle and cheerful. The only thing which distressed him was the illness or death of a friend,
for he considered friendship the greatest of human
blessings. For this reason he was everyone’s friend,
and there was no human being whom he did not
include in his affections, though he liked the society
of some better than that of others. He held aloof
only from those who seemed to him to be involved
in sin beyond hope of cure. And in all this, his
every word and deed was smiled on by the Graces
and by Aphrodite, even; so that, to quote the
comedian, “persuasion perched upon his lips.”1