BOOK XI
25. Socrates refused the invitation of Perdiccas[1] to his court, That I come not, said he, to a dishonoured grave, meaning, that I be not treated with generosity and have no power to return it.[2]
26. In the writings of the Ephesians[3] was laid down the advice to have constantly in remembrance some one of the ancients who lived virtuously.
27. Look, said the Pythagoreans, at the sky in the morning, that we may have in remembrance those hosts of heaven that ever follow the same course and accomplish their work in the same way, and their orderly system, and their purity, and their nakedness; for there is no veil before a star.
28. Think of Socrates with the sheepskin wrapped round him, when Xanthippe had gone off with his coat, and what he said to his friends when they drew back in their embarrassment at seeing him thus accoutred.
29. In reading and writing thou must learn first to follow instruction before thou canst give it. Much more is this true of life.
30. 'Tis not for thee, a slave, to reason why.[4]
31. . . . . and within me my heart laughed.[5]
32. Virtue they will upbraid and speak harsh words in her hearing.[6]
33. Only a madman will look for figs in winter.
- ↑ According to Diog. Laert. Socr. 9; Sen. de Ben. v. 6, § 2; Arist. Rhet. Α. 23, this was Archelaus, son of Perdiccas.
- ↑ cp. Fronto, ad Appianum, Nab. p. 251.
- ↑ Sen. Ep. 11, attributes the precept to the Epicureans: aliquis vir bonus nobis eligendus est ac semper ante oculos habendus ut sic tanquam illo spectante ricamus et omnia illo vidente fariamus. Hoc Epicurus praecepit. See, however, Plut. Symp. vii. 5 ad fin.
- ↑ It is not clear whether λόγος here means speech or reason or both. The citation, of which the author is not known, has no obvious application; still less has the following quotation from Homer.
- ↑ Hom. Od. ix. 413.
- ↑ Hes. Op. 185, where the reading is ἄρα τοῖς for ἀρετήν.
