mischief done could not be repaired. Repentance comes too late for actions done in a moment of anger.
PLATO AND THE NAUGHTY BOY
Plato the philosopher had occasion to chastise a bad boy. But as he was very much enraged on account of the culprit’s misdeeds, he begged his friend Xenocrates to undertake the chastisement for him. “ Be so good,” he said to him, “as to give the boy a sound flogging; I dare not do it myself, I am too angry with him.”
GLUTTONY
AN INDIAN CHIEF ON DRUNKENNESS
Father de Smet, the Jesuit missionary of the North American Indians, praises the tribe called Ravens for their opposition to the introduction among them of intoxicating liquors. “ What good is this firewater? ” said their chief. “ It burns the throat and stomach; it makes a man a bear; when he has drunk he bites, grunts, howls, and ends by falling down like a corpse. Your fire-water is evil; give it to our enemies; they will kill one another, and their wives and children will be objects of pity. As for us, we need it not; we are mad enough without it.” Excessive indulgence in intoxicants, if not the greatest, is one of the very greatest evils of this age.
ENVY
THE TWO MERCHANTS
Envy is overcome by benefits. The shops of two tradesmen who were in the same branch of business
