And when some one shall say to you that you know nothing, and you are not offended, then know that the work is begun. And as sheep do not bring their food to the shepherds, to show how much they have eaten, but digesting inwardly their provender bear outwardly wool and milk, even so do not you, for the most part, display your maxims before the sensual, but rather the works which follow from them, when they are digested.
XLVII.When you have harmonised yourself to a frugal provision for your bodily needs, do not pride yourself on that; and if your drink is water, do not take every opportunity of declaring I am a water drinker. And if you wish at any time to inure yourself to labour and endurance, do it unto yourself and not unto the world, and do not embrace the statues,[1] but some time when you are exceedingly thirsty take a draught of cold water into your mouth, and spit it out, and say nothing about it.
- ↑ Philosophers used sometimes to try (and exhibit) their powers of enduring cold by embracing the statues in the market-places in winter time.
