performed, so that he may really be master of his own actions. Now, since boys are not quite capable of such a deliberate and rational mode of procedure, it will be a great advance towards teaching them fortitude and self-control if they be forced to acquire the habit of performing the will of another in preference to their own, that is to say, to obey their superiors promptly in everything. “Those who train horses aright,” says Lactantius, “first teach them to obey the reins,” and he who wishes to instruct boys should commence by accustoming them to obey his orders. We may indeed cherish a hope that the turmoil with which the world is overwhelmed will be replaced by a better condition of affairs, if, in early youth, men learn to yield to one another and to be guided by reason in all that they do.
8. (vi) The young should learn to practise justice by hurting no man, by giving each his due, by avoiding falsehood and deceit, and by being obliging and agreeable.
Boys must be trained to act in this way, as we said above, by the method prescribed in the following canons.
9. (vii) The kinds of fortitude that are especially necessary to the young are frankness and endurance of toil.
For since life must be spent in intercourse with others and in action, boys must be taught to look men in the face and to meet honest toil without flinching. Otherwise they may become recluses and misanthropes, or idlers and cumberers of the earth. Virtue is practised by deeds and not by words.
10. (viii) Frankness is acquired by constant intercourse with worthy people, and by behaving, while in their presence, in accordance with the precepts that have been given.
Aristotle educated Alexander in such a manner that, when twelve years of age, he could suit himself to every kind of society, to that of kings, of the ambassadors of kings and of nations, of learned and unlearned men, of townsmen, of countrymen, and of artisans, and could ask suitable questions or give suitable answers on any subject that arose in conversation. In order that the
