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Yet truly, neither is thisCf. 520 d, supra. a difficult nor arduous task: when men are reviling and abusing each other in the market-place, not to approach them, or when a crowd is running to see something or other, to remain seated, or, if you are without self-control, to get up and go away. For you will reap no advantage from mixing yourself with busy bodies, whereas you will obtain great benefit from forcibly turning aside your curiosity and curtailing it and training it to obey reason.
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And after this it is well to make our training more intensive and pass by a theatre where a successful performance is in progress; and, when our friends urge us to see a certain dancer or comedian, to thrust them aside; and, when shouts are heard on the racecourse or in the circus, not to turn round. For as SocratesCf. 513 d, supra. used to advise the avoidance of such foods as tempt us to eat when we are not hungry and such drinks as tempt us to imbibe when we are not thirsty, so we also should avoid and guard against such sights and sounds as master and attract us without fulfilling any need of ours. Thus CyrusCf. Xenophon, Cyropaedia, v. 1. 8; Moralia, 31 c. was unwilling to see Pantheia; and when Araspes declared that the woman’s beauty was worth seeing, Cyrus said, Then this is all the more reason for keeping away from her. For if, persuaded by you, I should go to her, perhaps she herself might tempt me, when I couldn’t spare the time, to go to see her again and sit by her, to the neglect of many important matters. So too AlexanderCf. Life of Alexander, xxii. (677 b); Moralia, 97 d, 338 e. would not go to see Darius’s wife who was said to be very beautiful, but although he visited her mother, an elderly woman, he could not bring himself to see the young and beautiful daughter. Yet we peep into women’s litters and hang about their windows, and think we are doing nothing wrong in thus making our curiosity prone to slip and slide into all kinds of vice.
