Book 3
5
But I shall not have my mother to hold my head when I am ill.
5
Get home then to your mother; for you are most fit to have your head held when you are ill.
5
But I used at home to lie on a fine couch.
5
Get to this couch of yours; for you are fit to lie upon such a one, even in health; so do not miss doing that for which you are qualified. But what says Socrates? As one man rejoices in the improvement of his estate, another of his horse, so do I daily rejoice in perceiving myself to grow better. Xenophon, Mem. 1.6.—H.
5
In what,—in pretty speeches?
5
Use courteous words, man.
5
In trifling theorems? What do they signify? Yet, indeed, I do not see that the philosophers are employed in anything else.
5
Do you think it nothing, to accuse and censure no one, God nor man; always to carry abroad and bring home the same countenance? These were the things which Socrates knew; and yet he never professed to know, or to teach anything; but if any one wanted pretty speeches, or little theorems, he brought him to Protagoras, to Hippias; just as, if any one had come for potherbs, he would have taken him to a gardener. Which of you, then, earnestly sets his heart on this? If you had, you would bear illness and hunger and death with cheerfulness. If any one of you has truly loved, he knows that I speak truth.
Miscellaneous.
