5
Socrates, being sent for by Archelaus, as designing to make him a rich man, returned him this answer: Four quarts of meal are sold at Athens for five denarii, and the fountains run with water. If what I have is not sufficient for me, yet I am sufficiently able to make a shift with that; and thus it becomes sufficient for me. Do you not perceive that it makes no difference in the goodness of Polus’s voice, whether he performs the part of Oedipus in his regal state, or whether he is a wanderer and a beggar at Colonus? And shall a brave man appear worse than Polus, and not perform well in whatever part is imposed upon him by the Deity? Shall he not imitate Odysseus, who made no worse figure in rags than in a fine purple robe?Stobaeus, Compar. Paupertatis et Divitiarum. Serm. 237, 778.-C.
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There are some persons who are calmly of a high spirit, and do all the same things quietly, and as it were without anger, which those do who are hurried with strong passion. We are to guard, therefore, against the faults of such persons, as being much worse than those of violent anger. For people of the latter character are quickly satiated with vengeance; whereas the others, like persons in a slow lever, extend the excitement over a longer time.Stobaeus, Quod Eventus, etc., pp. 324, 329. - C.
