3.4
And yet Hesiod Works and Days, 309. has much to say by way of exhorting us to righteousness allied with domestic economy, and abuses idleness as a source of injustice; Homer also says well:— Labour I never liked, Nor household thrift, which breeds good children. But ships equipped with oars were ever my delight, Battles and polished javelins and arrows, Odyssey, xiv. 222 ff., Palmer’s translation. implying that the men who neglect their households are the very ones to live by injustice.
3.5
Oil, as physicians tell us, is very beneficial when externally applied, though very injurious when used internally. But the righteous is not so. He is not helpful to others, while heedless of himself and his family. Indeed, the poverty of Aristides would seem to have been a blemish on his political career, if, as most writers state, he had not foresight enough to leave his poor daughters a marriage portion, Aristides, xxvii. 1. or even the cost of his own burial.
3.6
And so it fell out that the family of Cato furnished Rome with praetors and consuls down to the fourth generation, for his grandsons, and their sons after them, filled the highest offices of state. Whereas, though Aristides was foremost of the Greeks, the abject poverty of his descendants forced some to ply a fortune-teller’s trade, Aristides, xxvii. 3. and others, for very want, to solicit the public bounty, while it robbed them all of every ambition to excel, or even to be worthy of their great ancestor.
4.1
Possibly this point invites discussion. Poverty is never dishonourable in itself, but only when it is a mark of sloth, intemperance, extravagance, or thoughtlessness. When, on the other hand, it is the handmaid of a sober, industrious, righteous, and brave man, who devotes all his powers to the service of the people, it is the sign of a lofty spirit that harbours no mean thoughts.
