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First, therefore, let our young man be taught to understand good and bad manners and persons, and from thence apply his mind to the words and deeds which the poet decently assigns to either of them. For example, Achilles, though in some wrath, speaks to Agamemnon thus decently: Nor, when we take a Trojan town, can I With thee in spoils and splendid prizes vie; For this and the five following quotations, see Il. I. 163; II. 226; I. 128; II 231; IV. 402 and 404. whereas Thersites to the same person speaks reproachfully in this manner:— ’Tis thine whate’er the warrior’s breast inflames, The golden spoil, and thine the lovely dances. With all the wealth our wars and blood bestow, Thy tents are crowded and thy chests o’erflow. Again, Achilles thus:— Whene’er, by Jove’s decree, our conquering powers Shall humble to the dust Troy’s lofty towers; but Thersites thus:— Whom I or some Greek else as captive bring. Again, Diomedes, when Agamemnon taking a view of the army spoke reproachfully to him, To his hard words forbore to make reply, For the respect he bare to majesty; whereas Sthenelus, a man of small note, replies on him thus:— Sir, when you know the truth, what need to lie? For with our fathers we for valor vie. Now the observation of such difference will teach the young man the decency of a modest and moderate temper, and the unbecoming nauseousness of the contrary vices of boasting and cracking of a man’s own worth. And it is worth while also to take notice of the demeanor of Agamemnon in the same passage. For he passeth by Sthenelus unspoken to; but perceiving Ulysses to be offended, he neglects not him, but applies himself to answer him:— Struck with his generous wrath, the king replies. Il. IV. 357. For the four following, see Il. IX. 34 and 70; IV. 431; X. 325. For to have apologized to every one had been too servile and misbecoming the dignity of his person; whereas equally to have neglected every one had been an act of insolence and imprudence. And very handsome it is that Diomedes, though in the heat of the battle he answers the king only with silence, yet after the battle was over useth more liberty towards him, speaking thus:— You called me coward, sir, before the Greeks. It is expedient also to take notice of the different carriage of a wise man and of a soothsayer popularly courting the multitude. For Chalcas very unseasonably makes no scruple to traduce the king before the people, as having been the cause of the pestilence that was befallen them. But Nestor, intending to bring in a discourse concerning the reconciling Achilles to him, that he might not seem to charge Agamemnon before the multitude with the miscarriage his passion had occasioned, only adviseth him thus:— But thou, O king, to council call the old.... Wise weighty counsels aid a state distress’d, And such a monarch as can choose the best; which done, accordingly after supper he sends his ambassadors. Now this speech of Nestor tended to the rectifying of what he had before done amiss; but that of Chalcas, only to accuse and disparage him.
