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At the same time, the young man must get the habit of perusing with a mind wide awake such sayings as these: Falsehood he will not utter because he is very prudent,Homer, Od. iii. 20 and 328. and What an act Is this, Antilochus, prudent aforetime! You have put my skill to disgrace and hindered my horses,Homer, Il. xxiii. 570. and Glaucus, what cause has a man like you for words so disdainful ? Truly I thought, my friend, that in sense you excelled all the others, Ibid. xvii. 170. the implication being that men of sense do not lie or contend unfairly in games, or make unwarranted accusations against other people. And from the poet’s saying Ibid. vi. 104. that Pandarus was persuaded because of his want of sense to bring to naught the sworn agreement, he clearly shows his opinion that the man of sense would not do wrong. It is also possible to give similar intimations in regard to self-control, by directing the young man’s attention to statements like these: Mad for him was Proetus’ royal wife Anteia Lusting to make him her lover in secret, but could not persuade him, Since the wise Bellerophon thought more of virtue, Ibid. vi. 160. and She at the first would not consent to a deed so unseemly, Royal Clytemnestra, since her thoughts were for virtue.Homer, Od. iii. 265. In these lines the poet attributes to understanding the cause of self-control; and in his exhortations to battle he says on the several occasions: Shame, men of Lycia, whither now flee ye ? Now be ye valiant,Homer, Il. xvi. 422. and But let all your minds be imbued with Shame and resentment, for now, as you see, great strife has arisen, Ibid. xiii. 121. and thereby he appears to represent the men of self-control as brave because of their being ashamed of disgrace, and as able to overcome pleasures and to undergo dangerous adventures. Timotheus Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Gr. iii. 622; Timotheus, Frag. 14 ed. Wilamowitz. also adopted this point of view, when in his Persians he urged the Greeks, not infelicitously, to have Respect for shame that helps the brave in war; and Aeschylus Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes, 599; the lines are quoted also, in whole or in part, by Plutarch, Moralia, 8 B, 186 B, and the Life of Aristeides, chap. iii. (320 B). sets it down as a point of good sense not to be puffed up with fame, nor to be excited and elated by popular praise, when he writes of Amphiaraus, His wish is not to seem, but be, the best, Reaping the deep-sown furrow of his mind In which all goodly counsels have their root. For to take pride in oneself and in one’s state of mind when it is altogether good, marks the man of good sense; and since everything may be referred to understanding, it follows that every form of virtue is added unto him from reason and instruction.
