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In case the authors themselves do not offer solutions of their unjustifiable sayings, it is not a bad idea to put on the other side declarations of other writers of repute, and, as in a balance, make the scales incline toward the better side. For example, if Alexis stirs some people when he says, The man of sense must gather pleasure’s fruits, And three there are which have the potency Truly to be of import for this life— To eat and drink and have one’s way in love, All else must be declared accessory, Ibid. ii., Alexis, No. 271. we must recall to their minds that Socrates used to say just the opposite—that base men live to eat and drink, and good men eat and drink to live. And he who wrote Not useless ’gainst the knave is knavery,Source unknown; quoted again by Plutarch in Moralia, 534 A. thus bidding us, in a way, to make ourselves like knaves, may be confronted with the saying of Diogenes; for, being asked how one might defend himself against his adversary, he said, By proving honourable and upright himself. We should use Diogenes against Sophocles, too; for Sophocles has filled hosts of men with despondency by writing these lines about the mysteries: Thrice blest are they Who having seen these mystic rites shall pass To Hades’ house; for them alone is life Beyond; for others all is evil there.Nauck, Trag.Graec. Frag., Sophocles, No. 753. But Diogenes, hearing some such sentiment as this, said, What! Do you mean to say that Pataecion, the robber, will have a better portion after death than Epaminondas, just because he is initiate? And when Timotheus, in a song in the theatre, spoke of Artemis as Ecstatic Bacchic frantic fanatic,Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Gr. iii. p. 620; cf. Plutarch, Moralia, 170 A. Cinesias at once shouted back, May you have a daughter like that I Neat too is Bion s retort to Theognis, who said: Any man that is subject to poverty never is able Either to speak or to act; nay, but his tongue is tied.Theognis, 177. How is it, then, said Bion, that you, who are poor, can talk much nonsense, and weary us with this rubbish?
