Of Lochagus.
52
Lochagus the father of Polyaenides and Siron, when one told him one of his sons was dead, said, I knew long ago that he must die.
Of Lycurgus the Lawgiver.
53
Lycurgus the lawgiver, designing to reclaim his citizens from their former luxury and bring them to a more sober course of life and make them brave men (for they were then loose and delicate), bred up two whelps of the same litter; one he kept at home, bred him tenderly, and fed him well; but the other he taught to hunt, and used him to the chase. Both these dogs he brought out into the public assembly, and setting down some scraps of meat and letting go a hare at the same time, each of the dogs ran greedily to what they had been accustomed. And the hunter catching the hare, Lycurgus said: See, countrymen, how these two, though of the same litter, by my breeding them are become very different; and that custom and exercise conduces more than Nature to make things brave and excellent. Some say that he did not bring out two whelps of the same kind, but one a house dog and the other a hunter; the former of which (though the baser kind) he had accustomed to the woods, and the other (though more noble) kept lazily at home; and when in public, each of them pursuing his usual delight, he had given a clear evidence that education is of considerable force in raising bad or good inclinations, he said: Therefore, countrymen, our honorable extraction, that idol of the crowd, though from Hercules himself, profits us little, unless we learn and exercise all our life in such famous exploits as made him accounted the most noble and the most glorious in the world.
