62
Who among you does not admire the action of Lycurgus the Lacedemonian? For when he had been deprived of one of his eyes by one of the citizens, and the people had delivered the young man to him, to be punished in whatever manner he should think proper, Lycurgus forbore to give him any punishment; but having instructed him, and rendered him a good man, he brought him into the theatre, and while the Lacedemonians were struck with admiration, I received, said he, this person from you, dangerous and violent, and I restore him to you gentle and a good citizen.
63
When Pittacus had been unjustly treated by some person, and had the power of chastising him, he let him go, saying, Forgiveness is better than punishment; for the one is the proof of a gentle, the other of a savage, nature.
64
This, above all, is the business of nature, to connect and apply the active powers to what appears fit and beneficial.
65
It is the character of the most mean-spirited and foolish men, to suppose that they shall be despised by others, unless they somehow strike the first blow at their enemies.
66
When you are going to attack any one with vehemence and threatening, remember to say first to yourself that you are constituted gentle, and that by doing nothing violent, you will live without the need of repentance, and irreproachable.
67
We ought to know that it is not easy for a man to form his principles of action, unless he daily reiterates and hears the same things, and at the same time applies them in action.
68
Nicias was so intent on business, that he often asked his domestics whether he had bathed and whether he h.ad dined.
69
While Archimedes was intent on his diagrams, his servants drew him away by violence, and anointedThe ancients anointed the body every day. - C. him; and after his body was anointed, he traced his figures upon that.
