M. CORNELIUS FRONTO
don't understand, that those boys yonder who are mixing the purple paint may not despise you[1] . . . . There is no one, however authoritative, who when his skill is at fault is not looked down upon by him who has greater skill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7. You have achieved such great eloquence as is even more than enough for fame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and hair, though it need not be daily set off with a pin, yet must daily be smoothed out with a comb[2] . . . . Croesus and Solon, Periander and Polycrates, Alcibiades in fine and Socrates.
8. Who doubts that a wise man is distinguished from an unwise man preeminently by his sagacity and choice of things and judgment, so that if there be an option and alternative between riches and poverty, though they are both of them devoid of vice and virtue, yet the choice between them is not devoid of praise or blame. For it is the special obligation of the wise man to choose rightly, and not wrongly put this first or that second.
9. If you ask me whether I covet good health, I should, if I were a philosopher, say no; for a wise man must not covet or desire anything which it may be he would covet in vain; nor will he covet anything which he sees to lie in the power of Fortune.[3] Yet were the choice of one or the other forced upon me, I would rather choose the fleetness of Achilles than the lameness of Philoctetes. A similar course must be kept in eloquence. You should, therefore, not covet it too much or too much disdain it: yet if
- ↑ Pliny gives the story, N.H. xxxv. 36, § 12.
- ↑ This seems to imply that Marcus's eloquence, great as it is, still requires brushing and trimming up.
- ↑ cp. Marcus, Thoughts, vi. 41, etc.
