nishes us with as an answer to all high aspirations. Men's lives are not found to be in accordance with the principles they profess. The actual Stoics whom he sees and knows do not display this insensibility to riches and pleasures which the theoretical Stoic proclaims. He has seen Hermotimus's own master, the great Stoic himself, dragging off a pupil before the magistrates for not paying his fees. The dialogue which follows is amusing.
Hermotimus. Ah! that fellow was a rascal, and very ungrateful in the matter of payment. My master never treated other people so (and there were many he had lent money to)—because, you see, they paid him the interest punctually.
Lycinus. But even suppose they never paid, my good fellow, what difference could it make to a man like him,—purified by philosophy, and not caring for what he had left behind—on Mount Œta, you know?
Herm. You don't suppose it was on his own account he troubled himself about it? He has a young family, and he would not like to see them come to want.
Lyc. But then, my good Hermotimus, he ought to bring them up in virtuous habits too—to be happy like him, and care nothing for money.
Herm. I really have no time now, Lycinus, to discuss such questions with you: I'm in a great hurry to get to his lecture, and am afraid of being too late.
Lycinus begs him to set his mind at rest on that point; to-day, he can assure him, will be a holiday
