f tunes and sounds, of
measurement, of the stars, of horses, of hunting, of arms. In the
affairs of the commonwealth his eager pursuit of some particular kind
of virtue, which he selects as his especial object of devotion, in
discharging his duty to the gods, or in showing careful and remarkable
affection to his relations, his friends, or those connected with
family ties of hospitality. And these then are the different kinds of
virtue. But those of vice are their exact contraries.

But these also must be examined carefully, so that those vices may not
deceive us which appear to imitate virtue. For cunning tries to assume
the character of prudence, and moroseness, in despising pleasures,
wishes to be taken for temperance; and pride, which puffs a man up,
and which affects to despise legitimate honours, seeks to vaunt itself
as magnanimity; prodigality calls itself liberality, audacity imitates
courage, hardhearted sternness imitates patience, bitterness justice,
superstition religion, weakness of mind lenity, timidity modesty,
captiousness and carping at words wishes to pass for acuteness in
arguing, and an empty fluency of language for this oratorical vigour
at which we are aiming. And those, too, appear akin to virtuous
pursuits, which run to excess in the same class.

Wherefore all the force of praise or blame must be derived from these
divisions of virtues and vices. But in the whole context, as it were,
of the oration, these points must above all others be made clear,--how
each person spoken of has been born, how he has been educated, how
he has been trained, and what are his habits; and if any great or
surprising thing has happened to any one, especially if anything which
has happened should appear to have befallen him by the interposition
of the gods; and also whatever the person in question has thought, or
said, or done, must be adapted to the different kinds of virtue which
have been enumerated, and from the same topics we must inquire into
the causes of things, and the events, and the consequences. Nor ought
the death of those men, whose life is praised, to be passed over in
silence; provided only, there be anything noticeable either in the
manner of their death, or in the consequences which have resulted from
their death.

XXIV. _C. F._ I have attended to what you say, and I have learnt
briefly, not only how to praise another, but also how to endeavour to
deserve to be praised myself. Let us, then, consider