ost honourable part of him, no one, if
he could help, would admit, or allow to continue the greatest of evils
(compare Republic). The unrighteous and vicious are always to be pitied
in any case; and one can afford to forgive as well as pity him who is
curable, and refrain and calm one's anger, not getting into a passion,
like a woman, and nursing ill-feeling. But upon him who is incapable
of reformation and wholly evil, the vials of our wrath should be poured
out; wherefore I say that good men ought, when occasion demands, to be
both gentle and passionate.

Of all evils the greatest is one which in the souls of most men
is innate, and which a man is always excusing in himself and never
correcting; I mean, what is expressed in the saying that 'Every man by
nature is and ought to be his own friend.' Whereas the excessive love of
self is in reality the source to each man of all offences; for the lover
is blinded about the beloved, so that he judges wrongly of the just,
the good, and the honourable, and thinks that he ought always to prefer
himself to the truth. But he who would be a great man ought to regard,
not himself or his interests, but what is just, whether the just act be
his own or that of another. Through a similar error men are induced to
fancy that their own ignorance is wisdom, and thus we who may be truly
said to know nothing, think that we know all things; and because we will
not let others act for us in what we do not know, we are compelled to
act amiss ourselves. Wherefore let every man avoid excess of self-love,
and condescend to follow a better man than himself, not allowing any
false shame to stand in the way. There are also minor precepts which are
often repeated, and are quite as useful; a man should recollect them and
remind himself of them. For when a stream is flowing out, there should
be water flowing in too; and recollection flows in while wisdom is
departing. Therefore I say that a man should refrain from excess either
of laughter or tears, and should exhort his neighbour to do the same;
he should veil his immoderate sorrow or joy, and seek to behave with
propriety, whether the genius of his good fortune remains with him, or
whether at the crisis of his fate, when he seems to be mounting high and
steep places, the Gods oppose him in some of his enterprises. Still he
may ever hope, in the case of good men, that whatever afflictions are
to befall them in the future God will lessen, and that present