e ground
was covered with snow. He endeavored also to accustom himself to eat raw
flesh, but this was a point of perfection to which he never could
arrive. He entreated a person of his acquaintance to afford him some
little hole in his lodging, to which he might occasionally retire. But
as he was dilatory in giving him a positive answer he took possession of
an earthen tub, which he always carried about with him, and which was
the only house he ever had. In the heat of summer when the fields were
scorched by the sun, he used to roll among the burning sands, and in
winter to embrace statues covered with snow, that he might accustom
himself to endure without pain the inclemencies of heat and cold.

He treated everyone with contempt. He accused Plato and his scholars of
dissipation, and of the crime of loving good cheer. All the orators he
styled "the slaves of the people." Crowns were, he said, as brittle
marks of glory as bubbles of water, which burst in the formation; that
theatrical representations were the wonder of fools only. In a word,
nothing escaped his satiric humor.

He ate, he spoke, he slept, without discrimination, wherever chance
placed him. Pointing to Jupiter's porticos on one occasion, he
exclaimed: "How excellent a dining-room the Athenians have built for me
there!"

He frequently said: "When I consider the rulers, the physicians, and the
philosophers whom the world contains, I am tempted to think man
considerably elevated by his wisdom above the brutes; but when, on the
other hand, I behold augurs, interpreters of dreams, and people who can
be inflated with pride on account of their riches or honors, I cannot
help thinking him the most foolish of all animals."

When taking a walk one day, he observed a child drinking from the hollow
of his hand. He felt greatly affronted at the sight. "What!" exclaimed
Diogenes, "do children know better than I do with what things a man
ought to be contented?" Upon which he took his jug out of his bag, and
instantly broke it, as a superfluous movable.

The province in philosophy to which Diogenes attached himself, was that
of morals. He did not, however, entirely neglect the other sciences. He
was possessed of lively parts, and easily anticipated objections.

[Illustration: Diogenes in his tub.]

As he was one day discoursing on a very serious and important subject
everyone passed by without giving himself the least concern about what
Diogenes was saying. Upon t