the Scholia of Olympiodorus on the First Alkibiades of Plato.
Olympiodorus says that we shall not err if we call "the allotted daemon
conscience;" on which subject he has some further remarks. This
doctrine of the sameness of conscience and the internal daemon seems to
be that of the Emperor Marcus Antoninus (ii. 13): "It is sufficient to
attend only to the daemon within us and to reverence it duly," and he
goes on to explain wherein this reverence consists. In another passage
(ii. 17) he says that philosophy consists "in keeping the daemon within
us free from violence and harm, superior to pleasures and pains, doing
nothing without a purpose, and yet without any falsehood or
simulation, without caring whether another is doing so or not;
further, taking what happens and what is our lot as coming from the
same origin from which itself came; and finally, waiting for death
with a tranquil mind, as nothing else than the separation of the
elements of which every living being is composed. And if there is
nothing to fear in the elemental parts constantly changing one into
another, why should a man have any apprehension about the change and
dissolution of the whole? for it is according to Nature, and nothing
is bad that is according to Nature." Bishop Butler remarks (Preface to
his _Sermons_): "The practical reason of insisting so much upon the
natural authority of the principle of reflection or conscience is,
that it seems in a great measure overlooked by many who are by no
means the worst sort of men. It is thought sufficient to abstain from
gross wickedness, and to be humane and kind to such as happen to come
in their way. Whereas, in reality, the very constitution of our nature
requires, that we bring our whole conduct before this superior
faculty; wait its determination; enforce upon ourselves its authority;
and make it the business of our lives, as it is absolutely the whole
business of a moral agent, to conform ourselves to it. This is the
true meaning of that ancient precept, _reverence thyself_."

This note does not apply to any particular case, when daemons are
mentioned by Plutarch, but to all cases where he speaks of daemons,
divination, dreams, and other signs.]

[Footnote 182: Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, the son of Metellus
Numidicus, was consul with Sulla in his second consulship B.C. 80.]

[Footnote 183: The place is unknown, unless it be the place near the
altar of Laverna, the goddess of thieves, which