distinction is ever regarded by them), seeking by most marvellous tricks
to allure them to make their wills; and then if, after observing all the
forms of law, they bequeath to these persons what they have to leave,
being won over by them to this compliance, they speedily die.[171]

23. Another person, perhaps only in some subordinate office, struts
along with his head up, looking with so slight and passing a glance upon
those with whom he was previously acquainted, that you might fancy it
must be Marcus Marcellus just returned from the capture of Syracuse.

24. Many among them deny the existence of a superior Power in heaven,
and yet neither appear in public, nor dine, nor think that they can
bathe with any prudence, before they have carefully consulted an
almanac, and learnt where (for example) the planet Mercury is, or in
what portion of Cancer the moon is as she passes through the heavens.

25. Another man, if he perceives his creditor to be importunate in
demanding a debt, flies to a charioteer who is bold enough to venture on
any audacious enterprise, and takes care that he shall be harassed with
dread of persecution as a poisoner; from which he cannot be released
without giving bail and incurring a very heavy expense. One may add to
this, that he includes under this head a debtor who is only so through
the engagements into which he has entered to avoid a prosecution, as if
he were a real debtor, and that he never lets him go till he has
obtained the discharge of the debt.

26. On the other side, a wife, who, as the old proverb has it, hammers
on the same anvil day and night, to compel her husband to make his will,
and then the husband is equally urgent that his wife shall do the same.
And men learned in the law are procured on each side, the one in the
bedchamber, and his opponent in the dining-room, to draw up
counter-documents. And under their employ are placed ambiguous
interpreters of the contracts of their victims, who, on the one side,
promise with great liberality high offices, and the funerals of wealthy
matrons; and from these they proceed to the obsequies of the husbands,
giving hints that everything necessary ought to be prepared; and[172]
... as Cicero says, "Nor in the affairs of men do they understand
anything good, except what is profitable; and they love those friends
most (as they would prefer sheep) from whom they expect to derive the
greatest advantage."[173]

27. And when they borrow anyth