,
to breed up our daughters in the paths of honour and to be faithful in
the management of their fortunes, should we think a debauched person fit
for that employment? Would we trust our flocks and our granaries in the
hands of a drunkard? Would we rely upon him for the conduct of any
enterprise; and, in short, if a present were made us of such a slave,
should we not make it a difficulty to accept him? If, then, we have so
great an aversion for debauchery in the person of the meanest servant,
ought we not ourselves to be very careful not to fall into the same
fault? Besides, a covetous man has the satisfaction of enriching
himself, and, though he take away another's estate, he increases his own;
but a debauched man is both troublesome to others and injurious to
himself. We may say of him that he is hurtful to all the world, and yet
more hurtful to himself, if to ruin, not only his family, but his body
and soul likewise, is to be hurtful. Who, then, can take delight in the
company of him who has no other diversion than eating and drinking, and
who is better pleased with the conversation of a prostitute than of his
friends? Ought we not, then, to practise temperance above all things,
seeing it is the foundation of all other virtues; for without it what can
we learn that is good, what do that is worthy of praise? Is not the
state of man who is plunged in voluptuousness a wretched condition both
for the body and soul? Certainly, in my opinion, a free person ought to
wish to have no such servants, and servants addicted to such brutal
irregularities ought earnestly to entreat Heaven that they may fall into
the hands of very indulgent masters, because their ruin will be otherwise
almost unavoidable."

This is what Socrates was wont to say upon this subject. But if he
appeared to be a lover of temperance in his discourses, he was yet a more
exact observer of it in his actions, showing himself to be not only
invincible to the pleasures of the senses, but even depriving himself of
the satisfaction of getting an estate; for he held that a man who accepts
of money from others makes himself a servant to all their humours, and
becomes their slave in a manner no less scandalous than other slaveries.

CHAPTER VI. THE DISPUTE OF SOCRATES WITH ANTIPHON, THE SOPHIST.

To this end it will not be amiss to relate, for the honour of Socrates,
what passed between him and the sophist Antiphon, who designed to seduce
away his h