vanity,
that it would have been better for them to have been ignorant; some
covetous of money, some others eager for glory, many slaves to their
lusts; so that their discourses and their actions are most strangely at
variance; than which nothing in my opinion can be more unbecoming: for
just as if one who professed to teach grammar, should speak with
impropriety; or a master of music sing out of tune; such conduct has the
worse appearance in these men, because they blunder in the very particular
with which they profess that they are well acquainted: so a philosopher,
who errs in the conduct of his life, is the more infamous, because he is
erring in the very thing which he pretends to teach, and whilst he lays
down rules to regulate life by, is irregular in his own life.

V. _A._ Should this be the case, is it not to be feared that you are
dressing up philosophy in false colours? for what stronger argument can
there be that it is of little use, than that some very profound
philosophers live in a discreditable manner?

_M._ That, indeed, is no argument at all, for as all the fields which are
cultivated are not fruitful, (and this sentiment of Accius is false, and
asserted without any foundation,

The ground you sow on, is of small avail;
To yield a crop good seed can never fail:)

it is not every mind which has been properly cultivated that produces
fruit;--and to go on with the comparison, as a field, although it may be
naturally fruitful cannot produce a crop, without dressing, so neither can
the mind, without education; such is the weakness of either without the
other. Whereas philosophy is the culture of the mind: this it is which
plucks up vices by the roots; prepares the mind for the receiving of
seeds, commits them to it, or, as I may say, sows them, in the hope that,
when come to maturity, they may produce a plentiful harvest. Let us
proceed, then, as we begun; say, if you please, what shall be the subject
of our disputation.

_A._ I look on pain to be the greatest of all evils.

_M._ What, even greater than infamy?

_A._ I dare not indeed assert that, and I blush to think I am so soon
driven from my ground.

_M._ You would have had greater reason for blushing had you persevered in
it; for what is so unbecoming--what can appear worse to you, than disgrace,
wickedness, immorality? To avoid which, what pain is there which we ought
not (I will not say to avoid shirking, but even) of our own acco