N~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}, for innocency
is that disposition of mind which would offend no one,) and several other
virtues, are comprehended under frugality; but, if this quality were of
less importance, and confined in as small a compass as some imagine, the
surname of Piso(85) would not have been in so great esteem. But as we
allow him not the name of a frugal man (_frugi_), who either quits his
post through fear, which is cowardice; or who reserves to his own use what
was privately committed to his keeping, which is injustice; or who fails
in his military undertakings through rashness, which is folly; for that
reason the word frugality takes in these three virtues of fortitude,
justice, and prudence, though it is indeed common to all virtues, for they
are all connected and knit together. Let us allow, then, frugality itself
to be another and fourth virtue; for its peculiar property seems to be, to
govern and appease all tendencies to too eager a desire after anything, to
restrain lust, and to preserve a decent steadiness in everything. The vice
in contrast to this is called prodigality (_nequitia_). Frugality, I
imagine, is derived from the word _fruge_, the best thing which the earth
produces; _nequitia_ is derived (though this is perhaps rather more
strained, still let us try it; we shall only be thought to have been
trifling if there is nothing in what we say) from the fact of everything
being to no purpose (_nequicquam_) in such a man; from which circumstance
he is called also _Nihil_, nothing. Whoever is frugal, then, or, if it is
more agreeable to you, whoever is moderate and temperate, such a one must
of course be consistent; whoever is consistent, must be quiet; the quiet
man must be free from all perturbation, therefore from grief likewise: and
these are the properties of a wise man; therefore a wise man must be free
from grief.

IX. So that Dionysius of Heraclea is right when, upon this complaint of
Achilles in Homer--

Well hast thou spoke, but at the tyrant's name
My rage rekindles, and my soul's in flame:
'Tis just resentment, and becomes the brave,
Disgraced, dishonour'd like the vilest slave(86)--

he reasons thus: Is the hand as it should be, when it is affected with a
swelling? or is it possible for any other member of the body, when swollen
or enlarged, to be in any other than a disordered state? Must not the
mind, then, when it is puffed up, or