You come full of envy, and
humbled, because you bring nothing from home; and you sit during the
discussion thinking of nothing else than how your father is disposed
towards you and your brother. What are they saying about me there? now
they think that I am improving, and are saying, He will return with all
knowledge. I wish I could learn everything before I return; but much
labor is necessary, and no one sends me anything, and the baths at
Nicopolis are dirty; everything is bad at home, and bad here.
* * * * *
ON FRIENDSHIP.--What a man applies himself to earnestly, that he
naturally loves. Do men then apply themselves earnestly to the things
which are bad? By no means. Well, do they apply themselves to things
which in no way concern themselves? Not to these either. It remains then
that they employ themselves earnestly only about things which are good;
and if they are earnestly employed about things, they love such things
also. Whoever then understands what is good can also know how to love;
but he who cannot distinguish good from bad, and things which are
neither good nor bad from both, how can he possess the power of loving?
To love, then, is only in the power of the wise.
For universally, be not deceived, every animal is attached to nothing so
much as to its own interests.
Pages:
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113