Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/260

 252 DION. calumnies, and were represented under one or other plausible name as vices ; they called his gravity pride, his plaindealing self-will, the good advice he gave was aU construed into reprimand, and he was censured for neglecting and scorning those in whose misdemeanors he declined to participate. And to say the truth, there was in his natural character something stately, austere, re- served, and unsociable in conversation, which made his company unpleasant and disagreeable not only to the young tyrant, whose ears had been corrupted by flatter- ies ; many also of Dion's own intimate friends, though they loved the integrity and generosity of his temper, yet blamed his manner, and thought he treated those with whom he had to do, less courteou.sly and affably than became a man engaged in civil business. Of which Plato also afterwards wrote to him ; and, as it were, pro- phetically advised him carefully to avoid an arbitrary temper, whose proper helpmate was a solitary life. And, indeed, at this very time, though circumstances made him so important, and, in the danger of the tottering government, he was recognized as the only or the ablest sujjport of it, yet he well understood that he owed not his high position to any good-will or kindness, but to the mere necessities of the usurper. And, supposing the cause of this to be ignorance and want of education, he endeavored to induce the yoimg man into a course of liberal studies, and to give him some knowledge of moral truths and reasonings, hoping he might thus lose his fear of virtuous living, and learn to take pleasure in laudable actions. Dionysius, in his own nature, was not one of the worst kind of tyrants, but his father, fearing that if he should come to undei-stand him- self better, and converse with wise and reasonable men, he might enter into some design against him, and dis- possess him of his power, kept him closely shut up at