Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/101

Rh to conquer such, and the avenues to them lie ready and open, to give the vantage of easiest entrance.

And therefore, as in the beginning of this treatise I gave warning; so now I admonish the readers again in this place; That every man would labour and strive with himself to root out that self-love and overweening that they have of their own good parts and worthiness: For this is it that doth flatter us within, and possesseth our minds beforehand, whereby we are exposed and lie more open unto flatterers that are without, finding us thus prepared already for to work upon. But if we would obey the god Apollo, and by acknowledging how much in all things we ought to esteem that oracle of his, which commandeth us to know ourselves, search into our own nature, and examine withal our nouriture and education: when we find there an infinite number of defects, and many vanities, imperfections and faults, mixed untowardly in our words, deeds, thoughts and passions, we would not so easily suffer these flatterers to tread us under their feet, and make a bridge of us as they do at their pleasure.

King Alexander the Great was wont to say, that two things there were especially which moved him to have less belief in them who saluted and greeted him by the name of a god: The one was sleep, and the other the use of Venus: in both which he found that he was worse than himself, that is to say, subject to infirmities and passions more than in anything else: But if we would look into ourselves and ever and anon consider how many gross vices, troublesome passions, imperfections and defects we have, surely we shall find that we stood in great need, not of a false friend to flatter us in our follies, and to praise and extol us; but rather of one that would frankly find fault with our doings, and reprove us in those vices that each one privately and in particular doth commit. But very few there be among many others, who dare freely and plainly speak unto their friends, but rather soothe them up and seek to please them in everything: And even in those, as few as they be, hardly shall you find any that know how to do it well, but for the most part they think that they speak freely, when they do nothing but reprove, reproach and rail.

Howbeit, this liberty of speech whereof I speak is of the nature of a medicine, which if it be not given in time convenient and as it ought to be, besides that it doth no good at all, it troubleth the body, worketh grievance, and instead of a remedy proveth to be a mischief: For even so, he that doth reprehend and find