Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/102

80 fault unseasonably, bringeth forth the like effect with pain as a flatterer doth with pleasure. For men are apt to receive hurt and damage, not only by overmuch praise; but also by inordinate blame when it is out of due time: for it is the only thing that of all others maketh them soonest to turn aside unto flatterers, and to be most easily surprised by them; namely, when from those things that stand most opposite and highest against them, they turn aside like water, and run down those ways that be more low, easy, and hollow. In which regard it behoveth that this liberty in fault-finding be tempered with a certain amiable affection, and accompanied with the judgment of reason, which may take away the excessive vehemency and force of sharp words, like the over-bright shining of some glittering light, and for fear lest their friends being dazzled as it were and frighted with the flashing beams of their rebukes, seeing themselves so reproved for each thing, and blamed every while, may take such a grief and thought thereupon, that for sorrow they be ready to fly unto the shadow of some flatterer, and turn toward that which will not trouble them at all. For we must avoid all vice (O Philopappus), and seek to correct the same by the means of virtue (and not by another vice contrary unto it) as some do; who for to shun foolish and rustical bashfulness, grow to be overbold and impudent; for to eschew rude incivility, fall to be ridiculous jesters and pleasants; and then they think to be farthest off from cowardice and effeminate tenderness, when they come nearest to extreme audacity and boasting bravery. Others there be who to prove themselves not to be superstitious, become mere atheists; and because they would not be thought and reputed idiots and fools, prove artificial coney-catchers. And surely in redressing the enormities of their manners, they do as much as those who, for want of knowledge and skill to set a piece of wood straight that twineth and lieth crooked one way, do curb and bend it as much another way.

But the most shameful means to avoid and shun the suspicion of a flatterer, is to make a man's self odious and troublesome without profit; and a very rude and rustical fashion this is, of seeking to win favour, and that with savour of no learning, skill, and civility, to become unpleasant, harsh, and sour to a friend, for to shun that other extreme, which in friendship seemeth to be base and servile; which is as much as if a freed slave newly franchised should in a comedy think that he could not use and enjoy his liberty of speech, unless he might be allowed licentiously