Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/190

168 will aspire to a consulship; and when he is created consul, whine he will and cry if he were not nominated and pronounced the former of the twain, but elected in the second place. And I pray you what is all this? What doeth a man herein but gather pretended excuses of ingratitude to fortune, in punishing and chastising himself after this manner? But the man who is wise and of sound judgment, in case some one or two among so infinite thousands of us mortal men

Whom sun from heaven so daily doth behold, Who feed on fruits of earth so manifold,

be either more honoured or richer than himself, will not therefore be cast down straightway, and sit mourning and lamenting for sorrow; but rather in the way as he goeth, and whensoever he Cometh abroad, salute and bless with praise and thanksgiving that good fortune of his and blessed angel that guideth his life, for that his lot is to live far better, more at heart's ease, and in greater reputation than many millions of millions of other men. For true it is, that in the solemn games at Olympia, no champion may chuse his concurrents with whom he is to wrestle or enter into combat for a prize: but in this life, our state standeth so, and our affairs be in that manner composed, that every man hath means to match, yea, and excel many others, and so to bear himself aloft, that he be rather envied than envious; unless haply he be such an one as will presume to deal with Briareus or Hercules for the mastery.

Well, when thou shalt behold some great lord or honourable personage borne aloft in a litter upon men's shoulders, stand not wondering so much at him, but rather cast thine eyes down a little lower, and look upon the poor porters that carry him. Again, when thou shalt repute that great monarch Xerxes a right happy man, for that he made a bridge of ships over the Straits of Hellespont; consider withal those painful slaves, who under the very whip and for fear of scourging, digged through the mountain Athos, and made passage that way for an arm of the sea; as also those miserable wretches who had their ears cropt and their noses cut off, for that the foresaid bridge by a mighty tempest was injointed and broken; and therewith imagine with thyself what those silly souls might think, and how happy they would repute thy life and condition in comparison of their own.

Socrates upon a time when one of his familiar friends seemed to complain and say: What a costly place is this? How dear are things sold in this city? The wine of Chios will cost a