Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/235

Rh to do wrong or hurt unto other men: if one do not behave himself to father and mother both in word and deed, so as they may have (I do not say no discontentment and displeasure, but) joy and comfort thereby, men esteem him to be profane, godless, and irreligious. Tell me now, what action, what grace, what disposition of children towards their parents, can be more agreeable and yield them greater contentment than to see good-will, kind affection, fast and assured love between brethren? the which a man may easily gather by the contrary in other smaller matters. For seeing that fathers and mothers be displeased otherwhiles with their sons, if they misuse or hardly intreat some home-born slave whom they set much store by: if, I say, they be vexed and angry when they see them to make no reckoning and care of their woods and grounds wherein they took some joy and delight; considering also that the good, kind-hearted old folk of a gentle and loving affection that they have, be offended if some hound or dog bred up within house, or an horse, be not well tended and looked unto; last of all, if they grieve when they perceive their children to mock, find fault with, or despise the lectures, narrations, sports, sights, wrestlers, and others that exercise feats of activity, which themselves sometime highly esteemed: Is there any likelihood that they in any measure can endure to see their children hate one another? to entertain brawls and quarrels continually? to be ever snarling, railing and reviling one another? and in all enterprises and actions always crossing, thwarting and supplanting one another? I suppose there is no man will so say.

Then on the contrary side, if brethren love together and be ready one to do for another; if they draw in one line and carry the like affection with them; follow the same studies and take the same courses; and how much nature hath divided and separated them in body, so much to join for it again in mind; lending one another their helping hands in all their negotiations ind affairs; following the same exercises; repairing to the same disputations; and frequenting the same plays, games, and pastimes, so as they agree and communicate in all things: certainly this great love and amity among brethren must needs yield sweet joy and happy comfort to their father and mother n their old age: and therefore parents take nothing so much pleasure when their children prove eloquent orators, wealthy men, or advanced to promotions and high places of dignities; as loving and kind one to another; like as a man shall never ee a father so desirous of eloquence, of riches, or of honour.