Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/246

224 nicious maladies and deadly plagues, as well to houses and families as also to states and cities: in these regards (I say), therefore, a great regard and heed would be taken, both to prevent and also to remedy such mischiefs with all speed, when they begin first to ingender.

As for him who is indued with better gifts, and hath the vantage over his other brethren, it were not amiss to give him counsel, first to communicate unto them those gifts wherein he seemeth to excel and go beyond them; namely, in gracing and honouring them as well as himself by his credit and reputation, in advancing them by the means of his great friends, and drawing them unto their acquaintance; and in case he be more eloquent than they, to offer them the use thereof, which although it be employed (as it were) in common, is yet nevertheless his own still: then let him not shew any sign of pride and arrogancy, as though he disdained them, but rather in some measure by abasing, submitting and yielding a little to them in his behaviour, to preserve himself from envy, unto which his excellent parts do lie open; and in one word, to reduce that inequality which fortune hath made, unto some equality, as far forth as possible it is to do, by the moderate carriage of his mind. Lucullus verily would never deign to accept of any dignity or place of rule before his brother, notwithstanding he was his elder, but letting his own time slip, expected the turn and course of his brother. Neither would Pollux take upon him to be a god alone by himself, but chose rather with his brother Castor to be a demi-god, and for to communicate unto him his own immortality, thought it no disgrace to participate with his mortal condition; and even so may a man say unto one whom he would admonish: My good friend, it lies in you without diminishing one whit of those good things which you have at this present, to make your brother equal unto yourself, and to join him in honour with you, giving him leave to enjoy (as it were) your greatness, your glory, your virtue, and your fortune; like as Plato did in times past, who by putting down in writing the name of his brethren, and bringing them in as persons speaking in his most noble and excellent treatises, caused them by that means to be famous and renowned in the world. Thus he graced Glaucus and Adamantus in his books of policy: thus he honoured Antiphon, the youngest of them all, in his dialogue named Parmenides. Moreover, as it is an ordinary thing to observe great difference and odds in the natures and fortunes of brethren; so it is in