Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/252

230 commonly do use them hardly and are nothing kind and lightsome unto them: the younger again being stubborn, wilful and unruly, ready also to shake off the bridle, are wont to make no reckoning of their elder brethren's prerogative, but set them at naught and despise them; whereby it cometh to pass that as the younger of one side envied, are held down with envy, and kept under always by their elder brethren, and so shun their rebukes and scorn their admonitions; so these, on the other side, desirous to hold their own and maintain their pre-eminence and sovereignty over them, stand always in dread lest their younger brethren should grow too much, as if the rising of them were their fall. But like as the case standeth in a benefit or good turn that is done, men say it is meet that the receiver should esteem the thing greater than it is, and the giver make the least of it; even so, he that can persuade the elder, that the time whereby he hath the vantage of his other brethren is no great thing; and likewise the younger, that he should reckon the same birthright for no small matter, he shall do a good deed between them, in delivering the one from disdain, contempt, and suspicion, and the other from irreverence and negligence.

Now forasmuch as it is meet that the elder should take care and charge, teach, and instruct, admonish and reprove the younger; and as fit likewise the younger should honour, imitate, and follow the elder: I could wish that the solicitude and care of the elder savoured rather of a companion and fellow than of a father; that himself also would seem not so much to command as to persuade, and to be more prompt and ready to joy for his younger brother's well-doing, and to praise him for it, than in any wise take pleasure in reprehending and blaming him if haply he have forgotten his duty; and in one word, to do the one not only more willingly, but also with greater humanity than the other. Moreover, the zeal and emulation in the younger ought rather to be of the nature of an imitation, than either of jealousy or contention; for that imitation presupposeth an opinion of admiration, whereas jealousy and contention implieth envy, which is the reason that they affect and love those who endeavour to resemble and be like unto them; but contrariwise, they are offended at those and keep them down who strive to be their equals.

Now among many honours, which it beseemeth the younger to render unto his elder, obedience is that which deserveth most commendation, and worketh a more assured and hearty affection accompanied with a certain reverence, which causeth the elder