Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/263

Rh to be offended and complain (as well as she) of her husband, if he set not that store by her as he ought, and when she is angered to appease and still her. Say also that she have done some light fault and offended her husband, to reconcile him again Unto her and entreat him to be content and to pardon her; and likewise if there be some particular and private cause of difference between him and his brother, to acquaint the wife therewith, and by her means to complain thereof, that she may lake up the matter by composition and end the quarrel. Lives thy brother a bachelor and hath no children? thou oughtest in good earnest to be angry with him for it, to solicit him to marriage, yea with chiding, rating and by all means urge him to leave this single life, and by entering into wedlock to be linked in lawful alliance and affinity: hath he children? then you are to shew your goodwill and affection more manifestly, as well toward him as his wife, in honouring him more than ever before, in loving his children as if they were your own, yea, and shewing yourself more indulgent, kind, and affable unto them; that if it chance they do faults and shrewd turns (as little ones are wont), they run not away, nor retire into some blind and solitary comer for fear of father and mother, or by that means light into some light, unhappy, and ungracious company, but may have recourse and refuge unto their uncle, where they may be admonished lovingly, and find an intercessor to make their excuse and get their pardon. Thus Plato reclaimed his brother's son or nephew Speusippus from his loose life and dissolute riot, without doing any harm or giving him foul words, but by winning him with fair and gentle language (whereas his father and mother did nothing but rate and cry out upon him continually, which caused him to run away and keep out of their sight) he imprinted in his heart a great reverence of him, and a fervent zeal to imitate him, and to set his mind to the study of philosophy, notwithstanding many of his friends thought hardly of him and blamed him not a little, for that he took not another course with the untoward youth, namely, to rebuke, check, and chastise him sharply: but this was evermore his answer unto them: That he reproved and took him down sufficiently by shewing unto him by his own life and carriage what difference there was between vice and virtue, between things honest and dishonest.

Alenas, sometime king of Thessaly, was hardly used and overawed by his father, for that he was insolent, proud, and