Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/273

Rh and society that men have together) cause it to be inhuman and unsociable, displeasing those whom they thought to please, making them to be mocked at their hands, of whom they looked to be well esteemed, and to have their evil will and displeasure, whose love and amity they made reckoning of. And even as he by good right may be esteemed uncourteous and altogether uncivil, who with the girdle and tissue of Venus, wherein are all sorts of kind and amiable allurements, should repel and drive from him as many as desire his company; so he that with his speech maketh others heavy and himself hateful, may well be held and reputed for a graceless man and of no bringing up in the world. As for other passions and maladies of the mind, some are dangerous, others odious, and some again ridiculous and exposed to mockery; but garrulity is subject unto all these inconveniences at once. For such folk as are noted for their lavish tongue are a mere laughing-stock, and in every common and ordinary report of theirs, they minister occasion of laughter; hated they be for their relation of ill news, and in danger they are because they cannot conceal and keep close their own secrets: thereupon Anacharsis being invited one day and feasted by Solon, was reputed wise, for that being asleep he was found and been holding his right hand to his mouth, and his left upon his privities and natural parts: for good reason he had to think that the tongue required and needed the stronger bridle and bit to restrain it: and in very truth it were a hard matter to reckon so many persons undone and overthrown by their intemperate and loose life, as there have been cities and mighty states ruinated and subverted utterly by the revealing and opening of some secrets. It fortuned that whiles Sylla did inleaguer before the city of Athens, and had not leisure to stay there long and continue the iege, by reason of other affairs and troubles pressed him sore, or of one side King Mithridates invaded and harried Asia, and m the other side the faction of Marius gathered strength; and having gotten head, prevailed much within Rome: certain old fellows being met in a barber's shop within the city of Athens, who were blabs of their tongues, clattered it out in their talk together that a certain quarter of the city named Heptacalchon was not sufficiently guarded, and therefore the town in danger the surprised by that part; which talk of theirs was overheard by certain spies, who advertised Sylla so much; whereupon immediately he brought all his forces to that side, and about