Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/364

342 friends and familiar acquaintance; whereof I suppose Onomademus, a great politician and wise statesman in the isle Chios, was well advised, who in a civil dissension being sided to that faction which was superior, and had gotten the head of the other, counselled the rest of his part not to chase and banish out of the city all their adversaries, but to leave some of them still behind: For fear (quoth he) lest having no enemies to quarrel withal, we ourselves begin to fall out and go together by the ears; semblably if we spend these vicious passions of ours upon our enemies, the less are they like to trouble and molest our friends: for it ought not thus to be as Hesiodus saith: That the potter should envy the potter; or one minstrel or musician spite another; neither is it necessary that one neighbour should be in jealousy of another; or cousins and brethren be concurrents and have emulation one at another, either striving to be rich or speeding better in their affairs: for if there be no other way or means to be delivered wholly from contentions, envies, jealousies, and emulations, acquaint thyself at leastwise to be stung and bitten at the good success of thine enemies; whet the edge and sharpen the point (as it were) of thy quarrellous and contentious humour, and turn it upon them and spare not: for like as the most skilful and best gardeners are of this opinion, that they shall have the sweeter roses and more pleasant violets if they set garlick or sow onions near unto them, for that all the strong and stinking savour in the juice that feedeth and nourish the said flowers, is purged away and goeth to the said garlick and onions; even so an enemy drawing unto himself and receiving all our envy and malice, will cause us to be better affected to our friends in their prosperity, and less offended if they outgo us in their estate; and therefore in this regard we must contend and strive with our enemies about honour, dignities, government, and lawful means of advancing our own estates, and not only to be grieved and vexed to see them have the better and the vantage of us, but also to mark and observe everything whereby they become our superiors, and so to strain and endeavour by careful diligence, by labour and travail, by parsimony, temperance, and looking nearly to ourselves, to surpass and go beyond them; like as Themistocles was wont to say: That the victory which Miltiades achieved in the plain of Marathon brake his sleeps, and would not let him take his night's rest: for he who thinketh that his enemy surmounteth him in dignities, in patronage of high matters and pleading of great causes, in management of state affairs, or in credit and