Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/85

Rh they have learned forsooth to knit and bend the brows, they can skill, iwis, to flatter, and yet look with a frowning face and crabbed countenance, they have the cast to temper with their glavering glozes some rough reprehensions and chiding checks among: let us not overpass this point untouched, but consider and examine the same likewise. For mine own part I am of this mind: That as in a comedy of Menander there comes in a counterfeit Hercules to play his part upon the stage with a club on his shoulder, that is (you may be sure) nothing massive, heavy, stiff and strong, but some device and gawd, hollow and empty within, made of brown paper or such-like stuff; Even so, that plain and free speech which a flatterer useth will be found light, soft, and without any strength at all to give a blow: much like (to say truly) unto the soft bed pillows that women lie on, which seeming full and plump to resist and bear out against their heads, yield and sink under the same so much the more: For after the same manner this counterfeit free speech of theirs puffed up full of wind, or else stuffed with some deceitful light matter, seemeth to rise up, to swell, and bear out hard and stiff, to the end that being pressed down once (and both sides as it were coming together) it might receive, enlap and enfold him that chanceth to fall thereupon, and so carry him away with it. Whereas the true and friendly liberty of speech indeed taketh hold of those that are delinquent and do offend, bringing with it a kind of pain for the time, which notwithstanding is wholesome and healthful: resembling herein the nature of honey, which being applied to a sore or ulcerous place, at the first doth smart and sting; but it doth cleanse and mundify withal, and otherwise is profitable, sweet, and pleasant. But as touching this plain dealing and frank speech, I will write a part of purpose in place convenient. As for the flatterer, he maketh shew at the first, that he is rough, violent, and inexorable in all dealings with others: For over his servants he carrieth a hard hand, and is not pleased with their service, with his familiars, acquaintance and kinsfolk he is sharp and eager, ready to find fault with everything; he maketh no reckoning for account of any man but himself; he despiseth and disdaineth all the world besides; there is not a man living that he will pardon and forgive; he blameth and accuseth every one; and his whole study is to win the name and reputation of a man that ateth vice, and in that regard careth not whom he doth provoke, and whose displeasure he incur: as who for no good in the world would be hired to hold his tongue, nor willingly