Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/95

 will he cry out aloud and say, By Hercules, I swear it was at my tongue's end to have said as much, had you not prevented me and taken the word out of my mouth, I would have given you the very same counsel. For like as the mathematicians do affirm that the superficial and outward extremities, the lines also of the mathematical bodies, do of themselves and in their own nature neither bend nor stretch, nor yet move at all: for that they be intellectual only or imaginary, and not corporal, but according as the bodies do bow, reach or stir, so do they; so you shall ever find that a flatterer will pronounce, opine, think and be moved to anger, according as he seeth another before him.

And therefore in this kind, most easy it is to observe the difference between a flatterer and a friend. But yet more evident you shall see it in the manner of doing service. For the offices and kindnesses which come from a friend are ever best, and (as living creatures) have their most proper virtues inwardly, carrying least in shew, and having no outward ostentation of glorious pomp. And as it falleth out many times a physician cureth his patient, and sayeth little or nothing at all unto him, but doth the deed ere he be aware; even so, a good friend, whether he be present or departed from his friend, doth him good still, and taketh care for him when he full little knoweth of it. Such a one was Arcesilaus the philosopher, who beside many other kind parts which he shewed unto his friend Apelles, the painter of Chios, coming one day to visit him when he was sick, and perceiving how poor he was, went his way for that time: and when he returned again, brought twenty good drachms with him: and then, sitting close unto Apelles by his bedside: Here is nothing here (quoth he) I see well, but these four bare elements that Empedocles writeth of:

But methinks you lie not at your ease; and with that he removed the pillow or bolster under his head, and so conveyed underneath it privily the small pieces of coin aforesaid. The old woman his nurse and keeper, when she made the bed, found this money: whereat she marvelled not a little, and told Apelles thereof, who laughing thereat: This is (quoth he) one of Arcesilaus his thievish casts. And for that it is a maxim in philosophy, that children are born like their parents, one Lacydes, a scholar of Arcesilaus aforesaid, being assistant with many