Page:The Emperor Marcus Antoninus - His Conversation with Himself.djvu/396

 216 and unmov'd under ill Usage, if you strike in with the right opportunity for Advice; If when he is going to do you an ill Turn, you endeavour to recover his Understanding, and retrieve his Temper in such gentle Language as this. Prethee Child be quiet, Men were never made to worry one another ; In earnest if you go on, my dear Friend, you'l have the worst on't ; As for my part, I'm proof against every Thing, but my own Folly. Then Proceed to Illustrate the Point and let your Arguments be General and Inoffensive : Shew him that Brutes are upon better Terms than this comes to; That 'tis not the custom of Bees to spend their Stings upon their own kind, nor of one Heard of Cattle to draw up against another. And let all this be done out of stark Love and Kindness, without any thing of Bantering or Biting: You must likewise stand clear of Vanity in your address ; Don't seem to flourish upon the Subject, as if you were declaiming in the Schools, and Courting the Audience for Commendation : If there is any Company, ne're set your self off to them : But Discourse him with as little Straining and Affectation, as if there was no body but himself.

Lay up these Nine Heads in your Memory with as much Care as if they were a Rh