Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/174

 pledge of his safety shall come from his father's good-will rather than from his mother's fear.

If the refusal of Pythagoras the philosopher to come to me in spite of my repeated invitation was a reproach to me, as you affirmed when you panegyrised him for avoiding my society, the fact that he has arrived, and has now been living with me happily for more than four months must be all to my credit. Clearly, he would not have remained even part of a single day if he had not found my character conformable to his own.

Nicocles of Syracuse—probably you know whom I mean; his family is too distinguished to make it possible for him to be unknown to Stesichorus—has lost his wife quite recently and is very deeply distressed,