To us are held out prizes whereof the marvelous number and splendour are beyond the power of words to tell.  Will it be possible for those who are fast asleep, and live a life of indulgence, to seize them without an effort? Lit., who sleep with both ears, to seize with one hand (idiom for sleeping soundly.  cf. Aul. Gell. ii. 23, who quotes ἐπ᾽ ἄμφοτέραν καθεύδειν from Menander).  If so, sloth would have been of great price, and Sardanapalus would have been esteemed especially happy, or even Margites, if you like, who is said by Homer to have neither ploughed nor dug, nor done any useful work,—if indeed Homer wrote this.  Is there not rather truth in the saying of Pittacus, Of Mitylene, cf. Arist., Pol. III. xiv. 9, and Diog. Laert. I. iv., who mentions Simonides’ quotation of the maxim of the text ῎Ανδρα ἀγαθὸν ἀλαθέως γενέσθαι χαλεπὸν, τὸ Πιττάκειον. who said that “It is hard to be good ?”…