“No detail can be neglected §
7. as too insignificant to help us in ridding
ourselves of pride. The soul grows like its practices, and is
formed and fashioned in accordance with its conduct. Your
appearance, your dress, your gait, your chair, your style of meals,
your bed and bedding, your house and its contents, should be all
arranged with a view to cheapness. Your talk, your songs, your
mode of greeting your neighbour, should look rather to moderation than
to ostentation. Give me, I beg, no elaborate arguments in your
talk, no surpassing sweetness in your singing, no vaunting and
wearisome discussions. In all things try to avoid bigness.
Be kind to your friend, gentle to your servant, patient with the
impudent, amiable to the lowly. Console the afflicted, visit the
distressed, despise none. Be agreeable in address, cheerful in
reply, ready, accessible to all. Never sing your own praises, nor
get other people to sing them. Never allowing any uncivil
communication, conceal as far as possible your own
superiority.” Here
several touches remind us of Theophrastus. cf. Char.
xxiii. and xxiv.