Son, be thou not over-sweet, so that they swallow thee down, nor over-bitter, so that they spit thee out. But do thou be gentle, tranquil in the works of thy paths and in all thy words.

Son, while the boot is on thy foot, tread down the thorns and make a path for thy sons.

Son, eat not bread that is not thine own, even though thou be very hungry.

Son, if thy doorposts be loftily built to heaven as it were seven ells, whenever thou enterest, bow thy head.

Son, take not from others with a big weight and give back to them with a little weight, and say: I have made a profit. For God gives it not, but will be wroth; and thou wilt die of starvation.

Son, swear not false, that of thy days there be no fail. Son, if lofty be the lintels of thy house, and thy friend be sick, say not: What shall I send him? but go on foot and see him with thy eyes; for that is better for him than a thousand talents of gold and silver.

Son, keep thy tongue from evil speaking and thine eye from immodest glances, and thy right hand from stealing; and it will be well for thee with God and man. For whether it be gold or little things that one steals, the punishment and the slaying is one and the same.

Son, it is better to be blind of eye than blind of mind; for he that is blind of eye is quick to learn the coming and going of the road. But the blind in mind forsakes the straight road, and walks according to his will.

Son, it is better to garner with poverty than to squander with riches.

Son, examine the word in thy heart and then utter it. For if thou alter the word, thou art a fawner.

Son, if thou hearest an evil word about any one, hide it in thy heart seven fathoms deep; so that the evil die and the good be fulfilled.

Son, I have eaten endive and I have drunk gall, and it was not more bitter than poverty. I have lifted salt and I have lifted lead, and it was not heavier than is debt.

Son, it is better if they steal thy goods than that they detect theft in thee.

Son, that which seems evil unto thee, do not to thy companion; and what is not thine own, give not unto others.

Son, love the truth and hate lawlessness and falsehood. Give ear unto the commandments of God, and fear not the evil one. For the commandment of God is the rampart of man.

They asked the sage and said: What is the most pleasing thing on earth? He replied: Modesty. He that hath a modest face is pleasing. For all evils are born of impudence and folly.

6

ARISTOTLE

(B. C. 384-322.)

"ARISTOTLE was born in the year 384 B. C., at Stageira, a Grecian colony and seaport town on the Strymonic Gulf in Thrace, not far from Mount Athos—and, what is more important, not far from the frontier of Macedonia, and from Pella, the residence of the Macedonian king Amyntas. To Stageira, his birthplace, he owed the world-famous appellation of the Stagirite,' given to him by scholiasts and schoolmen in later days.. . . Aristotle's family were purely Hellenic, and probably the colonists of Stageira lived in strict conformity with Greek ideas, and not without contempt for the surrounding 'barbarians.' . . Probably the mere locality of his birth produced but little influence upon him, except so far as it led to his subsequent connection with the court of Macedon. His father, Nicomachus, was physician to King Amyntas, and it is possible that the youthful Aristotle was taken at times to the court, and thus made the acquaintance of his future patron, Philip of Macedon, who was about his own age. But all through the time of Aristotle's boyhood, affairs in Macedonia were troubled and unprosperous. . Up to the time when he left his native city there had appeared no indication of that which afterwards occurred, that Macedonia would conquer the East, and become mistress of the entire liberties of Greece. About the year 367 B. C., when he was seventeen years old, his father having recently died, he was sent by his guardian, Proxenus of Atarneus, to complete his studies at Athens, the metropolis of wisdom.' There he continued to reside for twenty years, during the greater part of which time he attended the school of philosophy which Plato had founded in the olive-groves of Academus, on the banks of the Cephisus. . . . Among his fellow-pupils in the Academe he is said to have got the sobriquet of' the Reader'; while Plato himself called him the Mind of the

School,' in recognition of his quick and powerful intelligence.

"The writings of Aristotle are quite consistent with the tradition that he was for twenty years a pupil of the Academic School. They show a long list of thoughts and expressions borrowed from the works of Plato, and also not unfrequently refer to the oral teaching of Plato. They contain a logical, ethical, political, and metaphysical philosophy which is evidently, with some modifications, the organization and development of rich materials often rather suggested than worked out in the Platonic dialogues. Aristotle thus, in constructing a system of knowledge which was destined immensely to influence the thoughts of mankind, became, in the first place, the disciple of Plato and the intellectual heir of Socrates; and summed up all the best that had been arrived at by the previous philosophers of Greece."

In the year that Plato died, 347 B. c., Aristotle left Athens and resided for a few years, first at Atarneus, in Asia Minor, where he married, and then at Mitylene, in the island of Lesbos. He was then invited by Philip of Macedon to become the tutor of Alexander, and resided at the Macedonian court until after the assassination of Philip (336 B. C.), when he returned to Athens. On the death of Alexander, 323 B. C., Aristotle was driven from Athens by the anti-Macedonian party, and retired to Chalcis in Euboea, where he died the following year.

"Perhaps it may be said, in a word, that Aristotle has contributed more than any one man to the scientific education of the world. The amount of the influence which he has exercised may be inferred from the traces which his system has left in all the languages of modern Europe. Our everyday conversation is full of Aristotelian fossils,' that is, remnants of his peculiar phraseology." SIR ALEXANDER GRANT, "Aristotle " ("Ancient Classics for English Readers").

INJUNCTIONS FOR THE KEEPING OF "THE MEAN" BETWEEN EXCESS AND DEFECT.

(From "The Nichomachean Ethics of Aristotle," book 2, chap. ii. and ix.; translated by D. P. Chase.)

That we are to act in accordance with Right Reason is a general maxim, and may for the present be taken for granted. . . . But let this point be first thoroughly understood between us, that all which can be said on moral action must be said in outline, as it were, and not exactly : for . . . such reasoning only must be required as the nature of the subject-matter admits of, and matters of moral action and expediency have no fixedness any more than matters of health. And if the subject in its general maxims is such, still less in its application to particular cases is exactness attainable: because these fall not under any art or system of rules, but it must be left in each instance to the individual agents to look to the exigencies of the particular case, as it is in the art of healing, or that of navigating a ship. Still, though the present subject is confessedly such, we must try and do what we can for it.

First, then, this must be noted, that it is the nature of such things to be spoiled by defect and excess; as we see in the case of health and strength (since for the illustration of things which cannot be seen we must use those that can), for excessive training impairs the strength as well as deficient: meat and drink, in like manner, in too great or too small quantities, impair the health: while in due proportion they cause, increase, and preserve it.

:

Thus it is, therefore, with the habits of perfected SelfMastery and Courage and the rest of the Virtues for the man who flies from and fears all things, and never stands up against any thing, comes to be a coward; and