And to the same purpose Epicharmus:--

"The gods confer their blessings at the price
Of labour--."

Who remarks in another place--

"Thou son of sloth, avoid the charms of ease,
Lest pain succeed--."

"Of the same opinion is Prodicus, in the book he has written of the life
of Hercules, where Virtue and Pleasure make their court to that hero
under the appearance of two beautiful women. His words, as near as I can
remember, are as follows:--

"'When Hercules,' says the moralist, 'had arrived at that part of his
youth in which young men commonly choose for themselves, and show, by the
result of their choice, whether they will, through the succeeding stages
of their lives, enter into and walk in the path of virtue or that of
vice, he went out into a solitary place fit for contemplation, there to
consider with himself which of those two paths he should pursue.

"'As he was sitting there in suspense he saw two women of a larger
stature than ordinary approaching towards him. One of them had a genteel
and amiable aspect; her beauty was natural and easy, her person and shape
clean and handsome, her eyes cast towards the ground with an agreeable
reserve, her motion and behaviour full of modesty, and her raiment white
as snow. The other wanted all the native beauty and proportion of the
former; her person was swelled, by luxury and ease, to a size quite
disproportioned and uncomely. She had painted her complexion, that it