"They take great pleasure in fools, and as it is thought a base and
unbecoming thing to use them ill, so they do not think it amiss for
people to divert themselves with their folly; and, in their opinion, this
is a great advantage to the fools themselves; for if men were so sullen
and severe as not at all to please themselves with their ridiculous
behaviour and foolish sayings, which is all that they can do to recommend
themselves to others, it could not be expected that they would be so well
provided for nor so tenderly used as they must otherwise be. If any man
should reproach another for his being misshaped or imperfect in any part
of his body, it would not at all be thought a reflection on the person so
treated, but it would be accounted scandalous in him that had upbraided
another with what he could not help. It is thought a sign of a sluggish
and sordid mind not to preserve carefully one's natural beauty; but it is
likewise infamous among them to use paint. They all see that no beauty
recommends a wife so much to her husband as the probity of her life and
her obedience; for as some few are caught and held only by beauty, so all
are attracted by the other excellences which charm all the world.

"As they fright men from committing crimes by punishments, so they invite
them to the love of virtue by public honours; therefore they erect
statues to the memories of such worthy men as have deserved well of their
country, and set these in their market-places, both to perpetuate the
remembrance of their actions and to be an incitement to their posterity
to follow their example.

"If any man aspires to any office he is sure never to compass it. They
all live easily together, for none of the magistrates are either insolent
or cruel to the people; they affect rather to be called fathers, and, by
being really so, they well deserve the name; and the people pay them all
the marks of honour the more freely because none are exacted from them.