believe his own eyes, he handled this pledge of the good will of the gods
with both hands. (Our good humor was revived by this blessing and we
laughed at the diplomacy of Philumene and at the skill with which her
children plied their calling, little likely to profit them much with us,
however, as it was only in hopes of coming into a legacy that she had
abandoned the boy and girl to us. Meditating upon this unscrupulous
method of getting around childless old men, I began to take thought of
the present state of our own affairs and made use of the occasion to warn
Eumolpus that he might be bitten in biting the biters. "Everything that
we do," I said, "should be dictated by Prudence.) Socrates, {whose
judgment was riper than that} of the gods or of men used to boast that he
had never looked into a tavern nor believed the evidence of his own eyes
in any crowded assembly which was disorderly: so nothing is more in
keeping than always conversing with wisdom.

Live coals are more readily held in men's mouths than a secret!

Whatever you talk of at home will fly forth in an instant,

Become a swift rumor and beat at the walls of your city.

Nor is it enough that your confidence thus has been broken,

As rumor but grows in the telling and strives to embellish.

The covetous servant who feared to make public his knowledge

A hole in the ground dug, and therein did whisper his secret

That told of a king's hidden ears: this the earth straightway