direct.




XCIX

If a man has frequent intercourse with others, either in the way of
conversation, entertainment, or simple familiarity, he must either
become like them, or change them to his own fashion. A live coal placed
next a dead one will either kindle that or be quenched by it. Such being
the risk, it is well to be cautious in admitting intimacies of this
sort, remembering that one cannot rub shoulders with a soot-stained man
without sharing the soot oneself. What will you do, supposing the talk
turns on gladiators, or horses, or prize-fighters, or (what is worse) on
persons, condemning this and that, approving the other? Or suppose a man
sneers and jeers or shows a malignant temper? Has any among us the skill
of the lute-player, who knows at the first touch which strings are out
of tune and sets the instrument right: has any of you such power as
Socrates had, in all his intercourse with men, of winning them over
to his own convictions? Nay, but you must needs be swayed hither and
thither by the uninstructed. How comes it then that they prove so
much stronger than you? Because they speak from the fulness of the
heart--their low, corrupt views are their real convictions: whereas your
fine sentiments are but from the lips, outwards; that is why they are
so nerveless and dead. It turns one's stomach to listen to your
exhortations, and hear of your miserable Virtue, that you prate of
up and down. Thus it is that the Vulgar prove too strong for you.
Everywhere strength, everywhere victory waits your conviction!