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From my grandfather Verus I learned good morals and the government |
of my temper. |
From the reputation and remembrance of my father, modesty and a manly |
character. |
From my mother, piety and beneficence, and abstinence, not only from |
evil deeds, but even from evil thoughts; and further, simplicity in |
my way of living, far removed from the habits of the rich. |
From my great-grandfather, not to have frequented public schools, |
and to have had good teachers at home, and to know that on such things |
a man should spend liberally. |
From my governor, to be neither of the green nor of the blue party |
at the games in the Circus, nor a partizan either of the Parmularius |
or the Scutarius at the gladiators' fights; from him too I learned |
endurance of labour, and to want little, and to work with my own hands, |
and not to meddle with other people's affairs, and not to be ready |
to listen to slander. |
From Diognetus, not to busy myself about trifling things, and not |
to give credit to what was said by miracle-workers and jugglers about |
incantations and the driving away of daemons and such things; and |
not to breed quails for fighting, nor to give myself up passionately |
to such things; and to endure freedom of speech; and to have become |
intimate with philosophy; and to have been a hearer, first of Bacchius, |
then of Tandasis and Marcianus; and to have written dialogues in my |
youth; and to have desired a plank bed and skin, and whatever else |
of the kind belongs to the Grecian discipline. |
From Rusticus I received the impression that my character required |
improvement and discipline; and from him I learned not to be led astray |
to sophistic emulation, nor to writing on speculative matters, nor |
to delivering little hortatory orations, nor to showing myself off |
as a man who practises much discipline, or does benevolent acts in |
order to make a display; and to abstain from rhetoric, and poetry, |
and fine writing; and not to walk about in the house in my outdoor |
dress, nor to do other things of the kind; and to write my letters |
with simplicity, like the letter which Rusticus wrote from Sinuessa |
to my mother; and with respect to those who have offended me by words, |
or done me wrong, to be easily disposed to be pacified and reconciled, |
as soon as they have shown a readiness to be reconciled; and to read |
carefully, and not to be satisfied with a superficial understanding |
of a book; nor hastily to give my assent to those who talk overmuch; |
and I am indebted to him for being acquainted with the discourses |
of Epictetus, which he communicated to me out of his own collection. |
From Apollonius I learned freedom of will and undeviating steadiness |
of purpose; and to look to nothing else, not even for a moment, except |
to reason; and to be always the same, in sharp pains, on the occasion |
of the loss of a child, and in long illness; and to see clearly in |
a living example that the same man can be both most resolute and yielding, |
and not peevish in giving his instruction; and to have had before |
my eyes a man who clearly considered his experience and his skill |
in expounding philosophical principles as the smallest of his merits; |
and from him I learned how to receive from friends what are esteemed |
favours, without being either humbled by them or letting them pass |
unnoticed. |
From Sextus, a benevolent disposition, and the example of a family |
governed in a fatherly manner, and the idea of living conformably |
to nature; and gravity without affectation, and to look carefully |
after the interests of friends, and to tolerate ignorant persons, |
and those who form opinions without consideration: he had the power |
of readily accommodating himself to all, so that intercourse with |
him was more agreeable than any flattery; and at the same time he |
was most highly venerated by those who associated with him: and he |
had the faculty both of discovering and ordering, in an intelligent |
and methodical way, the principles necessary for life; and he never |
showed anger or any other passion, but was entirely free from passion, |
and also most affectionate; and he could express approbation without |
noisy display, and he possessed much knowledge without ostentation. |
From Alexander the grammarian, to refrain from fault-finding, and |
not in a reproachful way to chide those who uttered any barbarous |
or solecistic or strange-sounding expression; but dexterously to introduce |
the very expression which ought to have been used, and in the way |
of answer or giving confirmation, or joining in an inquiry about the |
thing itself, not about the word, or by some other fit suggestion. |
From Fronto I learned to observe what envy, and duplicity, and hypocrisy |
are in a tyrant, and that generally those among us who are called |
Patricians are rather deficient in paternal affection. |
From Alexander the Platonic, not frequently nor without necessity |
to say to any one, or to write in a letter, that I have no leisure; |
nor continually to excuse the neglect of duties required by our relation |
to those with whom we live, by alleging urgent occupations. |
From Catulus, not to be indifferent when a friend finds fault, even |
if he should find fault without reason, but to try to restore him |
to his usual disposition; and to be ready to speak well of teachers, |
as it is reported of Domitius and Athenodotus; and to love my children |
truly. |
From my brother Severus, to love my kin, and to love truth, and to |
love justice; and through him I learned to know Thrasea, Helvidius, |
Cato, Dion, Brutus; and from him I received the idea of a polity in |
which there is the same law for all, a polity administered with regard |
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