Volume 1 - Discourses - Books I - II - College of Stoic Philosophers

BOOK II. xx. 33-xxi.imention that, although they enjoy night and day, thechanges of the year and the stars and the sea and theearth and the co-operation of men, they are notmoved in the least by any one of these things, butlook merely for a chance to belch out their trivial"problem/' and after thus exercising their stomachto go off to the bath. But what they are going tosay, or what they are going to talk about, or to whom,and what their hearers are going to get out of thesethings that they are saying, all this has never giventhem a moment's concern. 1greatly fear that anoble-spirited young man may hear these statementsand be influenced by them, or, having been influencedalready, may lose all the germs of the nobility whichhe possessed that;we may be giving an adulterergrounds for brazening out his acts that some;embezzler of public funds may lay hold of a speciousplea based upon these theories ;that someone whoneglects his own parents may gain additionalaffrontery from them.What, then, in your opinion is good or bad, base ornoble? This or that? What then? Is there anyuse in arguing further against any of these persons, orgiving them a reason, or listening to one of theirs, ortrying to convert them? By Zeus, one might muchrather hope to convei't a filthy degenerate than menwho have become so deaf and blind !CHAPTER XXIOf inconsistencySOME of their faults men readily admit, but othersnot so readily. Now no one will admit that he is3*3