not only in this, but in all the other occasions of life, he thought
the best advice he could give his friends was to do all things according
to their ability.

When he believed that the gods had admonished him to do anything, it was
as impossible to make him take a contrary resolution as it would have
been to have prevailed with him in a journey to change a guide that was
clear-sighted for one that knew not the way, and was blind likewise. For
this reason he pitied their folly, who, to avoid the derision of men,
live not according to the admonitions and commands of the gods; and he
beheld with contempt all the subtilties of human prudence when he
compared them with divine inspirations.

His way of living was such that whoever follows it may be assured, with
the help of the gods, that he shall acquire a robust constitution and a
health not to be easily impaired; and this, too, without any great
expense, for he was content with so little that I believe there was not
in all the world a man who could work at all but might have earned enough
to have maintained him. He generally ate as long as he found pleasure in
eating, and when he sat down to table he desired no other sauce but a
sound appetite. All sorts of drink were alike pleasing to him, because
he never drank but when he was thirsty; and if sometimes he was invited
to a feast, he easily avoided eating and drinking to excess, which many
find very difficult to do in those occasions. But he advised those who
had no government of themselves never to taste of things that tempt a man
to eat when he is no longer hungry, and that excite him to drink when his
thirst is already quenched, because it is this that spoils the stomach,
causes the headache, and puts the soul into disorder. And he said,
between jest and earnest, that he believed it was with such meats as
those that Circe changed men into swine, and that Ulysses avoided that
transformation by the counsel of Mercury, and because he had temperance
enough to abstain from tasting them.

As to love, his advice was to avoid carefully the company of beautiful
persons, saying it was very difficult to be near them and escape being
taken in the snare; and, having been told that Critobulus had given a
kiss to the son of Alcibiades, who was a very handsome youth, he held
this discourse to Xenophon, in the presence of Critobulus himself.

"Tell me, Xenophon, what opinion have you hitherto had of Critobulus?
Have you placed