om a young man attentively to hear such
things as these:--

Urge him with truth to frame his fair replies:
And sure he will, for wisdom never lies:

The praise of wisdom, in thy youth obtain'd,
An act so rash, Antilochus, has stain'd:

Say, is it just, my friend, that Hector's ear
From such a warrior such a speech should hear?
I deemed thee once the wisest of thy kind,
But ill this insult suits a prudent mind.
("Odyssey," iii. 20; "Iliad," xxiii. 570; xvii. 170.)

These speeches teach us that it is beneath wise men to lie or to deal
otherwise than fairly, even in games, or to blame other men without just
cause. And when the poet attributes Pindarus's violation of the truce to
his folly, he withal declares his judgment that a wise man will not
be guilty of an unjust action. The like may we also infer concerning
continence, taking our ground for it from these passages:--

For him Antaea burn'd with lawless flame,
And strove to tempt him from the paths of fame:
In vain she tempted the relentless youth,
Endued with wisdom, sacred fear, and truth:

At first, with worthy shame and decent pride,
The royal dame, his lawless suit denied!
For virtue's image yet possessed her mind:
("Iliad," vi. 160; "Odyssey," iii. 265.)

in which speeches the poet assigns wisdom to be the cause of continence.
And when in exhortations made to encourage soldiers to fight, he speaks
in this manner:--

What mean you, Lycians? Stand! O stand, for shame!

Yet each reflect who prizes fame or breath,
On endless infamy, on instant death;
For, lo! the fated time, the appointed shore;
Hark! the gates burst, the brazen barriers roar!
("Iliad," xvi. 422; xiii. 121.)

he seems to intimate that prudent men are valiant men; because they fear
the shame of base actions, and can trample on pleasures and stand their
ground in the greatest hazards. Whence Timotheus, in the play called
Persae, takes occasion handsomely to exhort the Grecians thus:--

Brave soldiers of just shame in awe should stand;
For the blushing face oft helps the fighting hand.

And Aeschylus also makes it a point of wisdom not to be blown up with
pride when a man is honored, nor to be moved or elevated with the
acclamations of a multitude, writing thus of Amphiaraus:--

His shield no emblem bears; his generous soul
Wishes to be, not to appea