bling. On the other side, when Juno means to express a
dalliance or motherly fondness to her son Vulcan, she courts him with an
epithet taken from his halting, thus,

Rouse thee, my limping son!
(Ibid, xxi. 331.)

In this instance, Homer does (as it were) deride those who are ashamed
of their lameness or blindness, as not thinking anything a disgrace that
is not in itself disgraceful, nor any person liable to a reproach for
that which is not imputable to himself but to Fortune. These two
great advantages may be made by those who frequently study poets;--the
learning moderation, to keep them from unseasonable and foolish
reproaching others with their misfortunes, when they themselves enjoy a
constant current of prosperity; and magnanimity, that under variety of
accidents they be not dejected nor disturbed, but meekly bear the being
scoffed at, reproached, and drolled upon. Especially, let them have that
saying of Philemon ready at hand in such cases:--

That spirit's well in tune, whose sweet repose
No railer's tongue can ever discompose.

And yet, if one that so rails do himself merit reprehension, thou mayst
take occasion to retort upon him his own vices and inordinate passions;
as when Adrastus in the tragedy is assaulted thus by Alcmaeon,

Thy sister's one that did her husband kill,

he returns him this answer,

But thou thyself thy mother's blood did spill.

For as they who scourge a man's garments do not touch the body, so those
that turn other men's evil fortunes or mean births to matter of reproach
do only with vanity and folly enough lash their external circumstances,
but touch not their internal part, the soul, nor those things which
truly need correction and reproof.

Moreover, as we have above taught you to abate and lessen the credit
of evil and hurtful poems by setting in opposition to them the famous
speeches and sentences of such worthy men as have managed public
affairs, so will it be useful to us, where we find any things in them
of civil and profitable import, to improve and strengthen them by
testimonies and proofs taken from philosophers, withal giving these the
credit of being the first inventors of them. For this is both just and
profitable to be done, seeing by this means such sayings receive an
additional strength and esteem, when it appears that what is spoken
on the stage or sung to the harp or occurs in a scholar's lesson
is agreeable to the doctrines o