60 MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 



As the wisdom of the ancients was often conveyed 

 in apophthegms of pithy and oracular brevity, so his 

 gravest maxims were frequently seasoned with inno- 

 cent pleasantry. His smart sayings and quick re- 

 partees were long remembered and admired by those 

 incapable of appreciating his weightier merits. Some 

 of them have been preserved by Laertius, of which 

 a few may be given as examples. Being reproved 

 for bestowing alms on a profligate, he said, " he 

 gave not to the man but to humanity." Being ask- 

 ed, what of all things grows soonest old ? he replied, 

 " Gratitude." Of friendship he said, " it was one 

 soul in two bodies." Being told that one had reviled 

 him, " let him beat me too (said he) when I am ab- 

 sent." To an idle babbler who had detained him. 

 and expressed his fear that he had been tedious, he 

 answered, " Not at all, for I paid no attention to 

 your discourse." Hearing a conceited youth boast- 

 ing of his fine cloak, " It was but a silly vanity (he 

 said) to be proud of a sheep's fleece." A handsome 

 young man much courted, thus accosted him, " If I 

 were hated by the citizens as you are, I would hang 

 myself." " And I (replied the other) would hang 

 myself if I were admired by them as you are." It 

 was as impossible, he said, for a tattler to keep a 

 secret, as for a man to hold a burning coal in his 

 mouth. Being asked what advantage he had de- 

 rived from philosophy, he answered, " that of doing 

 voluntarily what others do through fear of the laws." 

 Such apophthegms, some of which are probably spu- 



