PREF. INSIDIOUS FLATTERY 161 



tress. If she gives it a shove, we are pleased, still 

 more so if she forces it open. I remember hearing 7 

 that distinguished man, Demetrius, remark to a 

 certain powerful freedman that he, too, had an easy 

 road to riches on the day that he made up his mind 

 to renounce all virtuous resolutions. Nor will I 

 grudge any of you, said he, the knowledge of the 

 art, but I will teach those who regard gain as the \ 

 one thing needful how they may attain their object. 

 They need not follow the doubtful fortune of the 

 sea, nor the competition of buying and selling : they 

 need not place their faith in the fickle proceeds of 

 the ground, nor the still more fickle fortunes of the 

 exchange. I will teach them a means of making 

 money not merely easy, but positively so merry that 

 the victims whom they fleece will share the fun. 

 Flattery shall be the means. If you have the 8 

 stature of the pigmy Thracian matched against 

 Thracian in the arena, I will swear that you are 

 taller than Fidus Annaeus or Apollonius Pycta. I 

 will say that no fellow could be more liberal than 

 you, nor shall I lie, since you may be considered to 

 have bestowed upon all whatever you have not 

 robbed them of. 



The fact is, my dear Junior, the more open 

 and shameless flattery is, and the more completely 

 it has brazened its own features and raised the 

 conscious blush in those of others, the more quickly 

 it storms the citadel. We have now reached such 

 a pitch of madness that he who uses flattery 

 sparingly is considered niggardly. I used to tell 9 

 you that my brother Gallic a man whom even his 

 most ardent admirer cannot love according to the 

 measure of his deserts was a stranger to other vices, 

 but this he positively loathed. You might assail 



