10 GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 



Wisdom and virtue are the only permanent and inviolable good ; but 

 the study of these, without the practice, is nothing. Think not, how- 

 ever, that asperity of aspect necessarily designates wisdom ; for wisdom 

 makes us serious, but not severe. It is one degree of virtue not to be 

 vicious. Keep thy faith with all men ; and avoid a lie to man, for 

 that is an offence to God. Measure your words: for great talkers 

 have no respect for either honesty or truth. Frequent the society of 

 good men, for the sake of their manners, as well as their virtues. Be 

 careful of the worldly maxim that there is sometimes good in evil ; for 

 profitable knavery and starving honesty is a mistake ; virtue and 

 justice are ever eventually productive of good and profit. Admit not 

 that restless passion, curiosity for the affairs of others, but attend to 

 your own business. Speak ill of no one ; and no more indulge in the 

 hearing of calumnies than be the instrument of reporting them ; for 

 those who love the one, commonly practise the other. Intend honestly, 

 and leave the event to God. Despair not in adversity, and exult not 

 in prosperity, for everything is changeable. There are three things 

 of which you will never repent being early and industrious at your 

 business ; learning good things ; and obliging good men. Remember 

 that is done best which is done in season ; watch therefore for oppor- 

 tunities of doing good. Love and honour kings, princes, and magis- 

 trates ; for they who punish the guilty and protect the innocent form 

 the band which holds society together." Such are the lessons of 

 morality and wisdom which are attributed to JEsop in his adopted 

 character as a parent ; but the object of his anxious cares appears to 

 have ill requited them : his life was a scene of rebellion and debauchery, 

 although he is said to have been at last a penitent, and to have died 

 in all the bitterness of remorse for his ingratitude to jEsop. 



In well -earned prosperity, a favourite with the monarch, and loved 



and respected by his private connexions, JEsop now appears to have 



passed many years at Babylon ; and when he at last obtained a forced 



Last journey permission to revisit Greece, it was only on the express condition of 



to Greece. an ear j^ retum to ^^ c j tv> ^ s fa Q a g a j n passed through the various 



cities of the peninsula, he resumed his former habit of delivering his 

 sentiments by way of fable, until he is said to have been barbarously 

 assassinated by the inhabitants of Delphi. 



The object of the Phrygian sage in visiting this city in his last 

 journey is related differently by different historians. Some have 

 stated, that, satisfied with his travels, he arrived at length at the 

 court of his first patron and protector, Croesus, intending to make 

 Lydia his future home ; and that when resettled there, and under the 

 accustomed favour of the king, he was deputed by him to consult the 

 oracle at Delphi on some important occasion, a circumstance according 

 with the well-known fact of the unusual partiality and liberality of 

 Croesus to this famous oracle. Others report, that his own curiosity 

 and thirst for general knowledge led our fabulist thither, and a desire 

 to consult the oracle on some personal affairs. But, whatever were 



