210 AbVAKCfiMEKT OP LEARNIKO. [fiOOK Vt 



that such food was bad, but that acorns were good, though 

 bread be better. Nor, if it were an evil for the people of 

 Sicily to be deprived of Dionysius the Elder, does it follow 

 that the same Dionysius was a good prince, but that he was 

 less e\dl than Dionysius the Younger. 2. By succession: for 

 the privation of a good does not always give place to an evil, 

 but sometimes to a greater good, — as when the blossom falls, 

 the fruit succeeds. Nor does the privation of an evil always 

 give place to a good, but sometimes to a greater evil ; for Milo, 

 by the death of his enemy Clodius, lost a fair harvest of glory. 



IV. — What approaches to good, is good ; and what recedes from good, 

 is evil. 



It is almost universal, that things agreeing in nature 

 agree also in place, and that things disagreeing in nature 

 differ as widely in situation ; for all things have an appetite 

 ^f associating with what is agreeable, and of repelling what 

 is disagreeable to them. 



This colour deceives three ways ; viz., by depriving, ob- 

 scuring, and protecting. 1. By depriving; for the largest 

 things, and most excellent in their kind, attract all they can 

 to themselves, and leave what is next them destitute ; thus 

 the underwood growing near a large tree is the poorest wood 

 of the field, because the tree deprives it of sap and nourish- 

 ment, — whence it was well said, that the servants of the 

 rich are the greatest slaves r"" and it was witty of him who 

 compared the inferior attendants in the courts of princes to 

 the vigils of feast-days, which, though nearest to feast-days, 

 are themselves but meagre. 2. By obscuring : for it is also 

 the nature of excellent things in their kind, though they do 

 not impoverish the substance of what lies near them, yet to 

 overshadow and obscure it; whence the astrologers say, that 

 though in all the planets conjunction is the most perfect 

 amity, yet the sun, though good in aspect, is evil in conjunc- 

 tion. 3. By protecting : for things come together, not only 

 from a similitude of nature, but even what is evil flies to 

 that which is good (especially in civil society) lor conceal- 

 ment and protection. Thus hypocrisy draws near to religion 

 for shelter : 



" Saepe latet vitiura proximitate boni."* 



Divitis lervi maxime Servi • Ovid^ Ars Amatidi, ii. 662. 



