To Demonicus

Always when you are about to say anything, first weigh it in your mind; for with many the tongue outruns the thought.[*](From Chilo. See Diog. Laert. i. 70: h( glw=ssa/ sou mh\ protrexe/tw tou= nou=) Let there be but two occasions for speech—when the subject is one which you thoroughly know and when it is one on which you are compelled to speak. On these occasions alone is speech better than silence; on all others, it is better to be silent than to speak.

Consider that nothing in human life is stable;[*](Cf. Isoc. 1.29; Theog. 585.) for then you will not exult overmuch in prosperity, nor grieve overmuch in adversity.[*](Cf. Isoc. 2.39; Isoc. 12.30; Theog. 591 ff.: tolma=n xrh/, ta\ didou=si qeoi\ qnhtoi=si brotoi=sin, r(hidi/ws de\ fe/rein a)mfote/rwn to\ la/xos, mh/to kakoi=sin a)sw=nta li/hn fre/na, mh/t' a)gaqoi=sin terfqe/nt' e)capi/nhs, pri\n te/los a)/kron i)dei=n. and Kipling: “If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat these two imposters just the same.”) Rejoice over the good things which come to you, but grieve in moderation over the evils which befall you, and in either case do not expose your heart to others;[*](Cf. Theog. 1162.) for it were strange to hide away one's treasure in the house, and yet walk about laying bare one's feelings to the world.

Be more careful in guarding against censure than against danger; for the wicked may well dread the end of life, but good men should dread ignominy during life. Strive by all means to live in security,[*](Cf. Isoc. 2.13.) but if ever it falls to your lot to face the dangers of battle, seek to preserve your life, but with honor and not with disgrace; for death is the sentence which fate has passed on all mankind, but to die nobly is the special honor which nature has reserved for the good.

Do not be surprised that many things which I have said do not apply to you at your present age. For I also have not overlooked this fact, but I have deliberately chosen to employ this one treatise, not only to convey to you advice for your life now, but also to leave with you precepts for the years to come; for you will then readily perceive the application of my precepts, but you will not easily find a man who will give you friendly counsel. In order, therefore, that you may not seek the rest from another source, but that you may draw from this as from a treasure-house, I thought that I ought not to omit any of the counsels which I have to give you.

And I shall be most grateful to the gods if I am not disappointed in the opinion which I have of you. For, while we find that the great majority of other men seek the society of those friends who join them in their follies and not of those who admonish them, just as they prefer the most pleasant to the most wholesome food,[*](Cf. Isoc. 2.42-45.) you, I think, are minded otherwise, as I judge from the industry you display in your general education. For when one sets for himself the highest standard of conduct, it is probable that in his relation to others he will approve only of those who exhort him to virtue.

But most of all would you be spurred on to strive for noble deeds if you should realize that it is from them most of all that we also derive pleasure in the true sense. For while the result of indolence and love of surfeit is that pain follows on the heels of pleasure,[*](Cf. Isoc. 1.16; Plat. Phaedo 60b) on the other hand, devoted toil in the pursuit of virtue, and self-control in the ordering of one's life always yield delights that are pure and more abiding. In the former case we experience pain following upon pleasure, in the latter we enjoy pleasure after pain.

In all our tasks we are not so much mindful of the beginning as we are sensible of the end; for we do most things in life not for themselves; it is rather for the sake of what results from them that we carry on our labors.

Bear in mind that while the base may be pardoned for acting without principle, since it is on such a foundation that from the first their lives have been built, yet the good may not neglect virtue without subjecting themselves to rebukes from many quarters; for all men despise less those who do wrong than those who have claimed to be respect able and yet are in fact no better than the common run;

and rightly, too, for when we condemn those who deceive us in words alone, how, pray, can we deny the baseness of those who in their whole lives belie their promise?[*](Cf. Isoc. 12.243.) We should be right in judging that such men not only sin against themselves, but are traitors to fortune as well; for fortune places in their hands wealth and reputation and friends, but they, for their part, make themselves unworthy of the blessings which lie within their grasp.

And if a mortal may make conjecture of the thoughts of the gods, I think that they also have revealed very clearly in their treatment of their nearest kin how they are disposed to the good and base among men. For Zeus, who, as the myths relate and all men believe, was the father of Heracles and Tantalus, made the one immortal because of his virtue, and inflicted on the other the severest punishments because of his evil character.

With these examples before you, you should aspire to nobility of character, and not only abide by what I have said, but acquaint yourself with the best things in the poets as well, and learn from the other wise men also any useful lessons they have taught.[*](Cf. Isoc. 2.13.)

For just as we see the bee settling on all the flowers, and sipping the best from each, so also those who aspire to culture ought not to leave anything untasted, but should gather useful knowledge from every source.[*](The figure is used by Lucretius in the same sense, De rerum natura iii. 11-12: floriferis ut apes in saltibus omnia libant,/omnia nos itidem depascimur aurea dicta.) For hardly even with these pains can they overcome the defects of nature.