De Agricultura

And if any one is a friend of virtue, let him pray that all good things may be implanted in him, and may appear in his soul, like some symmetrical proportion conducing to beauty in a statue or a picture, considering that there are innumerable persons watching at hand, to whom nature will give all these things instead of giving them to him, namely, facility of learning, improvement, and perfection; but it is better that he should shine out rather than they, guarding safely the graces which have been bestowed on him by God; and that he himself should not, by carrying forward destruction, afford an easy prey to his unsparing enemies.