Those who mention nothing of their poverty before their lord, will gain more than the importunate.  There is a great difference between modestly accepting, or seizing by violence But this was the principle and source of every thing [which I alleged].  He who says, “My sister is without a portion, my mother poor, and my estate neither salable nor sufficient for my support,” cries out [in effect], “Give me a morsel of bread:”  another whines, “And let the platter be carved out for me with half a share of the bounty.”  But if the crow could have fed in silence, he would have had better fare, and much less of quarreling and of envy.

A companion taken [by his lord] to Brundusium, or the pleasant Surrentum, who complains of the ruggedness of the roads and the bitter cold and rains, or laments that his chest is broken open and his provisions stolen; resembles the well-known tricks of a harlot, weeping frequently for her necklace, frequently for a garter forcibly taken from her; so that at length no credit is given to her real griefs and losses.  Nor does he, who has been once ridiculed in the streets, care to lift up a vagrant with a [pretended] broken leg; though abundant tears should flow from him; though, swearing by holy Osiris, he says, “Believe me, I do not impose upon you; O cruel, take up the lame.”  “Seek out for a stranger,” cries the hoarse neighborhood.

* * * * *

EPISTLE XVIII.

TO LOLLIUS.

He treats at large upon the cultivation of the favor of great men; and concludes with a few words concerning the acquirement of peace of mind.

If I rightly know your temper, most ingenuous Lollius, you will beware of imitating a flatterer, while you profess yourself a friend.  As a matron is unlike and of a different aspect from a strumpet, so will a true friend differ from the toad-eater.  There is an opposite vice to this, rather the greater [of the two]; a clownish, inelegant, and disagreeable bluntness, which would recommend itself by an unshaven face and black teeth; while it desires to be termed pure freedom and true sincerity.  Virtue is the medium of the two vices; and equally remote from either.  The one is over-prone to complaisance, and a jester of the lowest, couch, he so reverences the rich man’s nod, so repeats his speeches, and catches up his falling words; that you would take him for a school-boy saying his lesson to a rigid master, or a player acting an underpart; another often wrangles about a goat’s hair, and armed engages for any trifle:  “That I, truly, should not have the first credit; and that I should not boldly speak aloud, what is my real sentiment—­[upon such terms], another life would be of no value.”  But what is the subject of this controversy?  Why, whether [the gladiator] Castor or Dolichos be the cleverer fellow; whether the Minucian, or the Appian, be the better road to Brundusium.