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tude, as sometimes not even to touch the ground, but to be borne aloft by the concourse round him: some following close upon him with loud acclamations, others leaping with exultation and raising their hands to heaven; others again throwing garlands and fillets at the man-as soon as he was able to approach, inquired, What this tumultuous assemblage of people was doing? and, What had happened? The man replied, "I have gained the victory, Diogenes! over the runners in the Stadium." 2. "What is the nature of this victory?" said he. "Your understanding, I presume, has acquired not even the slenderest improvements from your superiority of speed over your competitors; nor are you become more temperate and continent than before; nor less timorous, nor less a prey to melancholy: nor, peradventure, will you live henceforward with more moderate desires, or under greater freedom from uneasiness and vexation of spirit."

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3. Be that as it may," the man rejoins, "I excel all the other Greeks in the swiftness of my feet.". "But," said Diogenes, "you are not swifter than the hares, nor the stags; and yet these creatures, though the swiftest of all others, are at the same time the most timorous, afraid both of men, and birds of prey, and of dogs; so as to lead a life of uninterrupted misery.

4. Indeed you must be aware, are you not, that speed is in reality a symptom of timidity? for the most timid animals are also invariably the swiftest. In conformity with this dispensation of nature, Hercules was slower of foot than most men; and, from his consequent inability of laying hold on his antagonists by speed, was accustomed to carry a bow and arrows, and thus arrest a flying adversary with his weapons.'

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5. "Yes," said the man: "but the poet tells us, how Achilles,t the swift-footed, was a warrior likewise of incomparable fortitude." ""And whence," replied Diogenes, "can we infer the celerity of Achilles? for we find him incapable of overtaking Hector, after a pursuit of an entire day. However, are you not ashamed of priding yourself on that property, in which you must acknowledge your inferiority to the meanest animals? Nay, I suppose, that you would not be able to outstrip even a fox in speed. But, after all, at what a distance did you leave your competitors behind ?""

6. "A very small distance, Diogenes! and this very circum stance makes my victory so admirably glorious." "It seems, *Fillet, a band to tie up the hair.

+ The bravest of the Greeks in the Trojan war.
The son of Priam, king of Troy, and a valiant hero.

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then," said Diogenes, "that your triumph and felicity depended on a single step."- "No wonder: we were all the fleetest runners imaginable.”. -"By how great an interval do you think a lark would have gone over the Stadium before you all ?" "But they have wings, and fly." "Well!" replied Diogenes: "if swiftness then be a proof of excellence, it were better to be a lark than a man: so that our commiseration for larks and lapwings, because they were metamorphosed* from men into birds, as mythologists inform us, is unseasonable and unnecessary.

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7. "But I," said the victorious racer," who am a man myself, am the swiftest of mankind." "Yes!" replied Diogenes: "and is it not probable, that among ants, also, one is swifter than another? Yet are the ants objects of admiration to their fellows on that account? Or would you not think it a laughable absurdity in any man to admire an ant for his speed? Suppose again, that all your competitors had been lame, would you have prided yourself, as on some masterly achievement, for outstripping the lame, when you were not lame like the rest?"

8. By such conversation as this, he produced in many of his hearers a supreme contempt for the boasted accomplishment in question and the man too departed, under no little mortification and humiliation, from this interview with Diogenes. Nor was the philosopher of little service to society in this respect, by reducing to a smaller compass and assuaging the tumors of a senseless infatuation, as swellings on the body subside from scarification and puncture, wherever he saw any man inflated with a frivolous conceit of unsubstantial excellence, and carried beyond the limits of sober sentiment by qualities utterly destitute of intrinsic worth.

LESSON CXXI.

Diversity in the Human Character.-POPE.
1. VIRTUOUS and vicious every man must be,
Few in th' extreme, but all in the degree;
The rogue and fool, by fits are fair and wise,
And e'en the best, by fits what they despise.
"Tis but by part we follow good or ill,
For, Vice or Virtue, Self directs it still;
Each individual seeks a sev'ral goal;

But Heaven's great view is one,-and that the whole.

Pronounced Met-a-mor-fus'd, changed.

✦ Goal, the end which a person aims to reach or accomplish.

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2. That counterworks each folly and caprice;
That disappoints th' effect of ev'ry vice;
That happy frailties to all ranks apply'd-
Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride,
Fear to the statesman, rashness to the chief,
To kings presumption, and to crowds belief.
That Virtue's end from vanity can raise,
Which seeks no interest, no reward but praise;
And builds on wants, and on defects of mind,
The joy, the peace, the glory of mankind.

3. Heaven, forming each on other to depend, A master, or a servant, or a friend,

Bids each on other for assistance call,

Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all.
Wants, frailties, passions, closer still ally
The common int'rest, or endear the tie.
To those we owe true friendship, love sincere,
Each homefelt joy that life inherits here;
Yet from the same, we learn, in its decline,
Those joys, those loves, those int'rests to resign.
Taught, half by reason, half by mere decay,
To welcome death, and calmly pass away.

4. What'er the passion, knowledge, fame or pelf,
Not one would change his neighbor with himself.
The learn'd is happy, nature to explore,
The fool is happy that he knows no more;
The rich is happy in the plenty given,
The poor contents him with the care of heaven:
See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing,
The sot a hero, lunatic a king;

The starving chimist in his golden views
Supremely blest, the poet in his muse.

5. See some strange comfort ev'ry state attend,
And pride, bestow'd on all, a common friend;
See some fit passion ev'ry age supply,
Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.
6. Behold the child, by nature's kindly law,
Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw;
Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight,
A little louder, but as empty quite;
Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage,
And cards and counters are the toys of age:
Pleas'd with this bauble still, as that before;
Till tir'd he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er.

7. Meanwhile opinion gilds, with varying rays,
Those painted clouds that beautify our days;
Each want of happiness by hope supply'd,
And each vacuity of sense by pride.
These build as fast as knowledge can destroy:
In folly's cup still laughs the bubble, joy :
One prospect lost, another still we gain,
And not a vanity is given in vain :

E'en mean self-love becomes, by force divine,
The scale to measure others' wants by thine.
See! and confess, one comfort still must rise;
'Tis this: Though man's a fool, yet God is wise.

LESSON CXXII.

On the Pursuits of Mankind.-POPE.

1. HONOR and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part-there all the honor lies.
Fortune in men has some small difference made;
One flaunts in rags-one flutters in brocade ;*
The cobbler apron'd, and the parson gown'd;
The friar hooded, and the monarch crown'd.
"What differ more," you cry, "than crown and cowl ?t"
I'll tell you friend-a wise man and a fool..
You'll find, if once the monarch acts the monk,
Or, cobbler like, the parson will be drunk,

Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow:
The rest is all but leather or prunella.

2. Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race,

In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece :
But by your father's worth if your's you rate,
Count me those only who were good and great.
Go! if your ancient, but ignoble blood,

Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood:
Go! and pretend your family is young,

Nor own your fathers have been fools so long.
What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards;
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.

3. Look next on greatness-say where greatness lies? "Where, but among the heroes and the wise?"

Brocade, a silk stuff variegated with gold and silver. † Cowl, a hood worn by a monk.

:

Heroes are much the same, the point's agreed,
From Macedonia's madman* to the Swede :†
The whole strange purpose of their lives, to find,
Or make an enemy of all mankind!

Not one looks backward; onward still he goes;
Yet ne'er looks forward, farther than his nose.
No less alike the politic and wise;

All sly slow things with circumspective eyes.
Men in their loose, unguarded hours they take,
Not that themselves are wise, but others weak.

4. But grant that those can conquer; these can cheat;
"Tis phrase absurd to call a villain great.
Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave,
Is but the more a fool, the more a knave.
Who noble ends by noble means obtains,
Or failing, smiles in exile or in chains;
Like good Aureliust let him reign, or bleed
Like Socrates-that man is great indeed.

5. What's fame? a fanci'd life in other's breath,
A thing beyond us, e'en before our death.
All fame is foreign, but of true desert,

Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart;
One self-approving hour whole years outweighs
Of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas :
And more true joy, Marcellus|| exil'd, feels,
Than Cesar, with a Senate at his heels.

6. In parts superior what advantage lies?
Tell, (for you can,) what is it to be wise?
"Tis but to know how little can be known;
To see all others' faults, and feel our own;
Condemn'd in business or in arts to drudge,
Without a second or without a judge.
Truths would you teach, to save a sinking land?
All fear, none aid you, and few understand.
Painful pre-eminence! yourself to view

Above life's weakness, and its comforts too.

7. Bring then these blessings to a strict account; Make fair deductions, see to what they 'mount;

Alexander the Great.

+ Charles XII. king of Sweden, born A. D. 1682. His whole reign was one continued scene of warfare. He was killed at the siege of Fredericks hall, in Norway, December, 1718.

A Roman emperor in A. D. 161.

Marcellus, an eminent Roman, banished by Julius Cesar to Asia, and Bacalled by Augustus Cesar.

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