The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [15]
20. You must cultivate either your own ruling faculty or externals, and apply yourself either to things within or without you; that is, be either wise, or one who is led by others to do their will.
21. The question to be asked at the end of each day is, ‘How long will you delay to be wise?’
Chapter 17
1. Prescribe a character and form of conduct to yourself, which you can keep both when alone and in company.
2. Be a listener, speak what is necessary, remember few words are better than many.
3. Enter into discourse when occasion calls for it, but not on vulgar and fruitless subjects, and principally not of men, so as either to blame, or praise, or make comparisons.
4. If you are able by your own conversation, bring over that of your company to proper subjects; if you happen to be among strangers, be for the most part silent.
5. Do not allow your laughter to be too much, nor on many occasions, nor profuse.
6. Avoid swearing, if possible, altogether; if not, as far as you are able.
7. Avoid vulgar entertainments; but, if occasion calls you to them, keep alert, that you may not imperceptibly slide into vulgar manners.
8. For be assured that however sound a person is himself, yet, if his companion is infected, he who converses with him will be infected likewise.
9. Do not be troublesome and full of reproofs to those who use liberties, nor frequently boast that you yourself do not: people are various, and merit sympathy.
10. If anyone tells you that such a person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you, but answer: ‘He does not know my other faults, else he would not have mentioned only these.’
11. Abstain from declamations and derision and violent emotions. When you are going to confer with anyone, and particularly with those in a superior station, represent to yourself how Socrates or Zeno would behave in such a case.
12. When you are going to anyone in power, represent to yourself that you will not find him at home; that you will not be admitted; that the doors will not be opened to you; that he will take no notice of your petition.
13. If, with all this, it is your duty to go, bear what happens, and never say, ‘It was not worth so much.’
14. For if you went with a reason that was right, the disdain of the powerful will not make it wrong.
15. In parties of conversation, avoid a frequent and excessive mention of your own actions and dangers.
16. For, however agreeable it may be to yourself to mention the risks you have run, it is not equally agreeable to others to hear your adventures.
17. If you are struck by the appearance of any promised pleasure, guard yourself against being hurried away by it; but let the affair wait your leisure, and procure yourself some delay.
18. Then bring to your mind both points of time: that in which you will enjoy the pleasure, and that in which you might have to repent and reproach yourself after you have enjoyed it;
19. And set before yourself, in opposition to these, how you will be glad and applaud yourself if you abstain.
20. And even though it should appear to you a seasonable gratification, take heed that its enticing, and agreeable and attractive force may not subdue you;
21. But set in opposition to this how much better it is to be conscious of gaining a victory over what leads you astray.
22. The question to be asked at the end of each day is, ‘How long will you delay to be wise?’
Chapter 18
1. When you do anything from a clear judgement that it ought to be done, never delay to do it, even though the world should make a wrong supposition about it.
2. When eating with others, to choose the largest share is suitable to the bodily appetite, but inconsistent with the social nature of the occasion.
3. When you eat with another, then, remember not only the value to the body of those things which are set before you,
4. But also the value of that behaviour which ought to be observed towards the person who gives the entertainment.
5. If you have assumed a character above your strength, you have both made