*148* But no rules need to be given about what is done in accordance
with the established customs and conventions of a community; for these
are in themselves rules; and no one ought to make the mistake of
supposing that, because Socrates or Aristippus did or said something
contrary to the manners and established customs of their city, he has a
right to do the same; it was only by reason of their great and
superhuman virtues that those famous men acquired this special
privilege. But the Cynics' whole system of philosophy must be rejected,
for it is inimical to moral sensibility, and without moral sensibility
nothing can be upright, nothing morally good.
#Special rules.#
*149* It is, furthermore, our duty to honour and reverence those whose
lives are conspicuous for conduct in keeping with their high moral
standards, and who, as true patriots, have rendered or are now rendering
efficient service to their country, just as much as if they were
invested with some civil or military authority; it is our duty also to
show proper respect to old age, to yield precedence to magistrates, to
make a distinction between a fellow-citizen and a foreigner, and, in the
case of the foreigner himself, to discriminate according to whether he
has come in an official or a private capacity. In a word, not to go into
details, it is our duty to respect, defend, and maintain the common
bonds of union and fellowship subsisting between all the members of the
human race.
*150* XLII. Iam de artificiis et quaestibus, qui liberales habendi, qui
sordidi sint, haec fere accepimus. Primum improbantur ii quaestus, qui
in odia hominum incurrunt, ut portitorum, ut faeneratorum. Illiberales
autem et sordidi quaestus mercennariorum omnium, quorum operae, non
quorum artes emuntur; est enim in illis ipsa merces auctoramentum
servitutis. Sordidi etiam putandi, qui mercantur a mercatoribus, quod
statim vendant; nihil enim proficiant, nisi admodum mentiantur; nec vero
est quicquam turpius vanitate. Opificesque omnes in sordida arte
versantur; nec enim quicquam ingenuum habere potest officina. Minimeque
artes eae probandae, quae ministrae sunt voluptatum:
#Eunuchus II, 2, 26#
Cetárii, lanií, coqui, fartóres, piscatóres,
ut ait Terentius; adde huc, si placet, unguentarios, saltatores totumque
ludum talarium.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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