it is given to wear both fine garments and rags" is a remark ascribed to Plato.[195] In truth, Aristippus possesses in eminent measure that accomplishment, the want of which Plato proclaims to be so misleading and mischievous--artistic skill in handling human affairs, throughout his dealings with mankind.[196] [Footnote 193: It is this servitude of political life, making the politician the slave of persons and circumstances around him, which Horace contrasts with the philosophical independence of Aristippus:-- Ac ne forté roges, quo me duce, quo lare tuter; Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri Quo me cunque rapit tempestas, deferor hospes. Nunc agilis fio et mersor civilibus undis, Virtutis veræ custos rigidusque satelles: Nunc in Aristippi furtim præcepta relabor, Et mihi res, non me rebus, subjungere conor. (Epist. i. 1, 15.) So also the Platonic Sokrates (Theætêt. pp. 172-175) depicts forcibly the cramped and fettered lives of rhetors and politicians; contrasting them with the self-judgment and independence of speculative and philosophical enquirers--[Greek: ô(s oi)ke/tai pro\s e)leuthe/rous tethra/phthai--o( me\n tô=| o)/nti e)n e)leutheri/a| te kai\ scholê=| tethramme/nos, o(\n dê\ philo/sophon kalei=s.]] [Footnote 194: Diog. L. ii. 36. [Greek: stre/psantos A)ntisthe/nous to\ dier)r(ôgo\s tou= tri/bônos ei)s tou)mphane/s, O(rô= sou=, e)/phê (Sôkra/tês), dia\ tou= tri/bônos tê\n kenodoxi/an.]] [Footnote 195: Horat. Epistol. i. 17, 13-24; Diog. L. vi. 46-56-66. "Si pranderet olus patienter, regibus uti Nollet Aristippus." "Si sciret regibus uti, Fastidiret olus, qui me notat." Utrius horum Verba probes et facta, doce: vel junior audi Cur sit Aristippi potior sententia. Namque Mordacem Cynicum sic eludebat, ut aiunt: "Scurror ego ipse mihi, populo tu: rectius hoc et Splendidius multò est. Equus ut me portet, alat rex, Officium facio: tu poscis vilia rerum, Dante minor, quamvis fers te nullius egentem." Omnis Aristippum decuit color, et status, et res, Tentantem majora, ferè præsentibus æquum. (Compare Diog. L. ii. 102, vi. 58, where this anecdote is reported as of Plato instead of Aristippus.) Horace's view and scheme of life are exceedingly analogous to those of Aristippus. Plutarch, Fragm. De Homero, p. 1190; De Fortunâ Alex. p. 330 D. Diog. Laert. ii. 67. [Greek: dio/ pote Stra/tôna, oi( de\ Pla/tôna, pro\s au)to\n ei)pei=n, Soi\ mo/nô| de/dotai kai\ chlani/da phorei=n kai\ r(a/kos]. The remark cannot have been made by Straton, who was not contemporary with Aristippus. Even Sokrates lived by the bounty of his rich friends, and indeed could have had no other means of supporting his wife and children; though he accepted only a portion of what they tendered to him, declining the remainder. See the remark of Aristippus, Diog. L. ii. 74.] [Footnote 196: Plato, Phædon, p. 89 E. [Greek: o(/ti a)/neu te/chnês tê=s peri\ ta)nthrô/peia o( toiou=tos chrê=sthai e)picheirei= toi=s a)nthrô/pois.]]