Such contrarieties as these are easily solved, if (as I said) we teach youth to judge aright and to give the better saying preference. But if we chance to meet with any absurd passages without any others at their heels to confute them, we are then to overthrow them with such others as elsewhere are to be found in the author. Nor must we be offended with the poet or grieved at him, but only at the speeches themselves, which he utters either according to the vulgar manner of speaking or, it may be, but in drollery. So, when thou readest in Homer of Gods thrown out of heaven headlong one by another, or Gods wounded by men and quarrelling and brawling with each other, thou mayest readily, if thou wilt, say to him,— Sure thy invention here was sorely out, Or thou hadst said far better things, no doubt;[37] yea, and thou dost so elsewhere, and according as thou thinkest, to wit, in these passages of thine:— The Gods, removed from all that men doth grieve, A quiet and contented life do live. Herein the immortal Gods for ever blest Feel endless joys and undisturbed rest. The Gods, who have themselves no cause to grieve, For wretched man a web of sorrow weave.[38] For these argue sound and true opinions of the Gods; but those other were only feigned to raise passions in men. Again, when Euripides speaks at this rate,— The Gods are better than we men by far, And yet by them we oft deceived are,— we may do well to quote him elsewhere against himself, where he says better,— If Gods do wrong, surely no Gods there are. So also, when Pindar saith bitterly and keenly, No law forbids us any thing to do, Whereby a mischief may befall a foe, tell him: But, Pindar, thou thyself sayest elsewhere, The pleasure which injurious acts attends Always in bitter consequences ends. And when Sophocles speaks thus, Sweet is the gain, wherein to lie and cheat Adds the repute of wit to what we get, tell him: But we have heard thee say far otherwise, When the account’s cast up, the gain’s but poor Which by a lying tongue augments the store. And as to what he saith of riches, to wit Wealth, where it minds to go, meets with no stay; For where it finds not, it can make a way; Many fair offers doth the poor let go, And lose his prize because his purse is low; The fair tongue makes, where wealth can purchase it, The foul face beautiful, the fool a wit:— here the reader may set in opposition divers other sayings of the same author. For example, From honor poverty doth not debar, Where poor men virtuous and deserving are. Whate’er fools think, a man is ne’er the worse If he be wise, though with an empty purse The comfort which he gets who wealth enjoys, The vexing care by which ’tis kept destroys. And Menander also somewhere magnifies a voluptuous life, and inflames the minds of vain persons with these amorous strains,