From these glimpses of guilt and suffering, we may learn to what extremes the Greek was sometimes hurried by passion and the thirst of power. But propensities so wolfish were not predominant in his nature.[164] On the contrary, in private life, even the Spartans and the Dorians generally put off their cruel and severe habits, and relaxed on all proper occasions into joviality and mirth. In their social intercourse, in fact, few nations have been more cheerful or addicted to jokes and pleasantry than the Greeks, and above all the Athenians, whose hours of leisure were one continued round of gossip, sport, and laughter.[165] Never in any city were news-mongers, or even news-forgers, so numerous. In the mouth of young and old no question was so frequent as, “What is the news?” These were the sounds that circulated from rank to rank in the assembly of the people before the orators began their harangues, that were bandied to and fro in the Agora, that filled by their incessant repetition the shops of barbers and perfumers.[166] Akin to this itching ear was the passion for show and magnificence, every man, from highest to lowest, affecting as far as possible spacious dwellings, superb furniture and costly apparel. Even the bravest of the brave, the heroes of Marathon, were _petits-maîtres_ at their toilette, and went forth to the field in purple cloaks, their hair curled, adorned with golden ornaments, and perfumed with essences. The study of philosophy itself failed in most cases to subdue this ostentatious spirit. Plato loved rich carpets and splendid raiment. Even Aristotle was an exquisite, and Æschines an acknowledged coxcomb. Footnote 164: Cf. Wink. Hist. de l’Art, i. 320. Thiersch, Etat. Act. de la Grèce, i. p. 290. sqq; and for their disinterestedness, Pashley, Trav. in Crete, i. 221. Footnote 165: Loud laughter was nevertheless considered vulgar among the Greeks.—Plat. Repub. t. vi. 112. The Athenians were addicted to the language of shrugging and nodding, κ.τ.λ. To nod upwards was to deny, downwards to confess. Sch. Aristoph. Ach. 112. Footnote 166: Aristotle says that the orators of Athens, who governed the people, passed sometimes the whole of the day seeing mountebanks or jugglers, or talking with those who had travelled as far as the Phasis or Borysthenes; and that they never read anything save the Supper of Philoxenos and that not all.—Athen. i. 10. It was in the opinion of these persons perhaps, that “a great book was a great evil.”—Id. iii. 1.