صفحة 641 من 734

Then, as for Words and Precept, they, it is to be feared, will

not avail with all; but it may be necessary for the mind of the

disciple to have been previously prepared for liking and

disliking as he ought; just as the soil must, to nourish the seed

sown. For he that lives in obedience to passion cannot hear any

advice that would dissuade him, nor, if he heard, understand: now

him that is thus how can one reform? in fact, generally, passion

is not thought to yield to Reason but to brute force. So then

there must be, to begin with, a kind of affinity to Virtue in the

disposition; which must cleave to what is honourable and loath

what is disgraceful. But to get right guidance towards Virtue

from the earliest youth is not easy unless one is brought up

under laws of such kind; because living with self-mastery and

endurance is not pleasant to the mass of men, and specially not

to the young.