Pagina 346 de 1391

After a while he divides his time impartially between them; and

perhaps, when he gets older and the violence of passion has

abated, he restores some of the exiles and lives in a sort of

equilibrium, indulging first one pleasure and then another; and

if reason comes and tells him that some pleasures are good and

honourable, and others bad and vile, he shakes his head and says

that he can make no distinction between them. Thus he lives in

the fancy of the hour; sometimes he takes to drink, and then he

turns abstainer; he practises in the gymnasium or he does nothing

at all; then again he would be a philosopher or a politician; or

again, he would be a warrior or a man of business; he is

'Every thing by starts and nothing long.'