Pagina 239 van 734

Now the Braggart is such not by his power but by his purpose,

that is to say, in virtue of his moral state, and because he is a

man of a certain kind; just as there are liars who take pleasure

in falsehood for its own sake while others lie from a desire of

glory or gain. They who exaggerate with a view to glory pretend

to such qualities as are followed by praise or highest

congratulation; they who do it with a view to gain assume those

which their neighbours can avail themselves of, and the absence

of which can be concealed, as a man's being a skilful soothsayer

or physician; and accordingly most men pretend to such things and

exaggerate in this direction, because the faults I have mentioned

are in them.