youth, but will rather choose such as are of a teachable
disposition, of a gentle behavior, and lovers of learning.
The charms and graces of youth will not make a philosopher shy of
their conversation, when the endowments of their minds are
answerable to the features of their bodies. The case is the same
when greatness of place and fortune concur with a well disposed
person; he will not therefore forbear loving and respecting such a
one, nor be afraid of the name of a courtier, nor think it a curse
that such attendance and dependence should be his fate.

They that try most Dame Venus to despise
Do sin as much as they who her most prize.
(From the "Veiled Hippolytus" of Euripides, Frag. 431.)

The application is easy to the matter in hand.

A philosopher therefore, if he is of a retired humor, will not
avoid such persons; while one who generously designs his studies
for the public advantage will cheerfully embrace their advances of
friendship, will not bore them to hear him, will lay aside his
sophistic terms and distinctions, and will rejoice to discourse and
pass his time with them when they are disposed.

I plough the wide Berecynthian fields,
Full six days' journey long,
(From the "Niobe" of Aechylus, Frag. 153.)

says one boastingly in the poet; the same man, if he were as much a
lover of mankind as of husbandry, would much rather bestow his
pains on such a farm, the fruits of which would serve a great