[129]
In these matters we must avoid especially the two
extremes: our conduct and speech should not be
effeminate and over-nice, on the one hand, nor coarse
and boorish, on the other. And we surely must not
admit that, while this rule applies to actors and orators, it is not binding upon us. As for stage-people,
their custom, because of its traditional discipline,
carries modesty to such a point that an actor would
never step out upon the stage without a breech-cloth
on, for fear he might make an improper exhibition,
if by some accident certain parts of his person should
happen to become exposed. And in our own custom,
grown sons do not bathe with their fathers, nor
sons-in-law with their fathers-in-law. We must,
therefore, keep to the path of this sort of modesty,
especially when Nature is our teacher and guide.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.