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Aeschines therefore the Academic, being charged
[p. 82]
by certain sophisters that he pretended himself a disciple
of Carneades when he was not so, said: I was then a
hearer of Carneades, when his discourse, having dismissed
contention and noise by reason of his old age, contracted
itself to what was useful and fit to be communicated. Now
an aged man's government being not only in words but in
deeds far remote from all ostentation and vain-glory,—as
they say of the bird ibis, that when she is grown old,
having exhaled all her venomous and stinking savor, she
sends forth a most sweet and aromatical one,—so in men
grown into years, there is no opinion or counsel disturbed,
but all grave and settled. Wherefore, even for the young
men's sake, as has been said, ought an old man to act in
the government of the state; that, (as Plato said of wine
allayed with water, that the furious God was made wise,
being chastised by another who was sober) so the caution
of old age, mixed among the people with the fervency of
youth, transported by glory and ambition, may take off
that which is furious and over-violent.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 5.
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