[65]
Make experiment of this excessive and
universal hatred if you dare. The most carefully prepared and magnificent
games within the memory of man are just at hand, games such as not only
never have been exhibited, but such that we cannot form a conception how it
will he possible for any like them ever to be exhibited for the future.
Trust yourself to the people, venture on attending these games. Are you
afraid of hisses? Where are all the precepts of your schools? Are you afraid
that there will be no acclamations raised in your honour? Surely it does not
become a philosopher to regard even such a thing as that. You are afraid that violent hands may be laid on you. For pain is an
evil, as you assert. The opinion which men entertain of you, disgrace,
infamy, baseness,—these are all empty words, mere trifles. But
about this I have no question. He will never dare to come near the games. He
will attend the public banquet not out of regard for his dignity, (unless,
perchance, for the purpose of supping with the conscript fathers,1 that is
to say, with those men who love him,) but merely for the sake of gratifying
his appetite.
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