על שכל אדם ישר הוא בן חורין ה׳Every Good Man is Free 5
א׳
1V. [26] I have observed in a contest of pancratiasts how one of the combatants will strike blow after blow both with hands and feet, every one of them well aimed, and leave nothing undone that might secure his victory, and yet he will finally quit the arena without a crown in a state of exhaustion and collapse, while the object of his attack, a mass of closely packed flesh, rigid and solid, full of the wiriness of the true athlete, his sinews taut from end to end, firm as a piece of rock or iron, will yield not a whit to the blows, but by his stark and stubborn endurance will break down utterly the strength of his adversary and end by winning a complete victory.
ב׳
2[27] Much the same as it seems to me is the case of the virtuous man; his soul strongly fortified with a resolution firmly founded on reason, he compels the employer of violence to give up in exhaustion, sooner than himself submit to do anything contrary to his judgement. This statement may perhaps seem incredible to those who have had no experience of virtue (so would the other just mentioned to those who do not know the pancratiast), but none the less it is an actual fact.
ג׳
3[28] It is this which Antisthenes had in view when he said that a virtuous man is heavy to carry, for as want of sense is a light thing, never stationary, so good sense is firmly based, never swerves and has a weight that cannot be shaken.
ד׳
4[29] The law-giver of the Jews describes the wise man’s hands as heavy, indicating by this figure that his actions are not superficial but firmly based, the outcome of a mind that never wavers.
ה׳
5[30] No one then can compel him, since he has come to despise both pain and death, and by the law of nature has all fools in subjection. For just as goats and oxen and sheep are led by goatherds and oxherds and shepherds, and flocks and herds cannot possibly give orders to herdsmen, so too the multitude, who are like cattle, require a master and a ruler and have for their leaders men of virtue, appointed to the office of governing the herd.
ו׳
6[31] Homer often calls kings “shepherds of the people,” but nature more accurately applies the title to the good, since kings are more often in the position of the sheep than of the shepherd. They are led by strong drink and good looks and by baked meats and savoury dishes and the dainties produced by cooks and confectioners, to say nothing of their craving for silver and gold and grander ambitions. But the good nothing can ensnare, and it is theirs also to admonish those whom they see caught in the toils of pleasure.