Rhetoric   

tempers and hopeful dispositions make them more courageous than older
men are; the hot temper prevents fear, and the hopeful disposition
creates confidence; we cannot feel fear so long as we are feeling
angry, and any expectation of good makes us confident. They are shy,
accepting the rules of society in which they have been trained, and
not yet believing in any other standard of honour. They have exalted
notions, because they have not yet been humbled by life or learnt its
necessary limitations; moreover, their hopeful disposition makes them
think themselves equal to great things-and that means having exalted
notions. They would always rather do noble deeds than useful ones:
their lives are regulated more by moral feeling than by reasoning; and
whereas reasoning leads us to choose what is useful, moral goodness
leads us to choose what is noble. They are fonder of their friends,
intimates, and companions than older men are, because they like
spending their days in the company of others, and have not yet come to
value either their friends or anything else by their usefulness to
themselves. All their mistakes are in the direction of doing things
excessively and vehemently. They disobey Chilon's precept by overdoing
everything, they love too much and hate too much, and the same thing
with everything else. They think they know everything, and are always
quite sure about it; this, in fact, is why they overdo everything. If
they do wrong to others, it is because they mean to insult them, not
to do them actual harm. They are ready to pity others, because they
think every one an honest man, or anyhow better than he is: they judge
their neighbour by their own harmless natures, and so cannot think he
deserves to be treated in that way. They are fond of fun and therefore
witty, wit being well-bred insolence.
Part 13
Such, then is the character of the Young. The character of Elderly
Men-men who are past their prime-may be said to be formed for the most
part of elements that are the contrary of all these. They have lived
many years; they have often been taken in, and often made mistakes;
and life on the whole is a bad business. The result is that they are
sure about nothing and under-do everything. They 'think', but they
never 'know'; and because of their hesitation they always add a
'possibly'or a 'perhaps', putting everything this way and nothing
positively. They are cynical; that is, they tend to put the worse
construction on everything. Further, their experience makes them
distrustful and therefore suspicious of evil. Consequently they
neither love warmly nor hate bitterly, but following the hint of Bias
they love as though they will some day hate and hate as though they
will some day love. They are small-minded, because they have been
humbled by life: their desires are set upon nothing more exalted or
unusual than what will help them to keep alive. They are not generous,
because money is one of the things they must have, and at the same
time their experience has taught them how hard it is to get and how
easy to lose. They are cowardly, and are always anticipating danger;
unlike that of the young, who are warm-blooded, their temperament is
chilly; old age has paved the way for cowardice; fear is, in fact, a
form of chill. They love life; and all the more when their last day
has come, because the object of all desire is something we have not
got, and also because we desire most strongly that which we need most
urgently. They are too fond of themselves; this is one form that
small-mindedness takes. Because of this, they guide their lives too
much by considerations of what is useful and too little by what is
noble-for the useful is what is good for oneself, and the noble what
is good absolutely. They are not shy, but shameless rather; caring
less for what is noble than for what is useful, they feel contempt for
what people may think of them. They lack confidence in the future;
partly through experience-for most things go wrong, or anyhow turn out
worse than one expects; and partly because of their cowardice. They
live by memory rather than by hope; for what is left to them of life
is but little as compared with the long past; and hope is of the
future, memory of the past. This, again, is the cause of their