Discourses - Book III   

say, "No." But, if a crow by his croaking signifies anything to you,
it is not the crow which signifies, but God through the crow; and if
he signifies anything through a human voice, will he not cause the man
to say this to you, that you may know the power of the divinity,
that he signifies to some in this way, and to others in that way,
and concerning the greatest things and the chief he signifies
through the noblest messenger? What else is it which the poet says:

For we ourselves have warned him, and have sent
Hermes the careful watcher, Argus' slayer,
The husband not to kill nor wed the wife.

Was Hermes going to descend from heaven to say this to him? And now
the Gods say this to you and send the messenger, the slayer of
Argus, to warn you not to pervert that which is well arranged, nor
to busy yourself about it, but to allow a man to be a man, and a woman
to be a woman, a beautiful man to be as a beautiful man, and an ugly
man as an ugly man, for you are not flesh and hair, but you are
will; and if your will beautiful, then you will be beautiful. But up
the present time I dare not tell you that you are ugly, for I think
that you are readier to hear anything than this. But see what Socrates
says to the most beautiful and blooming of men Alcibiades: "Try, then,
to be beautiful." What does he say to him? "Dress your hair and
pluck the hairs from your legs." Nothing of that kind. But "Adorn your
will, take away bad opinions." "How with the body?" Leave it as it
is by nature. Another has looked after these things: intrust them to
him. "What then, must a man be uncleaned?" Certainly not; but what you
are and are made by nature, cleanse this. A man should be cleanly as a
man, a woman as a woman, a child as a child. You say no: but let us
also pluck out the lion's mane, that he may not be uncleaned, and
the cock's comb for he also ought to he cleaned. Granted, but as a
cock, and the lion as a lion, and the hunting dog as a hunting dog.

CHAPTER 2

In what a man ought to be exercised who has made proficiency; and
that we neglect the chief things

There are three things in which a man ought to exercise himself
who would be wise and good. The first concerns the desires and the
aversions, that a man may not fail to get what he desires, and that he
may not fall into that which he does not desire. The second concerns
the movements (toward) and the movements from an object, and generally
in doing what a man ought to do, that he may act according to order,
to reason, and not carelessly. The third thing concerns freedom from
deception and rashness in judgement, and generally it concerns the
assents. Of these topics the chief and the most urgent is that which
relates to the affects; for an affect is produced in no other way than
by a failing to obtain that which a man desires or a falling into that
which a man would wish to avoid. This is that which brings in