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18He accordingly went over to Macedonia and spent his time there in lamentations. But there met him a man named Philiscus, who had made his acquaintance in Athens and now by chance fell in with him again. “Are you not ashamed, Cicero,” he said, “to be weeping and behaving like a woman? Really, I should never have expected that you, who have enjoyed such an excellent and varied education, and who have acted as advocate to many, would grow so faint-hearted.”
2“But,” replied the other, “it is not at all the same thing, Philiscus, to speak for others as to advise one’s self. The words spoken in others’ behalf, proceeding from a mind that is firm and unshaken, are most opportune; but when some affliction overwhelms the spirit, it becomes turbid and darkened and cannot reason out anything that is opportune. For this reason, I suppose, it has been very well said that it is easier to counsel others than to be strong oneself under suffering.”
3“That is but human nature,” rejoined Philiscus. “I did not think, however, that you, who are gifted with so much sound sense and have practised so much wisdom, had failed to prepare yourself for all human possibilities, so that even if some unexpected accident should befall you, it would not find you unfortified at any point. 4But since, now, you are in this plight, . . . for I might be of some little assistance to you by rehearsing a few appropriate arguments. And thus, just as men who put a hand to other’s burdens relieve them, so I might lighten this misfortune of yours, and the more easily than they, inasmuch as I shall not take upon myself even the smallest part of it. 5Surely you will not deem it unbecoming, I trust, to receive some encouragement from another, since if you were sufficient for yourself, we should have no need of these words. As it is, you are in a like case to Hippocrates or Democedes or any of the other great physicians, if one of them had fallen ill of a disease hard to cure and had need of another’s aid to bring about his own recovery.”
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