4. I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more

than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others. If then a god or a wise teacher should present himself to a man and bid him to think of nothing and to design nothing which he would not express as soon as he conceived it, he could not endure it even for a single day.[B] So much more respect have we to what our neighbors shall think of us than to what we shall think of ourselves.

[A] The verse of Empedocles is corrupt in Antoninus. It has been restored by Peyron from a Turin manuscript, thus:—

[Greek: Sphairos kykloterês moniê perigêthei gaiôn.]

[B] iii. 4.