Here, again, is a singularly pithy, comprehensive, and beautiful piece of advice:--
"Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them or bear with them" (viii. 59.)
And again: "The best way of revenging thyself is not to become like the wrong doer."
And again, "If any man has done wrong, the harm is his own. But perhaps he has not done wrong." (ix. 38.)
Most remarkable, however, are the nine rules which he drew up for himself, as subjects for reflection when any one had offended him, viz.--
1. That men were made for each other: even the inferior for the sake of the superior, and these for the sake of one another.
2. The invincible influences that act upon men, and mould their opinions and their acts.
3. That sin is mainly error and ignorance,--an involuntary slavery.
4. That we are ourselves feeble, and by no means immaculate; and that often our very abstinence from faults is due more to cowardice and a care for our reputation than to any freedom from the disposition to commit them.
5. That our judgments are apt to be very rash and premature. "And in short a man must learn a great deal to enable him to pass a correct judgment on another man's acts."