[602] The mediæval proverb, Ubi dolor ibi digitus.
[603] A proverbial expression for having no judgment. See Sophocles, Fragm. 307; Plato, "Charmides," 154 B; Erasmus, "Adagia." So we say a person's mind is a blank sheet on a subject he knows nothing about.
[604] Euripides, Fragm. 202. Quoted also by Plato, "Gorgias," 484 E.
[605] Reading with Reiske, μισθὸν αὑτῷ δοῦναι τῷ μικρὸν σιωπῆσαι μὴ δυνάμενος.
[606] A celebrated Greek historian, and pupil of Isocrates. See Cicero, "De Oratore," ii. 13.
[607] Of Tarsus. See Cicero, "De Officiis," iii. 12.
ON CURIOSITY.[608]
§ i. If a house is dark, or has little air, is in an exposed position, or unhealthy, the best thing will probably be to leave it; but if one is attached to it from long residence in it, one can improve it and make it more light and airy and healthy by altering the position of the windows and stairs, and by throwing open new doors and shutting up old ones. So some towns have been altered for the better, as my native place,[609] which did lie to the west and received the rays of the setting sun from Parnassus, was they say turned to the east by Chæron. And Empedocles the naturalist is supposed to have driven away the pestilence from that district, by having closed up a mountain gorge that was prejudicial to health by admitting the south wind to the plains. Similarly, as there are certain diseases of the soul that are injurious and harmful and bring storm and darkness to it, the best thing will be to eject them and lay them low by giving them open sky, pure air and light, or, if that cannot be, to change and improve them some way or other. One such mental disease, that immediately suggests itself to one, is curiosity, the desire to know other people's troubles, a disease that seems neither free from envy nor malignity.
"Malignant wretch, why art so keen to mark Thy neighbour's fault, and seest not thine own?"[610]