Now we have seen that Cato was as well able to manage his household as to govern the state; for he improved his fortune and became a teacher of household management and husbandry to others, by collecting much useful information on these matters.  On the other hand, Aristeides made his poverty a reproach to justice, which by his example was made to seem a ruinous virtue which brought men to want, and was totally useless to those who practised it.  Yet the poet Hesiod, when encouraging men to act justly and manage their household affairs well, blames idleness as the origin of injustice, and the same idea is well stated in Homer’s lines:—­

                       “Work was never my delight,
    Nor household cares, that breed up children bright;
    But ever loved I ships with banks of oars,
    And arrows keen, and weapons for the wars,”

where we see that the same men neglect their duties at home, and gain their living by injustice and piracy abroad.  The physicians tell us that oil is most useful, outwardly used, and most harmful when taken inwardly; but it is not true of the just man that he is most useful to his friends, but useless to himself.  It seems to me to be a blot on Aristeides’ fame, if it be true that he could not even provide money for his daughters’ dowry or for his own funeral expenses.  The family of Cato for four generations, supplied Rome with praetors and consuls, for his grandchildren, and their children too, all rose to the highest offices in the state; while the hopeless poverty of Aristeides, though he was the foremost man of his time in Greece, reduced some of his family to the disreputable profession of interpreting dreams, and forced others to live on public charity, putting it quite out of their power to emulate the glorious actions of their ancestor.

IV.  Some, indeed, may dispute this; for it is true that poverty is no disgrace in itself, but only when it is a proof of indolence, extravagance, or folly.  The poverty of a laborious, upright, temperate statesman combines well with his other virtues, and shows true greatness of mind:  for a man whose attention is given to little things, can never succeed in doing great ones; nor can a man help others if he is in need of help himself.  A statesman requires, not wealth, but contentment, in order that his attention may not be diverted from public affairs by his own cravings for useless luxuries.  God alone is entirely without wants, and we approach nearest to the divine ideal when we can reduce our wants to the fewest possible.  Just as a healthy man requires neither excess of clothing or of food, so a man’s life and that of his family, if properly regulated, can be maintained at a trifling cost.  His income, however, must exactly tally with his requirements; for we cannot call that man contented who earns much, and spends little.  He is a foolish man if he troubles himself to amass what he cannot enjoy; while he must be a miserable man if he is able to enjoy the use of wealth, and yet through meanness of spirit forbids himself its use.