Be not incautiously carried away by sentiment, but aid him that needs it according to your power and his desert. If his need be of the things which are indifferent, think not that he is harmed thereby, for so to think is an evil habit. But as, in the Comedy, the old man begs to have his fosterchild's top for a keepsake, though he knows well that it is a top and nothing more, so should you act also in the affairs of life. You mount the rostra and cry aloud, O man, have you forgotten what is the real value of what you seek? No, but the many are keen in their pursuit of it. Are you then to be a fool because they are? In whatever case I had been left I could have made my fortune: for what is it to make a fortune but to confer good things upon one's self; and true good things are a worthy frame of mind, worthy impulses, worthy actions.