364 XENOPHON
him the honor of a soft couch, to yield him precedence in argument ?
My good fellow, do not stand shilly-shallying, but put out your hand caressingly, and you will see the worthy soul will respond with alacrity. Do you not note your brother's character, proud and frank and sensitive to honor ? He is not a mean and sorry ras- cal to be caught by a bribe — no better way indeed for such riff-raff. No ! gentle natures need a finer treatment. You can best hope to work on them by affection.
Chaerecrates. But suppose I do, and suppose that, for all my attempts, he shows no change for the better ?
Socrates. At the worst you will have shown your- self to be a good, honest, brotherly man, and he will appear as a sorry creature on whom kindness is wasted. But nothing of the sort is going to happen, as I con- jecture. My belief is that as soon as he hears your challenge he will embrace the contest ; pricked on by emulous pride, he will insist upon getting the better of you in kindness of word and deed.
At present you two are in the condition of two hands formed by God to help each other, but which have let go their business, and have turned to hinder- ing one another all they can. You are a pair of feet fashioned on the Divine plan to work together, but which have neglected this in order to trammel each other's gait. Now is it not insensate stupidity to use for injury what was meant for advantage ? And yet in fashioning two brothers God intends them, me- thinks, to be of more benefit to one another than either two hands or two feet or two eyes, or any other of those pairs which belong to man from his birth.
