" So no doubt
many may be well seen in the passages of government and policy which
are to seek in little and punctual occasions. I refer them also to
that which Plato said of his master Socrates, whom he compared to
the gallipots of apothecaries, which on the outside had apes and
owls and antiques, but contained within sovereign and precious
liquors and confections; acknowledging that, to an external report,
he was not without superficial levities and deformities, but was
inwardly replenished with excellent virtues and powers. And so much
touching the point of manners of learned men.
(9) But in the meantime I have no purpose to give allowance to some
conditions and courses base and unworthy, wherein divers professors
of learning have wronged themselves and gone too far; such as were
those trencher philosophers which in the later age of the Roman
state were usually in the houses of great persons, being little
better than solemn parasites, of which kind, Lucian maketh a merry
description of the philosopher that the great lady took to ride with
her in her coach, and would needs have him carry her little dog,
which he doing officiously and yet uncomely, the page scoffed and
said, "That he doubted the philosopher of a Stoic would turn to be a
Cynic.
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