EDUCATION: GREEK INFLUENCE 57 by whose example it may consecrate. its inner life. Happy is he who can find such an one to venerate that he himself becomes moulded to the image which abides in his memory! We need one by whose example our morals may be formed: without a standard, what is wrong will not be set right” (Ep. xi.). “Clothe thyself with the spirit of some great man and separate thyself from the opinions of the multitude! Grasp the image of the fairest and most exalted virtue, which is to be honoured not with garlands, but by the expenditure of sweat and blood (i.e. toilsome imitation)” (Ep. Ixvii.; of: Rom. xiii. 14; Gal. iii, 27). “If we might cast a glance into the soul of a good man, what a fair picture we should see there, how impressive in its splendour, its grandeur and its calm! There we should see in glowing colours, righteousness, courage, prudence and wisdom . and over all, humanity, that rare excellence, would pour forth its brilliancy . . . . everyone would recognise him to be worthy of love and at the same time worthy of honour. If anyone were to see this picture, nobler and more splendid than is commonly seen among men, would he not stand still as before a divinity and pray in the stillness of his heart that this vision might be granted to him continually. ‘Then, drawn by the attractive goodness of that vision, he would fall on his knees to adore it, and after long contemplation would break out with awe and amaze- ment into the words of Virgil, ‘ Hail to thee, whoso- ever thou art: heal thou our grief.’ And it will help and heal us, if we honour it, not with offerings of 1 “Sis felix, nostrumque leves quaecunque laborem.” Aen. i. 330.