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6. There is, indeed, so closely conspiring a harmony in the same
nature living and using reason, that although one knows not what the
other wills, yet there are some wills of all which are also known to
each; and although each man does not know what any other one man
wills, yet in some things he may know what all will. And hence comes
that story of the comic actor's witty joke, who promised that he would
say in the theatre, in some other play, what all had in their minds,
and what all willed; and when a still greater crowd had come together
on the day appointed, with great expectation, all being in suspense
and silent, is affirmed to have said: You will to buy cheap, and
sell dear. And mean actor though he was, yet all in his words
recognized what themselves were conscious of, and applauded him with
wonderful goodwill, for saying before the eyes of all what was
confessedly true, yet what no one looked for. And why was so great
expectation raised by his promising that he would say what was the will
of all, unless because no man knows the wills of other men? But did
not he know that will? Is there any one who does not know it? Yet
why, unless because there are some things which not unfitly each
conjectures from himself to be in others, through sympathy or agreement
either in vice or virtue? But it is one thing to see one's own will;
another to conjecture, however certainly, what is another's. For,
in human affairs, I am as certain that Rome was built as that
Constantinople was, although I have seen Rome with my eyes, but
know nothing of the other city, except what I have believed on the
testimony of others. And truly that comic actor believed it to be
common to all to will to buy cheap and sell dear, either by observing
himself or by making experiment also of others. But since such a will
is in truth a fault, every one can attain the counter virtue, or run
into the mischief of some other hull which is contrary to it, whereby
to resist and conquer it. For I myself know a case where a manuscript
was offered to a man for purchase, who perceived that the vendor was
ignorant of its value, and was therefore asking something very small,
and who thereupon gave him, though not expecting it, the just price,
which was much more. Suppose even the case of a man possessed with
wickedness so great as to sell cheap what his parents left to him, and
to buy dear, in order to waste it on his own lusts? Such wanton
extravagance, I fancy, is not incredible; and if such men are
sought, they may be found, or even fail in one's way although not
sought; who, by a wickedness more than that of the theatre, make a
mock of the theatrical proposition or declaration, by buying dishonor
at a great price, while selling lands at a small one. We have heard,
too, of persons that, for the sake of distribution, have bought corn
at a higher price, and sold it to their fellow-citizens at a lower
one. And note also what the old poet Ennius has said: that "all
mortals wish themselves to be praised;" wherein, doubtless, he
conjectured what was in others, both by himself, and by those whom he
knew by experience; and so seems to have declared what it is that all
men will. Lastly, if that comic actor himself, too, had said, You
all will to be praised, no one of you wills to be abused; he would
have seemed in like manner to have expressed what all will. Yet there
are some who hate their own faults, and do not desire to be praised by
others for that for which they are displeased with themselves; and who
thank the kindness of those who rebuke them, when the purpose of that
rebuke is their own amendment. But if he had said, You all will to
be blessed, you do not will to be wretched; he would have said
something which there is no one that would not recognize in his own
will. For whatever else a man may will secretly, he does not withdraw
from that will, which is well known to all men, and well known to be
in all men.
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