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But Pandarus, incited by an immoderate defire of riches and power,* leaps to unjufl: energies, the poet all but exclaiming in the very words of Socrates in the Republic', " that many things are extended to fouls from the univerfe, which aftonifh the flupid, and caufe them to err refpe6iing the eledions of lives/' As therefore the prophet extends a tyrannic life, and he who firft choofes this is faid to be flupid, although he by whom it was extended was entirely a divine nature; fo here, when Minerva offers to the choice of Pandarus a more powerful and rich condition with impiety, or one entirely contrary to this, he makes choice of the worfe. And in this cafe Minerva is not the caufe of the elecflion, but the improbity of him by whom the ele61ion is made. For neither is the prophet in Plato the caufe of a tyrannic life, but the intemperance of him that chofc it. Hence Pandarus, in obeying Minerva, is faid to fuffer this through his ftupidity.
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