Complete. “Attic Nights,” Book XII., Chap. xi.

I SAW, when I was at Athens, a philosopher named Peregrinus, and surnamed afterwards Proteus, a man of dignity and fortitude, who resided in a little cottage without the city. As I used to go to him frequently, I heard from him many useful and excellent remarks, among which this is what I chiefly remember: He said “that a wise man would not be guilty of sin, although gods and men were alike ignorant of it.” For he thought a wise man should avoid sin, not from the fear of punishment or disgrace, but from his sense of duty and love of virtue. But of those who were not of such a disposition, or so taught, that they could easily restrain themselves from sin, by their own power and will, he thought they would be more readily induced to sin, when they expected their guilt would be concealed, and that such concealment would produce impunity. “But,” says he, “if men know that nothing can be long concealed, they will sin in a more guarded and secret manner. Wherefore,” he added, “those lines of Sophocles, the wisest of poets, were worthy to be remembered:—

  Another of the old poets, whose name I do not now recollect, has called Truth the daughter of Time.