And as
his parentage is, so also are his fortunes. In the first place he is
always poor, and anything but tender and fair, as the many imagine him; and
he is rough and squalid, and has no shoes, nor a house to dwell in; on the
bare earth exposed he lies under the open heaven, in the streets, or at the
doors of houses, taking his rest; and like his mother he is always in
distress. Like his father too, whom he also partly resembles, he is always
plotting against the fair and good; he is bold, enterprising, strong, a
mighty hunter, always weaving some intrigue or other, keen in the pursuit
of wisdom, fertile in resources; a philosopher at all times, terrible as an
enchanter, sorcerer, sophist. He is by nature neither mortal nor immortal,
but alive and flourishing at one moment when he is in plenty, and dead at
another moment, and again alive by reason of his father's nature. But that
which is always flowing in is always flowing out, and so he is never in
want and never in wealth; and, further, he is in a mean between ignorance
and knowledge.
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