This was the elevated point of view maintained alike by him and by Plato, and common to them with the ideal of modern ages.
Well-doing consisted in doing well whatever a man undertook.

'The best man,' he said, 'and the most beloved by the gods, is he that, as a husbandman, performs well the duties of husbandry; as a surgeon, the duties of the medical art; in political life, his duty towards the commonwealth.

The man that does nothing well is neither useful nor agreeable to the gods.' And as knowledge is essential to all undertakings, knowledge is the one thing needful.

This exclusive regard to knowledge was his one-sidedness as a moral theorist; but he did not consistently exclude all reference to the voluntary control of appetite and passion.
IV .-- He inculcated Practical Precepts of a self-denying kind, intended to curb the excesses of human desire and ambition.

He urged the pleasures of self-improvement and of duty against indulgences, honours, and worldly advancement.