Of any generous outlook on the wider possibilities of human life there is scarcely a trace.

His essay is the apotheosis of social mediocrity.

By Procrustean methods he would have forced mankind back to the dull levels of Sparta: the opalescent glow of Athenian life was beyond his ken.

But perhaps the most curious passage is that in which he preaches against the sin and folly of ambition.

He pictures Ambition as a figure with pallid cheeks, wild eyes, hasty step, jerky movements and sardonic smile, for whom crimes are a sport, while lies and calumnies are merely arguments and figures of speech.