Book 1
9.3
This is no easy task even for the expert instructor, and the pupil who handles it successfully will be capable of learning everything. He should also be set to write aphorisms, moral essays (chriae ) and delineations of character (ethologiae ), The meaning of ethologia is doubtful, but probably means a simple character-sketch of some famous man. of which the teacher will first give the general scheme, since such themes will be drawn from their reading. In all of these exercises the general idea is the same, but the form differs: aphorisms are general propositions, while ethologiae are concerned with persons
9.4
. Of moral essays there are various forms: some are akin to aphorisms and commence with a simple statement he said or he used to say : others give the answer to a question and begin on being asked or in answer to this he replied, while a third and not dissimilar type begins, when someone has said or done something. Some hold that a moral essay may take some action as its text;
