31–33
RICHES Then why not beat a retreat as quickly as possible, Hermes? We can’t accomplish anything worth mentioning with a man that is hedged in by such an army.
HERMES Zeus thought differently, so let’s not be cowardly.
POVERTY Where are you going with that person whom you have by the hand, Hermes?
HERMES Zeus sent us to Timon here.
POVERTY Is he sending Riches to Timon now, when I have made a noble and a valuable man of him, after taking him over in a wretched plight that was due to Luxury and putting him in charge of Wisdom and Toil? Then am I, Poverty, so easy to slight, think you, and so easy to wrong that I can be robbed of my only possession after I have thoroughly perfected him in virtue, in order that Riches, taking him over again and giving him into the hands of Insolence and Pride, may make him soft, unmanly and base as before, and then return him to me reduced to a clout?
HERMES It was the will of Zeus, Poverty.
POVERTY I am going; follow me, Toil and Wisdom and the rest of you. ‘This man will soon find out whom he is deserting in me—a good helpmate and a teacher of all that is best, through whose instruction he kept well in body and sound in mind, leading the life of a real man, relying on himself and holding all this abundance and excess to be nothing to him, as indeed it is.
HERMES They are going; let us approach him.
