1And to those two characters I spoke of above a third is added, which some chance or circumstance imposes; 1and a fourth too, which we fit to ourselves by our own judgement. 1For kingdoms, commands, nobility, offices, riches, power, and their opposites depend on chance and are governed by circumstances; 1but what character we ourselves wish to assume proceeds from our own will. 1And so some devote themselves to philosophy, others to civil law, others to eloquence, and among the virtues themselves different men prefer to excel in different ones. 116Those, however, whose fathers or ancestors excelled in some kind of glory generally strive to excel in the same field of distinction, as did Quintus Mucius, son of Publius, 116in civil law, and Africanus, son of Paullus, in military affairs.
116Some, however, add some distinction of their own to those they have received from their fathers, as this same Africanus crowned his military glory with eloquence; 116and Timotheus, son of Conon, did the same, who, though he had been no less renowned in war than his father, added to that renown the glory of learning and intellect. 116It sometimes happens, however, that certain men set aside imitation of their ancestors and pursue some course of their own, and those who set great goals before themselves though born of obscure ancestors generally labour hardest at this. 117All these things, then, we ought to embrace in mind and thought when we are asking what is fitting; 117but above all we must settle who and what kind of men we wish to be, and in what kind of life, and this is the most difficult deliberation of all.
117For at the start of youth, when the weakness of judgement is greatest, then each person fixes on that way of spending his life which he has come to love most; 117and so he is entangled in some fixed kind and course of living before he has been able to judge what would be best. 118For as for what Prodicus says of Hercules, as it is told in Xenophon, that when he was first growing to manhood, a time which nature has given for choosing which path of life each person is to enter, he went out into a solitary place, and sitting there long and much debated with himself, seeing two paths, one of Pleasure, the other of Virtue, which it was better to take: this could perhaps happen to Hercules, 'sprung from the seed of Jupiter', but not likewise to us, who imitate whomever each of us has fancied, and are driven to their pursuits and ways of life; 118and for the most part, steeped in our parents' teachings, we are drawn into their habits and customs; 118others are carried along by the judgement of the crowd, and what seems finest to the majority, that they desire most; 118some, however, whether by some good fortune or by goodness of nature, have followed the right path of life without their parents' guidance.