1Now concerning trades and means of livelihood, which are to be thought gentlemanly and which mean, this is roughly what we have been taught. 1First, those means of livelihood are condemned which incur men's hatred, such as those of customs officers and moneylenders. 1Ungentlemanly too and mean are the livelihoods of all hired workers, whose labour, not whose skill, is bought; 1for in their case the very wage is a pledge of servitude. 1Mean too must be considered those who buy from merchants to sell again immediately; 1for they would make no profit unless they lied a great deal; 1and nothing indeed is more shameful than falsehood. 1And all craftsmen are engaged in a mean trade; 1for a workshop can have nothing gentlemanly about it.
1And least of all are those trades to be approved which serve pleasures: 'fishmongers, butchers, cooks, poulterers, fishermen', as Terence says; 1add to these, if you please, perfumers, dancers and the whole troupe of the variety stage. 151But those arts in which either greater wisdom is involved or no ordinary benefit is sought, such as medicine, architecture and the teaching of honourable subjects, are honourable for those whose rank they suit. 151Trade, however, if it is on a small scale, 151must be considered mean; 151but if it is large and plentiful, importing many things from everywhere and distributing them to many without misrepresentation, it is not greatly to be censured; and indeed, if, sated or rather content with its gains, it has betaken itself, as it often has from the high sea into harbour, from the harbour itself to lands and estates, it seems with every right to deserve praise.
151But of all the occupations from which some gain is acquired, none is better than agriculture, none more fruitful, none more pleasant, none more worthy of a free man; 151and since I have said enough about it in my Cato the Elder, you will take from there whatever bears on this topic.