TALE OF A TUB.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 98, 28 April 1930, Page 6

TALE OF A TUB.

FACTS ABOUT DIOGENES. (To the Editor.! Speaking at Remuera, Mr. Bloodwortli i reported as saying, when referring to t]' writings of "Diogenes," that, on looking 1 his mythology, he found that Diogenes was man who had spent a dissolute youth. * got fed up with things and spent the his life in a tub. Mr. mvthnil wWck ho "looked up" i, defective. DioeeH was a scholar and a philosopher, also a bio-f pher of philosophers. He was a pupil of* thai* erudite man, Antisthenes, being attracted I him by his ascetic teachings. Diogenes beeaiu! such an apt pupil that he rapidly excelled h master in the austerity of his life. He livwl in a tifb belonging to the temple of Cvbel -so as to inure himself to the viecissitudes of 1 the weather. He acted as tutor to the sou' of Xeniades. He lived in Corinth until his death, devoting his entire time to teaching! doctrine of self-control. At the, Isthtnian ' games, during which he delivered lectures' he asked of Alexander that ''he would not stand between him and the sun," to which Alexander" replied, "If I were not Alexander I would be Diogenes." His biographer says of him that "virtue for him consisted in the avoidancc of all physical pleasures." Centuries after his ' death Castiglione, the famous etcher, perpetu ated his memory by depicting him in' one of his principal etchings as searching in the dav time with a lantern looking for an honest man He was described as a Christian and an epicurean. At his death the Corinthians erected a monument to his memory. Mr. Bloodwortli might, with advantage, add these facts to his meagre knowledge of the classics. DIOGENES. '