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Some praises proceed merely of flattery; and if he be an ordinary flatterer, he will have certain common attributes, which may serve every man; if he be a cunning flatterer, he will follow the archflatterer, which is a man's self; and wherein a man thinketh best of himself, therein the flatterer will uphold him most: but if he be an impudent flatterer, look wherein a man is conscious to himself, that he is most defective, and is most out of countenance in himself, that will the flatterer entitle him to perforce, spreta conscientia.
Dion Cassius, C. Julius Caesar, xliv. 17. "Spreta religione." Suetonius. Not perhaps Caius Cassius, but another. Suetonius says "alter e Cassiis." So says Suetonius, the best extant authority, who refers to the famous words addressed to Brutus only as a legend: "Atque ita tribus et viginti plagis confossus est, uno modo ad primum ictum gemitu sine voce edito.
NON ... VIDEATUR: 'not well grounded indeed, but such as it may seem possible to allow'. Ille is often used with quidem in making concessions where the English idiom requires no pronoun. Roby, 2259; Madvig, 489, b; Kennedy, 65, n. 2; A. 151, e; G. 292, Rem. 4; H. 450, 4, n. 2. CONTEMNI ... DESPICI: see n. on 43 spreta et contempta.
SPRETA ET CONTEMPTA: the first word is much the stronger of the two; spernere is καταφρονειν, 'to scorn'; contemnere ολιγωρεισθαι, 'to make light of', 'hold of no account'. Contemnere is often no stronger in sense than omittere, 'to pass by, neglect'. Cf. 65 contemni, despici. OPTIMUS QUISQUE: see A. 93, c; G. 305; H. 458, 1. Insomnia, ae is found only in poetry and late prose. Cf. also Cic.
"His innocence, when he heard of it, only provoked a smile, with this answer, Spreta vilescunt, falsehoods mu st perish, and are soonest destroyed by contempt; so that he needs no further vindication. The writer then proceeds at some length to vindicate the Captain's famous work and the propositions contained in it.
Yet, with all this, Violante had not learned, as perhaps most women in her place would have done, to bate Ludovico for having found it impossible to love her, for having condemned her to feel the spreta injuria forma, which so few of the sex can ever forgive. Had she ever reached the point of loving him it might, perhaps, have been otherwise.
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