Writing does well, but personal discourse and conversation does better; for men give great credit to their ears, and take stronger impressions from example than precept. Cleanthes had never hit Zeno so to the life if he had not been in with him at all his privacies, if he had not watched and observed him whether or not he practised as he taught. Plato got more from Socrates’ _manners_ than from his _words_, and it was not the _school_, but the company and _familiarity_ of Epicurus that made Metrodorus, Hermachus and Polyænus so famous.