[145]
But flagrant breaches of good breeding, like singing 1 in the streets or any other gross misconduct, are
easily apparent and do not call especially for admonition and instruction. But we must even more
carefully avoid those seemingly trivial faults which
pass unnoticed by the many. However slightly out
of tune a harp or flute may be, the fault is still
detected by a connoisseur; so we must be on the
watch lest haply something in our life be out of
tune—nay, rather, far greater is the need for painstaking, inasmuch as harmony of actions is far better
and far more important than harmony of sounds.
1 The little things that count.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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