We shouldn't keep our minds under constant pressure. Sometimes we need to relax and have fun. Socrates wasn't embarrassed to play with children. Cato would unwind with wine after exhausting himself with government business. Scipio would dance to music with bold, athletic movements — not the weak, effeminate swaying that's fashionable today, where even our walking has become delicate and womanly. He danced the way men used to dance at celebrations in the old days, with strong, energetic steps. He didn't care if even his enemies saw him doing it. Our minds need to rest and play. They come back stronger and sharper after a break.
Neither ought we always to keep the mind strained to the same pitch, but it ought sometimes to be relaxed by amusement. Socrates did not blush to play with little boys, Cato used to refresh his mind with wine after he had wearied it with application to affairs of state, and Scipio would move his triumphal and soldierly limbs to the sound of music, not with a feeble and halting gait, as is the fashion now-a-days, when we sway in our very walk with more than womanly weakness, but dancing as men were wont in the days of old on sportive and festal occasions, with manly bounds, thinking it no harm to be seen so doing even by their enemies. Men's minds ought to have relaxation: they rise up better and more vigorous after rest.